Week 9: Letters A-F 2015 Plan and How it Went

*All of the daily ideas I’m using come from Pinterest and you can find them on my Pinterest Boards.  Most of the weekly ideas are my own and can also be found on my Pinterest Boards.* P.s. If you are wondering why certain words are bolded certain day, it’s because each day of the week that is our daily theme that relates to our weekly theme.  I hope that makes sense. :)

Just fyi, I may not follow my weekly plans exactly.  Sometime this year we will do a potty training week and I also combined TV shows and Movies into one week.  I also want to do Colors and Shapes again this year, so there may be minor changes, but you will know about them if you follow my blog. :)  For example Ocean/Beach week just moved to March 30th.

Letters A-F

Generally, I’ve seen people do a letter of the week, but for us that will take to long, so we’re going to try a letter of the day for 4 weeks.  Keep in mind, he turns 21 months this week, so I’m not expecting him to learn all the letters right now, more of an exposure and basis.  He recognizes some due to this awesome app called Endless Reader.  We just have the free version of  it, but he can recognize letters and put them in order and place words in the correct spot in a sentence.  I think as young as he is, it’s just the pattern, but I love it.  It also makes the sound of the letter when you move it to the correct spot.  I think we’ll eventually buy the whole app, but not now.  

Monday: We will be focusing on the Letter A.  We are going to do an overview of the letters and a review of the letters at the end of the 4 weeks.  So, I have a little magnet board that we are going to use for now to put all the letters on.  As he gets older, I think I will want oil drip pan from Walmart.  For now, we’ll just use what we already have.  We will also go to the library and from what I understand there isn’t a class this day, so we will go just to pick up and take back books.  To put the focus on A, I think we’ll point out things that begin with that letter around the house.  I’ll also have him repeat it several times.  The books we’ve reserved at the library are Alphabet Adventure, LMNO Peas, (those two are from the Pin 31 Days of ABC’s) and Animal ABC (I stumbled upon it while looking for a different book in the library database, my son loves animals, so I thought we would check it out.  We will also use some books we already have.

How it Went:

The weather was bad and we didn’t make it out to the library.  I don’t think they had the class going anyway.  We just used a dictionary since we didn’t get our books at the library.  We talked about words that start with A and B.  He likes to look at the pictures and repeat some of the words.  

Tuesday:  Today’s focus will be on the letter B.  Obviously we’ll sing the ABC song.  We’re also going to watch one of the songs pinned from Youtube (the one with the cute animated animals) and sing along with the other one pinned from Youtube (with the green hills, sun, clouds, and the letters ABCD).

How it Went:

We sang the ABC song.  We also read about C and D in the dictionary.  We aren’t going to make it to the library again because of the weather, hopefully tomorrow.

Wednesday:  C is our focus today.  We’re going to do the “C” coloring page.  The pin is called Letter Worksheets and Coloring pages.

 How it Went:

He had fun coloring and was able to repeat all of the words of the pictures that we colored.  We also read our library books and some from our dictionary again about E and F.  We practiced saying A-L and we are still practicing numbers.  He does better with letters than numbers.

Thursday:  D will be our focus.  After about two hours of searching.  We’re going to play dogs again.  I couldn’t really find any that I liked that would work for his age.  So our game/activity is pretending to be dogs.  He wants to play this all the time anyway.  He’ll randomly start barking.  In fact that’s how he woke me up the other day. :)

How it Went:

We played dogs and he just loved it!  He likes barking.  He loved the sniffing and panting!  We had fun!

Friday:  Focus - E  We’re going to do a sensory bin filled with things that start with the letter E. We could go on a park field trip and talk about all the things we see that begin with E, but I think the sensory bin will be more fun this time!

How it Went:  We went to the park and did a field trip and talked about visible things with the letter E.  He always has fun at the park! :)

Saturday: F- Focus :)  I’m going to do something really simple and just buy him some swedish fish and maybe put in a clear cup with blue jello.  I liked the cupcake idea, but it gets complicated when he can’t eat wheat, which includes pretzels.  He can have jello and swedish fish though! :)  I think he’ll like this “food” and we may do it again during ocean week!

