Blue and Letter Bb

Opening songs: "Here We are Together," "Days of the Week" (to the tune of "Clementine," not "Oh Susannah as I think I previously posted, sorry) Pledge of Allegiance

Blue show and tell-- We have been having a wonderful time with our color show and tells. The kids have a great time unzipping their backpacks to reveal their items, and it is fun to see what each child chooses each week. Last week one little boy brought a blue bear, so he had two b's. It was cute.

Review past colors and color of the day using blocks or a container of small toys of various colors. Say a color and have each child select something out of the container of that color.

Have each child find their blue crayon and pass out a coloring sheet. We did the cobbler bear coloring page at http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolcoloringpages.htm under the people and community section. I used the worksheet to help the children practice colors and following directions. First I asked the children to color the cobbler bear's pants blue. Then the children colored his shoes black and his fur brown. You could practice colors from the previous weeks. I just decided to have them follow instructions for all of the colors that started with "B." The children then colored the rest of the page however they wanted.

Letter of the day time! Sing the ABCs together while pointing to each letter as you sing its name. Review previous letters and letter sounds. Introduce capital B and small b and the "b" sound. Words that start with Bb: bubbles, ball, bear, baby, bounce, bellybutton. You can hold up and example of each. Practice writing Bb http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace.htm.

Stories of the day: "Let's Take the Bus" by Chris Economos and "Blueberries for Sal" by Robert McCloskey. "Dr. Seuss's ABCs" is a fun book that covers every letter of the alphabet. The kids really enjoyed this book, and it was a good review and preview of all the letters.

Snack: Bread and butter, bananas, and for a fun treat--bubble gum!

Song: "The Bear Went Over the Mountain"

Activity: Draw a grid on a piece of card stock, breaking it up into 10 rectangles. Number each rectangle at the top 1-10. Draw the correct number of circles in each box, ie: 1 circle in the box with number one, 8 circles in the box with number 8, all the way to ten. Have the children glue beans in each circle. When the children are done gluing, they will have a visual representation of each number 1-10, and they can take the page home and practice counting.

Pink and Purple Letter Pp

Here is the lesson I have been looking forward to--pink, purple, letter Pp!!! Why am I so excited about this lesson? Well friends, it is because I have the perfect (nice P word) books, worksheet, song, snack and activity for this one. Here we go....

Welcome songs: Here We Are Together, Days of the Week (tune of "Oh, Susanna") and the Pledge of Allegiance

Introduce the color of the day with color show-and-tell, review previous colors, select colored items out of a bag, find the right colored block, etc. Are you ready for this? There is a worksheet at http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolcolors.htm called Pretty Pink and Purple Pigs. Awesome, I know. So let the kiddos color one of those very awesome worksheets.

Letter of the day time! Pp!!!! Sing ABC's with children while pointing to each letter on a chart (this is especially helpful for children to see each letter during LMNO). Review previous letters and sounds, and introduce Pp with "p" sound (NOT "puh"). It's just a puff of air, no uh at the end. To see if you are pronouncing "p" correctly, put your fingers on your throat while you say it. You shouldn't feel any vibrations because it's not created with the vocal cords. Introduce words that start with Pp: pink, purple, pig, popcorn, pancake, princess, party. Practice writing letter Pp http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace.htm .

Here is the part I am absolutely excited about--THE STORIES OF THE DAY!!! I have the perfect book!!! "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and "If you Give a Pig a Party," both by Laura Numeroff. Very fun.

Snack: POPCORN!!!! I love it!

Song: "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree"

Activity: Make a paper bag puppet. There is a wide selection at http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/paper_bag.htm . We will be making the pig paper bag puppet, and then using them to act out "This Little Piggy Went to Market." It's going to be so much fun! Making pig noses with paper cups would also be an awesome craft for this lesson.

Color Red and Letter Rr Lesson Ideas

Welcome songs: "Here We Are Together" and the Days of the Week (sing days of the week to the tune of "Oh Susannah"

Color of the day show-and-tell or pick items out of a bag that are the color of the day. Children can also show off their color of the day outfits if they dressed in the color of the day. As you add more colors, you can review each week by having each child pick a certain color of block out of a box of building blocks or similar items for each color you review.

