Tot School Preschool Weekly Wrap Up The Mitten, Snow, Magnifying Glass and More!

I am so glad that January is over!  This winter is moving so slowly!  But, in honor of the lovely weather we have been having, we finished up this month with a few lessons focusing on snow.

Monday

• We read part of Snowflake Bentley.  I presented our microscope to the big kids, and the little girls wanted a chance to look, too (of course!).
• Since microscopes aren't really for little girls, we used our magnifying glass instead.  I pulled out an activity that I created 4 years ago for Mustang-matching little calendar pictures to big ones.  They loved it.
• We also made fake snow from a science kit.

Not so patiently waiting her turn.

Tuesday

• We read more of Snowflake Bentley (well kind of, I read it to the big kids and Mini Cooper listened.  Explorer wasn't interested today).
• Mini Cooper joined us in making snowflakes, Explorer had fun coloring her I is for Igloo printables (free from 1+1+1=1).
• We colored pictures of this week's president, Martin Van Buren.
• We read the Mitten and used (free) printables from 1+1+1=1 to retell the story.  The girls really loved it when we sneezed at the end and let the animals fall all over.
• I made snow play-doh and we made tracks in the snow with our toob animals.  I used this recipe and added a little vanilla to make it smell good.  
• We also looked at three part cards of animal tracks (free) from Montessori for Everyone.  
• We made Snoopy Sno-Cones with the big kids.
• And, of course we played a lot with the snow play-doh!

Wednesday

• We watched Katy and the Big Snow on YouTube because we couldn't find our book :(.  The reading was okay, but I know the girls will like looking through the pictures when our book surfaces.
• Introduced letter i using our sandpaper letters and sound disks from The Helpful Garden.
• Looked through the classification cards of winter clothes and items from 1+1+1=1 I is for Igloo pack.
• Used snowflakes and beads for cards and counters-wish I had taken a photo of this!
• Played with more play-doh.
• I didn't take pictures on Wednesday, I just wanted a hands on day.

Thursday I was not feeling well so the kids got a sick day (no substitute teachers in homeschooling).  Thankfully, I'm feeling better and looking forward to starting back up tomorrow.  We'll be talking quickly about shadows and Groundhog Day (since we missed it on Thursday), landforms, Olympics, and maybe the letter D if we can fit it in :).

Hope you had a great week!

God Bless,

Lisa

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Weekly Wrap Up 2014 Week 4

Wow!  Week 4?  January has been a good month for getting school done!  I guess being cooped up inside in the snow helps that :).

And, since the snow seems to be a constant around here (thought it DID melt this week), I thought it would be a great time to bring out Snowflake Bentley and do some 'snow' themed activities.

Monday

• We read part of Snowflake Bentley.
• Explored our microscope using {free} 3-Part Cards from Montessori Materials
• Attempted to use our microscope only to find out it doesn't work very well.  Boo.
• Made fake snow using a science kit from the dollar store.  This was fun, but apparently you aren't supposed to touch it.  Oops!
• Discussed opposites using a {free} printable from Every Star is Different.  Mostly for Charger, but Mustang listened in.
• Used another {free} printable from Every Star is Different to work on labeling nouns, verbs, and adjectives.  

Tuesday

• Read the second 1/2 of Snowflake Bentley.
• Discussed symmetry and properties of a snowflake (6 branches, no two alike, etc).
• Used a printable from Making Learning Fun to 'build' symmetrical snowflakes.  This was below Mustang, but Charger really did not like it.  Oh well!
• Cut out our own snowflakes
• Introduced the ruler and used it to measure snowflakes with a {free} printable from Every Star is Different.
• Added Martin Van Buren to our President Notebook.  
• Made Snoopy Sno-cones (definitely a highlight of our day).

Wednesday

• Talked about avalanches, blizzards, and ice storms using printables from Every Star is Different (I really liked her free printable pack if you can't tell!). (links above)
• Used another printable from the pack to match phonograms and words (I did cut the words off the bottom of the cards since the kids can both read).
• Added Georgia to our state notebooks.
• Practiced our AWANA memory verses, Mustang and Charger each completed 3 sections.
• Didn't use my camera at all, and so no photos!!

Thursday

I managed to catch another bug, and the kids were thrilled to get a day off school.  I, however, would rather reserve days off for nice sunny days.  I didn't have much of a choice, though!  We were supposed to talk about Groundhogs and shadows.  What my kids don't know is that we will likely have a short makeup day tomorrow, Saturday, so that we can talk about Groundhog day BEFORE Groundhog day :).

So that's our wrap up for this week.  Overall, it went well.  I'm looking forward to introducing the Olympics next week!  Hope your week went well!

God Bless,

Lisa

Tot School S is for Snow

Charger is 25 months, Birthday 11/07

After nearly a 2 month break, we are so excited to be back to school! We have made a few changes. We moved to a new house and a new area. We also graduated Mustang out of Tot School and into Preschool, so we will only be featuring Charger in our Tot School posts. I will be doing a seperate weekly post on Mustang. We do have a one room school house here, so many things are done together with different results being expected from each child. So if you read both posts you may see some repetition.

Our letter for the week was S


Our Theme was snow


We covered our letter S in stickers of snowmen, stars, and snowflakes. I pulled the sticker off the paper and then handed it to him to put on the S. Then he colored the S.




Charger transfered snowballs aka cotton balls from a bowl to an egg holder and then from one egg holder to the next. I gave him a spoon, which he used sometimes. He picked up the cotton ball and put it on the spoon and then just gave up on the spoon all together.




