Tot School – Letter F
During F week, we focused on F is for Foot, Front End Loader, Feather, Fish, and Frogs. Lots of F things : )
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This schedule keeps things ordered. I’ve type-written in what I want to do as far as language, and I make sure that I also fit in at least an additional sensory and practical life activity per week. I use Homeschool Creations’ great Preschool Schedule.
Every week, I put out six tot trays out for the week and I try to be intentional with activities that correlate with each of the four Montessori learning categories: Language, Sensory, Mathematics, Practical Life. Our Tot Trays are out on our shelf all week. John can play with them at any time, but sometimes I’ll take one out intentionally for us to play together.
John had a blast with this piece of styrofoam (I am beginning to save everything — there are so many uses for simple throw-away objects!) I hot-glue-gunned (that is a technical term) together two sets of laminated body part vocabulary from 1+1+1=1’s Tot School ABCs from the Letter F. And I put a toothpick in the middle, so he could poke holes in the styrofoam. He loved this.
Here is a magnet board with a review of the Letters A B C D E F. I got this out when we watched LeapFrog Letter Factory for the first time. He loved it!
I printed this snowman puzzle from 2TeachingMommies. He had a difficult time with this one, but I helped him a bit and he got the jist of where the strips were supposed to go.
A pink sensory bowl. We put a cloth on the top and guess what we are touching!
Our Lauri Pegs letter F.
And a fish sort from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Bible verse of the week:
A friend loves at all times. Proverbs 17:17
We use the ABC bible verse songs from Songs for Saplings. These songs are so catchy, beautiful, not “children’s music annoying,” and I find myself singing and learning and memorizing the bible verses along with John. Carisa at 1plus1plus1equals1 has made coordinating ABC Bible Verses posters which have really helped with his memorization as well.
Letter of the week: Ff
Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s.
We put up our bible verse, a Ff small poster from Tot School, a Ff sign from my Kindergarten teaching days, and these wonderful Montessori sandpaper letters. We put these up on the wall so he could feel the letter every morning and trace his fingers on the Ff. His little Mr. Potato Head feet are in his school bin.
Do-A-Dot markers on his F for Foot pages. He loved blue again this week : )
And making F’s with the Do-A-Dots.
Here we are coloring with some fun crayons called Twistables. John looooves these right now, and only wants to use blue! He loved coloring his F is for Front Loader pages.
Stamping Fs on the foot.
Here we are using dry erase markers on heavy duty sheet protectors. We have thesethin tipped dry erase markers. We are practicing colored feet!
F is for Firetruck magnet pages from Making Learning Fun with our pom pom magnets.
We put his work on the clothesline above his bed, between two windows!
Book of the week:
The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss!
We read our book of the week at least once a day. The Five in a Row curriculum‘s premise is that you should read the same children’s book to your child for five days in a row, all week. We have Before Five in a Row, and are reading through some of the books in there and also picking books according to our season, theme, or interest. The Foot Book is not in the curriculum, but it was perfect for our F is for Foot theme! (Homeschool Creations and Homeschool Share have many printable resources for the Five in a Row series.) We read Green Eggs and Ham and John loved it.
We read this every day, did our styrofoam body parts, and made our fun family feet!
John loved tracing his feet and his baby sister’s too; he insisted that we trace “cow’s” feet (his inseparable companion):
We measured and discovered that Daddy’s feet are biggest and May’s are the smallest!
Mini book of the week:
Our mini book is an adorable FOOTball book from Cassie at 3dinosaurs. We printed a lot of her Tot Football Pack, which John enjoyed last week for the Superbowl and this week for Foot week!
We traced all of our feet and John had to put them in order from smallest to largest. This was such a fun family activity for the letter F!
We played with his playdough mat with his gluten-free play dough on 1plus1plus1equals1′s awesome Animal ABC Playdough Mats!
John’s alphabet abacus. I was so proud of him, singing his ABCs and pointing to the correct letters!
Our Ff collection on our refrigerator.
Peeling foam stickers and putting them onto foam paper. He loved this; he kept asking for help, but I made him do it!
Spicing. (With two empty spice jars, a tray, and some other tools — I put oregano and salt in his spice jars.)
Putting measuring spoons in order.
Opening the butter package.
I found this cute and simple snowman craft at Confessions of a Homeschooler. He loved it!
We also made a cute hand-fish in a fish tank from Arts and Crafts for 2s from Abeka.
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I really need to start writing a schedule out too! I find myself forgetting activities I have planned. This looks like a really fun week! I particularly like the spicing activity, do you just use cheap spices? Or reuse them multiple times? I feel like that could get kind of expensive?
Nicole, I just used salt and some oregano from a huge bottle I’ve had for years! He didn’t sneeze, so those seemed to be good ones. I kept refilling them during the activity, so we didn’t use a ton, but a lot ended on the floor, so it’s not a clean activity. :)
I love the clothesline for the art projects! Standing on the feet was so cute!
These are all such wonderful activities. How do you find time to do all of them? :)
I have never seen spice work before. It looks like a lot of fun. Your fish is so cute. I will be sharing this post on the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page and Pinterest board.
John had so much fun with the spice! I just used stuff that I’ve had in my cupboard for years :)
Wow you all did so many great activities. So well organized and prepared…looks fun. I love that he slept with the front loader pictures. Sounds like something my son would totally do, too.
This is an Amazing collection of themed activities!! I LOVE it! I’m stopping by from the TGIF linky party. I wanted to invite you to share with us in our Share It Saturday link up. http://www.sugaraunts.com/2013/02/share-it-saturday-7-and-our-week-in.html
There are so many creative bloggers who are linking up each week and you would fit right in! We also have a Share It Saturday Pinterest page and are inviting all contributors to collaborate on this group board. Such a great way to reach out to new readers!! Hope to see you there!
Colleen at Sugar Aunts
Soooo many great ideas! Thanks for sharing your post with us at Eco-Kids Tuesday. Hope to see you back today! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2013/02/melt-my-heart-eco-kids-tuesday.html
Wow, what a fun unit! Love the toothpick/Styrofoam idea. Thanks for linking up at TGIF! Hope to see you linked up again tomorrow =)
Beth
I sat my son in my lap to see your blog and he loves the pic of your son w/the leaf in his mouth! ;-) Thanks for linking up at Family Fun Friday at Happy and Blessed Home!
http://happyandblessedhome.com/category/family-fun/
In His Grip,
Monica
http://happyandblessedhome.com