Letter L - L is for Leaf

Daily Notebooks:
 - Jackson: Confessions of a Homeschooler
 - Alex: 1+1+1=1

LDS Scripture Verse: 

"Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." - Doctrine and Covenants 6:36

MONDAY

Our scavenger box (beginning-sound box) included a lock, a ladybug card, a lion, a lobster card, a sign-language L card, a foam leaf, a foam letter L, our L poem book, and My "l" Sound Box.

After reviewing our box, we read My "l" Sound Box for some more "l" sound ideas.  We used the coloring page from 1+1+1=1 this week for both boys.  Jackson loved using the Bingo markers and IKEA stamp pens with it, today.

I bought a pack of foam leaves from Target during the Fall, and we pulled them out (again) today for some patterning.  However, the boys quickly lost interest.

Once they saw that lobster card in the box, they were very excited to play the "fish game." I usually use half the stack of cards (2 of each kind) from our Go Fish game to match a large matching/memory game.  They LOVE this!  We always have to play it at least two times.  As usual, I was amazed at how well they remembered where cards were.

Then we pulled out our counting bears for a few activities.  They sorted the bears by color into their corresponding cups, then we counted to make sure each cup had ten bears.

Then I decided to try some simple addition problems.  I pulled out a few small whiteboards and some dry-erase markers and set up the first problem using bears.  As you can see in the picture, I separated the two "parts" of the problem by color to make it easier.  I explained what the "plus" sign and "equals" sign meant, and I demonstrated how to use the bears to solve the problem.  

Alex just wanted to put bears on a board and draw with the markers, but Jackson really seemed interested.  I helped him with his first problem...

...and he kept asking for more and more!  Not only was he understanding simple addition problems, but his number-writing skills also improved as he worked!

This kid loved math time!  He always does, though.  He loves showing people how he can count to 100 (and yes, he does count for them the whole way if they will let him).  He notices numbers everywhere and counts whatever he can.  I love it, especially since I am very similar!

They decided to watch Leap Frog Numbers Ahoy again, today, for their video time.  It is about a pirate who LOVES to count and counts every creature in the sea.  Very fitting. :)

Reading List:

1. My "l" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

2. Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson (book with cd)

3. Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

4. Leaves by David Ezra Stein

5. Ruby's Falling Leaves (a Max & Ruby book)

TUESDAY

*Today was CRAZY, so we didn't have school.*

WEDNESDAY

 Here are the trays/activities we worked on today:

Tray 1: Pattern Blocks and Bird Template

I found this template I printed off a few weeks back and decided to throw it in for today.

Tray 2: Coloring and Cutting Practice

I found a page of lamps in a preschool workbook and ripped it out to work on.

Tray 3: Letter L Playdough Mat

Tray 4: Nature Vocabulary Page with Magnets

Tray 5: Shape Matching Cards

And here are the boys hard at work:

Jack had no desire to cut out the lamps, but he finished the page.  After the first couple lamps were colored (the center and bottom center), I praised him for doing much better about staying within the lines when he colored.  After that, I noticed him concentrating extra hard on keeping the crayon in.  ;)

THURSDAY

Field Trip Day!

I bought a groupon a few months back for Discovery Gateway Children's Museum in Salt Lake, so we decided to go check it out today.  I have heard it is a great place for kids to explore, and we LOVED it! There were so many fun activities for the kids to do. Here are a few of their favorites:

*I blurred out the faces of people not in our group, so as to give them their privacy*

 The first room had tons of holes and tubes and different contraptions to use with the various plastic balls lying around.  Jackson loved putting balls in the main shoot and watching the air propel them up and around the different tubes.

Alex loved turning the wheel, which used gears to carry balls up and around this little system.

Alex also loved the agriculture section, complete with farm animals, gardening, bee-keeping, a tractor, and a market to buy and sell food.

 The local news channels and hospitals were represented, with stations to practice life-flight and trauma center activities and a green screen for news reports. They even had a helicopter set up for the kids to play in!

Of course, there were TONS of educational toys set up.  Alex really liked the stacking pegs.

Jack also enjoyed planting a garden, although he let others harvest the foods. ;)

Overall, it was a GREAT indoor activity for the boys.  We stayed for two hours but I finally had to drag them off since we got bombarded by a few school groups that took over the place.  We will definitely have to visit again!

FRIDAY

Tray 1: "From Plant to Food" Matching

I found this activity online and wanted to use it to show the boys more about where their foods come from.  I would have loved to do an indoor garden with them this week (since we moved this past year and don't have our outdoor garden, anymore), but it just didn't happen.

Tray 2: Cut and Paste Page

I found the sheet of pictures on Homeschool Creations, and we use this collage page to glue them onto.

 Tray 3: Beginning Sounds Stamping

This page comes from In My World, and I also added the Do-a-Dot L page from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Tray 4: Letter Hunt Stamping

Alex also had the L leaf page from 1+1+1=1 to work on.

 Tray/Activity 5: Upper and Lowercase Letter Matching

 We also pulled out these cards to work on recognizing upper and lowercase letters, as well as beginning sounds.  They love these puzzle cards.

Other Activities and Worksheets We Used:

Letters of All Sizes

L Handwriting Page

And we ended the week by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and putting our letter L on the tree.

Letter K - K is for Kite

Daily Learning Notebooks:
 - Alex: 1+1+1=1
 - Jackson: Confessions of a Homeschooler

LDS Scripture Verse:

"Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?" - 1 Corinthians 6:19

MONDAY

Normally, Jackson has a hard time concentrating on coloring pages.  Today, however, we may have broken through that barrier.  During Notebook Time, he re-discovered the alphabet coloring pages in the back tabs.  He found the K page and spent quite a bit of time coloring the pictures and tracing!

