Letter J Week- Ideas

Ok, so I'm going to try something new from now on. I don't know how well this is going to go because I do stink and updating this thing, but since having my cleaning schedule posted and easily visible, I've noticed that I am much more vigilant about following it. So I'm going to take that idea and start applying that idea to the preschool things we do.

First of all, the things I go with Kayla for her preschool stuff are generally from this site:
http://letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html

I like the way it's set up for her, and really works for us here. She did the preparatory curriculum before this and learned so much. We've honestly been doing this curriculum for a while now, seeing as we're on letter J already, and she's also doing very well and picking up on the letter sounds well. She's even starting to write most of the letters.

But I do sort of branch off from that particular website and take things from other places, sometimes I make them up as I go. So instead of spending each day searching online for what I'm looking for, I'm hoping to maybe just spend one day- probably Sunday?- collecting everything I need for each day so that I can just come back to one place (here) and have it all ready for the day. The links I'll need for things, the ideas for projects, the plans for places to go, etc. Sounds like a good idea, right? Right.

So anyway, here's my first, very belated attempt to collect a bunch of sources in one place.

The Letter J Week http://letteroftheweek.com/letterJ.html

January 9th 2012- January 13th 2012
Holidays- None!
Season- Winter

Monday

Language Arts (30 minutes)
Music (15 minutes)
Bible Story/Character Lesson (15 minutes)

Tuesday

Language Arts & Music (30 minutes)
Math (15 minutes)
Bible Story/Character Lesson (15 minutes)

Wednesday

Language Arts, Music & Math (30 minutes)
Science (20 minutes)
Bible Story/Character Lesson (10 minutes)

Thursday

Language Arts, Music & Math (30 minutes)
Social Studies (15 minutes)
Art Project (15 - 30 minutes)

Friday

Language Arts, Music & Math (30 minutes)
Sports/Games/Activities (20 minutes +)
Review Lesson (10 minutes)

Any Day!

Snacks
Field Trips 

Language Arts- 
*Letter Board- Introduce new letter, upper and lower case, and talk about the pictures on the board.
Pictures for the letter board-

(belongs to http://rpdragon.webs.com/jungledragonterritory.htm)


http://www.dltk-teach.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/poster/cj-jellyfish.gif
http://www.dltk-teach.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/poster/cj-jackhammer.gif
http://www.dltk-teach.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/poster/cj-jackolantern.gif





belongs to http://www.thefatlossauthority.com/fat_loss_tips/orange-juice-nutrition-facts-how-many-calories-are-in-orange-juice


belongs to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelly_Belly



belongs to http://domainshane.com/today-we-may-have-gotten-a-first-glipse-of-the-domainshane-effect/




*Theme Words- jam, jungle, jump, joy, juggle, jeep, juice, jelly


*Make index cards of words and show them to her at meal times. 


* Poetry and Books- 



Poetry and Rhymes:
J's the Jumping Jay-Walker by Phyllis McGinley(Old & New)
The Little Jumping Girls by Kate Greenaway(Old & New)
The Jellyfish by Susan Peters(1001)
Jenny the Juvenile Juggler by Dennis Lee(Icecream Store)
Shake-'N'-Bake a Jelly by Dennis Lee(Icecream Store)


Books to read aloud:
Jamberry by Bruce Degen
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw
Bumper to Bumper: A Traffic Jam by Jakki Wood
The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow
Orange Juice by Betsey Chessen & Pamela Chanko



* My J Won't Jump (Sesame Street)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ4H3Dvy7l8&feature=related
*Jump Video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB6vcZ9gghM&feature=related

* Letter J tracer Pages- http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace10.htm

*Letter J Simple Template- http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/simple-j.htm

*J Coloring Pages- http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/mjposter.htm

*J Coloring page- http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/alphabet-j-coloring-page/

*Jack be Nimble coloring page- http://www.tlsbooks.com/mothergoosejack.pdf


Music-
*Songs- Jack and Jill- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzX_k3ZWvXo
           -John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwKfpOp38qc
           -The J Song (Sesame Street) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irCkaVmcWO8


Character Trait-
*Joyful


Science-
Discuss the animals, plants, minerals, etc. listed below that start with J.
Enter pictures of them into our Nature Book.
Watch videos about them.
Do art projects about them.
If they are local animals, try to find them on a Nature walk, or go to the Zoo.


