This past week we’ve had family coming and going for visits and are also in the midst of testing the older three.

Of course, Kaleb wants to take a ‘test’ too, so I’m working on pulling some things together for him to work on too.

The weather has been gorgeous the last few days {hooray for a break in the rain!}. When the temps hit over 90 degrees, we headed down to the creek for a few hours of fun!

And the water is only about a foot deep in places, but Kaleb insisted on wearing his life jacket and they all had to wear goggles too. Yep.

The kids played “Splash Attack” with each other…and Kaleb felt rather victorious after one round with Zachary. I just LOVE the little look on his face. :)

Did you all enjoy any good weather this week? Can’t wait to hear what you’ve all been doing in your preschool time. Please know that I DO hop around and visit your blogs, but I’m not a big commenter. :) I am so thankful for all of the great ideas that you all are sharing with me and with others!

Some Preschool Links:

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Kaleb’s pick for the past two weeks has been knights and castles. We pulled out all of our knights, castles and go-along books and got ready to have some fun together! Every morning he curls up in our Ahh Products bean bag chair and waits for me to start reading to him.

His workboxes were all set up and ready to go, which made it MUCH easier on both of us. He loves being able to pull out his boxes one at a time and work through them all. :) Here’s a look at how his workboxes were set up this week using the parts from our Knight Preschool Pack:

The last few weeks we’ve been using many of the sheets from the packs by sliding them into a page protector and using a dry erase pen or a vis-à-vis pen to do the work. Then on the last day, I pull them out and he uses a pencil to do the actual work on the page. Since I won’t be passing down the packs to another kiddo, I can then save the pages that he’s finished in a folder with his story summary and name strip on the front.

Language/Reading

• We read the story In the Castle by Anna Milbourne every day {other books too, but this was our core book}
• Vocabulary words including knight, castle, moat, drawbridge, sword, armor, etc….
• Tell what happened in the story and favorite part of the story
• Beginning sounds cards {both find the beginning letter and write/trace the beginning letter}
• Rhyming words
• Identifying words in a story

Math/Critical Thinking

 

• 1:1 counting with knights in front of the castle
• Patterning ~ we used two different knights and a shield to create simple {and more complex} patterns
• Puzzles
• What is Different? sheet

Fine Motor/Writing

• letter tracing sheets: letters K and C
• Knight to the Castle line tracing sheets
• Color by Number sheet

Games & Toys

 

• The Knight puppets from the pack paired up nicely with our Tabletop Theatre!
• Knight Game from our pack
• lots of castle play time!

Things We Used

Additional Knight {and Princess} Resources

~ Princess Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1

~ Knight & Princess Sensory Bin from Cindy @ Totally Tots

~ P is for Princess from Confessions of a Homeschooler

~ Knights theme at Totally Tots

~ Crown Grid Game from Mama Jenn

~ Princess and Frog game from Mama Jenn

More Preschool Links:

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This week everything was laid out and planned. And it all would have gone wonderfully well if our plans hadn’t been interrupted by life. :)

Allergies have hit our house hard over the last few weeks and I am very much ready to have a week that goes by WITHOUT a visit to the doctor’s office and another reason to make Target my pharmacy of choice. Kaleb was the one that had the ear infection this week, so that pretty well shot one of our days and we already had a picnic planned another day, so my wonderful plans will just roll over into next week instead! :)

We started our Knights and Castles Preschool Pack this week and can’t wait to get back into it next week!

How did your week go?

We’re Using… 

More Preschool Links:

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Lesson learned this week…and really, one would have thought that I should have caught onto this before. I need to be better organized on our ‘off’ weeks.

{Sigh}.

We have been rotating our ‘schedule’ lately. One week we do a preschool pack and the next we have a more ‘laid back’ week: Kumon workbooks, our All About Reading program, Bible devotionals, etc… Unfortunately for Kaleb, I don’t focus as much on his workboxes and getting his things organized as well as I need to {rephrased: as much as Kaleb needs}, which then throws everything out of whack and leaves a grumpy boy, a more-grumpy mom, and everyone else frustrated listening to the whining echo throughout our house.

{BIG sigh}.

So…lesson learned. Next week we’re working on a preschool pack together that Kaleb chooses and I will be making a more deliberate effort to keep little Mr. ‘Just So’ happy with his workboxes filled and ready…even if it just has playdough in it!

How did YOUR week go?

A Few Preschool Links:

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This week we finished up a few of the odds and ends that we didn’t get to do last week with our birds unit and it went MUCH more smoothly than last week {phew}. Here is how I broke things up over the course of the week. All printables are from my Bird Preschool Pack or Carisa’s Bird Pack unless otherwise noted.

There were a few things that we DID do every day:

• read the book In the Nest by Anna Milbourne
• sang our Bird song {in Carisa’s Bird pack}

Language/Reading

• Vocabulary words including wing, bird, worm, nest, feeder, hatch, etc…
• Tell what happened in the story and favorite part of the story
• Beginning sounds cards {both find the beginning letter and write/trace the beginning letter} ~ slid this sheet into a plastic protector this week and used a dry erase marker to circle letters

Math

• Counted the leaves on the branch {in pack}
• 1:1 counted plastci eggs and put them in our birds nest {used COH nest numbers}
• put together the 1-10 bird puzzle

Fine Motor/Writing

• letter tracing sheet B is for Bird
• playdough sheets {B is for Bird from Carisa’s pack}
• bird to the birdhouse tracing sheets {from Carisa’s pack}

Science

• talked about cool/warm colors {Carisa’s pack}
• took a nature walk and looked for birds in our own yard {see below}

 

 

• a Yarn Bird’s Nest on a balloon using glue and water…that turned out, ummm….somewhat useful and SUPER pitiful looking
• a Bird Sensory Tub thanks to Along the Way! {I put the bin on a a plastic tablecloth to help with cleanup!}
• Sorted birds/birdhouses {Carisa’s Bird Pack}
• our own chickens! The boys are having much fun playing with our chickens and we even had a LOVELY opportunity to chase one of them around the yard for over half an hour {not by choice}

Stories & Books We Used

Additional Bird Resources

~ Bird Preschool Pack and Printables from Carisa @ 1+1+1=1

~ F is for Feather from Spell Outloud

~ N is for Nest from Confessions of a Homeschooler

~ Totally Tots Bird Theme Posts

~ Bird Sensory Tub @ Totally Tots

~ Edible Bird’s Nest

More Preschool Links:

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