Preschool with Might Math Power

Weeks of May 23 – 30th

Verse: God is truthful. John 3:33

Theme: Garden

We have wrapped up our school for this year. We may do a few activities here and there, but time is coming short to when JP will be deploying…and between then and now we have quite a bit of company coming into town. But here is what we did the last couple weeks of May.

Theme

We finished up a few activities of our garden theme from here. Along with our garden theme we read the books “Flower Garden” by Eve Bunting and “Jack’s Garden” by Henry Cole.

The idea for this flower craft came from here.

I got the idea for having Olivia grow her own grass from here. She had a lot of fun gathering the rocks, putting in the dirt, and spreading the seed, but it was very difficult to get her to water it every day…it grew anyways and she got to even trim it down (probably her favorite part). Then about a week later we visited Aunt Lyn and Uncle Glen where she got to dig up worms to put into her newly grown grass…that was actually her favorite part!

  

Reading

We did a few printables from You Can Read…

…and then Olivia took some time to read to Isaiah.

Math 

Building “stairs” on her Abacus. This activity goes along with our RightStart Mathematics curricuulum.

Dot-to-Dot to 100. I have to admit this is a task better for me to step away from. I never realized how much of a perfectionist I can be, but it’s really difficult for me to watch while her pen curly-ques around looking for the next number (o:

 

We talked a lot about quadrilaterals, rectangles, squares, and even perpendicular and parallel with our RightStart Mathematics. I was really impressed that a 5 year old could keep up no problem with the big math words…but, I think I am going to incorporate lots of review games over the summer so we don’t have to start all over again the Fall.

I pulled out a shapes/pattern activity from our McRuffy curriculum. We’re not consistently using this one, but every once in a while she seems to need something a little different.

We have also started reading some Living Math books. She loves to read, so this was a perfect way to reinforce some of the math ideas we have been working on. I have been getting ideas from here. This week we read about patterns in “What’s Next, Nina?” by Sue Kassirer and about time in “It’s About Time, Max!” by Kitty Richards.

Other 

Learning to tie her shoes…oh what agony it was for her…she would fall over and pretend like she couldn’t get up, she would complain that she just couldn’t do it, she would ask me to just do it for her…but when she finally got around to trying it she got all the way to the final step by herself!!!

Puzzle time…the kids love puzzles…

Olivia loves, loves dinosaurs, and I have a great science unit about dinosaurs planned for the Fall. But during one of her computer game times she came across the craft for a diorama. Of course it was Nick Jr. from the show Dino Dan. Once I printed it out she went to town coloring, cutting, and pasting. I was so proud of her! I tried to find the link to the craft, but I think she had to play one of the Dino Dan games…not sure which one…and then this was the “reward” at the end.

 

Tiny Tot

One night…really, really late when Isaiah was not tired…he “lined” up all his Noah’s Ark animals. It had JP and I almost rolling on the floor laughing it was so cute. He would very gently and very carefully place an animal and then break out into dance laughing…over and over again for each animal.

Isaiah is in a stacking phase. Here I caught him after he had snatched some yogurt containers from the grocery bags while I was unloading. He spent probably 10 minutes stacking these yogurt cups in various locations around the apartment until I decided it was time to get them refrigerated. His other favorite thing to stack is the coffee creamers at IHop during our weekly family outing there (where Olivia always gets the Silly Face pancake…you know, the  chocolate chip pancakes that are more like dessert). But he will try and stack everything!

Isaiah also loves putting things into containers and taking them out. So one day I gave him matching bowls (okay…the red, yellow, and blue ones are half of giant plastic Easter eggs) and counting bears. He didn’t get the matching part, but it kept him busy moving the counting bears from bowl to bowl.

 

Isaiah has suddenly taken a great interest in feeding himself…and surprised me with how great he is at it already.

