Montessori Preschool Frog Theme

So excited to be typing this while I look out on a beautiful, sunny day that is supposed to be WARM!!  Yay!  Finally!  This last week was still a bit chilly and didn't seem like spring would ever get here.  

The big kids were learning about parts of an amphibian, so we did our own frog and amphibian themed activities.  

Books this week

There are TONS of great books on frogs for little ones.  These were some of our favorites this week.  Frogs by Gail Gibbons, Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley, About Amphibians by Carolyn Sill, and Once There Was a Tadpole by Judith Anderson and Mike Gordon.  

Frog themed trays

Matching Frogs.  I picked this one for Explorer because she loves matching and loves frogs.  She tried this for about 3 minutes and was done.  At least Mini Cooper liked it.

 This is a freebie from Montessori Print Shop. 

This tray had different activities on different days.  The first day, the idea was to attach the correct amount of links to the card.  This work was only for Mini Cooper.  It is too hard for Explorer.

I found the idea and free printable from Mudpies and Makeup.  

Another day, the idea was to match flies to the cards.  This wasn't as much a counting exercise as it was a hand eye coordination activity.  The girls LOVED this one.  They have been playing with the flies ever since.

Another fun color matching tray.  The printable is free from File Folder Fun (minus the file folder).

This one took her a LOT of effort, but with some encouragement, she finally finished.  

Montessori Materials

Mini Cooper is still working on her teens numbers, and I wanted a fun way to work on them.  So, I found free calendar card numbers with frogs on them.  I printed out numbers 11-19 and then mixed them up.  She is getting much better at her layouts.

She loved moving on to the tens board and getting to use LOTS of beads :).

Parts of an amphibian cards and puzzle.  The cards were free from The Helpful Garden.

We purchased our parts of an amphibian puzzle from Kid Advance (not an affiliate link).

More Frog Fun

Thanks to lots of yard sailing over the years, I have a ton of frog themed learning manipulatives.   I made sure to get them all out this week.

Both of these were a big hit.  The stamps are from Lakeshore Learning, but I found them for $2.00 (brand new) at a yard sale.  The models are from Hobby Lobby, purchased with a coupon, that made them around $4.00.

Both girls (and actually Charger, too) really enjoyed the stamps and the models.

This was supposed to be a cutting and pasting activity, and it was.  But, it also turned out to be a sharing activity.   Explorer had started first and she was not too pleased when Mini Cooper joined in and I told them to share the glue.  See Explorer's face?

She decided to 'fix' the problem by taking the glue away.  

Thankfully, the sharing resolved itself and they finished their papers.  Explorer was very pleased to show me her work.  This printable is free from Mudpies and Makeup (link above).

Our Leaping Frogs game was kinda fun.  Thankfully, it only cost me $1.00 at a yard sale because it was a very hard game.  The girls (and the big kids, too) loved trying to play it, though.

One of the best 25 cents ever spent!  This frog puzzle was a huge hit.  For some reason, it really appealed to Mini Cooper.  She proceeded to put this puzzle together about 3 or 4 times a day for the entire week.  It was almost a joke.  If you couldn't find her, she was probably busy putting together the frog puzzle!

Frog Prince

Because you can't talk about frogs with little girls and leave out the frog prince, we switched gears on our last day.

We watched a recording of the Frog Prince on YouTube (this is the one we watched and it is okay).  But, it was the first time we had read this story, so it was still fun.

So, of course we HAD to do some princess activities.  P is for Princess from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Princess shadow matching and princess puzzle free from 123 Homeschool for Me.

I pulled out our felt Disney princesses scene.  This was a freebie I picked up at one of our yearly homeschool swaps.  So much fun!!

And, Mini Cooper FINALLY got to decorate her Melissa and Doug princess that she received for Christmas.  She LOVED this!!

Whew!  That ended up being a LOT longer then I realized it would be!!  Thanks for reading the whole thing!  I hope you enjoyed our week and found some ideas for yours!

God Bless,
Lisa







Items we had (or wish we had) this week.  This widget contains Amazon affiliate links.

