Week 3 Lesson Plans

Theme: Sheep

Bible Story: The Story of the Lost Sheep (pgs. 96 - 97 in My Story Bible)

Bible Verse: Psalms 23:1 - "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

Song/Nursery Rhyme: Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

Color: Black

Book(s) of the Week:

I don't have any specific fine or gross motor skills planned for this week. If we end up doing some, that's great, but I'm not going to worry about it too much.

I didn't plan too much this for this week because we're getting ready to head out on a two week vacation to visit family in Illinois and Missouri. We're going to be taking 3 days to drive from California to Illinois. Yes, I know. Three days of driving almost 10 hours a day with three children 3 and under in the car. Plus, we have to do it again on the way back! We are a bit insane. We decided to drive because flying and renting a car would have cost us more than twice as much as driving will. Luckily, we will have my husband's father coming with us, so he will be a great help.

I don't have any school planned again until we come back the week of September 18th. We do have some fun and educational outings planned for our trip, though. A zoo trip, a visit to a children's museum, a train ride in Branson, MO, and a visit to the local volunteer fire station. I'll make sure to post some pictures from our vacation for you all to enjoy! :) 

Sound Walk ... will have to wait

Our theme this week is sounds. We've been reading The Ear Book, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?, and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?. Caleb's favorite is The Ear Book. He has been asking me to read it a few times a day.

One of the activities I had planned for this week to go along with our theme was to go on a sound walk. Unfortunately the weather here in southern California has been in the triple digits all week.

So the sound walk will have to wait. If the weather cools off enough next week, we'll do it then. If not, we will have to wait until we get back from our two week vacation that starts next Friday.

But just so you can see what we have planned...

I made up this little "checklist" for our walk. We'll take it along with us and as we hear the sounds listed on the paper, Caleb will get to put a sticker in the box next to the picture. When we get home we'll count what sounds we heard the most. As soon as we're able to take our sound walk, I'll be sure to make a post about it!

Here is what our school station looked like this week. I set it up with the color of the week and the books of the week on top and put toys that make sounds and music in the cubbies. Caleb played with a few of them, but the twins seemed to enjoy the toys the most.

I didn't plan nearly as many activities and crafts for this week and next because of our upcoming vacation. I mostly wanted to spend these first 3 weeks of school getting him accustomed to the idea of school and the structure. Plus, I knew that I'd be busy getting prepared for our trip and wouldn't have as much time to spend on a lot of activities. When we come back from our trip, we'll be really diving into school and starting to learn the letters and numbers and learning to recognize and write his first name. I'm really looking forward to all that I have planned! :)

Grow, Beans, Grow!

I just had to post an update of our bean planting last week. Check it out!

They are some happy bean plants! Caleb has enjoyed going outside every day to check on and water his plants. He can't stop talking about how they are growing. I'm just blown away at how fast they grew! A couple of the cups we planted haven't sprouted, but I think that's because they got a little overwatered. :)

Learning Colors - Pink

This week we are focusing on the color pink. We gathered things around the house that are pink and added them to our pink bucket. (Thankfully I have a lot more pink things around the house since Hannah was born!)

We also added a pink scoop to our color cone!

For our craft we made flowers out of paper muffin cups.

Supplies used: White and green construction paper, pink muffin cups, glue and glue stick, and mustard seeds.



I had Caleb put glue on the bottom of the muffin cups and glue them to the white paper. Then he added glue to the cut out stems and leaves and glued those down, too.

Next I had him take a q-tip, dip it in some white glue, and spread it around on the inside of each cup. Then he poured out some mustard seeds into each cup and we shook the paper around to make sure they spread evenly and stuck to the glue.

And here is our finished craft! I think it turned out really cute. I wish I had been able to find some brighter pink muffin cups, as these are so pale that when I asked him what color they were, he kept saying white.

He was a bit upset that our craft was over so quickly, so I decided to throw a little fine motor skill into our pink lesson. I took some pink puff balls I got from the craft store, poured them in a bowl, and gave him a measuring spoon and a pink cup and let him play. He played for quite a while, spooning the puffs from one container to the other and pouring them back in. Who'd have thought something so simple would be so entertaining?

Then we finished off our lesson with some pink snacks! Kiwi Strawberry Vitamin Water, strawberry yogurt (to be eaten with a pink spoon), and some pink frosted animal crackers! (There really aren't that many pink foods to choose from!)

Week 2 Lesson Plans

Theme:  Sounds

Bible Verse: Psalms 85:8 - "I will listen to what God says."

Bible Song: O Be Careful

Song: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Color: Pink

Book(s) of the Week:

Fine Motor Skill: Draw what I draw

Gross Motor Skill: Kicking balls into a goal

We'll also be taking a "sound walk" where we have to listen for certain sounds around the neighborhood. Should be another fun week!

