Letter F

There was a lot of activities and themes I didnt cover this week with Letter F. Thats okay though, Im starting the alphabet over AGAIN once we finish--so theres always next time! Because of the Christmas season we just focused on F for Family/Families are Forever theme.


Sunday/FHE: Families Can Be Together Forever!

Letter E week

For the letter E we are focusing on: Elephants and for Sunday and FHE: Enoch


Sunday and FHE:



E is for Enoch
http://confessionsofaslackermom.com/category/preschool-curriculum/walkbesidemepreschoolcurriculum/e/

Elephant Worksheets and Activities:

1.
http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/04/prek-letter-e.html

2.
http://ziggityzoom.com/activities.php?a=152

3.
http://www.first-school.ws/activities/alpha/e/elephant.htm

4.Go, Diego, Go! Elephant mask {printable}
http://www.nickjr.com/printables/diegos-elephant-mask.jhtml

5.
Elephant Stamping/Bingo {courtesy of www.prekinders.com}
Elephant Stamping Game
[Math, Literacy]
Write a letter or numeral on each elephant, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo dot markers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an “X” over the elephant if stamps or bingo dot markers are not available.

http://prekinders.com/safariunit/ElephantBingo.pdf

6.
Elephant Ears snack. This is such a cinch they can help make it--and wooohoo! allergy-free so Ollie can eat it :)
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Quick-Elephant-Ears/Detail.aspx

Other E ideas: http://preschoolalphabet.blogspot.com/search/label/E

Thanksgiving

Finally! I finally can post. Just when I started really getting in the swing of things with preschool our COMPUTER DIES! Luckily we were only without for a couple weeks and now we have one up and running. Needless to say the dynamic of preschool changed since most of the worksheets and activities I use are print outs. Lesson learned: I will print out lesson plans week in a advance instead of the night before....just in case something like that ever happens again. I wanted to post some links to great Thanksging and Autumn themed ideas I've been working on with the boys and plan to work on this week. Then I'll be on the hunt for lots and lots of fun Christmas ideas!

1.

http://mamasmonkeys.blogspot.com/2011/10/thanksgiving-tot-pack.html

2.

http://itsybitsylearners.com/preschool-printables/thanksgiving/

3.

http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-expanded.html



http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/11/turkeys-expanded.html

4.

http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-printable-pack-free.html

5. Turkey Counting worksheet:

http://thefantasticfrogs.blogspot.com/2011/11/turkey-freebie.html

6. Turkey color-by-letter:

7. Turkey Crafts:

http://www.freepreschoolcrafts.com/toilet-paper-roll-handprint-turkey/
http://www.reading-with-kids.com/images/thanksgiving-turkey-color-by-number-letter.jpg

I'll post a few more when we finish them up tomorrow and wednesday!

So we started in October.....

Yea! after a little bit of complication in August, I was induced September 7th and we welcomed baby #3, Henry Thomas! He is so crazy adorable--he looks just like Briggy looked when he was a newbie, but I have to say he is starting to look even more like his father now that we've hit the 1 month mark!



I started full blown scheduled preschool with the boys {but mostly just Briggy} on Monday, October 3rd. I really needed the first month with Henry to take it easy since I've been zombie momma with all the feedings! Phew! I re-organized my "craft room" and turned it into half craft room half preschool room. I still need to get some organizational bins in cute colors to put on the shelves and fill them with all my overflow of craft supplies and preschool doo-dads, but other than that I'm pretty much all done and organized {finally! it should have been a 1-2 day project but it ended up taking me a WEEK!}



This skinny little closet holds office "bank boxes" that I just covered with scrapbook paper. I saw the idea to use shoe holders on the back of a door for supplies on pinterest---awesome idea. I like not having to rumage through the art supply box for all my quick go-to items.





