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Jesse Bear Unit ~ Preschool Corner {&5K too!}

Our Jesse Bear unit was put off a little bit and then I forgot to post about it. Somehow I didn’t manage to get as many pictures of the activities that we did to go along with the book…or somehow I’ve managed to lose them in the meantime.

 

From our Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? printables we talked about:

~ the foods that Jesse ate in the book {and the ones that we didn’t’ like or did like}

~ counted ducks in the tub and worked on 1:1 counting up to the number 15

~ practiced rhyming words

~ measured vegetables that we saw in the book

In addition to the printables, here’s a little peek at a few of the  ‘hands-on’ things we did together {and I managed to get a picture of}.

Bear Pancakes ~ all of the kids enjoyed this part of the Jesse Bear unit! We used chocolate syrup to make the mouth and raisins for the eyes.  Definitely a yummy addition.

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The Flag ~ We talked about the flag of the US. There is a ball in the book that looks like a flag, so we made our own from construction paper and used silver star stickers for the field of blue. We also worked on the Pledge of Allegiance.

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A few more things {not pictured}:

~ Jesse Bear’s drawers were very neat and organized…similar to another little boy’s drawers {and not those of his older brother}.

~ We made paper doll bears and dressed them up.

That’s about it for our week with Jesse Bear ~ how was your week?

More Preschool Links

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Police Officer Theme {ages 4-5}

 

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The Snowy Day ~ Preschool Corner

The Snowy Day Unit

The week we planned to work on The Snowy Day unit and turned out to be rather a good week to do so! Kaleb and I sat down to read the book together and just as we finished the book, he looked up and out the window and it was snowing!

Needless to say, there was much excitement about that!

And my big ‘duh’ moment of the week? I was so cold, we were having fun inside with things, and it NEVER crossed my mind to go out and catch the snow and look at the flakes…and we rarely get snow around here, people! Nevermind right in the middle of a unit on snow. Yep. My brain is right on top of things. :)

Aside from the things that are included in the The Snowy Day printables, here’s a little peek at the more ‘hands-on’ things we did together.

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Making ‘Tracks’ ~ In the The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, Peter makes different kinds of tracks in the snow with his feet and also using a stick. Kaleb walked around the house trying to make ‘tracks’ the way Peter’s feet would have been.

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Crystal Snowflakes

I found a tutorial for these Borax crystal snowflakes via Pinterest and they were a HUGE hit. I’m especially fond of them because it only took a day for them to form.

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Kaleb had fun measuring {1/3 cup Borax mixed with almost a pint of hot water}. We shaped a snowflake out of a pipecleaner, hung it on a piece of yarn and let it sit overnight.

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It’s here that I’ll insert my piece of advice {ahem}. Either make your snowflake much smaller than the mouth of your jar or use a WIDE mouth canning jar. When the crystals form on the pipe cleaner {and they do it rather quickly}…you won’t be able to get it out of the jar if it is wider than the mouth of the jar {who knew?}.

Cotton Ball Snowman

The first day we were reading the book, Kaleb wanted to know where the cotton balls were and when he could make a snowman, so I printed off a template and he had fun gluing and practically went through half a bag of cotton balls in his zeal to glue any and all cotton balls down.

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We also made some {soon to be} glue snowmen, similar to this idea, but I got a little carried away with the glue and after 6 hours it still wasn’t remotely dry enough to even move…so it will have to wait.


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After Kaleb traced the names of the shapes from The Snowy Day printables, I cut them out and we put them all on popsicle sticks. As we read the story, we matched the shapes on the sticks to the different shapes in the book by ‘smacking’ them down {oh yes, he loved that!}.

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We also did a little art to imitate a scene in the book. We used construction paper to make the snow banks and cut out some little boys to play in the snow. I had a snowflake stamp set too, so Kaleb stamped different colored snowflakes over the picture.

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35 Go Along Craft and Activities

35 activities, crafts, and printables to go along with The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats

If you’re looking for more ideas to use along with The Snowy Day unit, be sure to check out THIS POST – there are over 35 fun crafts, activities, and printables to help you out!

Other helpful Snowy Day Links:

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~ The Snowy Day printables

~ Homeschool Share resources {great sequencing cards!!}

~ Snowy Day fun from Delightful Learning
~ Snowy Day lesson plans
~ Winter Theme from PreKinders
~ Snowy Day read-aloud on YouTube
~ Snowy Day in sign language

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.

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}

 


Reading!! ~ Preschool Corner

We’re still working on getting back into our groove after a lovely break. I forgot that my hubby had Monday off, so our week was pushed around a little bit and we’ll end up doing school on Friday this week too.