Pictures for Nature Book- 
(belongs to http://arnica.csustan.edu/photos/animals/animals.htm)


(belongs to http://animal.discovery.com/invertebrates/jellyfish/)


(belongs to http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/jaguar/)


(Belongs to http://www.catsg.org/catsgportal/cat-website/catfolk/onca-01.htm)


*Mammal - jaguar
-Information on Jaguars- http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/jaguar/
-Video of Jaguar- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQRemkGhYZU


*Ocean Creature - jellyfish 

-Information on Jellyfish-http://www.redjellyfish.com/wildlife/jellyfish.html

                                              http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/box-jellyfish/

-Pictures of Jellyfish- http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/photos/ocean-jellyfish/

-Video of Jellyfish-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqBY41o0lvk 

                                       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6LH_svUr5w&feature=fvwp&NR=1





Social Studies- 
*Japan-

http://www.mapsofworld.com/japan/japan-location-map.html

*Misc Sites and information-
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/


*Job of Janitor-

*Jazz Music-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zB2TfFH5j4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZTRmnCKLOw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j_TDoOPnIA

 ----Show her a saxophone-


(property of http://www.vickisdancestudios.com/managing-your-saxophone-with-utmost-care/)





Math


*Count Jellybeans. Jelly Beans for Sale by Bruce McMillan


Art Projects- 
*Jellyfish- http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mjellyfish.html
*Jungle Crafts- http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/metiger.html
http://www.dltk-kids.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/image/bpapertiger.gif
http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/jungle.html

Sports/Activities-
*Jump Rope
*Jumping Jacks

Places to go- 
Jumping Jungle!


Misc. Activities- 
1.) Using marbles to make the letter J- hole punches to mark the correct spots.

belongs to -http://mommyingmonkeys.blogspot.com/2011/10/letter-j.html

2) bake J cookies

3.) Make Jello

4) Winter crafts-
Snow Globe Jar-

belongs to http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/winter/

-Hot Chocolate Mug craft-


belongs to http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/winter/hot-chocolate-mug-craft.asp

March 2011

We are well into our 8th week of the letteroftheweek.com curriculum. I've decided that for some of these vocabulary words, I'll just improvise. I can't figure out how to teach the word "prism" successfully to a 2 year old, and some of these other words are clearly more for the older kids. Last weeks information was: Theme- Sun, Vocabulary word- Ray, Yellow, H, 8, Nursery Rhyme- Hickory Dickory Dock. She's doing really well with most of the curriculum and I feel confident she's learning lots of new things each week. We've already gone through several more themes- stars, rainbows, Lighthouses, etc.

I can't wait for Spring to finally get here so we can play outside and get more exercise. I think I'll feel better about giving her a more well-rounded day if she can get some fresh air every day. I'm guilty of hibernating in the winter- I hate the cold on top of being paranoid about driving when it might be icy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that within two weeks we can have the backyard set up and ready to play in.

Pics-

Stars-



Some of her Artwork hanging over her art desk-


The beginnings of her reading corder:

I needed a fix to keep Kylie away from the paper books (she eats them). The play kitchen used to be in this corner, but since it's up a step anyway I switched the books and the kitchen giving Kayla a little nook to read in. I'll spruce it up, maybe get a cute sign for her. I also added the letter of the week cork board. She's terribly uninterested in the letters and their sounds as of yet, so I'm trying to get her more psyched about it by giving her a board to hang things that start with with whatever letter we're working on. We'll see how it goes.

My feltboard-



I'll be making some fun things to play with on there, eventually. The other night I dreamt in feltboard stories, and although it was the most boring dream I've ever had, I took it as a sign to make on of these bad boys. I got a cheap frame from Walmart, although I'm sure I could have found a prettier one for cheap at a thrift shop. I bought some felt from the fabric store and let Kayla choose the color- she wanted green. This frame had a cardboard back and a flexible plastic where nicer frames would have glass. Remove that glass, but I left the plastic to make it sturdier. Then I just hotglued the felt to the cardboard and put it back in the frame. Yay!

Anywho, I have two babies getting into shenanigans again so I'm off!

Second Week

Well, our second week of 'preschool' is in full-swing. Since it's Wednesday, we've already changed the theme, colored in the square to the color of the week, and changed the letter of the week to "b". The more that I do this, the more I realize that she's already very comfortable with most of what I'm teaching to her. I'm using these tools as a reinforcement method more than anything else.

This week's information (courtesy of letteroftheweek.com and slightly changed for our needs is:

Theme- Jungle
Vocabulary- vines
Color- red (instead of the their suggested green)
Letter- B
Number-2

I know that green makes more sense in correlation with the theme of 'jungle', but it's Valentine's Day next week and we'll be doing a ton of appropriate projects for the holiday, too. I figured that it would be just as productive to work with red as it is green. And besides, she knows green so much better than red already. For some reason, red and yellow are the hardest ones for her to grasp and she often confuses them. Green will be much more appropriate for next month when we're making St. Patty's day things anyway.

So far for this week we've drawn and colored several pictures of Jungles and jungle animals. I am in the process of helping her make a diaramma of a jungle- I just need to get some pipe cleaners to really get going with it. I found a bunch of little cut and paste projects to make jungle animals and puppets. I have a big board book called "Jungle Animals" that we've been reading. I will, at some point this week, put on Jungle Book for the first time and let her see some jungle creatures in action. Our Disney Journey is slowly beginning with Toy Story and a handful of other movies that she's enjoyed, so maybe Jungle Book will also hit home with her.

