Dr. Suess activities and A-J letter review

This week is Dr.Suess's birthday.We read several of his books this morning.Like a lot of blogs we are celebrating this week and we want to share what we did with our readers.We played this matching game we got for Christmas.For younger children like toddlers i only did 6 pairs so he had a better chance of remembering.We practiced putting cards in and taking them out.The kids also stacked them up and tried to build with them.We tried to figure out what character went with what book.

We read Green eggs and ham and instead of dying it green we put spinach in it and ham.My toddler tried to pick out the spinach.I said"you do not like them Son I am you do not like green eggs and ham." He ended up eating it!I am a lucky Mommy!


 
Next we did a letter Review for A-J.Every 3 months we will review what we have done so far. We reviewed Ro's name but when you ask him what his name is he always says 2.We played letter tag where I called out a letter and they had to run to it and say the sound it made.

Fine Motor:Then they had to put the foam letters in order.

Gross Motor:Then we put the foam letters in a circle and turned on some music.Then I had them freeze when the music stopped and they called out what letter they were on and what sound it made.

What they learn:
Baby lesson: 2 weeks old Nursery Rhyme:Jack and Jill.W tried it acting out wit puppets but the baby wasn't too interested.He is starting to respond more when you make sounds.He can be on is tummy longer.He can only be stimulated for short periods of time.His vision is still blurry so we continue to let him study our faces.

2 year old:Recognizing letters numbers,colors and shapes.He can draw a circle.Even though we go up to number 10 this year.My toddler only can handle #1-5.They learn the concept of in and out.He learned to brush his teeth and spit out the toothpaste!He can almost put his shirt on by himself. He can put his shoes on
 though.
5 year old-my daughter is really starting to get confident in her reading.She also knows her letter sounds.She was helping and correcting Rowen when he would be on the wrong letter She is a little perfectionist.She asks why to everything.

We also started our countdown to Spring where we took a walk to see if we see any signs of Spring.One can only hope! I a sick of the snow!!!!The only thing that we noticed on our walk was that the snow was melting yay!!!!

Review week letters A-D

Circle time we just went over the letters and the days of the week.The ABC song was also sung.
 
They played with the foam letters
 
Then we looked for circles
 
Triangles
 
Squares
We had an alphabet race where I would call out a letter and have them say the sound and they would race to it.

Then I wrote down words and had them match it up with the letters
For music and movement we played freeze tag.
For colors I had the tot pick out different color crayons and color with them.He still gets a lot of his colors mixed up.
Last was practicing counting.I wrote 1-4 on a piece of paper and he matched the number with the same number of counters.He still needs a lot of assistance with this as well.It is mostly familiarizing him with letters and numbers at this age.But it is a great review for my Kindergartner!

A is for apple--Preschool Play

Review A sound.Introduce number One.
Next is our Apple tree activity.Trace circles and color apples Red. I got this activity from http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/shapes/circles.htm

.
Five red apples finger play ”*. http://suite101.com/article/learning-about-colors-red-preschool-lesson-plan-a279150

“Five red Apples

Hanging on a tree (hold five fingers up)

The juiciest apples you ever did see!

The wind came past

And gave an angry frown (shake head and look angry)

And one little apple came tumbling down (fold one finger down)”.

Continue with four red apples until there are none. Apple finger puppets may optionally be used.

Story time:Where is the Apple Pie by Valeri Gorabachev

Guess what the snack is? Apples! Cut inside the apple and talk about what you see inside.

Awesome apple craft!dltk-kids.com




A second Story: Circle Dogs.By Kevin Henkes

Have them make play-doh circles on the dog.Don"t forget to count the circles.




I printed the play-doh mat from makinglearningfun.com

Letter A for Alligator-2 year old style

Introduce letter A and the number 1.A is for alligator.Have them make alligator snout with arms and snap them shut.
I printed out pictures that started with A. We has alligator,ant,apple,Astronaut.

Write an A and trace it with finger.
Story time:Snip Snap whats that?By Mara Bergman

5 little monkey finger play.I printed out some monkeys from PreKinders.com I am going to use these monkeys again for the number 5.

Snap that monkey right out of the tree

Mr. Alligator
Five little monkeys swinging in a tree,
Teasing Mr. Alligator, "Hey, you can't catch me."
But along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
He snapped a monkey right out of that tree!
(Next verses: 4 little monkeys, 3 little.......,2, 1...)
The last verse for 0:
No little monkeys swinging in a tree
'Cause Mr. Alligator caught them all, you see.
All alone is Mr. Alligator, quiet as can be
With only the wind blowing that tree.
(Blow like the wind)

Have them be the alligator and snap the monkeys right out of the tree.
Alligator hand print: http://theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/
Alligator puzzle from http://www.first-school.ws/activities/hometoys/aalligator.htm

Last Day of A and the Transit of Venus

A is for Address.