Have each child find their red crayon and hold it up, then pass out the color of the day worksheet. For our lesson we did the What Do Animals Eat worksheet at http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolthinkingskills.htm . While the worksheet doesn't go with the color of the day specifically, it does have a rabbit, which does go with the letter of the day. The kids had a great time matching the animals to the food they eat. You could find a worksheet that goes specifically with red, I just thought this was a fun worksheet.

Letter of the day: Rr. Sing ABC's with children while pointing to each letter on a poster, or let the children point to each letter as they sing. Discuss the "r" sound. One important thing to note when teaching letter sounds is to not add "uh" at the end of letter sounds. Don't teach "r" as "ruh". We don't read "ruh"abbit for rabbit nor "ruh"ed for red. It's simply rabbit and red. Adding the "uh" will confuse children when they begin reading. Teaching proper letter pronunciation is key. Here's a website link that explains this as well http://www.succeedtoread.com/improve.html . Remember, the goal of teaching letter sounds is to prepare your child to read! Introduce words that start with Rr: rabbit, red, run, raccoon, rainbow, rock. Books: "The Runaway Bunny" by Margret Wise Brown and "The Big Red Barn" by Margret Wise Brown.

Song: "Old McDonald Had a Farm" to go with "The Big Red Barn." You can either point at animals in the book and make the sounds for the song, or hold up animals. I used a magnetic farm scene and let the children place animals on the scene as we sang the animal sounds.

Letter Practice: Print the letter Rr worksheet from http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace.htm . Place it in a sheet protector and let children practice with crayons or dry erase markers.

Snack: I would have served red licorice, but I forgot to pick some up. Red apples or watermelon would also have been great. We ate rainbow colored popsicles (okay, a bit of a stretch, but it's what I had on hand). They were delicious and the kids were happy. Improvising is great.

Activity: Paint rocks red, add black spots and googly eyes to create a lady bug rock pet! This was so much fun. The kids loved it. They ended up preferring black smears over spots, but hey, that's why it's their creation.

Have a happy Red Rr lesson! By the way, if anyone wants to post some of their own ideas in comments, other favorite books, craft suggestions, etc., please go for it! The more free ideas we can gather, the more fun we can have (just make sure you don't infringe on any copy write laws please!).

Green Letter Gg Lesson Ideas

Each child brings something green for show and tell, and dresses in the color of the day if they want to. You can also provide a bag of things that are the color of the day and let the children choose things out of the bag to place on a table. Have each child select their green crayon and color an activity page. I used the Match the Frogs worksheet in the Preschool Thinking Skills worksheets at http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolthinkingskills.htm . The kids matched the frogs with their green crayons, and then they colored their frogs whatever color they wanted.

After colors move on to the letter Gg. Show the capital letter G and the small letter g. I have letter strips with the letters written out on handwriting lines from Dollar Tree. You can find some great posters and things at Honks and Dollar Tree. Sing the alphabet song together and point at each letter while singing. Talk about words that start with Gg, and hold up examples of each if you want to. We talked about green, goat, grass, girl. Read a couple of books to go along with the color and/or letter of the day. We read "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "Green Eggs and Ham."

Snack time: Green Apples

Handwriting practice--print the tracing page for Gg http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace.htm and put it in a page protector. The kids can use crayons, washable markers, or dry erase markers to practice writing over and over.

Song and activity: I taught the kids the song "Five Little Speckled Frogs" (you can refresh yourself on the words at http://www.diglyrics.com/en/lyrics/Tweenies/-/Speckled+frogs.html
For the activity I found a frog I liked on clip art and pasted five of the frog onto a Word document. I then printed the frogs, let each child color the frogs, and then I helped them cut our the frogs and glue them onto craft sticks. Viola! Five speckled frog puppets to go along with the song. Lots of fun!

Preschool!

I've heard a lot about preschool for little ones, and some people think you have to spend a lot of money to do preschool. There is no need to spend more than a few dollars on supplies and you can have a really great time teaching your own child preschool. The first time I did preschool with my oldest daughter, I taught with other moms. The kids met each Wednesday at one of the houses of the kids in the class, and that class member's mom would teach the lesson. At the beginning of the semester we each picked which week and which letter we wanted to teach, and then we created our own lessons based on the letter and any upcoming holidays. It was a lot of fun, little stress, and very inexpensive.

This year I am teaching preschool to one of my girls and a few friends and cousins. It's an hour and a half each Wednesday, and we do a color and letter themed lesson each week. I get most of my resources for free online. I thought I'd share some of my favorite resources as well as lesson ideas on my blog. Then anyone who wants to replicate my preschool can. Remember, you don't have to spend a lot to teach. You just have to be creative (or find good free online resources!)