Preschool with Mighty Math Power

Week of May 16

Verse: All that He made was good. Genesis 1:31

Theme: Garden

Sight Words: I, can, me, you

This past week was a little bit of a light week as far as school went, and I don’t have many pictures. We had kept so busy over the week-end before that by the time Monday rolled around I was just plain, old tired.

Monday morning I did take the kids to a fabulous play area on Post. It’s basically 1 big room divided into different preschool centers, another big room for gross motor skills, and a room with tables for snacks. The best part is that it is all free!!! We spent the majority of our time in the “Kitchen/Household Center", “Blocks Center” where the toy dinosaurs are located, and then in the gross motor skills room. Olivia learned how to walk on stilts…you know, the ones with string attached to a “can” that they step on. She had a ball figuring it out and did better than I expected. Isaiah just had a great time throwing the balls around…his 2nd favorite activity (his 1st favorite is running).

Bible

We continued with her Awana Cubbie book. It was all about creation, which was perfect because at church this week they talked about Creation…and plants in particular. Which was perfect because we started a gardening theme this week.

We also started “God’s Little Princess Devotional Bible.” We aren’t working on a Princess theme in particular anymore, but I do love teaching Olivia how valuable she is to us and to God through a Princess theme.

Reading

Coloring her sight words by number. This is also a fine motor skill so necessary for writing…so, this is really a pre-writing skill too. She is really improving a ton in this area.

 

Spelling our sight words from You Can Read. She intentionally placed the letters on their side…I’m not sure if it was out of boredom or just part of her creativity. She has a strong tendency to want to “spice” things up a bit. I think it has a lot to do with her desire to be in control of things too.

This was a fun activity…building sentences with the sight words and other words she knows.

 

Sequencing the growth of a seed. This went along with our garden theme. We didn’t do a whole lot this week with our garden theme…but I have some really fun activities planned for next week, and we may even carry it over to one last week before summer.

Writing

She worked on several pre-writing skills this week. This was a dot to dot from You Can Read, and she also did the line tracing activity.

I have pulled away quite a bit from actual letter writing. I’ve noticed she gets in a hurry when she is doing any sort of writing, and I wanted to bring her back down a step to help her focus on taking her time and accuracy. She will also get a lot of her letter writing this Fall in Cottage School, so I don’t want her to advance too far to help prevent boredom this Fall. She can write quite a few letters already anyways.

Math

We continued working with Rightstart Mathematics this week, and I’m really starting to love it. I have to admit it has taken me a little while, but I love the way it builds on skills with each lesson. I have really seen evidence of Olivia grasping the skills she is learning even outside of our “school” time. I’m looking ahead a little bit, and instead of doing 1 full lesson a day I think we are going to have to start doing one full lesson over 2 days (which is what they actually recommend).

Other

This was an Origami Ladybug craft I printed off of Nick Jr. We also tried the star and the fish…but I hate to admit I couldn’t figure it out. I blame the instructions (o;

Even though these aren’t all the activities we did, it’s a good snapshot of our light week of school.

Preschool with Mighty Math Power

Week of May 9

Bible

“Paul preached the Word of the Lord.” Acts 15:35

Olivia continued with her 3rd, but final, week of Awana. It was a “Special Day” where we got to talk about missions. We talked about the Apostle Paul and then I told her about some friends of ours who were missionaries overseas. I’m really sad we got into Awana so late in the year…she didn’t even get the chance to earn a patch for her vest, which disappointed her a little. But she did get a gold ribbon of achievement at the final awards ceremony, and she was pretty excited about that. We’ll work toward completing the book over the summer.

Reading

Spelling her sight words: the, and, a, and see; and Color by number. These from the You Can Read Set 1 pack.

This is the best job she has ever done coloring! I was so impressed! She typically scribbles far more and with far less attention to detail.

Writing

Pre-writing skills also from the You Can Read pack. Again I was impressed with her attention on this activity. I only had to remind her once to slow down, which she did, and then she really tried hard to stay on the lines. This was a first!

