We didn’t have a set theme this week during our school time, although quite a few of our activities revolved around our geography fun with Little Passports.

This year we have a one year subscription and it is just for Kaleb – something that he is really enjoying {especially because it means that he has a package in the mail addressed to HIM}.

Getting mail isn’t a common occurrence in our house, so it makes it extra special! I love that I can keep track of the countries because they are stamped on the outside {not that I would ever forget the order we received them – cough}.

Science Fun

During science time this week we talked about mass and made predictions on what things were heavier than others {part of our Nancy Larson K program}. We then used our balance scale to check out predictions.  First we compared the characteristics of the different objects and then had much fun weighing everything in sight. Literally. Had I not stopped the boy, the poor cat would have been part of the experiment process.

We also did a sink or float experiment using a variety of objects. Many more than the experiment originally called for, because a little boy cannot help trying out additional things to see if they sink or float in water. Thankfully, he didn’t find the cat for this one.

We finished off the week with a volcanic explosion. Because we were talking about Japan via Little Passports and the ‘ring of fire’ in that area of the world, it was the perfect time to pull out the volcano that we made back in November and never got around to using.

The volcano was super easy to make. We used the Crayola Model Magic and formed it around an empty spray bottle {minus the top}, then let it dry. To make our volcano explode, we added 2 Tbsp. of baking soda with a little food coloring {dish soap will also make it suds up more}, and then slowly poured 1/2 cup of white vinegar into the top.

Much fun!! Our volcano is now drying out and we’re hoping to use it again when I have RED food coloring on hand to add to the explosion. Notice that the cat made it to this experiment?

Math Time

While our wall calendar is a part of our school everyday, since we started back to school in January we MAY have forgotten to use our daily Calendar Notebooks, so we spent some time catching up with our weather graph and getting our 100 days of school chart done as well.

Friday is the 100th day of school for us, so we’re celebrating with a breakfast at Chick-fil-A {thanks to free breakfast morning} and a few hours at the roller skating rink.

We also used The Mitten Even and Odd Number Sort game to practice sorting numbers up to 30. I really thought that the numbers 21-30 would confuse him, but he is sorting them like a pro now {yay!}. Going to have to think of a few more things to kick it up a notch for the boy!

I’m also searching high and low for our coins so we can practice a little more money counting. Of course I COULD just walk downstairs and find a bunch of dimes, but the thought that those play coins are hiding somewhere in the schoolroom…. I’ll be pulling up the real coins next week. :)

Fun with Little Passports

Japan was the country that we visited this week via Little Passports and inside our package was a fun letter, a packet of origami paper to make some animals, a code for more activities online, as well as a few other fun surprises.

Kaleb decided to make a cat {translated: I folded the cat and he drew the face} and saved the rest of the origami paper for later when he could figure out what else he wanted to do.

The big treat of the week? In the letter from Little Passports they mentioned sushi and Kaleb suddenly developed a hankering to try sushi. So we stopped at the store and picked up a small tray for him to try with me – and he absolutely loved it! Now he wants to know when we can have it again. Just when I thought my love for sushi was safe…now I have to share {grins}.

{Quick note – if you are interested in signing up for Little Passports, use the code JAN10 this month to take 10% off your total price.}

Reading the ‘ch’ Sound

This week we added the ‘ch’ sound to the ‘sh’ and ‘th’ blend to Kaleb’s reading pile. We played a fun mouse game from All About Reading – Kaleb would pick up the pieces of cheese to feed the mouse and read the words on the opposite side. Although he is reading the blends well now, he still has trouble with the short ‘e’ sound, which has made for some umm…interesting words now that the ‘sh’ blend has been added to his reading {ahem}.

History Time with Mystery of History

Kaleb sits in along with us during our history time with Mystery of History. This week we learned about St. Boniface and the evergreen tree, the Iconoclast controversy, and also ‘The Hammer’ {Charles Martel} and The Battle of Tours. He really loves the coloring pages that go along with the lessons {coloring is this boy’s favorite thing next to Legos!}.

Not sure what some of those history lessons are about? You aren’t alone!! I don’t remember half of this stuff, so it is really rather fun to go through this with the kids!

 

That’s about it for our week. Our kids had a BLAST this week. What was the BEST part of your week with your kids?

 

More Preschool Links

• ABC Printables
• Color and Shape Printables
• Early Learning Printables: Police Officers, fireman and more!
• Math and Counting Printables
• Phonics and Reading Printables 
• Preschool Planning Pages
• Preschool Resources Main Page

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner. By linking up, you are granting permission for me to share your wonderful ideas and pictures with others in periodic show-and-tell posts.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

 

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This week was the official first week back to school. Fortunately there were no groans of ‘Do we have to?’. I think everyone in this house was ready to jump back into our school routine and that made the week go even more smoothly! 

