Letter P - P is for Pirate

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

LDS Scripture Verse:    "Pray always, that you may come off conqueror."

- Doctrine and Covenants 10:5 

*Disclaimer: The past few weeks have absolutely zapped me of all energy, mostly with multiple appointments and obligations.  We did not have school every day this week, nor did we necessarily have official school time.  We did our activities when we could and how we could.*

TUESDAY

Our scavenger box contained a foam letter P, a pumpkin, paints, a paintbrush, play dough, a pepper, a pineapple, a pirate, a police car, a Pooh bear, a puzzle card, a plus sign, a penny, our letter P poem book, our sign-language P card, and My "p" Book.

After reviewing our "P" sound, going through our box, and reading the books, the boys used watercolor paints to color their Jake and the Neverland Pirates pages.

We pulled out the counting bears to get some addition practice for Jackson.  Again, he LOVED it!

Alex had to be a part of everything, too, so I gave him the spare whiteboard and he placed bears on it and drew on it just like Jack.

Eventually I pulled out our bear pattern cards.  The boys worked on separate cards, then they started working together.

When I asked them to clean up the bears, they decided to sort the bears into their color-coordinated cups.  That was fine by me.

We ended the day by watching an episode or two of Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  As you can see by Jack's shirt, they were already fans. :)

Reading List:

1. My "p" Book by Jane Belk Moncure

2. Shiver Me Letters: A Pirate ABC by June Sobel

3. There Was An Old Pirate Who Swallowed a Fish by Jennifer Ward

4. Pirate Boy by Eve Bunting

5. How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long

6. I Spy Treasure Hunt: A Book of Picture Riddles by Jean Marzollo

7. Pirate Treasure by Loretta Krupinski

8. Do Pirates Take Baths? by Kathy Tucker

WEDNESDAY

Tray 1: Pattern Blocks with Penguin Template

Tray 2: Beginning Sounds Worksheet

Tray 3: Letter P Play Dough Mat

Tray 4: Name Writing Worksheets

This time I finally laminated copies for frequent use! I pre-wrote their names on the bottom lines in dotted lines for tracing, and then they can practice writing the letters in the middle boxes.

The boys kept busy while I worked on an activity of my own.

Jackson needed a little help forming the letter K, but overall he did really good writing his name!

I also pulled out our collection of Jake and the Neverland Pirates puzzles (like these, but only 5 puzzles in the box and not 7).

 The boys had fun doing all of them together.

This is what I worked on during this time:

I painted rocks with acrylics.  I wanted a collection of gold, silver, and various stones to use for a sensory box later in the week. It took awhile, but I finished them.

FRIDAY

Today was mainly a sensory box day.  I pulled out our pirate map from a quiet book my sister-in-law made for the boys one Christmas to use in our treasure hunt.

I also gathered everything I could for this sensory box.  I had some pirate toys (Disney and Mega Bloks), the rocks I painted, gold coins from the dollar store, an unpainted wooden box for a chest to bury, and a foam red x.  To mark the spot of buried treasure, of course.

I filled our large plastic box with play sand, and put a smaller container of colored sand (epsom salt and food coloring) in there to represent the sea.  I scooped the sand in layers, burying treasure along the way.  And I buried the unpainted treasure chest under where the x is.  This time I remembered to cover the table with the camping tablecloth BEFORE we started.  Oh, the lessons we learn!

The boys dug right in!  They used plastic shovels and sieves, as well as small tongs, our IKEA tea infuser, and their hands.  We had a great time!

Eventually we pulled out the box of blue sand and spread out the play sand all the way to finish hunting for treasure.

SATURDAY

You know home-schooling has been off when you're trying to cram the last of your activities on a Saturday.  :)

Jackson completed his Letters of All Sizes worksheet, as well as his handwriting page.

Alex completed his do-a-dot page and letter hunt, then both boys used toothpicks to poke holes in their q-tip painting pages.

We did this fun craft I found at East Coast Mommy.  I cut out the pieces to the pirate ship, then the boys decided to use our IKEA stamp pens to decorate it.  We all worked together to glue it into the finished product.

Our last activity was a game of Pirate Bingo!  The boys used our pirate treasure as the pieces to cover up the pictures on their boards.

And we finished up the week by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and putting our letter P on the coconut tree.

