February Sensory Tub

We went with a Valentine theme for this month's tub. It includes red Valentine garland as the base, strands of red beads, different colors and sizes of foam hearts, locks and keys, and roses.

December Sensory Tub

Joshua's December sensory tub includes white cotton balls (snow), various sizes and Christmas colors of pom poms, red and white pipe cleaners shaped into candy canes, miniature wrapped packages, jingle bells, small felt stocking, felt gingerbread man, and a Christmas scented candle.

Week 16 of Pre-K

(This week we focused on transportation. To read more about this unit, activities I created and resources I found online, click here.)

Bible Verse: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

Math

 Number identification

 Skip counting 10-100

 Skip counting 100-1000

 Ordering numbers 1-10

Working on odd/even numbers

Saxon Math K

Reviewing ABB patterns

This week we also reviewed telling time to the half hour.

We also read a few fun math books:

Gobble Gobble Crash!: A Barnyard Counting Bash written by Julie Stiegemeyer

Math Curse written by Jon Scieszka

Sir Cumference and the First Round Table: A Math Adventure written by Cindy Neuschwander 

Go for THE CODE

This week J reviewed the letter Yy and the sound /y/ and the letter Vv and the sound /v/. She continued working on writing all the letters.

Reading

 All smiles during our phonics instruction one day. She was acing her lesson :)

 We are using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading for phonics instruction and Jenni is reading Bob Books: Set 1 for Beginning Readers. This week we kept all our read-aloud books within the transportation theme. To check out our book list, click here - we loved our read-aloud books this week!

Science
Rampin' It from Mudpies to Magnets

We set up a ramp and practiced rolling cars down the ramp. Jenni predicted and then tested to see which cars go the fastest and slowest.

Geography

We are using Evan-Moore's Beginning Geography, Grades K-2 book to learn about map skills, landforms and bodies of water, and continents and oceans. This week Jenni reviewed directions (left, right, up, and down).

My Blue Boat (Before Five in a Row)

 To keep with the transportation theme, this week we rowed My Blue Boat written by Chris L. Demarest. We read the story each day, did the supplemental activities in the B4FIAR manual, and worked on the lapbook.

 

Art

Jenni's Tire Prints

Joshua's Tire Prints

 Color by Number

Other Transportation Activities

Teaching J Tic Tac Toe strategies

Shadow Matching

 J winning the first round of bingo

Working on the alphabet train puzzle

 

Identifying and putting together 3-piece transportation puzzles

Transportation Memory Game

Sorting the vehicles based on direction

I love Jenni's thinking faces. She was matching vehicles to the written name.

 

Spelling

Joshua

 Joshua was enjoying playing with his cars and trains until Jenni started her writing work. Whenever Jenni starts writing, Joshua stops what he is doing and asks for a paper and crayon so he can write too :)

Joshua enjoyed making tire prints and once he had enough of that he enjoyed making hand prints :)

In the Sky Play Mat

This play mat measures 9x12 inches and is simply made with blue and white felt and Wonder Under. Joshua can enjoy this play mat using his miniature air travel collectibles I found here.

Train Play Mat

Joshua's train play mat measures 12x12 inches and is simply made with green and black felt and Wonder Under. Joshua loves his trains so I think he'll enjoy having a miniature play mat to enjoy at home and even while we wait for Jenni during her ballet classes.

Car Play Mat

I was inspired to make Joshua a car play mat after seeing this idea here. Joshua's play mat measures 12x12 inches and is simply made with felt and Wonder Under. In his little town he has a house, a pond with nearby swings, a beach, and a forest. Lots of fun adventures for a little boy :)

Transportation Sensory Tub

I was inspired by Counting Coconut's Transportation Sensory Tub and thought Joshua would love this to explore. The contents of our tub include 4 pounds dried black beans, 1-1 1/2 pounds river stones, cars, a train, a fire truck, wooden train pieces (buildings, trees, train conductor, transportation signs), red, yellow and green pom poms (traffic lights), and yellow pipe cleaner cut into small pieces (dashed lines on road.)

Funnel Fun

This activity comes from Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. The handbook provides weekly activities to correspond to the developmental patterns of each age group from birth to age five.

This week Joshua did the activity "Funnel Fun." The activity involved a funnel, measuring cup, glass bottle and a tub of rice.  Joshua placed the funnel in the glass bottle, scooped rice into the funnel and watched the rice fill the bottle. He especially loved pouring out the bottle once it was filled. He was delighted with all the colors of rice, scooping, pouring and exploring!
(Joshua is 1 year, 42 weeks)

 We used our colored rice from this activity.

This activity develops an awareness of how to pour and fill a container, an awareness of "empty" through free exploration, eye-hand coordination, and tactile enhancement.