We read the book Katy and the Big Snow



Then Charger used his own tractor to shovel snow




We made a collage of S items. We looked through magazines and I helped Charger find pictures of S items. Then I cut them out and he helped me glue on the pictures. Then we went back over the S pictures. We found sweater, smile, seashell, sheep, sunglasses, snowman, snow, socks, skirt, and shoes.



We played with our new Aquadoodle. Thank you Grandma! And though the kids liked it, it did not take long at all for the entire mat to be blue.



That left us with a lot of extra school time on our hands and I had to come up with something quickly. So, I gave them a couple of empty moving boxes and let them play. They filled one box with our ball pit balls and had a home made ball pit. Pretty creative ;)



We played in the snow which you can read about here.





And ate snowmen for lunch which you can read about here.



We also made snowflakes that you can read about here.



Our sensory tub was full of seashells hidden in oatmeal. Charger got a shovel and bucket to look for the seashells, but the shovel was quickly taken away. He was using the shovel to shovel oatmeal onto the floor. Once he found all the seashells he spent a lot lof time hiding the shells in the sand. He kept saying 'hide hide.' It was pretty cute.



Charger put together Mini Cooper's new Sound puzzle from Melissa and Doug. Thank you Aunt A & Uncle T!



He also found matches that were the Same by playing Word World Memory from the Word World Tot Pack on 1+1+1=1.



I found Charger doing this Space puzzle on his own a lot this week. I was very surprised that he could handle a puzzle this complex. He got a number of puzzles like this one from Mrs. K and he LOVES them-thank you! Its all he does when he is left alone to play.

For more great ideas from Tot Schools all over the world check out 1+1+1=1. Thanks for checking us out!

Snowed In

A big thank you to Lindsay at Bytes of Memory who shared on her Tot School page the idea of bringing the cold snow into our warm house.

It was all of 9 degrees today with a windchill of 10 below, but from inside our warm and toasty house, the kids couldnt tell that! They saw over a foot of white, crisp snow under a shiny sunshine and they wanted to go PLAY! Of course, since there has been snow on the ground for nearly 2 weeks (something that was uncommon at our last location) they were pretty used to me saying no to the idea of trecking out into the cold, so they didnt even ask.

That's what made this surprise all the more fun. They couldnt believe-and really neither could I-that Mom would go outside and get buckets of snow to play with inside! It was in the sink, with a large towel set below them for any melting water, and mittens were provided to keep fingers warm. They each got a chair to stand on, a bucket, and an ice cream scoop. I knew, someday, it would be useful that I own 3 ice cream scoopers!

We made a couple snowmen and even posed one with my snowman salt and pepper shakers. We made snow balls, though throwing them wasnt allowed. And the kids ate a lot, I mean TONS of snow. I think they ate their weeks required water intake.

Most of all we had a lot of fun and made some great memories!

Raising Rock Stars: As Special as Snowflakes

It's a week of firsts around here, and I wanted to add Raising Rock Stars (family devotions) to our school. My New Year's Resolution is to put God first in my life, and I wanted to help my kids learn to do the same. I hope this helps. Our school theme this week is snow, so I thought snowflakes would be a great subject for our Bible study.

Key Verse: "Your hands shaped me and made me." Job 10:8a NIV

We looked at pictures of snowflakes at snowcrystals.com Mustang enjoyed this a little more then Charger.

We talked about snowflakes and looked out the window at the snow on the ground.

We read the story 'The Little Snowflake'

High up in the icy, winter clouds lived a little snowflake. This snowflake had a star-shaped hole in the center and six pointy arms that looked like tiny pine trees. All snowflakes have six arms, of course, but not all of them look like tiny pine trees. Even fewer have star-shaped middles. This snowflake was special. His name was Glitter.

Glitter grew up next door to Flip, a tough old snowflake with thick, square arms. Glitter loved talking with Flip.

"You were made special, Glitter. No other snowflake looks quite like you," Flip told him once.

"Are there any snowflakes that look like you, Flip?" Glitter asked.

"Nope! I'm one-of-a-kind, kid." Flip continued, "You can look all around this cloud we live in, but you'll never find two snowflakes that look alike."

Glitter thought about this for a while. "Our Creator must really care about us if He made each one of us special."

"Yes," Flip replied. "He sure does."

Suddenly a brisk wind blew through the cloud. "Oh! What fun!" cried Glitter as he clung to one of Flip's strong arms. The wind carried them right out of the cloud and into the open sky. All around him Glitter could see the different shapes of his snowflake friends as they went flying on the wind. Glitter had never seen anything so beautiful. He was glad that the Creator made him to be part of this lovely winter sky.

Flip and Glitter swirled slowly down through the fresh winter air. Glitter looked toward the ground and a gasp of excitement caught in his throat. "Look, Flip! Look at the colors!"

It was true. Below the snowflakes, a little frozen pond stood crowded with children on ice skates, twirling and gliding in their brightly colored coats. As the snowflakes drifted closer, Glitter couldn't help but smile. Not one of the children looked exactly like another! Some had dark skin and some had freckles. Some had big teeth and some had green eyes. Here and there a blonde ponytail peeked out from under a hat, or earmuffs held a black curl in place.

"All the children are different from each other, Flip. The Creator must have made them special, too!" cried Glitter.

Flip answered softly as they landed on the sleeve of a little red-haired girl, "Yes. And the Creator loves every one of them."

And then we made snowflakes. That was easier said then done! Turns out that mommy is not near as good at cutting out snowflakes as I once remembered. See the pile of construction paper in the middle of the table? That's the paper it took for me to come up with these two snowflakes-one of which looks like we might be Jewish ha ha!




We had a great time and are looking forward to next week.