Letter I Week

CURRICULUM

      - Confessions of a Homeschooler: Letter of the Week and Pre-K Daily Notebook

      - 1plus1plus1equals1: Tot School Printables (Letter I)and Tot Time Notebook

MONDAY

After our Calendar Time and Daily Notebooks, we reviewed our "A" sound and "E" sound and I introduced the letter for the week: I.  I pulled out my box of items that make the short "i" sound and we reviewed them together.  I had a hard time with this one, but I was able to pull out my big foam letter I, Izzy from Jake and the Pirates, Illinois from our map puzzle, inches on a measuring tape, a picture of an iguana in our animal book, and an igloo in one of our quiet books.

We then moved up to the tables to work on our lacing card patterning.  I was finally able to start laminating things at a local teacher supply store, so we pulled out a bag of Lego bricks to create patterns together.  Unfortunately, Jackson was really struggling to focus and didn't want me to help him.  This did not surprise me at all, since our weekend schedule was completely thrown off and he doesn't handle changes to scheduling very well.  He also just seemed extra cranky today, so I let him and Alex just play with the Legos and lacing cards until it was time to move on.  Again, don't expect perfect participation with every activity.

Next I pulled out our themed coloring pages.  Jackson's theme is an inchworm, Alex's theme is an igloo.

Jackson decided to pull out his little Sesame Street "cd player" to turn on music while coloring. :)

Time to get some wiggles out! We pulled out our apple large floor number cards, but Erica also has inchworm-themed cards, as well.  We like to lay them out in a circle and then race to grab the correct card when I call out a number.  Then we jump as many times as the card reads (just to move even more).  As always, they love this game!

The boys climbed up onto our bed and snuggled in to watch our Leap Frog Letter Factory dvd (which I still have from the library).  This cute little video has definitely improved Jack's understanding of letter sounds.

When the video ended, we returned to the playroom for our ABC Find It activity.  The boys were definitely ready for snack and outside play time, at this point, but they still helped me collect all the cards and match them up to the clue card on the table. 

And that was it! I've decided that on Mondays where we don't watch a full video (like the 35-minute Letter Factory dvd), we can still incorporate our themed reading books here.  Otherwise, we will just end school after the Find It game and use our themed reading books after naptime.

Here is a list of books I found at the library for this week:

1. The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani

2. Iguanas by Megan Cooley Peterson

3. Show Me Insects: My First Picture Encyclopedia by Mari Schuh

4. Itsy Mitsy Runs Away by Elanna Allen

5. Building an Igloo by Ulli Steltzer

6. Creepy Critters: Worms by Sian Smith

7. I Spy Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold (read-along book)

*We found a new park to play at today and enjoyed the beautiful weather! Jackson, however, fell asleep immediately once we got back into the stroller to leave. I KNEW he was extra tired!*

TUESDAY

First up on our activities for the day was cutting practice.  The Letter of the Week curriculum did not have a cutting page for this week, so I decided to try an idea I saw on Pinterest, once.  I cut strips of construction paper out and used a Sharpie to make lines (straight, angled, curvy, etc...) for cutting practice.  Jack used his new scissors (the $2 preschool scissors from Target) and was not only more successful at cutting, but he was able to focus on this activity longer because he wasn't as frustrated.  I helped Alex cut some paper using some kid scissors from IKEA.

Then we pulled out the cookie sheets (I use spare ones we don't use often, but these could also be found at dollar stores or thrift stores, I'm sure) for our magnet pages.  Jackson did his inchworm magnet page, and I did Alex's winter vocabulary page with him.  And then we switched.  :)

I was so excited to finally have my new letter mats printed and laminated, so Jack and I traced the letters with his finger first before grabbing the dry-erase markers.  Alex's packet also has a similar page that I use in a page protector.

I wanted to try using these mats with playdough for letter shaping, so I pulled out our (old) homemade playdough and helped Jack roll out some long pieces to place over the letters. Alex just enjoyed smashing the dough on the table.  

