Tot School – Letter E

John loved E week!  I think it really resonated because D week was Duck week, so E for Eggs really made sense!

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However, the eggs we studied were the edible variety, but John didn’t seem to notice the difference : ) Here is our little duck laying eggs:

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. An alphabet lower case – upper case puzzle.  He didn’t really love this one, and actually, neither did I; it was poorly made, in that, not even the colors were lined up, so there were no “hints” on where the uppercase letters should go. A Dressing Joey – another Melissa & Doug game. I printed these road letters from Making Learning Fun onto black construction paper.  My original intention was to make road letters, but the yellow didn’t really show up at all, so instead, I cut them out and laminated them to colorful construction paper.  We played a bean bag game.  Him (or I) tossed the bean bag onto the letter and he had to name the letter.  He loved this! John loves putting pom pom magnets onto laminated letter sheets and looooved these football ones in honor of Superbowl Sunday.  He ran around the house “like a football player” with them in his hands. I found this great math manipulative sheet at Confessions of A Homeschooler.  John did not understand this two months ago, but this time, he did it all by himself! And the hit of the week: his own mailbox!  I found this (flimsy) mailbox at Michael’s and filled it with envelopes stuffed with pictures of his family and with all the letters he knows (A, B, C, D, E) — these are from Homeschool Creations, (printed down-sized).  He loved this and kept putting the flag up and down.

Bible verse of the week:

The Word of the Lord endures forever.  1 Peter 1:25

As I sit and write the verse of the week, I am impressed with myself (ha) that I am learning Scripture so easily!  Get these cds! 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: Ee

Our curriculum consists of 1plus1plus1equals1‘s Tot School ABC’s.  We don’t do everything that she includes in her packs, but we do most. We put up our bible verse, a Ee small poster from Tot School, a left over Ee sign from my Kindergarten teaching days, and these wonderful Montessori sandpaper letters.  Can you believe they are only $13 from Amazon for upper and lowercase!?  I was so excited to find these, they are very sturdy cardboard and I think they will last a long time!  We put them up on the wall as well so he could feel the letter every morning and whenever he wanted to! Do-A-Dot markers on his E is for Eggs pages.  He only wanted to use blue this week : ) Here we are coloring with regular markers and using dry erase markers on heavy duty sheet protectors —  coloring his E is for Excavator page.  Just with Crayola markers. We put his work on the clothesline above his bed, between two windows!

Book of the week:

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss!

We read the 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. Homeschool Creations and Homeschool Share have many printable resources for the Five in a Row series.  Other wonderful moms have provided literature-based printables on their sites too.  I am taking full advantage.

1. We read Green Eggs and Ham and John loved it.
2. Story Lesson of the week: Try all your food; you just might like it!  This was an AWESOME lesson and John even tried our homemade chicken soup last night “because the cat did in Sam I Am!”
3. We ate green eggs :)
4. There are so many wonderful ideas at obSEUSSed.  I especially love the rhyming props: box, fox, mouse, house, train, rain, etc.  I will be using these when John is older! More printables can be found from A to Z Teacher Stuff.

Sensory Bin!

We included a base of green rice, the book, some home-made green eggs (white felt with hot-glued on green felted yolks), and all the pieces from Tot School’s vocabulary: pans, whisk, rolling pin, bowls, plates, silverware; basically all the kitchen items that are needed to cook and eat eggs!

He can’t believe I’m letting him play with green rice!

May is joining in on the fun.  John is cooking her some green eggs.

Mini book of the week:

Our mini book this week was a cute breakfast book from TeachersPayTeachers.  It cost $1, but I was desperate to find a little egg or breakfast book!

Our Ee collection on our refrigerator.  (We use a lot of Melissa & Doug magnetic letters and his Leapfrog Magnetic letters — I found this at a garage sale, but I would have paid full price!) We played with his playdough mat with his gluten-free play dough on 1plus1plus1equals1′s awesome Animal ABC Playdough Mats!  Here are his duck and a nest full of eggs.  And two lawnmowers with little Lego people : ) We have also enjoyed going to a weekly toddler music class. John also loooooves this Laurie Berkner dvd.  He got this little guitar (not on Amazon) for Christmas and won’t stop playing it!  Dad gets out his guitar (every. night.) now, but we are so excited about his love of music (since his mama and dad are musicsians too!)  Next week I’m going to make a music bin for him with some hand made items, inspired by his music class.

We scrubbed potatoes this week with a little pitcher, a sponge, and a basin of water.

And we learned how to fold washcloths!  He was so proud of himself!

And making hashbrown casserole with mom.

And putting silverware away in the drawer.

May is such a sweetheart.  As long as she is in her wrap or reading books close to her brother, she is an incredibly happy and content baby! 

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