Right now we have a calendar up and a weather chart. Im hoping to get some of the spice racks at IKEA {they are only $3-4!} and hang a few up on that wall as well and have them hold the books we are currently reading for the Letter week and the season. Right now we are reading LOTS of halloween books. My boys are SOOOOOO excited for trick-or-treating this year!
heres a link to the idea here:
http://domesticsimplicity.com/2010/12/30/quick-easy-childrens-book-storage/


We also have a "redone" chalkboard/whiteboard easel that I snagged for a few dollars at our community garage sale. The white board part was so beat up that I covered it with white felt to make into a felt board. I like have that for stories. I dont have too many felt cut outs yet--iron on transfer paper is my next purchase. My friend has tons of scripture story felt pieces that she has let me borrow, so its gotten a little use so far!


On the other wall in between the bedrooms and before the playroom we have a White board that I hang up the scripture of the week. I hadn't printed it out when I took this picture, so its just the "All About Me" picture that they had worked on that day. I have written out what we are doing that week to get them excited for the next day! Below the board is our "Bee-havior" chart. I found these cute little bee cutouts in the clearance bin at Michaels over the summer and knew they'd be the perfect visual for Gordon B Hinckley's 6 Be's {Be Humble, Be Prayerful, Be Grateful, Be Smart, Be True, Be Clean} They each get a bumble-bee sticker when Daddy gets home after we talk about our day {and if they've been good!}




In our Playroom we made our very own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree! We will be adding a letter a week to the tree and we do a Chicka activity each week as well.


Trial and Error is really shaping our schedule right now. Ive tested out a couple ideas last year, and trying some new ones this year. I like doing a letter of the week as a focus, but Briggy is more k-4 right now so I need to amp it up. This is how our week goes {granted its only week 3, so we'll see if I change things or not...}

Sunday: Sabbath Day School {He has sunday school at church, but when we get home to keep the reverence going Im staring a binder up for him that has this LDS preschool curriculum in it--A was for Adam, B was for baptism and this week is C for Creation}
Monday: Playgroup with friends @ 10am, Family Home evening {lesson, activity, treat} when Daddy gets home {based on the letter topic from Sunday {unless a holiday or seasonal lesson is appropriate}
Tuesday: Letters and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom reading and activity
Wednesday: Math, Numbers, Shapes
Thursday: Depending on errands/appointments. We have more of an "educational game" time from 10-12
Friday: Art project {Color focus} and Briggy's pick

Briggy really loves the Preschool Packs from Homeschool Creations and 2 Teaching Mommies, so he likes to work on those on Tuesday and Friday especially}

Tomorrow I will have posts for the specific A, B and C worksheets etc that we did, so you can click, explore and print yourself! Thanks for checking in!

Bed Rest and Hot Dots Jr Giveaway!

My plans are to start preschool with the boys next week, but Im not exactly sure how its going to turn out. Ive been very sick the past couple weeks, in and out of the hopsital. Unfortunately Ive been put on strict bedrest with my boys staying with friends most days of the week. Baby Henry still has about 3 weeks until his due date, but the Dr. may have to induce me early due to some pre-eclamptic issues {hoping not, ill find out later day!} At any rate, the boys have been having a blast being with friends, but when they are home with "boring mommy" {im on the couch not doing much of anything!} they have been playing with a set of Hot Dots Jr we bought from Educational Insights. They LOVE it! The only problem is the 2 year old and 3 1/2year old want to play at the SAME time and sharing is still something we're working on.....so, im hoping to either win a new set or purchase one as a "big brother" gift in the near future.



www.empoweringmommy.com is giving away a Hot Dots Jr. set--giveaway ends 9/10...its a grea product, check it out--we love Educational Insights and Empowering Mommy!

Enter Here:
http://empoweringmommy.com/2011/08/hot-dots-jr-getting-ready-for-school-giveaway-ends-910.html

Team Umizoomi Math Kit Giveaway!

