The End of The Beginning!

Three weeks worth of the Creation.....yikes! This was really only supposed to take two weeks (6 days), but with trying to fit everything in some of these activities just kind of took a back seat. Not that Bible lessons in and of themselves took a backseat (we read/discuss it almost daily), just the extra stuff I wanted to do to go along with it and help make it memorable for them took longer. I don't think that they minded....at least they didn't complain at all on the way. :)

This is the felt board. I printed these graphics off such a long time ago I don't even remember where they are from (unfortunate because I am now missing the Fourth Day piece), but you could easily make your own. My felt board is made of a big piece of wood/board, fleece, and staples. Thanks Zak! :)
They got used in the pocket chart too. Silas loved to play with them and 'teach' the lesson.
These are the creation circles. A couple times a week I would have the kids pull numbers from a bag and place them on the correct circle.
Annabelle showing Silas where to put a number.
Asa and Silas enjoyed the Creation Clothespin games the most.
Working on pinching it open.
This was probably Silas' favorite creation activity. He did a great job and even decided to put the clothespins on upside down instead of figuring out how to open them.
I made these creation blocks with some decorative blocks I found on sale at Meijer in February (they had XOXOXO on them). Glued the decals right on and 'shellacked' them. :) We put these in order after dinner one night. Plus the kids have played with them a lot in the school room.
DAY 1 - Day and Night
Asa made a black and white collage

We all played the Day and Night game (played again during Day 4 activities). I ended up making this a pocket chart activity instead of a tray activity.
Do you eat breakfast in the day or at night?
Do you wear pjs during the day or at night?

Silas thought he was so big doing this. I love being able to include him!

DAY 3 - Plants (we didn't really do anything for Day 2 except read a couple cloud books).
Asa made a plant/nature collage.

DAY 4 - Sun, Moon, and Stars
Annabelle and Asa made really simple suns out of paper plates.
Should have thrown on some glitter....oh well.
DAY 5 - Things that fly and things that swim
Asa worked on this fly or swim sort.
He did a good job!
Silas did it too. He was pretty convinced that bats should be in the water. :)
We also made some birds with our feathers. This one is Annabelle's.
Asa working on his.
We also used Hubbard's Cupboard suggestions with working on their Bible 'notebook' pages. I think that we're going to keep this going throughout the year so that they have something fun to look through and remember lessons by.
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 6
Day 7 - We made a world using markers and coffee filters (still need to get some white filters lol).
The finished days. Asa's are on the top, Annabelle's are on the bottom.

That wraps up their study of creation. I still had a couple things that didn't get done....but we need to move on. We'll have to do the other things the next time around. :) Happy blogging.

jess_hak
Linking up to Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1

Tot School: Creation/Ocean

Really excited/ready to start Tot School back up this week with the boys. We are using Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum as a base this year and expounding from that. We will be going through the Bible chronologically and I'm pretty pumped about it. There are some great lessons waiting for us! Also for the next couple of weeks we will have a 'loose' ocean theme. Our tot trays will include a focus on those things. I like to have a theme.....it helps keep me focused. lol

Onto the trays we will be using this week.

Day and night sorting tray.
Creation circles. I am really not a photographer, and I apologize for that! I put these together last year and they are pictures of what God made on the days of creation. I then printed out numbers from clipart. Laminate (with contact paper...these were the days before my beloved laminating machine came to live with me).... velcro..... and voila....a game to learn what days God created what. :)
Another game from last year. Match the clothespins up with the correct pictures.
We will be discussing the letter A this week with Asa and Silas. I love these little letter sensory boxes that I've seen out there. The first place I saw it at was Spell Outloud (great blog!). I also know that Stephanie at Playing House does this too. I just think it is a really fun way to learn about a letter. So this is our letter Aa sensory bin.
Onto the ocean themed trays.

Sorting shells. Pretty self explanatory.
This one is for Asa. I'm going to have him color these pictures and then cut them apart. I found this at 1+1+1=1. Carisa has so many fun printables! As a matter of fact all the ocean printables I'm using this week are from her.
Coloring ocean animals.
Matching/vocabulary cards. This is the pocket chart that the kids have so much fun using. It is just taped to the back of the closet door.


Sorting octopus. I lied.....this is from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Erica has some great things too!
Yet another bad picture. :/ I will be focusing on the colors red and blue for the next couple weeks. Asa knows them, but Silas will be learning them for the first time. I made these fish up in February I think. I made them for a letter review with Annabelle and Asa (hence the letters on them lol), but they have come in handy several times since then. Silas will catch a fish and then put it in the matching colored bucket (from our counting bears).
I will also be starting some counting work with Silas.
Asa will also be doing some counting work. :)

That's the trays for the moment. We are going to have a lot of fun crafts to do too. I think that we will all have a fun week, and Asa can stop whining to do school. :) Happy blogging!

jess_hak

I am linking up to 1+1+1=1. Head on over there to see what other tot's are learning. :)

Red, Apples, Creation, letter Aa, and the #1

What do Apples, Creation, the color red, the letter Aa, and the number 1 all have in common? They are the theme for our first week of preschool. That is right today is the day that I start my adventure of teaching my daughter, and she starts her adventure of learning. It is a milestone, and quite frankly I'm a little emotional about it! LOL I didn't think that I would be. Apples and Creation are the actual weekly theme. We also have a color, letters, and number a month to focus on. This month those happen to be red, Aa, Bb, #1 and #2. Here are some pictures of what I think will be the highlights of our week. I will also post pictures at the end of the week of crafts and such.

These next couple pictures are a couple things that I'm using this week to help learn the letter Aa. I believe learning for Annabelle (and really most preschoolers) happens when they are playing and having fun, so you will see a lot of games as reinforcement in my teaching method.

Feed the Alligator: A fun game where Annabelle will toss the beanbag into the alligator's mouth.


Aa File Folder game: I have one of these for every letter. You can either match the capital and lowercase letters to each other AA aa, or match them in sets a capital with a lowercase letter Aa.




One-to-One Correspondence: Just a fun little game to match one object to its outline.



Creation Circles and Creation Clothespins: These are just a couple fun little games to help reinforce our Bible focus for the week. That God created all things and hopefully it will help Annabelle learn the order He created them in too! I still have problems remembering that...so it might help me as well. LOL





Alright that is all I have time for today. I meant to post all this a little sooner, but just didn't have the time. Ok....enough already, time to actually start teaching her this stuff :) Happy blogging!

jess_hak