Daily Notebooks:
- Alex: 1+1+1=1
- Jackson: Confessions of a Homeschooler
Regularly Used Curriculum:
- Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter D Week
- 1+1+1=1 Tot School Letter D
- Homeschool Creations
LDS Scripture Verse:
"Delight thyself in the Lord." - Isaiah 58:14
MONDAY
Our D scavenger box included: a foam letter D, My "d" Sound Box book, a toy drill, our sign language d card, Darth Vader, a rubber duck, a dinosaur, Daniel Tiger, a diamond shape, a di, a donkey, and a dime.
I pulled out Erica's dinosaur coloring page, but instead of giving the boys the usual crayons and markers, I gave them the watercolor paints, instead. They had a blast! I think changing up the coloring medium for these coloring pages will be important (plus, I taught Elementary Art in the past, as well, so I love introducing kids to more art stuff).
Alex surprised me. Like the pumpkin he painted for Halloween, he sat and worked on his page until almost all the white was covered up. He LOVES painting, and I would like to encourage that.
We moved onto the floor for our Lego pattern time, since the boys were already getting wiggly. Jackson did patterns with me, but Alex decided to just put all his bricks on his foam D and tell me what color each brick was. Impromptu color review!
Since we do not have many dinosaur toys, I asked my in-laws if we could borrow their bag of dinosaurs for the week. I pulled it out after patterning, and the boys were so excited! Alex started to carefully set up all the dinosaurs in a group, while Jackson preferred to knock them all down as if he were a dinosaur. Lots of roaring. Also, lots of frustration (on Alex's part).
We ended the day with another Signing Time video. I found the first volume at our library to introduce basic signs like eat, milk, ball, bird. etc... We did signing with Jack when he was very young, but both boys spoke really well at an early age so we never really dealt with that period of communication frustration. The boys watched for a little bit, but then lost interest and went back to playing with the dinosaurs.
Library Reading List for the Week:
1. My "d" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
2. Dinosaurs Big and Small by Kathleen Weidner
3. We Both Read: About Dinosaurs by Sindy McKay
4. The Magic School Bus: In the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
TUESDAY
I have been re-doing my basic lesson plan for each week, putting more of a focus on letter writing first thing after Calendar and Notebook time. Today I gave Jackson his alphabet play dough mat to learn the proper way to write the letter D, and I helped Alex trace the foam D correctly, as well.
The Measured Mom did a great post about different stations for learning to form letters. I decided to start incorporating those activities in our weekly letter-writing activities. I pulled out our box of plastic straws (which never get used because we have reusable, stainless steel ones) and showed the boys how to form letters using them. Jack picked up on it rather quickly, but preferred to make lots of capital I's. Alex, on the other hand, was more interested in making triangles over and over again.
Then we moved to the table for a different letter-writing activity. I put cornmeal inside an old wipes container (although a pencil box would be better) and let the boys write letters with their fingers or a paint brush in the cornmeal.
Jack wasn't ready to move on, yet, so I set Alex up with our magnet pages. I used Erica's dinosaur page and another D page from Homeschool Creations.
Jackson began his cut and paste activity (also found on Homeschool Creations) using his new scissors he got for his birthday on Sunday. I have waited to get these scissors because of the price, but they are seriously the BEST scissors for little kids! Jackson immediately noticed a difference between these and some preschool scissors I had picked up at Target, and even Alex was able to use them to cut correctly! They are well worth the money!
After the boys switched activities, we pulled out our Dinosaur Roll 'N Stamp game from pre-kpages.com (free download at the bottom). We used our large numbered di to roll numbers, but instead of stamping the dinosaurs with the corresponding numbers, we placed glass gems on them so they could still see through to the numbers. The boys loved it!
WEDNESDAY
We threw off our schedule a bit today and ran errands in the morning when we usually do school time. I got the notion in my head to get some materials for more doughs/sands/sensory things, so we bought a 50 lb bag of play sand at Home Depot for $4, and a bunch of stuff at a Family Dollar store. "School supplies," I call them. ;) Feeling adventurous, I made some sticky sand dough (which turned out to feel just like slightly damp sand) and threw it in a large shallow-ish bin with big rocks and dinosaur toys. The boys LOVED playing in this bin, and were entertained for at least 40 minutes, especially after I brought out more measuring spoons and cups and things.