How it Went:  So I meant to do make the food yesterday and forgot.  Today was my baby shower, who knew that that would last all day. :)  So I didn’t have time to make it or do it, so I might do it tomorrow!  So I made the jello and put swedish fish in it.  It looked weird, so I tasted it.  The swedish fish didn’t ruin the jello, but the swedish fish we’re definitely jello like.  Apparently swedish fish and jello don’t go together, so we’ll have to try something else next time.  Good thing to learn for Ocean week though!  We didn’t end up doing the activity until Monday of week 10 because the jello didn’t get done before bedtime.

Prep:  Pick up library books, buy blue jello and swedish fish, get and choose sensory bin items while he is napping, print C page.

Week 8: Numbers 2015 Plan and How it Went

*All of the daily ideas I’m using come from Pinterest and you can find them on my Pinterest Boards.  Most of the weekly ideas are my own and can also be found on my Pinterest Boards.* P.s. If you are wondering why certain words are bolded certain days, it’s because each day of the week that is our daily theme that relates to our weekly theme.  I hope that makes sense. :)

Just fyi, I may not follow my weekly plans exactly.  Sometime this year we will do a potty training week and I also combined TV shows and Movies into one week.  I also want to do Colors and Shapes again this year, so there may be minor changes, but you will know about them if you follow my blog. :)  For example Ocean/Beach week just moved to March 30th.

Numbers

I love 2 of the ideas from the pin 9 Early Counting Games.  I’m going to print the 5 cheeky monkeys.  I will also use the 3 Bears that I’ve already printed and colored for counting.  I think we’ll only work on 1-5 for now, but the time he is two, I think he’ll at least know 0-10, but we’ll see.  So far he can repeat the numbers, but I’ve seen no indication of understanding yet.

Monday:  If Lijah is feeling better than we’ll go to the library and pick up our books and take some back as well as stay for the 30 min “class” for toddlers.  The books we’re going to pick up are Counting Crocodiles by Judy Sierra, Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree by Eileen Christelow, Richard Scarry's Best Counting Book Ever.  That last book is checked out until next month, so we’ll read it later.  We also have a really good sensory numbers book.  It’s a touch and feel 1-10 that we’ll probably use.  If you want the name of it, just ask in the comments. :)

How it Went:

So we read a book I found out my mom has.  5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and the touch and feel one I mentioned above.  We also got Counting Crocodiles, but didn’t get a chance to read it today.  We did go to the library to pick up and drop off books.  We only did that because there wasn’t a class today, but we wouldn’t have gone even if there was because my little man has RSV.  We are avoiding little children for a little while longer.  Definitely not something we want to pass on.  He really liked the books, but my husband and I sang him the both the monkey songs (5 Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree and 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed) and he liked that way better.  He tries to mimic the motions we do with our hands.

Tuesday:  The songs we are going to sing are 5 Little Monkey Swinging in a Tree and 5 Green and Speckled Frogs.  I would love to make a little visual for this one as well like the one I pinned on my Week 8 Numbers Board.  If you don’t know how the songs go, both of those pins have the words at least.  The 9 Early Counting Games is the one that has the 5 cheeky monkeys (or 5 Little Monkeys as we sing it) to print.

How it Went:

We sang the same songs as yesterday and read the book about the monkeys jumping on the bed again as well as sang the song to it.  We didn’t do the Speckled Frogs song, but we may do it during the week, we’ll see.  We’re doing minimal activities since we are both still sick.

Wednesday:  The art activity,  I’m having a hard time choosing between Tape Resist Art and the Numbers Collage Craft.  The Tape Resist Art would be fun, but I don’t know if he’ll color enough by himself without help.  The Number Collage Craft is similar to Thursdays activity, but it sounds fun, maybe I’ll do both and the Number Collage Craft for Thursday.