Here’s a little look at what we did to get back into the routine. No special theme this week – just normal, everyday school. Next week should be a little more ‘exciting’ on that front.

Examining and Describing Things

Science time with Nancy Larson K

In our science time, we’re using magnifying glasses and getting an up close look at things. One of the things that we’ve been talking about is how we can describe objects in different ways {hard/soft, color, flexibility, texture, etc…}. This week we pulled out the magnifying glass to look at different objects – first without the use of the glass and then with it to see what difference it made.

Reading the ‘th’ and ‘sh’ Sound

Kaleb learned the ‘sh’ sound this week in our All About Reading lesson, and after a long break from school was so excited to be reading four letter words to us!!

Fractions

We’re starting to talk about fractions in our math time – 1/2 and 1/4 – so we pulled out our fraction action puzzles from Guidecraft to help us out.

Although they are Christmas-themed, we used the Even Odd Number Sorting printable to work a little more on even and odd numbers and he has it down great!! I think next time we’re going to work on some higher numbers too just to make sure. We’re also practicing counting by 2’s.

Handwriting

We’re focusing more on the lowercase letters now in Handwriting Without Tears. Handwriting isn’t always his favorite thing to do – but he does great when he actually TRIES. We typically take two days to work in his workbook and then Kaleb has two days of using the Handwriting Without Tears app on the iPad on the same letter {but the uppercase version}.

That’s a quick sum-up of our week and the highlights. Are you back in school and working again?

More Preschool Links

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner. By linking up, you are granting permission for me to share your wonderful ideas and pictures with others in periodic show-and-tell posts.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

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Note: There will be no Preschool and Kindergarten Corner link-up next Friday, December 28th. We’ll see you all on Friday, January 4th. Enjoy Christmas with your family!

This week – what can I say? We’re all caught up, so it was a fun time for all to work on art projects, bake {and eat} lots of cookies, read more in our Advent books Tabitha’s Travels and Everyday Emmanuel, and just relax together and have FUN.

Art Fun

The lessons from See the Light have been a great fit for our family – especially Kaleb {right now we’re working on the Tiffany Window from See the Light}. Above Kaleb worked on outlining his flower and is adding some to the background. I’ll share the rest of it when he colors it in, because it will make a lot more sense to see the finished product – because right now it just looks more like abstract art! {grins} 

Kaleb tends to be a bit of a perfectionist on any of his projects, and while there are occasionally times of tears with him, he asks to do another art lesson with ‘the lady on the dvd’ from See the Light. I love how the art projects are broken up into short lessons for the kids, but there is plenty of time for them to work on their projects while watching and then pausing when they need to.

I think the BEST part of this week for me was finding Kaleb sitting on my kitchen counters {literally} and drawing away with his box of markers. He worked on two drawings – i.e. scenes from our house. It’s a little hard to really ‘get’ them if you can’t see them in person, especially since he was working with 8 colors – and thank goodness our walls aren’t that color of green!

Can you tell what he was drawing?

You may not be able to see it clearly, but in his second drawing, he even did the rainbow colored pill box that is sitting on the counter next to the ipod speakers. Needless to say, these are a few that I’ll be adding to his folders to keep!

Baking Time

I posted a recipe for our favorite Snickerdoodle Cookies a few days ago and the kids and I decided to surprise Daddy {who was having a rough day at work} with his favorites when he got home. Thankfully, we hid a few of them for him because there were quite a few missing thanks to little hands.

Get Ready for Winter Fun!

If you are spending your Christmas break getting ready for teaching in January, be sure to check out the following pages for some fun helps for The Mitten and Snowy Day.

The Mitten by Jan Brett is a classic book that will be in our house for years to come! We pull it out every year to read and the illustrations ~ just simply amazing! Download a set of printables to go along with The Mitten and check out the additional resources listed too.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats was one of our favorite books that we read together last year. The art and science projects that we did along with the Snowy Day printables were so much fun!! See all the activities we did during our week in our Snowy Day Unit.

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL Christmas and see you next year!!

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! Grab a button for your post below and be sure to take a minute to visit the person who linked up before you. You can read more in the updated guidelines for Preschool Corner. By linking up, you are granting permission for me to share your wonderful ideas and pictures with others in periodic show-and-tell posts.

Be specific in your ‘link title’. Leave either your blog name or theme and provide an age range for your activities. Something a little like this:

Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

<a href="https://www.homeschoolcreations.net/category/Preschool%20Corner" target="_blank"><img src="http://i678.photobucket.com/albums/vv146/homeschoolcreations/PreschoolCornerbutton.png" title="Preschool Corner" /></a>

Maestro Classics ~ introduce great music and classics stories to children with this classical music series. Don’t miss their newly released Carnival of Animals that you will want to check out!