Math

These are pattern snowflakes from Nick Jr. It is based on the show Team Umizoomi. It was a great challenge for her, and I had to help out quite a bit. Once the paper was folded it was quite thick to cut, especially with safety scissors…but she did great giving it a good solid effort.

We used Rightstart math all week, and we both got introduced to the Abacus, which is a staple of the program. I like how it is moving forward in a logical sequence with each day building upon the previous days. It has been a little bit of a challenge just because she is supposed to see “groups” without counting. I do really like the program, but I felt like she was getting bored. I think if we stick with it we might have to implement a “game” day where we step away from it…or it could just be at this point it’s just too easy. We are moving at a quick pace and should finish the first book this summer.

I was surprised at how well Olivia enjoyed this sorting activity. She had to sort the strips of paper by size. She decided to use her arm to measure the length to determine which order they should go in.

PE

Our “gym” time has consisted of our almost daily jaunts across the street to the park, as well as walking to McDonald’s one day for a smoothie and another day for lunch (maybe close to a mile round trip…though I am planning some sneaky detours to make it a little longer). Fortunately the weather here is pretty cool…once it reaches about 75 and sunny Olivia starts to melt. And we even pulled her bike out for her best bike practice ever thanks to sidewalks that are level!!! In KY we didn’t have sidewalks and the most level spot was on the busiest road, so it was never very easy.

From inside our apartment looking across the street to the park…

…from outside our apartment looking across the street to the park…

…from the park looking back at our apartment (lower right corner)…

…the playground (Olivia was a little disappointed there aren’t any swings)…

Playing Rapunzel with her new Rapunzel doll she bought out of her hard earned allowance. And yes, she asked me to “climb” up Rapunzel’s hair to get to the top of the tower…and yes, I did.

Other

We baked yummy apple pie…I can’t remember now what the inspiration was behind it…oh, I know, from an episode of Max & Ruby where Ruby and her friend sing a little rhyme about baking apple pie…

First time I ever let her use a knife, and she handled it like an expert. I would like to say she chopped all the apples, but we would probably still be chopping (o: She did great with the few I gave her.

Stirring it all together…

….and pouring it into the crust…and voila a very yummy apple pie.

This was another first this week…her first 48 piece puzzle. I helped her get about 2/3 of the way through and then she was able to complete it by herself…she’s always loved puzzles.

And what’s up with that tail? Not exactly sure other than that one morning she woke up asking for a monkey tail with flowers on it…so I glued two pieces of paper together, grabbed some crayons, and she wore it proudly. Not really a “school” moment, but definitely a “cute” moment.

I think of all our activities this week this was probably the best. We were still doing our princess theme and this was just a felt board I had picked up at Michael’s. The first time, I told her a story and she had to place the pieces on the board. then she got to tell the story while I placed the pieces on it. Then she just sat and played for a while whispering stories to herself. She loves made-up stories, so this activity was perfect!

Some other fun things we did was have a picnic of cheese, crackers, and apple pie at the park; did school one day at one of the local Children’s Museum (she played gardener where she grew the plants and then sold them to the store); and took a couple of walks to the library. It's so great living in this small community that is totally setup for walking!!! And with the library being about a 15 minute walk away, it's great exercise and since we brought only a few books with us we now have a fully established at home library to choose from for our reading times.

Tiny Tot

Oh, I just love those sweet baby feet!!!

I have to admit, it took all my self control to not just “push” him on over.

We had a very silly Tiny Tot on our hands this week, rolling all over the place, throwing everything in the air, and trying to do somersaults.

So, I didn’t capture every single activity we did, but this is a glimpse into our fun week.

And just so no one thinks that everything goes completely smooth with a perfectly behaved child, I'll give a small glimpse into some of our challenges this week: refusing to do some activities, getting easily distracted, and wanting to run the show. This week I worked very hard on emphasizing that she follows my lead (and I try to build in activities that she gets to "run"); that once an activity is started it must be completed; and that while some activities can be refused, the math curriculum at this point cannot.