We did stamping, again, for our letter collage of the week. Jack took over the dinosaur stamping while Alex used our cat stamp from last week on the back of some scratch paper.
We moved to the floor for some puzzle time. Jack did a letter D number order puzzle, and Alex did Carisa's duck sequencing activity. Alex needed a little help with his, but Jackson got his puzzle done surprisingly fast.
Surveying his finished "house"
Alex an I made shapes on our homemade geoboard. He really loves triangles, so he ended up making those over and over again.
Months ago on a trip to Hobby Lobby we picked up a few wooden dinosaurs for a future painting project. And it never happened. So today I finally pulled out those dinosaurs and let the boys paint with my acrylics. The dinosaurs started bright, but a lot of color mixing started happening on the plates and we ended up with that gray/brown smear which became a top layer on their dinosaurs, in places. But we did get to talk about some color combinations, which was great.
Then I started some dinosaur color patterns. Here we did orange, green, blue, repeated a few times with the toys we had. They loved it!
FRIDAY
Field trip day! Jack and I were so excited! Utah has quite a few dinosaur museum-type places, but I found a dinosaur park which is supposedly great for kids. There was even a Groupon deal for tickets! So we packed up this morning and headed off to the George Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden, Utah. I made a few busy boxes to keep the boys occupied on the drive, using Erica's dinosaur alphabet practice cards, dry-erase markers and erasers, and a few pencil boxes I picked up at Family Dollar on Wednesday. These worked like a charm! Jack loved tracing his letters, and they loved having their own boxes to work out of. And I loved the peace in the car. :)
It was a lovely drive along the mountains, and since we arrived right when they opened we were the only guests there. Inside the museum we explored fossils and geodes, reconstructed skeletons of dinosaurs, and even some animatronix dinosaurs that half terrified/half fascinated the boys. We sat and watched those dinos for quite awhile, taking turns tiptoing forward to the motion sensors whenever they stopped moving. Alex never took his turn, although he was quick to demand that I do it, instead. ;) There were a few activities for little kids, and even a working paleontology lab with a paleontologist available to answer questions.
And then we ventured outside. It was in the 30s this morning, but by golly we were so glad we went! They have probably 30+ dinosaur statues around the grounds with descriptions of each kind. There was even a dinosaur-themed playground for the boys to play on! There was also a dig site set up with little brushes for the kids to excavate dinosaur bones. We took our little field guide/map and went out to discover different dinosaurs. Get ready for a picture overload:
We threw off our schedule a bit today and ran errands in the morning when we usually do school time. I got the notion in my head to get some materials for more doughs/sands/sensory things, so we bought a 50 lb bag of play sand at Home Depot for $4, and a bunch of stuff at a Family Dollar store. "School supplies," I call them. ;) Feeling adventurous, I made some sticky sand dough (which turned out to feel just like slightly damp sand) and threw it in a large shallow-ish bin with big rocks and dinosaur toys. The boys LOVED playing in this bin, and were entertained for at least 40 minutes, especially after I brought out more measuring spoons and cups and things.
I learned a few things during this activity. Let me share them with you:
1. Never put a giant box of sand on top of the table. Sand will explode everywhere, and possibly scratch your tabletop as the gritty pieces get stuck under the bin and then moved around.
2. Once you move the bin to the floor on a small mat, explain "we do not drop handfuls of sand on the floor" multiple times. Check for understanding.
3. Next time, it might be a good idea to put your plastic camping tablecloth on the floor and THEN the bin on top of that...
4. Again, explain "we do not drop/throw/scatter sand on the floor." That is what the mat/tablecloth is for.
5. Follow-up with a bath...for the boys AND the toys.
Although it was messy, the boys still had a great time. We'll see when I am ready to brave another sensory bin with them again.
Since the schedule was all over the place, we ended up doing school in the late afternoon/early evening as we waited to pick up Daddy from the airport (he was on a business trip for 3 days). I started Jackson doing a beginning sounds color page, since I noticed he has a hard time hearing the beginning sounds to some letters. He was a bit confused with a new worksheet, but I think he'll do better with it next week. Alex worked on our letter D coloring puzzle.
