Preschool at Home: The Letter "I"

Here you can see our attempt at making an igloo out of marshmellows and toothpicks.  It didn't go too well as Kylie just wanted to eat the marshmellows, and I couldn't quite figure out how to do the roof-- it was fun nonetheless, and now the girls can at least identify a picture of an igloo. :)

For the first time today, Kate attempted to write out her name on a coloring page-- its hard to believe she'll be four next month.

Preschool at Home: The Board

One of my projects this week was to create a board that would help guide my time with the girls when we do some preschool at home.  Using some great ideas from blogs (1+1+1=1 & Confessions of a Homeschooler) I put together my own version.  Since we live in a cozy house and don't have a designated room for school, I wanted to create something that wouldn't be an eyesore and would fit in with our girls' rooms.

On the top line I used some metal rings so you can flip to the correct date.

Then, we have the daily weather, which the girls love because they run to the front door together and then spend a few seconds deciding together which card to choose.  I used velcro on the backs of each of the weather options so its easy to switch each day.

Then I used some adhesive hooks to hang flashcards: this week is the letter "G", our shape is the heart and our color is green.  I really like our shape and color flashcards (made by Mead) because they have both the english and spanish words on the back.  Maybe I will take & post a short video of Kate emphatically practicing "orange" which is "anaranjado" for you sometime-- it's priceless!

To the right of the flashcards is a space for our Bible verse-- we try to memorize one with each letter of the week & review our old ones. 

Above the Bible verse, I created a space for the girls to place a card to represent the different things we are doing during the day.  I lay the different options on the table, and the girls "stick" them (again there's velcro on the back) as we do them.  This morning, Dave read the Bible with them, so they stuck that one up.  We went for a walk, they are now napping, etc.  Sometimes, they get to choose which activity they want to do (they played with their kitchen this morning and chose that one to stick)...

The Schoolroom: Letter of the Week: F

This year I decided to try out some preschool home school with our girls.  They go to preschool two days a week, but with as much as they love to learn and with as active as they are, I've found having some planned learning activities really helps to fill our day and give us some direction.  There are so many amazing blogs and websites with ideas!  One of my favorites is Confessions of a Homeschooler

We've been doing a letter each week, and this week was "F".  

So, we made fish with "F"s for the fin.

 

Then we went on a walk and chose a good rock.

Then the girls put their fish and rock in a tupperware full of water-- their own fish bowls...

 

The girls loved it.  No fish was belly-up by morning.  It was a hit...

We also made a sticker collage using flag stickers, flower stickers, fish stickers, and letter "F's".  Stickers are so fun for the girls and peeling off the paper is actually really good for their fine motor skills.

We also began an ABC journal where Kate and Kylie relay a story for me and I write down verbatim what they say.  Here's a glimpse into their story about the letter "F":

We made "f" for fins on our fishes with googley eyes.  Then we found rocks and mommy took pictures of our rocks.  Then the fins fell off and mommy had to keep putting them on over and over and over.  We have our own fish tanks.  They are mean fish and they bite us.  We told them to not be mean so they'll be nice to people and friendly.  And they know how to bite elbows and they hurt so people had to put them in tanks.  I love watermelon, that's a fruit, which also starts with "f".

Anyone have any creative ideas for G?