8 ways to play with the letter R

1.Row Row Row your boat.We tried to rhyme with boat and talked about the "oat" family.Then I asked what does the boat look like?What color is it? Who was inside? Where is it going? A great story took shape! My daughter said it was going to the other side of the lake.It is a great way to spell and practice writing.

When we got their we got chocolate ice cream.Then we went home.

My toddler glued scraps to make his boat.He said the boat was going to jail.

2.We went outside to look for rocks.It is finally starting to feel like Spring.

3.Will it float or sink?Will a rock sink or float?
After that experiment take 2 sheets of aluminum foil and 2 pennies.1.Put one penny in aluminum and crumple into a ball.

2.Lay other penny flat on sheet of aluminum.

Good vocabulary for older kids like aluminium, and displacement.The balled up foil with the penny sank.The flat sheet floated.
Find the lesson plan here

4.We made boats out of foil and people to go in it and their imaginations from there!

5.We counted rings.

6.We counted how many pennies it took to sink the boat.7.We also played Simon says with R words like Run,roll,rub,reach,rake and rowing your boat of course.I got the idea from http://www.dltk-teach.com

8.My daughter also wanted to play red light green light

Letter of the week R-Rocks

We introduced the letter R and sound.My Toddler recognized it.Awesome! For Kindergartner we practiced writing R.For older kids you can have them write a story using words beginning in R or write a report on animals with R like raccoon, and rat.The kids put pillows down and jumped on them like they were rocks.

I lined up rocks and hid an R under the rocks and the kids tried to guess which one it was under.

We did a variation for the baby where we hid a rock under plastic eggs.He is still little for it but both of these games are good for fine motor skills.

Nursery Rhyme: Row row row your boat

For a fun activity sit the baby in front of you.As you sing hold the babies hand And rock them gently.Pay attention to their head and make sure its safe.For the older kids have them sit with their legs apart and hold each others hands and rock forward and back.

My daughter wanted the baby to feel the rock.It is important to teach them textures.The rock is smooth.

We did a sensory bin with rocks and water.I added cups and toothbrush.They had fun brushing the rocks.

For our craft we made a craft we found @http://www.dltk-teach.com Hi my name is rectangle and I am no square.

Join us tomorrow for more activities with the letter R.

Tree lesson

After we talked about the water cycle we talked about the trees sucking up the water.Trees use the water and provide oxygen and homes for animals.We talked about trees and how they have different leaves and bark.We picked a tree and did a rubbing of the bark.

The baby enjoyed feeling the bark.We talked about Utah's State tree Blue Spruce.

Here is our tree it has pine cones meaning it is Coniferous.  

Here is new pine cones budding.

We also talked about a historic tree in Provo,Ut called the Ulmus Americana.It is 83 years old and it spreads its branches sideways instead of growing up.Here is the website and picture from the website

http://www.utahcounty.gov/CountyInfo/HistoricTree.html

We added a tree to our water cycle picture.I cut out a stump from brown construction paper.The kids drew branches and then use their fingerprints to make the leaves.I thought it tied it together nicely! The kids always show the baby the pictures when they are done.Too cute!We also started our book on Utah.This is a great lesson for Arbor day.

Review of letters N,O,P and Q

It's raining its pouring letters at our house.We are reviewed letters N,O,P and Q.For my Kindergartner we practiced writing the letters.For my Toddler we practiced tracing and saying the letters and their sounds.After we sang It's Raining I asked the kids if they wanted to see it rain.We did 2 experiments.First we put a plate on a jar of water and watched as it git foggy and wet inside.We talked about the water cycle. First Evaporation. Second is Condensation.   Third is Perspiration.Last is Collection.These words are hard for youngsters but repetition is important. If you have a Second or Third Grader they can practice their vocabulary and spelling of it.The link I used to teach the water cycle and the jar experiment is http://www.kidzone.ws/water/

The next experiment you take a clear container and fill it with water. Then you put shaving cream on top.Add blue food coloring and you have rain! I got the idea from Pinterest. 

Next we took white paper and my Kindergartner practiced cutting and we glued a blue strip to be the sky and one to be a river.Then they glued clouds on.I showed them how they could stretch the cotton.They drew rain and we talked about those big water cycle words again.We will be doing more with this picture tomorrow.

We let the baby who is almost three months now fee the cotton balls.

The Nursery Rhyme this week is Pat-a cake.After some time outside we sang Pat-a-cake.We rolled the babies arms and patted the pretend cake and I drew his first initial on his belly.The other two wanted to teach the baby.We also did their names too!

Here we are with play d'oh.We rolled it and patted it.We wrote their initials....

We even made the letters we are reviewing this week.

Next we put it in our magic oven

Happy National Pretzel Day fun

We just did a simple activity.I got the idea and story from http://www.hummingbirded.com/nutrition.html
This activity had a cute Story about Oscar the Grouch and how he likes garbage.Get a big bowl and paper bags.Label the bags Stones and put peanuts in that bag.Next,Toad eyes and fill bag with cheerios.For worm pieces they suggest raisins but I used chow mien noodles.They really look like worms.We put pretzels in the bag to be marked dried bones.Of course the pretzels are the star.For the last bag label it Monster noses and put m&m's inside.As you read the story add the trash.Its fun and you can talk about Nutrition.

letter Q-Queen of hearts

Happy pigs in a blanket day! That is one day's dinner this week that for sure is planned out!