 Before

After finger painting and pulling of the tape

How it Went:

So, we didn’t have paint tape or masking tape, so we used medical tape.  I wanted to do the number two, but didn’t know how to curve tape, so we went with the number 1.  He had a blast painting.  I’m not sure if you are suppose to remove the tape when the paint is dry or wet.  I removed part of it wet and the tape stuck to the paper. :(  The rest of it worked well though.  Next time, we’ll get the right kind of tape! :)  So we learned, have the right kind of tape and take the tape off when the picture is dry.

Thursday: For our activity I think I am going to have him count sticker numbers.  That is an idea from the pin 125 activities for learning and numbers, except enhance it and do the Numbers Collage Craft.

How it Went:

I cut out numbers on cardstock and then put stickers of the same number on each number.  We are just going to do on1-5 this week and when he gets those down, we’ll do more numbers.  He’ll copy us saying 1-5, but he doesn’t yet understand.  He repeated them really well the 2nd and 3rd time! :)  I wish I would have made the one a little bigger and all of them wider except the 5.  They aren't perfect, but they work!

Friday:  We could either field trip to the park and count things at the park or on our way there or do a sensory bin with foam numbers.  Maybe even a sensory bag with foam numbers and something else like marbles or something.  It may just depend on the weather.

How it Went:

We did the field trip to the park.  We mostly counted rocks and trees.  We did count his shoes though.  He had a fun time while learning a little bit.  Before he could say 4 really well, now he says 3 really well.  Go figure.  He’ll repeat 1-5 pretty well though.  :)

Saturday:  Instead of doing food in the shape of whatever we are studying, I’m probably going to help him count how many of each food he has on his plate.

How it Went:  

Instead of doing this for a meal, we counted his snack.  We counted to 10 a couple of times.  He says the numbers pretty well and sometimes he’ll say the next number!  He’s starting to recognize the pattern, so we’ll just keep practicing.

Week 7: Dogs 2015 Plan and How it Went

*All of the daily ideas I’m using come from Pinterest and you can find them on my Pinterest Boards.  Most of the weekly ideas are my own and can also be found on my Pinterest Boards.* P.s. If you are wondering why certain words are bolded certain day, it’s because each day of the week that is our daily theme that relates to our weekly theme.  I hope that makes sense. :)

Just fyi, I may not follow my weekly plans exactly.  Sometime this year we will do a potty training week and I also combined TV shows and Movies into one week.  I also want to do Colors and Shapes again this year, so there may be minor changes, but you will know about them if you follow my blog. :)

Dogs

Monday:  We’ll be going to the library for the half hour “class” and to pick up our dog books.  I think he’s really going to like this week.  His favorite animals, go horse, dog, and then probably monkey.  I think we may just focus more on monkeys during jungle week or zoo week rather than do an entire week on them.  The books I’ve chosen are Spot Loves His Mommy and I’ll use some Clifford books I already have.  I wanted to use a couple from the Pin Fluffy, Playful, and Cuddly Books about Dogs, but the 3 I wanted to use the library doesn’t have. :(  We’ll also be getting the Emperor’s Clothes book from last week.

How it Went:

So my little guy is sick, we think with the croupe again. :(  So, I didn’t take him to the library, not something I want to pass on to other kids.  I went myself to pick up books.  We read Mommy Loves Spot.  We also watched an episode and a half a Clifford.  Lijah liked them, but poor guy was pretty tired and drained from coughing, etc.

Tuesday:  We’ll definitely be singing BINGO and I haven’t decided yet if we’ll sing the Hot Dog Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog song (we have it on the IPAD) or the Christmas 12 dogs one.  Either way, we’ll probably sing 2 songs only.

How it Went:

He liked the song BINGO.  He thought it was fun and tried to dance too, a little.  That’s pretty typical for this little guy.  He always dances to the Hot Dog Hot Dog song.  I sang the Hot Dog song to him while he was eating dinner.  He liked watch the Appisode at the same time as I sang it to him.  He thought it was funny.  We also read a Clifford book and the Emperor’s New Clothes.  