Letter N - N is for Nail (Tool Fun)

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

LDS Scripture Verse:  "No man can serve two masters."  - Matthew 6:24

MONDAY

Our scavenger box included a foam N, My "n" Sound Box, our letter n poem book, our sign-language n card, a jar of Nutella, a necklace, toy noodles, the number nine, a toy nail, nailpolish, a cloth napkin, a nickel, and a nut.

We had a discussion on coins, again, since we pulled the nickel from the box. I brought out our spare change jar and coin pattern strips to work on together.

As I searched for tool printables for school this week, I discovered this Handy Manny tot book from 1+1+1=1.  Instead of creating the flip-out folder for the activities (which I might do later), I kept them separate to use on different days. Today the boys used markers to color the different tools.

We ended the day by watching a few episodes of the Handy Manny show on Netflix.  The boys had never seen it or heard of it, before, and they actually ended up really liking it!

Reading List:

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

2. Handy Manny: Tools at the Pool by Marcy Kelman

3. I Love Tools! by Philemon Sturges

4. Tool Book by Gail Gibbons

5. Monkey with a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem by Chris Monroe

TUESDAY

We learned the proper way to write the letter N, using our play dough mat and some dry erase markers.  Alex even took a turn!

 

Then we decided to have fun with our play dough set!

Afterwards, I put a few trays/activities together:

Tray 1: Magnet Vocabulary Page

This page is found with the Letter Hh printables here.

Tray 2: Counting with Counting Bears

I found the printables for this here, under the name "1-10 Number Sticker Sheets."

Tray 3: Cutting Practice

Tray 4: Tool Match-Up

I saw the idea for this activity on Happy Hooligans and decided to focus it on tools.  I pulled out some of the tools from our playsets and traced their outlines onto construction paper.

And here are the boys in action!

After identifying all the objects on the vocabulary page, Alex walked over to the match-up activity and brought the tools back to match up with the pictures on this page.

 One of our 50 counting bears has a fatal flaw.  He apparently stood too close to a fire and his ears and face are all melted. The boys refused to use this poor, disabled bear until we had a talk about him getting lonely because no one would play with him.  He's just a regular bear, but his ears are melted.  Now they play with him very cautiously, but at least it's a step in the right direction! Here Jack is inspecting this sad bear and arguing calmly discussing whether or not he should use him.

We ran out of bears!  We were five bears short of completing this activity, but Jack was still very pleased.  Looks like I may be getting some more animal counters, soon. ;)

Alex requested another activity after he did all the trays, so I pulled out our alphabet puzzle for him to work on.  I love this puzzle because it has pegs on the pieces, and has a beginning-sound picture associated with each letter.  

 

WEDNESDAY

Tray 1: Tool Box Coloring
This was in the Handy Manny tot book.

Tray 2: Nuts and Bolts

I included three different sizes of matching nuts and bolts.  The idea is to focus on fine motor skill development as they match-up and screw on the nut for each bolt.

Tray 3: Letter Writing in the Sand

Just for fun, I included a colored popsicle stick to trace in the sand, instead of just a finger or paintbrush.

Tray 4: Geoboard

We haven't used this homemade geoboard in awhile, so I pulled it out to create letters and shapes with rubber bands.

Tray 5: Water Pouring

Isn't that little pitcher adorable!?! I found it at a thrift store for fifty cents!

And off they go! Pardon the pajamas...it has been quite a week!

The nuts and bolts activity was difficult for both boys.  I am hoping to find some larger ones next time, or have them use the plastic ones from their toy set to get the general idea of how they work.

After the tray activities were finished, Jack worked on his Letters of All Sizes worksheet and Alex did a Do-a-Dot page.

THURSDAY

We finished up our Handy Manny tot book activities by matching up our shape cards.

Alex did a letter hunt while Jackson completed his handwriting page .

I saw this idea for a beginning sounds activity a while ago, and finally got around to prepping it for the boys! I simply wrote some letters on a piece of construction paper and had a collection of toys to match up to their beginning sounds.

Alex, surprisingly, was able to do a few on his own (like f for frog/fish), but Jackson really shone!  Hearing beginning sounds was something he was unable to do when we first started homeschooling, but he is a pro at it, now!  I am so amazed at all the things he learns!

Then we pulled out our toy tools (drill set and general tool set) and had fun just playing together.  Alex spent most of the time screwing a screw down and up, and Jackson loved hammering the nails in and popping them back out.

And we closed the week by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and putting our letter N on the coconut tree.