My boys LOVE Team Umizoomi!! While we are on our preschool downtime {starting up "officially" 9/5!} we have worked on some of the umizoomi nickjr.com activities. I just came across this math kit giveaway on a blog and I thought Id share--looks like so much fun! Im really trying to amp up our math time this year in preschool!
Check it out and Good Luck!
http://thesuburbanjungle.blogspot.com/2011/08/team-umizoomi-preschool-math-kit-review.html

Pre-K Pirates!

This summer I have continued doing homeschool-preschool without a consistent schedule. We havent been following a curriculum, I've just been asking the boys what they want to do do--and then I find fun activities in whatever theme they want. All this week my oldest, Brigham, has been begging me about pirates. They started watching that cute pirate cartoon on Disney Jr and now thats all they talk about! I've been printing all things things pirate this week to get ready for next weeks activities. Here is what I've found so far:



One of my favorite printable/idea sites is Homeschool Creations. She has a Pirate Lapbook printable that we will be working on starting monday.
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2010/11/preschool-corner-pirate-unit-and-pirate.html

I just recently came across another new website that has some great printable, 2 Teaching Mommies. I just downloaded their Pirate unit today and as it was coming off the printer the boys saw it and we had to do a trial run of one of the games this morning! http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/07/pirate-printables.html








This was the first graphing activity we've ever done and it was really fun! I'll be doing these more often! Just a little advice: I glued the dice as directed, but the glue stick didnt hold up to my 3 hear old's tossing, so I taped the heck out of it as well.....and I laminated the chart so I can re-use it. I have had my eye on the Do-a-dot markers for awhile, but havent gotten around to ordering them. I was at the Dollar Tree the other day picking up some supplies, and came across Bingo Markers. I thought these would be perfect for activities. They are fun, but when we used them on the laminate they remained wet and messy---so I wont be marking them on laminated sheets again. Just a little FYI :)


For a fun artsy craft, I saw these cute paper plate pirates and knew the boys would love to make them. Just adorable! {And I already have all the supplies which is a bonus!}



http://iheartcraftythings.blogspot.com/2011/06/story-time-tuesday-w-paper-plate-pirate.html

I plan on doing a treasure hunt next friday, but I havent figured out the details of it yet. We may invite some neighborhood kids over to get some interaction {we've been cooped up in the house because it is SO DANG HOT HERE IN TEXAS!} As soon as I get some ideas together, I'll post.

If I can get my act together, I have been reallllllllllllllly wanting to learn how to make decorated sugar cookies. I swoon over these whenever I see them posted on party blogs. They are just SO COOL!!!! When I popped on facebook today, I saw a link to these and now I know its meant to be! They match the craft perfectly! I really want to try my hand at these, so maybe I'll be daring enough sometime this week....



http://sweetsugarbelle.com/2011/07/the-easiest-pirate-face-cookies-youll-ever-make/
We actually dont have any pirate books! crazy. I was on the lookout for some at the Goodwill last weekend but no such luck :( I may order one from Amazon today {love the free 2 day shipping--through amazon mom}

Return from blog break!

I was feeling a little overwhelmed with blogging...maybe overwhelmed isnt the right word---more like....intimidated. I convinced myself that the blog wasnt worth it because Im not like all the other "cool" blogs that make their own printables, etc. But, I came to the realization that this is a good spot to access ideas and links to other blogs and thats okay. If im searching and using other sites, I should share! So now I dont feel so insignificant :)

Brigham turned 3!!

The night before the party, Briggy was our cupcake taste-tester. Notice the shaggy crazy hair? That night we FINALLY convinced him that he REALLY needed a hair cut. Any other time we tried to talk him into it he would "I dont want to cut my hair, it looks amaaaazing!!!" hahaha.



Here is the party table minus the plate of candied rice krispie treats! {oops! those were a last minute add on right before guests arrived!}






















Here are a few random shots of the kiddies playing and eating!












A special thank you to Grandma Tina who helped out SOOO MUCH! Thanks to all our friends who came and played and gave Brigham such fun presents! We are so grateful to have such fun friends!!!