Now onto our lesson.Lets imagine we are the Queen of hearts.Everything would be red or pink.Our dress would be shaped like a heart.Our food would be too and maybe even our bed.How does a Queen act?Let's look at some Queens in the past.Is that what you thought a Queen did?Kids think that the life of a Queen is easy and you have dances and wear fancy things.But being a Queen is like a full time job.

We played barbies and pretended to have subjects.I just found a website that made crowns and wands.I am thinking that would be a good activity for tomorrow!I will have pictures from today's activities,tomorrow,too I hope!

We decorated hearts and counted them!My toddler recognizes hearts now!

We talked about ways to show love and that to hear and really take something in you have to hear with your heart.If you notice in the middle of the word heart is "ear" We also talked about things that we love.My daughter loves pink and to dress up.My little tot loves cars and peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches.I love to write and yoga.

We also enjoyed some time at the park.The park is a great place for Mommy and Daddy dates!

The park is a sneak peak of what is to come tomorrow for Take back your Turf Thursday.

Earth day activities

So yesterday I didn't do meditation Monday because I was sick.I had a lot of sinus pressure and since I am nursing I can't take anything so I tried pressure points that I found on this website my sinuses drained and I slept great.I don't know if it was coincidence or not but I thought I would share.

We have been talking the last 2 weeks about the earth and how we can treat it better and save energy.The kids tried to be more aware of the lights and using water.We also talked about re-using things more.I gave the kids some boxes and they used them in lots of ways.They really liked putting their blankets in them and sitting in them to read books or pretend it was a cradle.The box was a car and our airplane seats when we pretended to go to the North Pole.We even made a ramp on both sides of a box and put a jar with baking soda and vinegar to be a volcano.The cars had to jump over the volcano but many fell in.

We also introduced the letter of the week Q.Q for quiet vs loud.Reading books or watching a movie is quiet.Yelling and running through the house is loud and hurts Mom's head, especially with a sinus headache!

I found this great yoga sequence for earth day here
You will have to download it.We blossomed like flowers.They started out as seeds in child's pose.They wanted to join the baby for tummy time.

Then they sat on their knees and opened their arms like petals.The baby sat on my lap and I stretched his arms up too.He also joined us for being bicycles.There is my daughter moving his legs.

We learned a new song.I sat with the baby and we sang He's got the whole world in his hands,while I held his hands in mine.Then we we said he has the whole family in his hand.You could say Mom,Dad, and siblings.We will repeat this song for the rest of the week.I also taught them the sign for world.I got this idea but I can't find where fromhttp://www.teachpreschool.org

 

Letter P-We made it to the North Pole

We are finally here!It is cold and nothing but ice.We get lost easily without our gps.The ice is constantly moving.It is bright because the sun doesn't set.There is a good explanation about the sun and the earth and its rotation here

We took a dog sled,which was a blanket the kids sat on and I pulled them!

We stopped for a snack and a polar bear drink.

Here is our ice and tent of course the kids spent most of their time there.We also saw a Polar bear!The kids took turns hiding and finding him.They even had a shadow puppet show.That was the babies favorite part.He also has been enjoying his Nursery Rhyme Pop! Goes the weasel.When me or the kids say pop we clap or jump.Sometimes I lift him in the air!He loves the surprise!Time for these explorers to go to bed!I hope the polar bears aren't hungry.

Letter P-Pilot

We are on our way!Welcome to Rushton Air.We are on our way to Oslo,Norway.In real life this flight would be 12 in a half hours.Then you would spend the night there and fly 40 minutes to Slvbard Russia.Then there are many ways to get to the North Pole from there,but we will take a dog sled.The kids had their passports and tickets.The passport came with a credit card offer.Funny huh?My daughter designed the logo!At the end we counted plastic airplanes and sorted them by color.

We colored P for Pilots.We traced and wrote letter p's.They also colored an image seen from the plane,like clouds and mountains.I made this plane road with letter P and drive cars on it.We read books about planes.When traveling you need snacks and lots of activities.The more of these activities you can have in one book or quiet book.

We had our in flight snacks.

Ocean week day 3

Sorry there was no take back your turf.It has been a busy week and my Turf is a Tornado so I didn't get much done needless to say .We reviewed the letter O and the fish we have been talking about this week.Then we talked about Sea Urchins and where the different kinds of fish live.They made their own Sea Urchins with play-doh and toothpicks.I remember when I was younger I made mine out of Styrofoam ball and painted toothpicks.

We practiced fine motor skills and numbers with pom poms(sea urchins),tongs and an egg carton.You put the numbers inside and they count that many sea Urchins.

We also talked about star fish.They got to touch a real one!Then we made our own with a star cut from construction paper,glitter glue,and Epson salt.You put the glue on the star fish and then the salt and it feels bumpy like a real star fish!

We are finished for now with the Ocean and onto Oslo,Norway.I will also have a post about getting things done with young kids and learning the whole day.We continued to do our Little Bo peep Nursery Rhyme and will be moving on to a new one.The baby is now 2 months old and his tummy time is now on the boppy where he can really hold his head up.I was hoping to make sea creature finger puppets and I still may but I think he would really enjoy it.Not much interest in toys but very alert to sound.