Learning by Heart – week 4

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
– Henry Ward Beecher

This was supposed to be our Review-and-Catch-Up Week (yes, in capital letters), so I didn’t have many activities planned.  I wanted to use the time to plan activities for the weeks to come, but that didn’t really happen.  I’m learning that it’s more normal to have things not work out as expected than it is to have things go according to plan. :)

I set out some easy, no-prep shelf activities for M to choose from throughout the week, giving myself a huge break from planning and prepping our normal variety of activities:

Top Shelf – Guidecraft Feel & Find, small set of Magz, and our Wedgits:

Second Shelf – Lite Brite, Hammering Shapes, and a card game from M’s High Five magazine (on top of his work mat):

Third Shelf – See & Spell, M’s Collage and Trace ABC Book, a whiteboard and a little whiteboard ABC book (Target Dollar Spot!):

No photo of the bottom shelf – it held M’s Thomas the Train engines and track pieces, as well as his flannelboard sets which are there pretty much all the time. 

M chose each activity several times throughout the week, but the definite favorites were the Hammering Shapes and the Wedgits.  He worked very hard, with a specific design in mind, as he hammered in the little nails (more like tacks, definitely something that should be supervised, but lots of fun!). 

He made this boat scene, with the moon rising at night and the sun setting (I’m just telling you what was told to me):

The Wedgits are always a ton of fun, and M’s cousin S got in on the action too – she really loved them (despite the blank look on her face in this picture).  There’s a two year age difference between these two, so it’s good to know that they’ll still be interesting to M when he’s older!

I found an extra little fine motor activity for him at Target – these cute containers and some rub-on transfers (for scrapbooking or similar hobbies):He really enjoyed decorating the little boxes with “tatoos”, and loved placing each one where he wanted it and then rubbing it on with the little craft stick. Those little fingers got a good workout!
I learned this week that regardless of what I do or don’t do, M will learn.  In fact, it would take purposeful actions on my part to keep him from learning… he just learns.  That’s what he does.  When he is interested in something it’s almost impossible to keep him from learning.  This week, in which I did nothing in the way of preschool with him, he taught himself.  He taught himself all seven letters of his name and how to write them, using an uppercase ‘M’, then lowercase letters for the rest.  He also taught himself how to measure by building Wedgit towers and then measuring them with the little tape measure from my sewing basket.  Both of these things were initiated by him; he set out to learn how to do them, and mastered both skills by week’s end. 

He should be teaching me!

I guess he is. :)

To see some of our Halloween-themed activities, see this post from earlier this week.

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up; be sure to check them out!

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Preview of this Week’s Activities

Normally I write up my preschool posts a week later than when we actually did them; this means I won’t be posting the activities for this week until the end of the first week in November.  However, with Halloween coming up this weekend, I thought I’d go ahead and share some of the Pumpkin / Halloween activities that I have planned for this week in case they interest anyone else.  :) 

We don’t do a lot for Halloween.  We carve a jack-o-lantern and go trick or treating, and that’s it.  Neither my husband nor I are into all the scary, spooky, or dark stuff, and we don’t want M to be either, especially at his age.  But, hey, who doesn’t want free candy? ;) 

Some simple and fun shelf Halloween activities I’ve set out for M:

A jack-o-lantern “go fish” type game from the October issue of High Five:

A pumpkin shadow matching game: 

The Five Little Pumpkins poem and felt pieces for our flannel board:

Mr. Pumpkin Head. :)  This one is going to be so much fun!  I cut 4 different pumpkin shapes from orange construction paper, then found some Mr. Potato head pieces to cut out.  I used this page, as well as some I found on Google Images. 

Our leaf and pumpkin tic tac toe game.  I made this last year.  You can find the printable in this post.

Pumpkin Life Cycle cards, from Montessori for Everyone:

M will sequence these in order from seed to pumpkin, then check the answer card below to see if he is right.I think M will love these sequencing cards because he is really into this book:

At the end there is a much shorter version of the pumpkin life cycle and it’s his favorite part of the book! 

To see Halloween-themed activities we’ve done in the past, visit this post.

