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 :)

Jenni's going to the Nutcracker!

Pure excitement!

Transportation Unit

This week we are going to specifically focus our learning on transportation. Although the unit is more focused around Jenni's learning, I included several activities that Joshua can enjoy with us (coloring, exploring the sensory tub, painting, playing with vehicles on the play mats, puzzles, reading, etc.).

Books:
All Change! written by Ian Whybrow
Alphabeep: A Zipping, Zooming ABC written by Debora Pearson
Boats written by Byron Barton
Flying written by Donald Crews
Here Comes Grandma! written by Janet Lord
How Will We Get to the Beach? written by Brigitte Luciani
Late for School! written by Stephanie Calmenson
Maisy Drives the Bus written by Lucy Cousins
Maisy's Book of Things That Go written by Lucy Cousins
The Noisy Airplane Ride written by Mike Downs
Rattle and Rap written by Susan Steggall
Red Light, Green Light written by Anastasia Suen
Sail Away written by Donald Crews
School Bus written by Donald Crews
Trains, Cranes & Troublesome Trucks based on The Railway Series by The Reverend W Awdry
Truck Driver Tom written by Monica Wellington
Wake Up Engines written by Denise Dowling
We All Go Traveling By written by Sheena Roberts

Transportation Sensory Tub

You can read more about our transportation sensory tub here.

Transportation Play Mats

 Car Play Mat

 Train Play Mat

In the Sky Play Mat

Tic Tac Toe

I created a Tic Tac Toe grid on Word, printed it on cardstock, taped it to transportation scrapbook paper and laminated it for this unit. We will use red and yellow counters for our game pieces. 

Skip Counting

I created blank numbered cards on Word, printed it on cardstock, added vehicle stickers for fun and laminated it for little hands. Jenni will practice skip counting from 10 to 100 and 100 to 1000.

Bingo

I created a 3x3 grid on Word, added transportation sign images from Google, printed it on cardstock, taped it to road sign scrapbook paper and laminated it for durability.

Matching & Memory Game

I printed out two sets of these transportation cards on cardstock and laminated them for extra durability. Joshua will work on matching the cards and Jenni will use the cards to play memory.

Parking Lot Game

I printed this parking lot game on cardstock.

1. Roll the dice. 2. Count the dots on the dice. 3. Place a car in the correct parking space. 4. The first person to fill up their parking lot wins!

Tissue Paper Car

J will crumple square pieces of tissue paper and stick it onto the car.

Floor Puzzles

We will put together our Melissa and Doug alphabet train and fire truck floor puzzles.

Rampin' It

We will set up a ramp and practice rolling cars down the ramp. We will test to see which car goes fastest, slowest, etc. (Science activity from Mudpies to Magnets)

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

We will select objects (some of which will roll and some objects which do not roll). J will predict their rolling ability and divide them into three piles (will roll, will not roll, will roll if placed right). We will set up an inclined plane and J will check her predictions by trying to roll the objects. (Science activity from Mudpies to Magnets)

Tire Art

Jenni and Joshua will run the tires from their cars through paint and onto a long piece of white art paper. We will use various sizes of cars to see the difference in the size of the tires and tire patterns.

All of the following activities can be found here:

Count the Train Cars

Jenni will line up the train cars in numerical order from one to ten and then ten to one.

Odd/Even

After counting the train cars, J will sort the odd and even numbers.

Transportation Words

J will sound out the word and match it to the vehicle.

Spelling Vehicle Words

J will practice spelling words.

Left & Right

This will be a good review of sorting vehicles based on the direction they're facing.

Puzzle Cards

J will put the 3 pieces together to form a vehicle.

Shadow Matching

This will be a new activity for J - matching the vehicle to it's shadow. Joshua might enjoy this too.

Count the Vehicles

This will be a nice review of counting and number recognition.

Color by Number

J will determine which color to use for each number to color the train.

To read about our transportation unit in action, click here.

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.)