Here is what we did together:

And then the boys wanted to use the playdough with cookie cutters, so I let them just play for awhile.  I also pulled out my foam letter I (that we used in the scavenger box yesterday) to try and get Alex to put playdough on it (I've seen that activity on the Totally Tots website), but he just wanted to make dough stars.  I think next week I'll let Alex use the foam letter with dough while Jack and I work on the new letter mat with dough.  

Finally, the boys grew tired of playdough and helped clean everything up.  Jackson did his 6-piece inchworm puzzle while Alex did his 3-piece igloo puzzle.

Our last table activity was patterns/sequencing.  Jackson needed no prompting on completing his inchworm patterns, so I helped Alex line up his igloos from smallest to biggest.  And then the boys switched and Jack did the igloo activity all on his own! I love when Jackson starts to grasp new concepts!

We ended the day with our Exercise ABC cards while listening to a toddler station on Pandora.  

WEDNESDAY

I try very hard to stick to our daily schedule, but I also have to remember to slow down when I'm not feeling well.  This was a bad arthritis day for me, so we got started 45 minutes later than normal and we didn't leave the house for our morning play time.   These are the days I'm grateful we have scheduled activities at home, as well as other materials and activities for the boys to do when we can't leave the house.  Hopefully by the time the harsh Utah winter comes we'll have a good supply of things to do to keep us occupied inside.

I really wanted to get some more counting practice in for Jack, so we started off with the inchworm counting activity, made into a file folder game.  Once I showed Jack what to do, he was fine working independently.  I worked with Alex on his shadow matching at the table.

Color review time!  Alex and I colored the different igloos on his color page, and then we used Lego bricks to match.

Jackson worked on his 2-piece color puzzles.  He always loves this activity, although I made them a little trickier this week. Those inchworms are so cute, but I got tired of cutting them out REALLY quick!

The boys were getting a little squirmy, but I knew they'd be okay staying at the tables if we used our "special dot markers."  Jack worked on his I do-a-dot page, and Alex worked on an igloo/hexagon dot page.

They usually spend a good amount of time coloring these pages.  Immediately following is usually a clean-up and wash-up period, sometimes resulting in the changing of dirty shirts. ;)

Instead of doing another inchworm counting activity, I found a generic clothespin counting activity to use, instead.  Jack REALLY clicked with this little game, and he finally got the hang of using the clothespins.  He did them all by himself!

 And he was so proud. :)

Alex, meanwhile, worked with me on his counting squares.  I cut them apart this week and we used our little pom-pom magnets with only a few squares at a time.  And he finally got it!  We did that 6 card together, then he did the 8 card all by himself.  Progress!

We ended the day doing our inchworm letter match with our wooden nickel letters.  After we matched the letters on the card, the boys and I spelled out their names using the letters. 

THURSDAY

Since we didn't get to the letter collage yesterday, I made that the gluing activity for this morning.  I had the letter I collage page from CoaH (Confessions of a Homeschooler), but I wanted it to have the upper and lower lines and I was having a hard time deciding what to glue on it.  Then I found some iguanas as part of the Animal ABC's on 1plus1plus1equals1. We used those iguanas to complete our collage, and even were able to make the more recognizable upper-case I.

Then I introduced a new activity: q-tip painting!  Usually we would do the poke page, here, but I was looking for something else to do to work on fine motor skills.  I discovered these q-tip painting ABC pages and was super excited!  We talked about being careful with the paint, and using a lighter grip on the end of the q-tip, and then the boys got to work.  They had fun and we will definitely start using these pages more often.

Then it was lacing and beading time....*sigh*  I'm sure some kids love lacing, but mine absolutely do not.  Jackson had the inchworm lacing card, and Alex had the igloo lacing card (finally laminated!), but it was pointless.  I went to Hobby Lobby last week during a sale and got a bunch more beads at 50% off, which they used over the weekend, but they were just not interested in lacing or beading today.

 We moved on to shape review.  Erica didn't have any inchworm shape review activities, but I still wanted Jack to work on them, so I created a set of shapes out of heavy-duty foam sheets I got last week.  I just pulled them out and let Jack play with them, and he identified a hexagon correctly without any prompting!  I was kind of shocked, to be honest.