 

Sign for A

 Address mix up:My kids still struggle with our address. So I took a few sheets of paper and folded it 3 times. It created card like separation.I wrote each letter and number of our Address and cut out the cards and mixed it up.Then I showed them our address and had them put the cards in the right order.

 

The number of the week is 1.The kids practiced writing A's and number 1's.I had Lex count as far as she could with the blue counters.They had some impromptu fun with them when I put the Tot down for a nap.

 

1rst grade review: We talked about the ai and ay sound.If two vowels are together it makes it say it's name. I had him do a worksheet I found at tlsbook.com.

For the au and aw words I made a go fish game with different words.I am not sure how to put it in pdf form so that you all can down load it.It took me a while and it reminds him of the words.Words like astronaut,awful,pause,and we learned a new vocabulary word brawn.

We went to a fun puppet show at  the library.

 

It has been a busy day topped off with watching the transit of Venus across the sun.

I found this awesome web site that explains this on a paper plate I thought it was so clever. Here is the link :http://analyzer.depaul.edu/paperplate/Transit%20of%20Venus/transit_frequency.htm.There is only some of it here on my blog.

Paper Plate Education"Serving the Universe on a Paper Plate"

Activity: Transit Frequency

 

A rare transit of Venus occurred June 8, 2004, when Venus passed directly between the earth and the sun.  Though it seems like that phenomenon should happen frequently, transits come in pairs that are eight years apart, followed alternately by spans of 121 ½ years and 105 ½ years.  In the 21st century, the transit pair occurs June 8, 2004, and June 5-6, 2012.  This activity offers a simplified explanation of that seemingly irregular period.

The Race

Imagine that daughter Venus and her mother Earth are going to race around their house.  The young daughter, faster of the two, will run close to the house, while Mom will encircle the whole yard further out.  Mother Earth agrees to run eight laps or until daughter Venus overtakes her five times, whichever comes first.  As seen from above, they run anti-clockwise (i.e., "planetwise").

They line up just slightly forward (to the right) of the yellow front door to start the race.  This alignment is called an inferior conjunction--Venus is between the sunny door and earth.  

"On your mark...get set...GO!"

In our race, mother Earth goes around once in a minute, but daughter Venus does it in less than 37 seconds, or about 8/13ths of Mom's time.   (Planet Venus orbits the sun in 225 days; planet earth orbits the sun in 365 days.  Dividing 225 by 365 equals 8/13.)

After running only 1.6 laps (around the house once and just past the back of the house a second time), mother Earth sees daughter Venus overtake her.  At that moment, Mom has completed 1.6 laps while daughter has completed 2.6 laps.  

Mom notes her and daughter Venus' positions.

The race continues.  Each time mother Earth completes another 1.6 laps, daughter Venus catches up to and overtakes her on the inside track.  Finally, after mother Earth has completed eight laps around the house, daughter Venus catches up to Mom for the fifth time.  Conveniently, the finish line coincides with the original starting line by the yellow front door of the house.

Mom's eight laps are shown on the outside of the plate at left.  Five times (shown in five colors) she ran 1.6 trips around the house; five times daughter caught up and overtook her again.  Daughter's corresponding position at those five meetings is shown in the same color.   During mom's 8 laps, daughter sprinted 13 times around the house.  For clarity, daughter's 13 laps are not shown. 

It would seem daughter Venus passes between mother Earth and the yellow front door (ignoring the intervening house) five times in eight years.  Yet transits do not happen every 1.6 years, because two major factors interfere.  First, daughter and mother are not running on a level surface.   Second, instead of running a clean 8 thirteenths of mother Earth's speed, daughter completes one lap closer to 7.997 thirteenths of mother Earth's speed.  

On the paper plate, cut two slits just outside the Venus markings to incline the planet's orbit. 

Contributed by Chuck Bueter

Letter of the week A

Anticapating Summer

I gave the kids new journals. They absolutely loved them!

Craft: red construction paper cut into three circles, Black construction paper cut into little antennas,Scissors, and glue.

We glues our ants together.I had them fill in the blank of the following 3 sentences. This summer I will_____.I am I am most excited  about_____.I can't wait to______.My 1rst grader going into second wrote three sentences. My pre-k drew pictures. My little toddler just glued it on a piece of paper. I got this idea  @ mrswheelerfirst.blogspot.com.

Snacks:A is for Apple and ants on a log

We had our quiet time after lunch where they read for 20 minutes while the littlest one slept.

We practiced our morning routine.How we practiced was we just did it over and over.They would lay in their beds and get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, clear their bowls, brush their teeth and make their beds. Yes this Mommy has reached the end of her rope and that is when I do this little repetitive game because I hate having to nag them all day long! Who is with me?

Before I go, here are a few pictures from our little celebration of the kids finishing school.We ate at the spaghetti factory.

Ro liked to see himself chew his food in the mirror.