Letter I

Come with us and we will show you what there is in a peoples house.....

I love Dr Seuss books.This week we have been studying the letter I,the number 8 and the shape for the month is the heart.We read In a peoples house.


I am trying to introduce my toddler to more words and thought that this would be a good book to start with.He can start identifying words with pictures.I asked the kids what was in the living  room.We started writing things down and then we labeled things in the room.I would tell them the word and they would put it there.For example chair


Next we practiced writing the letter I.Ro used his salt tray which I added sprinkles to for color.
 
It looks like ice.


Then we did a little experiment to see if Epson salt and the sprinkles would dissolve in water.They made their guess and my little guy stirred it up to move the process along.It did dissolve and the water turned pink.I don't know if these pictures are the best to portray our little experiment.
BEFORE


AFTER

So you see there are people too,
 in a peoples house making experiments and growing too!

Review letters E,I and G, and the color red

At the end of the month I like to do a review. This month we were working on letters E,I and G. We practiced our sounds A-I. My daughter is having problems with some of the sounds so we will keep practicing. There really is no rush.

Circle time and toddler time.We sang the welcome song we do every time. If I find it online I will let you know.Head shoulders knees and toes and other fun songs. Talk about the weather and log it in her book. Went to her desk and practiced writing the letter E from top to bottom or what most teachers call the school way. My daughter wanted to draw a butterfly so she did. We also talked about the days of the week.

Math-I gave the kids a plate. We talked about its color,red. It is a circle.Then I had them pick the fruit and food from the hungry caterpillar week. They picked 5.Then I asked them how many were red. I had to help my toddler count.Picture is above.We also took a muffin tin and put a number 1-5 in each tin. We made our first brown bag popcorn.It worked and is so much cheaper! They put the number of popcorn in the corresponding tin of the same number

I might start to add behavior goals or manners to the mix. Today we did sharing. My toddlers favorite words are "mine" and "no". We practiced holding the doll and giving it kisses or hugs. I laid on the praise! We will be practicing that for sure more often!

10:00am-Snack and outside time

10:30-11:30-I did something different. I noticed that teachers do centers but as I do not have that much space I just broke up my room into 4 sections. The kids could stay in their center for 15 minutes and then switch. My daughter didn't want to switch but stay in the art center so tomorrow she promised she would try switching so we will see. The 4 centers we had were art center, reading, dress up and puzzles.

11:30am-lunch and outside time.Often times we will go outside for a picnic. Today we did sand play the kids kept making me things to eat. Soon to come is a water table I hope!

 

12-2 Naps and books and my TV time. It is usually cut short by the kids wanting to watch their shows.

 2-snacks and outside play.Then we pick up my first grader.

4-study time.I have already witnessed too many moms with kids who swear they have no homework so I call it study time and depending on the age is how long of a time it is. If your teenagers pull that and you don't know what to teach have them just sit at the table.Maybe their homework will magically appear! For my Pre-K I did a flip book that I got from the school that they want us to do everyday. It has a parent side and a kids side. In this one she had to point to colors as they were mentioned in a story.

This is the schedule that I am sticking with for now. Hope you enjoy my page!

Letter I continued and number 5 introduced.

 

Day 2 of our Caterpillar and butterfly theme. This a picture that didn't turn out so well  but it is suposed to be a caterpillar eating a leaf.I told the kids that they start out very tiny ans they eat and eat and eat. My daughter said like our baby? Yes just like our baby so he can grow and get bigger. For circle time we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.The kids loved putting their fingers in the holes and my preschooler daughter knew the story after one time of reading it. Of course we reviewed letter sounds A-I and introduced the #5.How many fingers do you have? How many toes? 5

 Next we took each item that the caterpillar ate and we made 1 apple, 2 pears and 3 plums and so on. I cut a hole in them to put a caterpillar through.To make the caterpillar we took one I found on clip art and glued it to a Popsicle stick. The caterpillar is on my daughters nose.   

For toddler time we talked about the fruits and the colors and we counted each type as we stuck the caterpillar through the food shown on the picture on the right. Down below is our color match with 5 caterpillars and 5 butterflies.He had to match the colors up for example, yellow caterpillar to yellow butterfly.

I wanted to say a little bit about toddler time. They absorb so much at this age. They are like little sponges.It is important to have a structured routine that they can depend on and to have a lot of repetition. If they want to stop an activity stop and do something else.If they want to join in an activity that you are teaching let them.They do need a lot of supervision though. It is important to go at their own pace. At this age they are little scientists they throw things to see what will happen, they touch everything. They like to pull and push things. Get down with them and observe what they do. We are a musical family so their is a lot of music and silly dancing.Other favorites are finger plays.Many of them you can find on line. I also teach them sign language.Since they don't talk for a while it is nice when they can sign milk and you know exactly what they want. My daughter on the bottom picture is signing red. We found red things around the room.

A-Z learn with me! Letter I lesson and Butterfly theme

Circle time-1.look at weather  and record in weather log, 2.Review letter sounds A-I. Introduce the letter I and its sound. Here is our letter I box all I could find was ice cream.Reading-Becoming butterflies by Anne Rockwell. The book is about a class that watches a caterpillar changes into a butterfly.

Dance on the caterpillar. For this activity you need construction paper,scissors and a pen. Cut out 27 circles. Write alphabet letter on  each circle. Mix them up and have them arrange them in alphabetical order. Toddler time- have them tell you he colors of circles. Sing ABC and Itsy Bitsy spider.That is a picture of my little guy singing Itsy Bitsy Spider.

 

The skills they will be learning is recognizing shapes and colors. It is important to expose them to music and lots of dancing. After they have done that leave only a few circles and play music.Have them dance on circles and when the music stops.Freeze!