Alex had his igloo shape cards, but this time I printed them on cardstock and cut a slit in the top of an old baby formula can for him to slip the cards into.  I saw this activity on the 1plus1plus1equals1 blog, once, and decided to try it out.  We talked about the shapes as he picked up each card, and he loved carefully putting them in the slot.  Jackson was very interested in this activity, as well, so we switched back and forth a few times.  We also put the foam shapes together to make different pictures.

We moved back up to the tables for our letter hunt.  Jackson did the I is for Inchworm page, and Alex did his igloo page.  

Last up for the day was reading with our read-along books!  I like to grab a new one from the library each week, and we have a little collection starting to grow in our supply closet.  I hang them up in the closet, because that's how they are made and it helps me to know where they are!  This week we read I Spy Fly Guy! by Tedd Arnold.  We also reread our two books from the previous weeks (The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything and Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing). For some reason, Jack just loves these types of books, so I will include them each week!

We had a special storytime at the library today on fire safety.  Real firefighters even came in and showed the kids what their uniforms look like.  The boys loved it, but we left early because the crowds were too much for Jack to handle.

Here are a few pictures of how I organize curriculum.  I got some binders at a thrift store ($1 apiece!), and I found big plastic dividers at Walmart for about 67 cents a set.  In the front of my curriculum binder I have page protectors with activities that are reused between weeks (like the large floor number cards, the Exercise ABC cards, the number clothespin cards, etc...).

Each tab represents one letter.  I have 5 page protectors behind each letter, labeled with a day of the week.  Inside that page protector is all the activities for that day.  Smaller pieces/activities are kept in sandwich bags in that page protector.  I will probably only be able to fit 5 letters in this big (probably 3-3.5") binder.

Our alphabet binder holds everything the boys make each week.  I include the collage page...

...and a page protector filled with all the other completed work for the week.  

I also re-purposed some shelves that were in the garage to organize toys and books better.  Those cardboard magazine holders on the top shelf are our library books for the week.  My OCD brain is never satisfied with our room arrangement, but this definitely feels better!

FRIDAY

Before we started our activities today, Jackson recited the three scriptures we learned, as well as the three new sounds.  And he did fantastic!  The boys were quite wiggly today, so I decided to switch up the order of activities a little bit so they weren't starting at the desks right after Notebook time.  We started off with the Ii inchworm sorting activity.  Alex wanted to keep coloring in his notebook, so Jackson did this one by himself.

While Alex took a turn at sorting the I's, Jackson moved back to the desk for the inchworm prewriting pages.  This also included the line draw igloo page in Alex's packet.  

Jackson then moved on to the size sort while Alex did the prewriting pages, and then Alex had a turn.  They just happened to like doing their own activities today, which I was fine with.  Instead of printing out the inchworm size sort, I pulled out our apple sort to use again.  If I have to cut out one more inchworm...

Another new activity I introduced this week was letter-building with foam letters.  I printed off Erica's Magnetic Alphabet Builder template and used the heavy-duty foam sheets from Hobby Lobby to cut them out.  I dumped out the pieces and asked Jack to build an 'I' for me while I helped Alex finish sorting the apples.  Jack said "But Mommy! I can't do it! I need help!"  

And then...

"Wait! I know!"

And this is what he put together:

Proud Mommy Moment! He was so excited that we played with this set for at least 10 minutes, creating letters, numbers, and just silly pictures.  DEFINITELY a repeat activity for him! I like the idea of making them magnetic, too, but that will have to wait until I have some sort of big, magnetic whiteboard to use.

Our letter craft from the week - part of the Totally Tots "Now I Know My ABCs" binder - focused on iguanas.  I pre-cut the pieces and the boys helped me glue it together.

And the final activity of the school day was reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and putting our letter I on the coconut tree.  Now that the tree and letters are laminated, the pictures are super shiny! Sorry!

I borrowed the movie "The Indian in the Cupboard" for our Family Night tonight.  And maybe we'll get ice cream for the boys, too.  :)