Our letter K scavenger box included our foam letter K, My "k" Sound Box book, the minion Kevin, a key, kiwi fruit, Katerina Kittycat (from Daniel Tiger), a kitten stamp, a sign-language K card, a kite, and a letter K poem book.

 After introducing the letter (and sound) of the week, looking through our box, and reading My "k" Sound Box, the boys went back to the tables for some kite coloring pages.  Again, Jack spent more time than usual coloring.  Then they asked to use the kitten stamps.  I pulled out our ink pad, a few kitten stamps, and our IKEA stamp pens and gave them free reign of their pages.  They did great!

We played some number recognition games with our large apple floor cards, then we headed back to the tables for Roll a Kite.  I pre-cut the kite pieces, and the boys took turns rolling the di and gluing the corresponding piece on a blank sheet of paper.

We finished the day watching Leap Frog Numbers Ahoy (currently on Netflix).

 Reading List:

1. My "k" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

2. Just a Kite by Mercer Mayer

3. Kite Day: A Bear and Mole Story by Will Hillenbrand

4. Kite Flying by Grace Lin

5. Jack's Kite by Yvonne Jagtenberg

6. Curious George Flies a Kite by H.A. Rey
7. Ben Franklin and His First Kite by Stephen Krensky

TUESDAY

Our first activity of the day was to learn the proper way to draw the letter K, using our alphabet play dough mat. We also pulled out our new play dough set and a few cookie-cutters (the letter K and the number 1).  We had fun playing with these all together.

I put together four different activities for the boys to work on at the kitchen table while I cooked dinner, since our school schedule got thrown off a bit today:

Tray 1: Pattern Blocks with Kite Pattern Page

Tray 2: Cutting Practice

I found a koala coloring page in one of our books and pulled it out for the boys to practice cutting.

Tray 3: Number Writing and Correspondence

I pulled out some of our number play dough mats for the boys to practice writing the numbers.  They also could use the Lego bricks to fill in the corresponding spaces on the bottom chart.

Tray 4: Number Clip Cards

These cards are found on 1+1+1=1. We use them with mini-clothespins.

WEDNESDAY

Straight to our tray activities today:

Tray 1: Coloring Pages

Tray 2: Pattern Block Pattern Cards

Tray 3: Practical Life Skills (Lock and Key)

I scrounged around my house to find some locks and keys.  I found four different locks, and five different keys...with only one matching set!  Oh my gosh.  I put all the keys in a small bowl with the one matching lock for some lock and key practice.

Tray 4: Beading

 Activity (Tray) 5: Puzzles

I like to find puzzles that match our theme, but I gathered such a collection of random puzzles that if I don't have one to match I don't mind putting out others.

The back-to-back puzzling!

Jack's favorite activity was the lock and keys.  Once he found the right key, he practiced opening (and closing) the lock...over and over and over again.

Alex attempted the harder puzzle, but he got frustrated so Jack stepped in to help.  They worked together to complete it!

 After the activities were completed, the boys came back to the tables.  Jackson did his Letters of All Sizes worksheet, and Alex did a writing practice tracing page.

THURSDAY

I used trays to divide the activities for the day, but I decided to do the first two together instead of Montessori free-style:

Tray 1: Dot-Marker Letter Hunt

 

Tray 2: Letter Poke Page 

I found two 'j' pages we never used last week, so I put these in here instead of printing out the 'k' pages.

Tray 3: Colored Straws and Flatware Caddy

Tray 4: Pattern Blocks and K Pattern Page

 Tray 5: Letter Writing in Sand Tray

Apparently I didn't get many pictures of Alex. 

 I also had Jackson complete his K handwriting page before we finished school.  Later on in the day, I introduced the boys to Starfall, a website/app that I hear a lot about on 1+1+1=1.  They had a BLAST playing letter games on the computer.  I try not to do too much technology during school time, but they had a great time playing it later.

FRIDAY

The boys shocked me by reciting our scripture verse by heart:

"Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?" - 1 Corinthians 6:19

How adorable is that!?!

The boys started off working on their name writing pages. We hadn't done these in a few months, but Alex still knew to put stickers in the boxes...even if they weren't letter stickers. Now that we've worked on the 'k,' which has been the hardest letter for Jackson, I was excited to see how he did.  The 'j' and 'k' still tricked him a bit, but with a little more practice I think he will be a pro at writing his name.  

We played a few rounds of Catch a Rainbow, next, just because I felt like it.  Even though these activities took time and effort to put together, I am glad I have them to use whenever.  They both immediately began to find cards to match the color spaces on their boards.

I set out a few activities for free time.  Jackson wanted to do a cut and paste page (gluing onto a collage paper) since he has finally gotten the hang of cutting AROUND the pictures.  That was a big break-through for him this week, although he struggles with remembering to rotate the paper as you cut around an object. He gets really frustrated at the paper.  It is amazing to realize how many steps these simple tasks can take to master!  Coming from an elementary school background, I never dealt with things like...pencil grip and scissor technique and hand strengthening.  It's fascinating to watch the process with my own boys. 

Alex really wanted to do puzzles.  He does really good at our large, Melissa and Doug puzzles.

We also pulled out our Daniel Tiger Emotions Chart.  Emotions have been running high, especially being inside a lot due to cold weather.  We talked about communicating our wants/needs/feelings, using the chart.  I put this together myself, but I can't really publish the document since I don't own the rights to Daniel Tiger or these particular images.

And we ended the school week by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and putting our letter k on the coconut tree.

*We love doing school together.*