Everyone have a safe and Happy Halloween with your little ones! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

 

Math Printables

I’m in an ocean of cardstock, printer ink, and laminating pouches here.  And, for the most part, I’m loving it!  Never fear, I am planning lots of fun, active, non-paper activities to do with M this fall, but still… a girl needs a reason to use her laminator, right? ;)

The first printable is a set of autumn-themed playdough number mats.  A long enough title, no?  These are for help in learning numeral formation, practicing counting, and developing fine motor skills.  Laminate them (or put them in page protectors, which is probably what I’ll do) and then use with playdough.  Roll “snakes” to form the numerals, and roll “balls” to place on the objects on each page.  As the number gets higher the circles get smaller, so those fine motor skills get a good workout.

Autumn Number Play-doh Mats

 

Also, I made this quick little chart to count with and introduce graphing.  Place small items – beans, plastic counters, little stickers – in the boxes below each number.  The number of items placed should match the number at the top of the column.  Make sure to have 55 little items available as a control of error.  The child should have just enough to complete the grid.  M has already been doing this – once with beans and once with Tigger stickers. :)  He loves it and loves pointing out that stairs or a triangle (or a piece of pizza, as he says) are formed when the page is finished.

Number Stamping Chart 1-10

Have a beautiful day! :)

Biggie Fuse Beads

I bought a bucket of these a couple of months ago and put them out on M’s shelves as a fine motor activity.  He is crazy about them!  We also bought the set of two clear plastic pegboards, and he places the beads on the little pegs.  Once he’s made  a design he likes, I iron it for him (with the included ironing paper) and they melt together.  I’m sure most of you have seen the mini version of this for older kids, but the Biggie version is a great way to start those little fingers out!

At first M made his own designs, like these:Going clockwise from the top – a square, ,a wagon, a truck, and dragon bones. :)

But just recently he became interested in using the patterns that came with the peg boards.  Then we found more patterns for them here, which was very exciting, and I was told to print them all out. :)  *Note: the patterns for Biggie Beads start at the bottom of the page that I’ve linked to. 

His collection so far:Honestly, I think that photo shows only part of what he’s made; we’ve gone through 2 buckets so far, but I’m not sure where he’s hoarding the rest of his creations.

This has ended up being a fantastic activity for him – it works those fine motor muscles in his hand, works on the all-important tripod grasp, has helped him develop some patience and perseverance as he sees each pattern to the end, matching up the beads just right to the pattern.  It has expanded his attention span also, and gives him a good sense of accomplishment and pride in a job completed.  Wow – all that from a bucket of beads! :) 

M will be 4 soon, and once we finish up our most recent bucket of Biggie Beads, I’ll see how he does with the smaller version. 

Is there a product out there that you and your child have fallen in love with?  Share it in the comments – I would love to find more great products like this!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Preschool Corner / Weekly Wrap-Up – Bugs!

We finished our bug unit a couple of weeks ago, but… life intervened and I haven’t had a chance to write it all up until now. 

I use the term “bugs” to mean any creepy crawly thing, so although we talked about how spiders are not really insects, we still included quite a few spider-ish activities. 

I wrote about the bug books we read in this post,  and a couple of bug crafts we did here and here, in case anyone is interested. :)

To begin, I set up a sensory bin that was full of Easter grass, and hid 20 plastic bugs in it.  M had to find them, then use the tweezers to pick them out and place them on the grid.  I also had his little bug viewer out in case he wanted to examine some of them more closely.  (The grid was used so he would know when he had found all the bugs).M has been using his bug viewer (Target!) quite a bit outside – capturing bugs and them looking at them.  I’m… let’s say – not exactly a bug person… and somehow I always end up worrying about them escaping and getting on me and forget to take pictures.  But, believe me, M has spent plenty of time outside looking and learning about real bugs (even telling caterpillars that they are going to turn into butterflies – so sweet!), there just aren’t many photos to prove it. :)

