OCEAN - Our Aug/Sept Unit!

One of the wonderful things about doing preschool at home is that we can work it to fit our schedule!  Our original plan was to discuss the Ocean in August, but the month was so busy that we just extended our lessons into September.  And it was perfect since we visited the beach the last week of the month!  Can you say perfect ending to the unit?  :)

Our monthly plans tend to be a list of dates with a short description of what I hope to do - just enough to remind me.  And if we don't get to the plan that day, it just shifts to another day!  With a 3 and 1 year old we only plan one activity per day and use teaching moments to go over other important information as it comes up.  Here are just a few of our favorite ocean activities:

We used toilet paper rolls to make "baby octopuses!"  Just cue strips on one end to make 8 legs and set the kids free with the paints!  I was really impressed with how much time and attention my 1 year old gave to this project!

Cheap target dollar section stickers for the win!  I drew the ocean line and set the kids loose with stickers and crayons to create their very own ocean scene.  To add a little extra challenge for the 3 year old, I had him practice with his scissors to cut out the ocean line.  Just added a next level of learning without much hassle!  I also looked up ocean coloring pages on Google since they both love coloring.

Another tip I'm so glad I ran across - journals!!  I bought both kids a notebook and put their names on it.  At the start of each unit we make an intro page in their notebook.  This time it was just a hand drawn ocean scene they colored.  I also write the unit title in capital letters and have my 3 year old practice identifying those letters throughout our unit.  We can also do fun things like - which animal lives in the ocean and which on land?

Last thing, I try to buy one or two books related to the topic that we can keep.  This time around we got an Under the Sea Sticker book (with reusable stickers!!) and a fun fold-out book called Big Book of Big Sea Creatures.  It has giant pictures of fun sea animals full of neat facts - mommy learned quite a bit too!  :)  And a trip to the beach to pick up sea shells was a great end to the month!

Let me know what you're studying this month . . . and if you've found any fun ways to teach it to your kids!  Always looking for some new ideas!!

Our First Home Preschool Unit - BUGS!

I'll apologize in advance that this is a very different post from my norm.  This past week I started some more intentional home preschool with my 3 year old.  In searching for ideas, themes, crafts, activities, and books, I found it so helpful to see and hear what others were doing.  It really helped me pick and choose what I felt would work best for our family and, particularly, for my son.  With that in mind, I've decided to share some of what we're doing in hopes that it gives someone else a fun idea!

I started off my "planning" by just writing down a long list of things my son enjoys and several things I felt would be important for him to know.  Here's what we came up with:

June - Bugs
July - Tractors / Farm Animals
August - Ocean
September - Community Helpers (police, firefighters, ambulance, trash truck, etc)
October - Dinosaurs
November - Trains
December - Kitchens / Cooking / Food
January - Weather
February - Trucks (school buses, monster trucks, food trucks, etc)
March - Jungle Animals
April - Birds
May - Planes and Helicopters

Once I had a list, I organized them based on when made the most sense to me.  Our schedule may change and even the topics may change, but this gave me a basis to start from!

Since Bugs would be our first unit, I went a bit Pinterest crazy checking out all the different things others have already done (check out the link for all the ideas).  For the sake of your time, I'll just show you what we did our first week.  Keep in mind that children at this age learn predominantly through play so we only had about 10 minutes each day of focused instruction or activity.  Beyond that it was just talking about bugs as we looked at books or pointing them out as we played outside.

First Activity:  I bought him a composition notebook just for school!  He was so excited to have a notebook all his own!  We wrote his name on the first page and just let him color it.  The next page had the word "BUGS" written.  We discussed the letters before he colored on the page and then taped on some bugs.  Simple as that!

Second Activity:  We also found these really awesome insect fact cards from Stay At Home Educator!  They come with 15 different insect cards each with a picture and several fun bug facts!  I chose 4 cards to go over each week so the different types of bugs would get overwhelming.  The first week we looked at the housefly, ladybug, cockroach, and honey bee.  He loves going over them and using them to "teach" his dad!

Third Activity:  Even though he's still pretty young, I want him to get in his mind that he can write letters. One day we focused on drawing a line.  Just a line.  The next day I wrote a capital B on the page and helped him trace it.  It didn't look much like a B when he did it alone, but it was just good practice in showing him one day he will be able to do that.

Every Day Activities:  Every day we have school we go over the letters in BUGS and read one, two, or fifty bug books!  Here are a few of my favorites:

Bug Hotel - This one is a great board book with flaps full of information!  Each page is a different bug.  It's the primary book I'm using for the month since it's simple to understand and has an interactive component. (Pictured above to the right.  It's the bottom book.)

Bug Sticker Book - This is just a fun sticker book FULL of stickers that can be pulled off and rearranged as much as he wants!  We've been using it as a treat on Fridays.  :)  (Pictured above to the right.  It's the top book.)

Jam and Honey - In our house we love bees and talk often about how much they help our garden grow.  I checked this book out from our local library and absolutely love it!  The first half tells the story of a little girl going to pick berries for jam while the second half is a bee getting nectar for honey.  It explains how to handle bees and to not be afraid of them.  Such a cute story!

The Eensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out (Big Time)! - This was a cute story of how the eensy weensy spider decided after she fell down the water spout that she didn't want to climb anymore.  Her ladybug friend came alongside her and soon she regained her confidence to climb again!  I just loved the story of friendship and confidence!

The Honeybee Man - This was another fun story of a man who raises bees on his roof in Brooklyn. While a story, it explains all the ins and outs of how the bees make honey!

There are several others we enjoyed that I may share another time, but these were some of my favorites (and my kids)!

Let me know how you've been exploring bugs with your little one!  I'd love to hear new ideas or activities to make learning fun!  :)