Tot School: Umbrellas, Weather, and Watermelon

We had a pretty full week here. As we're nearing toward the end of the alphabet I find myself getting anxious to be done with this and move onto something new. I have to breathe and remind myself that I can be just as excited about these next couple wrap up weeks as I can about the material I'm planning on starting in July. We are going to be using Hubbard's Cupboard as our main outline. It should be fun...it is a great guideline. First things first....we need to finish up this year!

Umbrella fun
Asa decorated coffee filters with markers and then sprayed them with water. We used the Uu for the handles.
The finished piece. Asa added glue dots and glitter to make raindrops. I think it turned out cute. (I have got to buy some white coffee filters...this would've turned out better if I had them).
Sorting uppercase and lowercase Us. These are from Confessions of a Homeschooler. He is very over these. He will do them to humor me, but it takes him all of 15sec. before he's done. He is ready to move onto something more difficult. He may just jump right in and learn how to read alongside Annabelle!
We talked about how umbrellas aren't only used in the rain, but can also keep the sun off of you. I made play-doh, left it the natural color and added in some vanilla extract. Then I gave him an umbrella and shells to create a beach scene. What a ham. :)
This is another fun activity from the Confessions link. Count the raindrops and match the number. This boy not only knows all his letters and their sounds....he also knows all his numbers 1-10! He is a sponge for knowledge and never ceases to amaze me.
He does really well with one-to-one correspondence too.
Fun with weather
One Tuesday we talked about clouds. I got some really cute ideas from a blog that I read and now can't remember. If these activities look familiar to you let me know so that I can link back to you! We read It Looked Like Spilt Milk. Afterwards we made our own cloud pictures with white paint and blue paper folded in half. I instructed Asa to only paint on the one side and then fold it in half and pound on it. Then when we opened it back up we tried to figure out what it looked like. This was really a lot of fun....even though most of our pictures resembled.....spilt milk.
This is one that we decided was a butterfly.
We then talked about how wind blows the clouds and had a cloud blowing race.
Poor Asa.....he could only blow his cloud backwards.
This says pre-writing, but I thought it would be more fun for Asa to practice cutting. You can print this out from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Toward the end of the week we got sidetracked by watermelon. I cut out a rough looking watermelon and laminated it. Set out some letters and black beans. Asa counted out the correct amount of 'seeds'.
Working on his watermelon for the letter Ww.
The finished masterpiece.
SILAS
Silas had a great time with this tray and played with it many times this week.

He also had a lot of fun drawing. I asked him, "Silas, what are you drawing?" And he said....
"CARS!" I couldn't believe he was actually practicing his still life drawings. lol
Putting beads into the container. Another activity that was played with a lot this week.

He also made a couple of 'spilt milk' pictures.
.....and participated in our cloud race.
We had extreme weather here in Michigan this week ranging from the upper 40s one day to the upper 60s the next....and I really hope that we get that 80 degree day tomorrow. So it was fun to talk about the different weather every day. I thought I would end with a few pictures of the different activities we did in different weather.

On our cold day we played Hungry Hippos (really, very, loud annoying game lol).
On our warm day we played outside. My little artist at work....
....he was practicing his still life again. He said, "Mommy....flower." He's a genius. ;) lol
Asa picking me a bouquet of flowers. (I rather like dandelions...they're so cheerful).
I hope that everyone else had a great week! Happy blogging!

jess_hak

Hop on over to 1+1+1=1 to see what other tots have been up to this week!

Week in Review: Umbrellas and Weather (and Watermelon too)

We had a good time talking about weather this week and learning about the letters U and W. We are really, really close to completing the alphabet. I'm looking forward to starting our new kindergarten curriculum! :)

Umbrella Fun
Fill in the missing number. Annabelle is getting more and more consistent with recognizing numbers 11-15 (thank you Starfall!). This cute printable can be found at Musings of Me.

Annabelle made umbrellas for the letter wall. She colored on coffee filters then squirted them with water (note to self...buy white coffee filters!). Then she dotted on some glue and glittered them to make raindrops. It turned out pretty cute (would've been cuter if we had white coffee filters lol).
On Friday we talked about how umbrellas aren't just used when it's raining. Annabelle looked at me funny. Then I told her you could use them at the beach to stay out of the sun. I made playdoh, left it the natural color and added some vanilla (yummm). She enjoyed playing with it and making a beach scene with shells and little paper umbrellas.
Looks pretty relaxing to me!
Fun with weather
On Tuesday we had fun talking about clouds. We read It Looked Like Spilt Milk. I got inspiration for these ideas at a wonderful blog that I read recently....and now have no idea who it was (I really need to organize those ideas a little better!). If it was you let me know so I can link back to you. :)

We made 'spilt milk' creations using white paint and blue construction paper folded in half. I told Annabelle to only paint on one side of the fold. Then she would fold it in half, open it back up and figure out what it looked like. This was fun. We did quite a few of them. We only got a couple of distinct pictures though.
She said this one is a castle....but I think it looks similar to the Parthenon. :)
This one was a fence.
Then we talked about why it rains. We went briefly over the cycle of water (there is a great Blue's Clues episode for that too), and then did a fun experiment from 2 Teaching Mommies. She was thrilled that she predicted the experiment correctly. lol
We talked about how the wind moves the clouds. We had fun having a cloud race using straws and cotton balls. Asa kept blowing his backwards, so Annabelle finished first.

This is also from 2 Teaching Mommies. I set this out for Annabelle to review her letters A-Z. She did great. Not one mistake!

These cute little cards are from the Musings of Me link. I set out some pony beads to represent raindrops and Annabelle put the correct amount of drops on each number.

We went off on a rabbit trail at the end of the week to do some watermelon activities. Annabelle made a Ww watermelon for her letter wall.
The finished piece. I really like it!
I made a quick cut out of a watermelon and laminated it. Then I set out some number cards (from the Musings of Me link) and some beans. Annabelle put the correct number of 'seeds' on the melon slice. She had fun with this (more than the rain drops).
We had some crazy Michigan weather this week. Upper 40s one day and upper 60s the next (supposed to be 80 tomorrow!). I thought I would include a couple fun pictures of the different things that we did during different types of weather.

In cold weather they all enjoyed the Hungry Hippos game (this is a very, very loud game).
During our warmer day they enjoyed playing outside and picking a beautiful bouquet for mommy. (I think dandelions are one of the most cheery flowers...and I don't have to take care of them).
I hope that everyone else had a great week! Happy blogging.

jess_hak

Pop on in to Homeschool Creations to see what other preschoolers did this week.