We talked about the names of the various insects, then sorted them by color onto a color wheel:
For a fine motor skill, I showed M how to wrap bugs up in yarn… like a spider wraps them up in order to save them for eating later.  He had so much fun with this!  He had a little spider web and a plastic spider from a community center activity we’d done recently.   So he played for a very long time, pretending a bug would get in the web, then he’d wrap it up, then along would come the spider and eat them all up.  It was getting pretty gory, let me tell you, and M had a ball with this ! :)
At our nature center M did some pond dipping with the other kids… using a net to scoop up interesting things and then examining them in a bowl.  My pictures weren’t great, but he caught a damselfly, a dragonfly nymph, and a tiny snail, along with lots of plant life:      We also saw this lovely spiderweb, which fascinated him: 
I found an amazing bug book at a garage sale over a year ago.  It includes a tray of bug parts that snap onto each page.  You can create the bugs that are described, or use the pieces to make a weird bug creation all your own.  M had a blast with this book!
I’ve also been holding onto some beautiful bug flashcards I found about a year ago.  Here’s a sampling of them:
There’s 36 in all, and I have 2 sets.  I split them in half and placed 18 of them in a circle on the floor around the room.  The matching cards were placed in a pile.  He took a card from the top of the pile and had to find its match, by moving the way that particular bug moves, as he went around the room.  So here he is hopping like a grasshopper:
Crawling like a spider:
Wriggling like a worm or caterpillar:
And flying like a butterfly (with a bit less gracefulness) :He really worked up a sweat with this one!  But he had so much fun, he begged to do the remaining 18 the next day! :)  If only I could think of activities like this for everything we do… he is such a kinesthetic learner, and I am such a non-kinesthetic kind of mama.  {sigh}

I found some storyboard pieces here that go with the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.  I made them into magnets and M had fun retelling the story with them. 
I made a file folder game, inspired by this one at Mama Jenn’s blog, but using butterflies from Prekinders that I had already printed out. 
The idea was to match up the halves.  We talked about how butterflies are symmetric, meaning each wing is a mirror image of the other.  M understood this, but was completely NOT into this activity.  I’m not sure if the more muted colors were not to his liking, or if it was a bit overwhelming – it is a pretty tough visual discrimination activity, with many looking almost alike, but not quite.  Or maybe he’s just tired of this sort of thing. 

He loves doing “what’s different” activities, so I made up these little cards for him  (you can download them here):They were laminated, so he could use a dry-erase marker and erase them – something everyone loves, right? ;)

I put these little foam capsules out for him and he enjoyed watching them open up in warm water.  This time we used pretty hot water and he took them out with tongs.  They dissolved so much more quickly than they have in the past with only lukewarm water.   These were all bug-shaped and we identified each one, then made them into stamps by gluing them onto peanut butter lids.
We played some basic grid games using bug grids that I made and printed out.  These can be downloaded here.  These are great for math and reading skills!  Going from left to right and top to bottom mimics the movement of reading.  He loves doing these – we just roll the die and stamp out that number of bugs.
I found the following two activities online, and thought they were great ideas.  M did not like them.  Not one little bit.  Maybe he wasn’t in the mood, I don’t know, but they were huge flops! However, I still think they are good ideas so I’m sharing them anyway. :)

First, a ladybug visual discrimination activity from Making Learning Fun:
And a phonics activity from Sparklebox, using caterpillars.  I wrote all the letters of the alphabet on 26 flat glass marbles from Dollar Tree, and the idea was to match them up to the beginning sound of the objects pictured on each caterpillar section :
Look at that face… bored out of his mind! :)  Oh well, I try to not let this kind of reaction discourage me.  Writing these posts helps with that, because I can see how many things he really enjoyed and learned!

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up – check them both out for some great activity ideas!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Click Beetle Craft… and he flips!

There are about 1000 awesome bug crafts that I’ve come across online in the past few weeks, and of course M has decided to go on another craft strike.   Oh, that kid.  He said to me, “I like to do art, but only when I can do my own thing!” 

He is throwing my own philosophy of art (for small children) back in my face, isn’t he?  Apparently, he doesn’t understand that crafts are cute and if Mama wants to do one, philosophy can fly out the window.  ;)

Ah well, of the many buggy crafts I was hoping to do, only two of them were interesting enough for him to agree to.  The first is this click beetle that I’ve seen around quite a bit, but think I first found at Prekinders.

You will need:Fun foam or cardstock, glue, a spring-type clothespin, googley eyes, a pom pom, dot stickers, a marker, and scissors.

I drew two wings on the fun foam and M cut them out:


Next, he decorated them with the dot stickers.  If you use cardstock instead, you could use dot painters for this part; I’m not sure how the painters would work on the foam.

Glue the upper corners of the wings onto the clothespin, like this, kind of:

Glue on the pom pom head, then add the eyes onto the pom pom.

Finished!  And isn’t the little guy cute?  The best part is this – after the glue has dried, press down on his tail (the end of the clothespin), let go, and he will flip or jump for you, making a satisfying “click” sound at the same time. :)

Note: if we do this again, I’d use cardstock instead of the fun foam.  The wings have to overlap a bit and when we used regular white glue the top wing didn’t stay put very well.  I ended up hot gluing it on.

Have a beautiful day! :)