For the most part, we’ve been doing a bit of review, working on a few things that needed to be finished up {random worksheets and activities that somehow managed to be put aside in the last bit of December}, and {this is where I get really excited, but also a bit sad} ~ READING!!

All About Reading Level 1 reader

We’ve been using All About Reading Level 1 with Kaleb {we finished up the Level Pre-1 and this week we pulled out the book Run, Bug, Run! as part of our lesson. And a certain little 5 year old read two stories from the book ~ slowly but surely. I’m excited but sad all rolled into one ~ this is my baby…and it’s one of those last ‘first time’ things {please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this way?}.

All About Reading Level 1

Kaleb has had a lot of fun ‘teaching’ Zachary. They played letter sound bingo together several times and Kaleb would tell Zachary the sounds and have him cover up the letters. :)

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We’ve also spent SO much time looking out the window at the many different birds that are visiting our feeder. We just moved it up onto our deck and have seen cardinals, woodpeckers, and so many other birds {and now can’t find our bird book because someone wandered off with it ~ ahem}.

ABC's of God app

One of Kaleb’s favorite things this week is a new app that we ALL are in love with ~ The ABC’s of God from Read the Word. It’s been part of our ‘review’ week and he has enjoyed ‘unlocking’ all the special ABC words that describe God. Every time he opens a new word he runs over to me and has me read the verse that goes along with the trait of God.

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I love the fun games that it includes too ~ letter tracing, an uppercase/lowercase letter match {that looks like fridge phonics}, find the letter in the phrase, and so many other activities. Seriously…I think this video explains it much better than I can. :)

 

Next week, I have crafts, books and printables lined up to work on with Kaleb ~ and a more structured week in place, but this week has been a great ‘slide’ back into things.

How was YOUR week?

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Preschool Corner ~ Week After Christmas

So…out of curiousity, did anyone do school this week? We’re all busy playing with the fun new toys and getting ready to start back up again. My schedule says we are starting Monday, but I’m thinking we may see what we can fiddle around with and start a little later.

Ahhh…the beauty of homeschooling. :)

How was your Christmas? I hope you all had an amazing time together with your family and are enjoying a bit of a rest and break!

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    Week Off!! ~ Preschool Corner

     

    We’re building gingerbread houses, having an early Christmas with family, playing with friends and just having fun.

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    The gingerbread houses have been hidden for a bit because a certain 5 year old was literally caught licking the houses the other day.

    Hilarious.

    We’re enjoying our break MUCH ~ what have you all been doing this week?

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    Halfway Through ~ Preschool Corner

    Tomorrow marks the halfway point of our school year ~ woo hoo!! This week we spent a bit more time focusing on things together as a group to wrap things up and didn’t do as much as I had planned with Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree…or get all the gingerbread things done either.

    Next week, we don’t have many plans in place {yet} because Daddy is supposed to be home and we also have family coming this weekend too. In the back of my mind we will be doing LOTS of fun and crafty things ~ baking, reading, games and more and just spending time together as a family.

    No pictures, but here’s a quick rundown of what we did this week:

    • History {using Mystery of History}
    • Bible {using Truth in the Tinsel and other Advent stories}
    • Science {learning about wheels and axles}
    • Puzzles
    • Games
    • Handwriting without Tears
    • Abeka K math
    • Reading ~ the new All About Reading Level 1

    The best part of this week for us? Every single morning Kaleb came up to me before we were ready to start school asking if he could do more All About Reading and get another star sticker on his reading chart. We’ve completed five lessons now and I have to tell you that AAR 1 literally made me cry one morning.

    A good cry, that is.

    Two days ago we worked on the lesson that introduced the ‘rule breaker’ word ‘the’. We went over it and over it. On Thursday morning, Kaleb and McKenna were putting a puzzle together that has itty bitty writing on it and you need to use a magnifying glass to read the special clues on it.

    Kaleb came running downstairs to me with a piece of the puzzle and the magnifying glass in his hand, handed them both to me and said, "Mom! I found a rule breaker! Look! There is a t, an h, and an e." I looked at the puzzle piece and there was, so I asked him what it said and he yelled out ‘THE!’

    I seriously cried. He was so excited and the look on his little face was just so priceless. Probably one of the best moments of this week overall because I could visibly SEE learning happening and ‘clicking’ in his little mind.

    Note ~ I will be hosting Preschool Corner over the next two weeks even though we don’t have any specific plans for school at this point ~ BUT I do want you all to still be able to share what you are doing {grins}.

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