Weekly Wrap Up 2014 Week 9

I have to say that I am ridiculously happy to be able to write WEEK NINE.  And, those were 9 CONSECUTIVE weeks.  Seriously, I don't think that has ever happened throughout the time that we have been homeschooling.  There has always been a break-sometimes a very long one-somewhere in the middle.  I am so, so, so thankful and finally feel like we have a routine that works for us and that we can continue with.  

So here's a peak into week 9 :).

Calendar Time (Solar System):

Since we are in a new month, we changed calendar themes.  I realized I don't have any photos of this, but trust me they are pretty cool.  We chose to learn about the Solar System thanks to (free) calendar cards from 1+1+1=1.  This week we talked about Astronomy, the Solar System, rotation and revolution, the sun, solar flare, and solar eclipse.  

Parts of an Amphibian:

We started out with the basic parts of an amphibian cards.  We went through them together, and I added parts of amphibian booklets to their workplans.  Charger makes a BIG mess when he is working on things.  Cracks me up!  The cards are free from The Helpful Garden.

Frogs by Gail Gibbons is a great book (mostly about Frogs) but it does touch on Amphibians, too.

We read About Amphibians, by Cathryn Sill.  It's a really great book for my crew.  The basic book is geared for young children, but then in the back there is a bunch of detail about each page and photo.  This allowed my littles to listen in and then leave when they were bored as I read the details for Mustang and Charger.  The book on the left, Amphibian, is not a very good read aloud, but it is great for a curious young boy to learn more :).

This was something I picked up at a yard sale last summer and I thought it might be fun. But, I didn't really want to dissect anything.  So, we just looked at all the pieces.  The kids REALLY enjoyed this!

It included the skeleton and organs.  

St. Patrick's Day

Charger enjoyed our last Magic Treehouse book so much that when I saw these on the end-cap when I was at the library last week, I decided to pick them up.  I have been reading the storybook aloud each day and Mustang has been working on the research guide on her own.  She has already finished it.  These are some of her favorite books.

Beginning Animal Research

This week we added animal research to our workplans.  I was happy to find direction and a free printable for this on Montessori for Everyone.  Because this is so new for us, I went with her ideas and figure I will make it more difficult as my kids can handle it.  

The work is to find an animal to research.  After reading about the animal, the cards at the bottom are to be answered.  There are answer cards in the packet as well.  After answering all the questions, they draw a picture of the animal and use the cards to write a sentence about the animal.  This is Charger's work (age 6).  We used the Bald Eagle as an example and did the research and questions together.  The work page he did alone.

I have asked the kids to research one animal a week for now.  I've suggested that they may want to use our Wild-Life Fact File binder (an AWESOME hand me down from a friend who graduated her homeschool students).  But, of course mentioned that any animal they want to research I will help them get books on that animal.  

Bible

We completed our lesson packet from Bible Study for All Ages.  We LOVE this curriculum.  And, I can't wait to order the next session.  But, for Christmas my parents gave us a learning game from Dave Ramsey about money.  We are going to do that, first, and then order our next set.

State Studies

Our state this week was South Carolina.  When I introduce a state, we first go through all our previous states and see if we remember the capitols.  Then I introduce the new state using the three part cards and state cards that I purchased from Montessori Print Shop.  I read a book about the state-my favorite are the alphabet books like the one in this photo.  

The work added for each state are pages in their state notebook.  I print the state pages free from Primary Graffiti.

Types of Musical Instruments

Our last group work for the week was to talk about the different types of musical instruments.  For this work, I found these great posters here.  I printed off two different copies.  The first set, I laminated and we went over them together.

The second set I cut all up.

And, turned it into a sorting activity.  It was well received!

I hope you had a great week!  Thank you so much for stopping by!

God Bless,
Lisa




Books and items we used this week (affiliate link in widget only):

Summer School

Mustang found not one, but TWO little tree frogs.  At least, that's what she determined they were after looking them up in the encyclopedia.  Now, she's trying to figure out what kind of a habitat they need so that she could try and keep them alive should she catch them again.  Without the habitat, she had to let them go.  

But, we spent a good hour observing, holding, running after, and learning about frogs today.

And, believe it or not, that IS school.  

Hope you are finding some great opportunities to learn in your own backyard!

God Bless,

Lisa