Then they moved to the floor, toothpicks in hand, to poke holes in their q-tip painting pages.
For some math practice, we pulled out our set of Erica's dinosaur counting practice cards. Jack recently realized how to count higher and higher (once he memorized the tens, like 30, 40, 50, etc...), so he is really into any kind of counting game.
Then we did our do-a-dot page from dltk-teach.com.
We did stamping, again, for our letter collage of the week. Jack took over the dinosaur stamping while Alex used our cat stamp from last week on the back of some scratch paper.
And we finished up with our wooden nickel letter match.
THURSDAY
Continuing with our letter writing, I had Jackson do a new handwriting page while Alex colored on our D play dough mat.
We moved to the floor for some puzzle time. Jack did a letter D number order puzzle, and Alex did Carisa's duck sequencing activity. Alex needed a little help with his, but Jackson got his puzzle done surprisingly fast.
I dumped out our foam letter builders (made using Erica's template), and the boys went to town! Jackson, as usual, began making letters while Alex put together pictures. Mostly a "house."
Surveying his finished "house"
Alex an I made shapes on our homemade geoboard. He really loves triangles, so he ended up making those over and over again.
Months ago on a trip to Hobby Lobby we picked up a few wooden dinosaurs for a future painting project. And it never happened. So today I finally pulled out those dinosaurs and let the boys paint with my acrylics. The dinosaurs started bright, but a lot of color mixing started happening on the plates and we ended up with that gray/brown smear which became a top layer on their dinosaurs, in places. But we did get to talk about some color combinations, which was great.
We pulled out our bag of toy dinosaurs and I asked the boys to sort them into big and small groups. As they were doing so, they both realized they had some dinosaurs that didn't fit in either category, so we created a third "medium-sized" group. It worked much better.
Then I started some dinosaur color patterns. Here we did orange, green, blue, repeated a few times with the toys we had. They loved it!
Field trip day! Jack and I were so excited! Utah has quite a few dinosaur museum-type places, but I found a dinosaur park which is supposedly great for kids. There was even a Groupon deal for tickets! So we packed up this morning and headed off to the George Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden, Utah. I made a few busy boxes to keep the boys occupied on the drive, using Erica's dinosaur alphabet practice cards, dry-erase markers and erasers, and a few pencil boxes I picked up at Family Dollar on Wednesday. These worked like a charm! Jack loved tracing his letters, and they loved having their own boxes to work out of. And I loved the peace in the car. :)
It was a lovely drive along the mountains, and since we arrived right when they opened we were the only guests there. Inside the museum we explored fossils and geodes, reconstructed skeletons of dinosaurs, and even some animatronix dinosaurs that half terrified/half fascinated the boys. We sat and watched those dinos for quite awhile, taking turns tiptoing forward to the motion sensors whenever they stopped moving. Alex never took his turn, although he was quick to demand that I do it, instead. ;) There were a few activities for little kids, and even a working paleontology lab with a paleontologist available to answer questions.
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| Skeleton displays |
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| Kid activity table |
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| Paleontology lab |
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| Animatronix dinosaurs |
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| Heading outside and seeing the dinosaur statues for the first time |
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| The pond, where you can feed the fish/water fowl...and watch the dinosaurs feeding |
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| The dig site |
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| The play ground |
Although it was cold, the boys were well-bundled and loved being able to run around outside, and I loved that they were still learning. Instead of using dinosaur nicknames (like three-horn or sharp-tooth on Land Before Time), we talked about the real names for the dinosaurs. While the boys were watching Land Before Time 2 later in the evening, Alex even corrected Jack when he said "ahh! the sharp-tooth!", insisting instead that it was "t-rex."
Later in the afternoon, we finished up a few more activities for our school week. Jackson completed Carisa's letter maze while Alex did his duck shadow match.
Then I pulled out a new letter identification activity and some glitter pens. We put glitter dots on all the upper and lower-case D's.
And, of course, we ended by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and putting our D up on the coconut tree.