Wednesday:  I’m thinking we’ll do the paper plate Clifford art activity.

 We chose something easier since we're both sick.

How it Went:

I think we’ll just color a picture of a dog today, my little guy is sick and that art activity is a little more involved.  http://www.coloringpagespict.com/429-dog-coloring-pages/dog-coloring-pages is where we got our coloring page.  I saved it into downloads and printed it.  To find it, I types in free dog coloring pages to find more if you don’t like this one.  We chose this coloring page because we watched 101 Dalmatians last night.  We used colored pencils instead of crayons this time, I think he likes crayons better plus they’re easier to hold.

Thursday: The plan is to do the Pretend Play Dog Park activity.  That could definitely be a sensory activity also, but I think it will be fun to pretend to be dogs.  I think it will help him be a little less afraid of people pretending to be dogs.  For some reason that’s been scaring him lately.  It might also help him be less afraid of big dogs, hopefully. :)  We probably will not do the park part of it, but just do basic dog things.

How it Went:

We didn’t actually get to do this activity, so I plan to do it Friday.  We’re gone from 10:15 until 6:30 or so in Provo.  We also found out my little guy (and I probably) have RSV which has been going around like crazy.  SO we’re suppose to avoid kids for a week or two so we don’t pass it on.  It seems like he’s starting to get better.

Friday:  I was thinking we could go visit someone with a nice and friendly dog.  He has a love/fear relationship with them.  Otherwise, if that doesn’t work out, we’ll probably do the sensory bin idea.  We’ll probably modify our sensory activity because I don’t think we have any dogs to do the sensory bin idea.  We may just have to pretend.  I don’t want to visit anyone with a dog and pass on our sickness.  We may just forgo the sensory bin and just use Thursday idea for sensory.

How it Went:

He thought it was funny and not scary this time.  He even pretended with me a little bit.  I didn’t do as much as I would have had we both not been sick.  We mostly played on my bed.  He barked like a dog, but wouldn’t do the actions as much.

Saturday: Our plan is to the the wiener dog out of bananas and maybe use sprinkles for the eyes and nose.  My little guy’s favorite food is bananas, so he should enjoy this one.

How it Went:  He loved it, i don’t know if he understood that it was a dog, but he sure loves bananas.  He was weirded out a little by the sprinkles, but still ate them!

Week 6: Clothes 2015 Plan and How it Went

*All of the daily ideas I’m using come from Pinterest and you can find them on my Pinterest Boards.  The weekly ideas are my own and can also be found on my Pinterest Boards.* P.s. If you are wondering why certain words are bolded certain day, it’s because each day of the week that is our daily theme that relates to our weekly theme.  I hope that makes sense. :)

Clothes

So far, I’ve learned through planning that it would be much better to do clothes and body parts together.  In our case this year though, I feel like it’s more developmentally appropriate to keep them separate.  Next year, they will for sure be together.

Monday:  The books we’ve chosen were the only ones I could find on Pinterest.  They are called the Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed and the Emperor's New Clothes.  I also have some books that have a page of clothes or getting dressed that we’ll probably use.  We’ll also attend the library’s learning half hour.  

How it Went:

The Emperor’s New Clothes wasn’t ready at the library, but we read the Naked Mole Rat.  At the library we learned about Numbers.  My little one can say 6 pretty well. :)  There wasn’t many kids due to the rain.  He had fun and liked the book.  We also reviewed and had him say some names of clothes.  

Tuesday:  I haven’t found any songs as of yet that have to do with clothes, another part of the reason I think I want to put clothes and body parts together.  We will be singing We’re Going on a Bear Hunt this week because they book that we reserved at the library didn’t come through for last week.  I think we’ll sing the Hat and Mittens song to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.  I like the colors one, but since he doesn’t have his colors down yet, that one won’t work for us.