I lucked out with the vocabulary word, because one of her favorite shows- Dora- shows her swinging in on- yep! vines! in the opening song. Every time she's seen the show this week I've been repeating- Dora's swinging in on vines! Look! Dora's swinging on a vine!

This Sunday I was thrilled to find an area rug on clearance for Kayla's room- with letters on it! Yay! And so we've played with letters several times already! We jump around on the rug looking for different letters.


So for 15 bucks, I think it's a win!




And here's a few pictures from last week... nothing spectacular, but may as well post while I'm in the mood!

Hello, fine motor skill development:






("How Many apples, Kay?" ".... FIIIIIVE!"



Since it's been freezing, snowing, and I'm not interested in attempting to drive and get back up the drive-of-death, we've been kind of stuck inside a lot. Aside from the normal dancing, running, and shenanigans in general, we've called in the big guns and brought up the best investment we've made so far for Kayla....




The Step2 Up and Down Roller Coaster. Thinking about getting it? Do it. Easy to assemble and disassemble, lightweight but sturdy as heck. Hours and hours and hours of entertainment. We take this up every once in a while from the basement and let her play with it. On those days, she can ride this thing easily 50 times. Here it is in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7qGV9R4gF0
Then, of course, there are the other random things we did through the week:


Her finished poster:


Letter A:




Cut, paste, color cows



Random





There was a lot more done, but it's almost nap time, and I can't keep sitting here all day!

In conclusion... so far this preschool thing is going well. I'm very happy.

First week

Well, this is Sunday, the first day of the first week of the preschool thing. I am getting excited and nervous at the same time. I am going to start doing this without telling our families I'm doing it. I decided that I can't deal with negative criticism at this point. Brian said last night that he's on board if I want to do this but he thinks it won't work because I won't keep up with it. I guess I have to prove him wrong, then, don't I?

So today I'm taking the time to prepare for the upcoming week. I've already organized a binder with information and a calendar breaking down the week and days. If I take a look each day, I will know what I'm supposed to be focused on and that should keep me on track. And if I don't get to really work a lot with her during the day on a particular thing, I can always use the night after Kylie goes home, or spend more time on the weekend before we change the information. The way the program is set up gives you an entire week to really spend time on a subject.

Here's the information for this week, courtesy of letteroftheweek.com :
Theme- Cows (Monday)
Vocabulary- Calf (Monday)
Shape- Square (Tuesday)
Letter- A (Wednesday)
Number- 1 (Thursday)
Nursery Rhyme- Hey Diddle Diddle (Friday)

I also decided to go ahead and buy her a book involving cows since it's a special milestone- the beginning of her schooling! We bought Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin. I have several songs on CD that we can play involving cows and letters/numbers/shapes/colors. I've already cut the pieces needed for a few art projects and have color pages ready to go. I am going to look up videos on youtube of cows being milked, mooing, etc. We will probably play a lot of games involving a hunt for squares, and she has a sticker book where she gets to put the correct number of stickers on a page. That last one I'm a little nervous about trying this week only because she loves stickers and won't appreciate doing only one.

My most pointed effort needs to be getting her out to play with others more often. We hardly have gone out for a few weeks because it's been so cold. I finally got a library card this past weekend and got their monthly schedules for lapsit story time.

Here are a few pictures of the things I've done so far to prepare. I hope to have better pictures once we get more involved in this.


This is a picture of the Learning Poster we made. Each week, every day, we had the week's information. Monday we had pictures of the theme and vocabulary word, Tuesday the Shape or color, Wednesday the Letter, Thursday the number, and Friday the Nursery Rhyme. The poster is now hanging in our living room and is easily visible as a constant reference for her. The pictures stay up a whole week and are only changed when the new theme, shape, number, etc. change.





This is a set of number-matching cards I made for her. The idea is supposed to be for her to count the number of stickers and know the right number written on the other card, but I also read it might take a while for her to actually get it. I figure I will start by showing her what I want her to do, and hope she catches on. I also might start out by only giving her two or three of the cards and asking her to try to count them and match them to a certain number. We shall see. There are a few options for these.



Here is a look at our little 'preschool corner'. I only call it that because it happens to have a few things over there that we will be using. The poster, obviously, and her CDs and Books on CD, and her "Feed the Bunny" game for fine motor skill development. Of course there are some random books, puzzles and blocks over there, too!




I went to the dollar store and got a few things, too. Dollar Store= awesome.

Some posters...







Baskets. For each new color that we learn, I figured I would get a basket or container in that color and use it for a scavenger hunt type game where we collect different objects of that color. The first coming up in two weeks is green.



And although I don't have pictures of it, I made myself a binder to keep myself organized with this stuff. I have several folders in there with coloring pages and art projects ready for the week ahead, as well as future projects. I keep her number matching cards in a zipper pocket with a small book where she will be able to put stickers on pages in the number of the week. I bought a Monthly calender that fits in there and on each day, I've written what I'm supposed to be focusing on with her. I think I'm more than organized at this point, I just hope I stay that way.