Just a couple of links to get you started: http://www.tlsbooks.com/ http://www.abcteach.com/
http://www.dltk-kids.com/

Fairy Dust

I looked up a recipe for homemade glitter at http://www.theideabox.com/Homemade_Glitter.html. It turns out you can add a few drops of food coloring to salt, and then bake at 350 degrees for about ten minutes. The glitter doesn't smell very good, but it is pretty (just not as shiny as real glitter). I gave each of my girls a small container of glitter and sent them outside to play with it like fairy dust. My three year old loved sprinkling it on grass, flower beds, trees, and even herself. She loved being a "fairy," and the older girls enjoyed it too. The salt dissolves, so it doesn't matter where it gets sprinkled. It also vaccuums up well, which we discovered after my three year old fairy used it to spruce up a bit of her room. :o) The world can never have too many little girls with fairy dust!

Spring Nest

Here's an idea that I got from Country Living Magazine. To make the nest, simply turn a bowl upside down and cover it with plastic wrap. Cover the bowl with shredded paper (a great way to reuse shredded documents)that has been dipped in paper mache paste. You can make the paste by mixing school glue with water, or you can mix flour and water (and you can throw in some glue for good measure with that mixture if you want to). You can look up exact measurements for the paste online, or you can do what I did, simply mix until you like the consistency. Allow the paper to dry overnight, then remove the nest and plastic wrap from the bowl. Carefully peel the plastic wrap away from the nest. Tadah! A homemade nest! My girls loved making these nests with me. They liked the squishy paste. You can put candy, plastic grass, plastic eggs, etc. in the nests. Emily came up with the idea to paint real egg shells for ours. She carefully cracked the shells at the top for our scrambled eggs. We then rinsed the shells, allowed them to dry, and painted them with acrylic paints. I positioned them upside down in my nest so they look whole, but you could also leave them with the cracked side up and make a little bird to put in it. There's lots of potential with this fun craft!

More Spring Crafts

I made these wall hangings by using a dry brush technique (putting a small amount of paint on your dry brush, then getting almost all of that paint off before painting your surface) on a piece of old cardboard. The creases in the cardboard make the board look old and worn, and the dry brush technique makes the cardboard look like a distressed piece of wood. I then put a variety of things in the center of my boards, and added stickers to spell Spring. I used wire coiled on the top for one hanger, and just used ribbon in the other three. You could glue a big flower in the center of one, real or dried. You could add anything springy that you have laying around your house! This is a simple "free" craft to make. Just use things lying around!

Spring Wreath

I've been in a crafting mood since last week, so I decided to make some simple and inexpensive crafts to celebrate SPRING!!! Today's craft--a super fun foam flower wreath. I bought the foam flowers at Dollar Tree. They had the same type of foam flowers at Micheal's for five or six dollars (there may have been more flowers in the pack, but not five times more!). I also bought the foam flower/leaf stickers at Dollar Tree. The foam letters were in my craft drawer, but I'm sure you can buy them at Dollar Tree as well. I simply folded a piece of paper and stapled it to hold the SPRING letters. I stapled the wreath together, put flower stickers over the staples, and then used school glue to put Spring on. It took about ten minutes to throw together, and it was super fun. This would be a great kid craft too. It's light enough to hang with wall tack or tape (you may notice my tacky tape job on my wreath, which I'll be hiding in the back of the wreath soon... What was I thinking?) Foamy and fun! Cheap to boot! I have some other fun spring crafts coming soon...

Toilet Paper Roll Wreaths

My sister-in-law sent me a link to the blog "Creative Jewish Mom" where a woman had posted an idea for making flower shapes out of slices of toilet paper rolls and then gluing them into a wreath http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2010/06/recycled-toilet-paper-roll-wall-decor.html. Some friends and I got together and made wreaths. My friend Kimberly's wreath is the wreath with the big, bright buttons on it. They all turned out super cute, and each one was different. We found that using 9 petals on the flowers made the wreaths sturdier than fewer petals. You can embellish the wreaths with paint, buttons, scrapbook paper, glitter, and even put glue on the edges of the flowers and dip them in seed beads to make the wreath look sparkly. All you need is scissors, hot glue, white glue, embellishments, and your imagination!