How it Went:

So, I don’t really remember how the song for We’re Going on a Bear Hunt goes.  We’ve read it though.  I used 5 Little Snowmen and instead of saying it like a poem, I sang/adapted it to 5 Little Monkeys Swinging from a Tree (Teasing Mr. Alligator..).  He kept saying “Monk,” he recognized it as the monkey song that we have sang a lot plus we sang it at the library. :) He really likes that song.  We also sang the Hat, scarf, mittens, and boots song, sang to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.  He liked that one too.  We also colored a Valentine’s picture for his uncle on LDS mission and a happy birthday for his other uncle’s birthday yesterday.

Wednesday: I haven’t really mentioned this, but since I couldn’t find much info on this subject, I’m going to have to get creative.  I think I will draw a stick figure (I’m not an artist) and then draw basic clothes on my stick figure.  I’ll have Lijah repeat the names of the clothes as I draw them.  Afterwards, I’ll have him color the picture.

 Definitely not a great drawing, but we got the message across. :)

How it Went:

We have more time generally on Wednesdays then Tuesday and Thursdays, so if it’s a holiday that week (like how it’s Valentine’s Day Saturday), I’ll throw in some extra activities.  Today we re-read the Valentine’s book, Monday we colored a picture for his uncle on LDS mission, and I’ll probably throw in makes cookies or something Friday. :)

We also did the stick figure idea.  Not a great drawing, but we added the essential clothing as well as cold weather clothes.  I’ll post a picture, but FYI I have no drawing ability.  He also repeated the words as I drew the clothes.  He didn’t say them perfectly since he’s still learning, but he attempted! :)  We also read Goldilocks and the Three Bears from last week and I colored them and maybe Friday we’ll act out the story. The book is kind of long for him, but I think because he was tired when we read it, he was able to pay attention.  We also had a random sensory moment!  I wasn’t feeling well and laying in bed in the dark and my little one came to cuddle.  We were playing with my blanket and he noticed the light static makes.  We started trying to do it.  He was pretty mesmerized by it!  

Thursday: I want to do the activity sheet Body Parts PreK Worksheet- Preschool Science.  It might not be developmentally appropriate for him, but I could always cut it out and make it more age appropriate. :)  So for some reason I’m not able to get that worksheet, it doesn’t even show up, so we did the other one called Clothes and Body Parts.  My little guy isn’t old enough to draw a straight line, so I’m going to cut them out and let him pair them together.

How it Went:

We didn’t get to this activity.  Today was a crazy busy day for us.  We’ll add it in tomorrow when we have hardly anything. :)

Friday:  We may take a field trip to the park.  We may be having lots of field trips to the park since the weather is nice and also I think it’s very important kids play outside.  We’ll talk about different clothes we wear to go outside depending on the weather, ie. coat, jacket, rain coat, etc.  If we don’t make the time for this, we can talk about different clothes and feel the different materials for a sensory bin idea.  

Matching the article of clothing to the right body part

How it Went:  We did the activity from yesterday.   I think it was a little bit too advanced for him, but he was being silly at the same time.  I think I’m going to make a quiet book  with Velcro and either loose sleeves or laminated pages and put them in there to help them learn.  My printer was running out of ink, so the coloring is a little weird, but it works.  We aren’t going to be making cookies today because I would need a wheat free recipe which I could get pretty easily on Pinterest, but it’s more to make Valentine’s cookies with cousins.  Maybe next week or not at all.  We also went to the park and talked about the clothes we wear when it’s cold outside.  It definitely wasn’t cold outside. He even took off his jacket, but had a blast going down the slide, playing with wood chips, exploring, and rolling down the hill.  Outside time is so great and important for all kids! :) 

Saturday:  I didn’t find any ideas on food for clothing, so I think I’ll cut a piece of bread into the shape of a shirt and/or use string cheese to make a scarf.

The scarf definitely looks more scarf-like then the shirt

How it Went:

He thought it was a little strange and didn’t really understand, not to mention it doesn’t really look like a shirt, but he’ll get it next year if we do that again! :)