Letter R - R is for Robot

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

LDS Scripture Verse: "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." - Doctrine and Covenants 18:10

DAY 1

During Calendar Time today, I recorded a few videos of the boys as an informal assessment.  Also, because they are just plain cute.

Jack saying the date.

Alex saying the date.

Our scavenger box included a foam letter R, a recorder, a ruler, My "r" Sound Box book, a remote control, a roll, a racecar, a ring, a box of raisins, R2D2, Rex from Toy Story, Randall from Monsters, Inc., our letter poem book, and our sign-language card.

I had Jackson practice writing the letter K before working on his name, again.  He does great with all the other letters, but K just gives him a hard time.  I read something the other day that said oblique lines are hard for kids to understand before the age of 5 or 6, so maybe that is the issue?  I don't know.

We read through a few of our robot books for the week, then went back to the table for some coloring.

I  printed off some robot worksheets from Homeschool Printables (under Rr is for Robots) and the boys used glitter glue to color them.

We worked together on this worksheet from Teaching Mama to determine which picture in each row started with the "r" sound.  The boys placed book rings over the correct picture.

Then they sorted various robots into small, medium, and large groups.  This activity came from the Robot Preschool Pack at Homeschool Creations.

Reading List:

1. My "r' Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure

2. Hello, Robots by Bob Staake

3. Rafa Was My Robot by Alexandra Dellevoet

4. R is for Robot: a noisy alphabet by Adam Watkins

5. Sammy and the Robots by Ian Whybrow

DAY 2

During Notebook Time, I pulled out some new little helpers I ordered on Amazon.  I found these to help with Jack's handwriting grip, and they are really useful!  Jack needed help figuring out where his fingers fit in, but once they were in he just started working away.

Tray 1: Tower of Robots
This is part of the Robot Pack at Teaching Mama.

Tray 2: Magnet Page
This is part of the Robot Do-a-Dot Printables at Gift of Curiosity.

 Tray 3: Robot Number Puzzle
This is part of the Robot Preschool Pack at Homeschool Creations.

Tray 4: Robot Tracing
This is also found in the Teaching Mama packet.
I included a special grip on my erasable crayon for this activity.

Tray 5: Letter Tracing

As always, this comes from Lavinia Pop's playdough mats.  I also included a new finger grip on the erasable crayon for this activity, as well.

The puzzle was a big hit, and they both loved counting the numbers after completing it.

The tower of robots was a bit frustrating for Alex, mostly because the little robots "kept slipping." He needed help placing them "just so."

With some help getting his fingers in the grips, Jack did great tracing his letters.

I found a rocket-ship connect-the-dot page in one of our Leap Frog preschool workbooks, so I pulled that out for Jack to work on.  

Then the boys worked together to do a letter R pattern page from the Gift of Curiosity Robot Pack.  Jack used the red Bingo marker on the uppercase Rs, and Alex used the purple Bingo marker on the lowercase Rs.

Jack wasn't done with school, yet, so I pulled out one of his workbooks to do some number tracing.

DAY 3

Today was our last day for robots!  I pulled out a bunch of our crafting stuff and plugged in the glue gun to warm up.  I read Sammy and the Robots with the boys, again, and we talked about how the little boy made his own robots.  So...we got to make robots, too!

Here is Jack's robot, which he named Sammy.

And the boys showing their robots together.

Sammy's robot in the book had the special power of blasting away his grandma's cough.  I tried to engage the boys in a discussion about what they wanted their robots to do. Yeah...they just wanted to play with them.

We pulled out our Bingo marker for some letter hunts.  Jackson completed one from Confessions of a Homeschooler, and Alex did a robot letter hunt from Gift of Curiosity.

Then Alex did the R do-a-dot page from Confessions of a Homeschooler while Jackson worked on R and Q pages from a preschool workbook.

Then they worked on some scissor skills while following the patterns on the robot pages from Homeschool Creations.  Jack was incredibly proud of himself for getting that zig-zag line with the scissors!

And we finished our letter R activites by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and putting our letter R on the coconut tree.

Letter Q - Q is for Queen (Royalty/Medieval)

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

LDS Scripture Verse:              "Quench not the Spirit." - 1 Thessalonians 5:19

MONDAY

The scavenger box includes a foam letter Q, a baby quilt, a quarter, a queen, My "q" Sound Box, our sign-language q card, and our letter poem book.  We went through our items and read our books.  There aren't many 'q' words to work with. :)

We introduced the themes of royalty and the medieval time period by using our characters we made from the Medieval Pack at 3 Dinosaurs (pages 16-19 from Part 5). I printed them on cardstock and laminated them, trying to decide if I should put magnet strips on the back or felt on the back for a felt board.  I decided not to put either on the backs so we could just use them for play.  We talked about the royal family and the purpose of knights.  And dragons...of course.

We read our theme books, and the boys made connections between the characters in the stories and our play characters.

The boys then used their assorted markers to color their queen coloring pages (Medieval Pack Part 4, page 10). 

And they actually spent time coloring!

Reading List:

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

2. In the Castle by Anna Milbourne

3. The Bravest Knight by Mercer Mayer

4. The Knight and the Dragon by Tomie DePaola

5. Knights in Shining Armor by Gail Gibbons

TUESDAY

Yeah, this happened. He found some lacing cards and attempted to do one.  I took a picture just to document this moment. :)

Tray 1: Queen Shadow Matching

This is found in the Letter Q Tot School Printables.

Tray 2: Medieval Patterning

This was also found in the Medieval Pack (part 1, pages 12-15).

Tray 3: Letter Q (foam letter) with Glass Gems

Tray 4: Letter Q (play dough mat) with Glass Gems

Tray 5: Queen/Royalty Magnet Page

This was also found with the Tot School Printables.

 Tray 6: Letter Builders

I made this set out of foam, using the template from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Tray 7: Letter Q Beginning Sounds Worksheet

I found this on In My World.

And the work commenced!

THURSDAY

Tray 1: Which One is Different? 
This also came from the Medieval Pack (Part 1, pages 8-11).  The goal is for the boys to use our gold coins to cover the different character in each row.

Tray 2: Cutting Practice

Tray 3: Medieval Roll and Count
This is from the Medieval Pack (Tot Pack, pages 39-40).  We used our "royal jewels" to track each roll.

 

The queen was the winner of the roll and count game!

It took the boys a few tries to figure out what I was looking for with the different characters, but then they did great.

Alex "practiced cutting" while Jackson completed his Letters of All Sizes worksheet.

FRIDAY

Jackson started the day with a letter q Letter Hunt, and Alex completed a do-a-dot page.

Then Jack did his handwriting worksheet.

I pulled out our beginning sounds matching pages and a container of toys to sort.  The boys got to work right away.

The boys then colored the dragon size-sorting page together (Part 3, page 20).

We finished the week off by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and putting our letter Q on the coconut tree.