Little Guy put the caterpillar life cycle cards (from a workbook page I just colored and cut out) in order, and then put our number caterpillar (made with card stock and markers) in numerical order.
Then we colored our own egg carton caterpillars with markers (kind of hard to see the marker in the pictures).
I found these butterfly bead necklaces in the Dollar Tree, and bought them because I knew we could use them during Butterfly Week. Glad I did because I cut them up and we ended up using them for 2 different activities!
We used them as counters for this number matching activity that I made using stencils (also from the Dollar Tree) and paint:
And then again with this tweezing and sorting activity:
I made this butterfly patterns page using the same stencils with some markers:
Little Guy really liked this big, foam, butterfly puzzle you can find HERE! (But honestly, I found it at TJ Maxx for $2.50!)
We did a life cycle sequence cut and paste page:
Then, to finish off the week, we made our own coffee filter butterflies!
Schools in our area are all letting the kids out for summer, but not us. School time has become part of our daily routine, and Little Guy really has fun with it, so we're just going to keep charging ahead. We are beginning an Our Backyard unit. In it, we will be covering Garden/Plants, Birds, Butterflies, and Backyard Critters (ie. bugs, snails, worms, etc).
We talked about the life cycle of a plant, and put our story cards in order.
*Can you tell Little Guy was involved in the set up of this pic? Race cars galore!
I found a TON of really great printables over at Homeschool Creations. I used quite a few pages of their Garden Preschool Pack this week. Here's their sample of what's in the pack:
Nick Jr. also had some great Dora coloring pages that went well with our theme. You can find those HERE.
We did a flower color sort using a tray and a lei that I found at the Dollar Tree. I just cut the lei and pulled all the flowers off. They were perfect for Little Guy to pick up using his kiddie chopsticks.
I also found this butterfly plant kit for Little Guy. He was pretty excited about it. He's been checking it every day hour to see if it has sprouted!
He added water to the disk to make the soil,
added the soil to the pot,
pressed in the seeds,
and placed the cup on top for a "greenhouse" effect.
We can't wait to observe how it grows!
My original plan for this bead sorting activitiy was to use the kiddie chopsticks, but the beads were just too bumpy for Little Guy to get a grip on them, so he ended up using his hands. Afterward, he had a great time just pouring the beads from one pot to another.
Little Guy's favorite activity this week was the Bead Balance. We just used golf tees in a styrofoam cube for Little Guy to balance his bumpy beads on. It was so fun! He would try to do it as quickly as possible and then get frantic and they would fall off.
I love the look of concentration on his face in this pic:
Tada!!
We also worked with the 3 part cards from Homeschool Creation's Preschool Pack, and I made some cutting practice strips using flower stickers.
Next week in Our Backyard themed unit, we will be focusing on Birds.
This week we had fun getting familiar with the letter J and it's sound. We did some J-related workbook activities and had fun with jellybeans!
We did a jellybean transfer activity using these awesome chopsticks we got for Little Guy back when we went to EPCOT last fall.
In his typical fashion, Little Guy started out using the grip I'm trying to get him away from, despite my suggestion to use, what we call, his pinchers. He likes to make sure he's doing things by his own decision, not my request, so I didn't say anything else about it. Since this grip is much stronger, everytime he'd try to pick up a jellybean this way it would pop right out of the chopsticks.
Eventually, he decided for himself it would work better if he used his pinchers.
Sticking with our jellybean theme, we did a graphing activity. I poured out a handful of jellybeans and made a graph for Little Guy to color in. I also made a question page so we could answer questions about our graph.
Little Guy counted how many of each color jellybeans there were and colored it in on the graph. (After we figured out how far up Little Guy should color, I drew a line at the top of that box so he wouldn't go past it. That seemed to really help.)
Then we answered questions about the graph and Little Guy got to eat some jellybeans!
We played Candyland about a million times this week. Little Guy is kind of in love with it lately.
I also made up a Jumping for Jellybeans game that Little Guy loved! I wrote a bunch of words (with an emphasis on words beginning with the letter J) on cut up index cards. Little Guy started at one end of the rug and everytime I called out a word beginning with J, he could take one jump forward. If the word didn't begin with J he had to stay still. If he accidentally jumped on a non-J word, then 2 jumps backward. Everytime he reached the end, he got a jellybean. He LOVED playing this game!
This week we read:
My J Book by Jane Belk Moncure
(great intro to letter J and it's sound)
Jamberry by Bruce Degen
(Little Guy liked it, especially since we've been tasting all sorts of different jams and jellies lately)
Jumping Day by Barbara Juster Ebenson
The World that Jack Built by Ruth Brown
(I really liked this one)
This week we had fun learning about the letter B. There are just so many cute things to do that begin with B, I couldn't decide, so we focused some more on fine motor work and math skills this week using things that begin with the letter B.
I made this puzzle for Little Guy using craft sticks and a picture of a bumble bee I printed from the computer.
I also made a pattern page to use with Teddy Grahams. Although, I didn't realize when I made it that every pattern ended in the same color Teddy Graham! Oops! Little Guy didn't mind though.
We also used some beige paint samples for Little Guy to practice his cutting skills.
We also practiced buttoning skills (which Little Guy definitely needs to work on) with this:
I sewed a button on each end of a ribbon, cut slits into the center of each square of felt, and that's it! Perfect for little ones to practice buttoning. It's great for the car and for restaurants too!
*I did not invent this awesome little idea. I came across it on another blog months ago, but I can't for the life of me remember where. If anyone has any idea, do not hesitate to let me know, because I'd love to give the credit where it's due!
I made Little Guy a B Letter Hunt page. He just uses the Bingo marker to mark all the B's he finds. I usually use a premade page from Confessions of a Home Schooler, but she used butterflies for letter B, and I really wanted to stick with the bears.
We also broke out the Teddy Grahams again for this:
Lacing cards are definitely not Little Guy's favorite, but when I talk him through it step by step, he has a much easier time than if I just give him the lacing card as a solo activity.
In case you're wondering, I just use a print out of a bear and glue it to a poster board, cut it out, and punch holes around the edges.
We have so many paint samples lying around that I thought it would be great to use the beige squares for Little Guy to get some math and more fine motor work in. I just numbered each card, and gave Little Guy a pile of paper clips. The objective is to place the same number of paper clips as the number on each card.
Little Guy found this activity extremely frustrating. The paper clips were just too difficult for him. I helped him with a couple, and by the time he got to the number 3, I just told him we didn't have to do it if he didn't want to, and he was glad to stop. I might just leave them lying around one day and see if he takes to playing with them on his own when he knows there is no set goal.
This week we read:
"My B Book" by Jane Belk Moncure
(we love these books!)
"Where There's a Bear, There's Trouble" by Michael Catchpool
(This was really cute! Little Guy really liked it.)
"Bread, Bread, Bread" by Ann Morris
(nonfiction)
"The Bear on the Bed" by Ruth Miller
(Little Guy LOVED this one! If you have a boy, he probably will too. It's a really cute little sing song book about a bear doing silly things on someone's bed, and I will prepare you: there is poop involved.)
