I like to use the same theme for my little girls as the big kids, if I can. This week, we were all learning about the human body book. Our big kids' wrap up is here.
One of our books this week was a cute little board book that Explorer found at the library book sale last week.
Then we found our toes :).
At Christmas time, I picked up this super cute puzzle from Discoveroo. It has five different layers-clothed, skin, muscles, organs, and then skeleton. It is a little challenging for little ones at first, but they really enjoyed the challenge. Great way to learn about the body systems at a young age!
We used toilet paper tubes to listen to each other's hearts-it really does work!
I picked up this super cool Anatomy Apron used from one of our local Facebook swap sites for $3.00. It's awesome!
We talked about our heart and added it to the apron. We will be working through the other organs after Easter.
It seemed like a good week to also read about our emotions. Miss Spider was often sad and then very happy, and the other bugs were scared. Of course, it was the favorite book of the week as well.
Last up, we tried something new from our local library-A Tag reading system. We've never had one of these, but our library has 4 that you can check out and use at home. The girls have LOVED it...until it ran out of batteries of course. I need to get some more. We're planning a crazy week this week, so I hope you have a good one!! God Bless, Lisa
We didn't have a real theme this week. We just tried out a few things and had some fun!
I read about a website called Chalk Preschool last week. It is free and they have a bunch of free online video clips to help teach concepts. We tried it out on Monday and I had high hopes that the girls would enjoy it. Explorer (2) did, Mini Cooper (4) kept asking if she could 'do it'. She thought it was interactive like Starfall. When she realized it was just movies, she didn't have any more interest.
I've been trying to find more online activities for the girls so that they have some learning options when I am on 'maternity leave' from teaching :).
A few years ago I had read about this book, The Berenstain Bear's Big Book of Science and Nature, on the Sonlight book list. I thought it sounded neat, but could never get my hands on it. While walking past the end cap at our library a couple weeks ago, I saw it and checked it out. It is SUPER cute, the girls (and the big kids too) love it, and it has tons of info. It's now officially on my own it wish list. We've been enjoying reading it over the last week and will continue this next week until it's finished.
One of the days the girls decided they needed to wear aprons while they did their 'work'. Whatever works, right? Explorer was checking out ALLL the tangrams.
I had intended to bring out this bulb ordering last week during our spring theme week, but we missed it. These are free from Homeschool Creations.
Then we made all kinds of things with the knobless cylinders. You can see our spring creations here.
Of course we also built towers.
This puzzle is from 3 Dinosaurs. I used it as another way to introduce counting to 100 by tens. I plan to introduce the 100 board this week and I wanted to work on this concept a little bit before I brought out the board.
And on April Fool's, we did a lot of silly things including using our magnet faces book to make silly monsters.
We joined the big kids in tracing our bodies for our human body lessons next week (but I forgot to take pictures of the girl's tracings). Lots of human body fun coming up!
I've been a little quiet, I know. We've actually been doing school, we've just been very busy and I've had to choose between school planning and school blogging. Obviously, you can see what I chose :). Over that time we did a colors theme and a construction theme. Maybe at some point I will get a chance to blog about them, but I am not going to try and catch up right now. Our theme this week was.....you guessed it-SPRING. I'm creative like that. It doesn't completely look like spring outside, but the calendar says that's what it is, so we will go with it.
Books about Spring
There are tons of great spring themed books. I chose spring is Here from our local library (link below). It is really cute! Planting a Rainbow is one that we own, so it was an easy choice.
Spring themed activities
After we read Planting a Rainbow, we checked out some seeds.
Explorer used them to build towers.
My mom found us these cool butterfly picks years ago and we finally got to use them!
Roll and graph flowers free from 3 Dinosaurs. Mini Cooper LOVES graphing right now.
We looked at sunflowers and discussed their parts. *Please excuse sideways photo!! I have photo editing software, it has been edited, but for some reason once uploaded is at an angle :(. * These are a freebie from Just Montessori.
The girls each ordered the life cycle of a sunflower. This is a freebie from Making Learning Fun.
I pulled out our homemade playdough and some wooden spring flowers and butterflies that I have. I also have a fence. The girls spent about an hour or so on more then one day creating their spring creations.
Learning Toys with a Spring Theme
I picked up this Lauri Horses and Ponies pack at a thrift store for $1.00. It has been a HUGE hit. Everyone wants to play with it. Well worth my $1.00.
I also FINALLY purchased this Guidecraft flower match game. Used my Zulily credits and only paid 94 cents (including shipping). Let me tell you, I love this game!! The girls do, too.
We also dressed the bear. But first, Explorer chose to sort all the pieces. (I guess this isn't necessarily spring).
Practical Life
I put out a new hair brushing station this week. Yes, most people would just use their bathrooms, but our house doesn't have low mirrors in the bathroom (I need to work on that!). Mini Cooper spent a TON of time here. She even went and got the entire hair bow basket and tried on all the bows. She is used to me doing her hair, but maybe it's time to start letting her do it. She really enjoyed this. Explorer, on the other hand, wasn't interested at all.
And, that's the stuff I caught on camera. Next week we will be learning a bit about the human body. I hope I can stay on track and share it with you.
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 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.
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.
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.