Creation Day 5 - Birds and Fish

On the fifth day of creation, we learn that God creates the fish of the sea and birds of the air.  For this day's craft, we made homemade bird feeders.

Supplies used: Pine cones (my neighbor has a pine tree that we were able to take a couple from), peanut butter, bird seed, and ribbon.

I tied the ribbon around the top of the pine cone and put some peanut butter and birdseed in bowls. Caleb had me spread most of the peanut butter on the pine cones for him.

He liked rolling the pine cones in the birdseed.

All ready to hang outside!

For a snack today I made a Jello "fishbowl".

Supplies used: Berry Blue Jello, Swedish Fish, and clear plastic cups.

I followed the instructions on the box to make the jello and poured the liquid into the plastic cups. I put them in the refrigerator and let them sit for about 30 minutes before I put the fish into the cup so it was set enough that they wouldn't just fall to the bottom of the cup. I put them back in the fridge to continue setting and then they were ready to enjoy!

*Note: It's best that you eat these as soon as they are done setting (according to the box, about 4 hours). We waited almost a full 24 hours after I made them and by that time the fish had started to disintegrate and were completely mushy and disgusting (though Caleb didn't complain one bit!).

Creation Day 4 - Sun, Moon, and Stars

Today we made a mobile to represent the 4th day of creation.

Supplies used: Construction paper, crayons and markers, ribbon, and a glue stick.

First I drew a sun, moon, and stars onto white construction paper. (An artist, I am not.)

Then I gave Caleb all the yellow crayons and markers I could find and let him color away. He asked me to color with him, so of course I couldn't turn him down! :)

After he was done with coloring, I cut out all of the shapes. Then I took a black piece of construction paper and cut it in half length-wise. I took the two pieces and glued them together to make one long strip. Next, I cut varying lengths of ribbon and Caleb glued the sun, moon, and stars to them.

Then I had him glue the ribbon pieces to the black strip of paper and add extra glue so everything would be hidden when we folded the paper length-wise.



Then I made the paper into a circle, glued the ends together, and added ribbon to the top so it could hang.

He's already reaching for the stars! :)



Learning Colors - White

I am going to be focusing on learning the colors one week at a time for the first 9 weeks. While Caleb seems to pick up on letters and numbers very quickly, the colors haven't come as easily for him. The ABC Jesus Loves Me curriculum had us doing 3 colors a week and I knew that would be too overwhelming and confusing for Caleb. Plus, now I can incorporate the colors into our thematic units (A is for Apple - Red, D is for Ducks - Yellow, F is for Frogs - Green)!

This week we learned the color white. I put together a sensory bucket of white items and toys we had around the house. I plan on doing this each week.

Also, every week we will be adding another "scoop" of color to our ice cream cone. :)

For our craft we did a white texture collage.

Supplies used: Construction paper, glue, qtips, cotton balls, yarn, ribbon, ripped up paper towel, foam shape stickers, stamps and a white ink pad.

Caleb's favorite part was using the ink pad to put little white fingerprints all over the paper. :)

The finished piece of art!

And for today's snack....all things white! Milk, yogurt, animal crackers (which I know are more brown than white), sliced banana, string cheese, and popcorn!

Creation Day 3 - Land and Plants

Today we focused on the third day of creation; the creation of land and plants. I wanted to do an activity that would teach Caleb about the process of how we use the earth (soil) to grow all types of plants, trees, and flowers and how everything starts from just one small seed.

My dad (who I believe to be an expert on all things gardening related) came over to help out with today's activities and brought potting soil and beans along with him!

Supplies used: Potting soil, pinto beans, plastic cups, and water.

My dad poured the kidney beans out into a large plastic bowl and the potting soil into an empty pot I had on the front porch. Caleb had a lot of fun putting his hands into the bowl of beans and digging into the soil. Great sensory activities!

Caleb helped my dad fill the cups up with the soil.

Caleb didn't quite get the concept at first about putting just a few beans into the soil.

Grandpa had to show him how to do it.

Then Caleb filled up some cups with water from the hose and watered the soil.



And the finished products!

Caleb was a bit confused as to why the beans didn't sprout right away. We had watched a time-lapsed video the day before that showed a bean plant growing and he didn't understand why ours didn't do that too! My dad had a great idea to do a little craft so Caleb could see how the beans would sprout and what it would look like when they did. My dad cut out some pots, beans, stems, and leaves out of construction paper. He even hand cut out some letters for the title. Color me impressed!

 He had Caleb glue down the pieces.

It turned out so cute! Way to go, grandpa! I would have never thought of this!

After the craft Caleb and his grandpa sat down on the couch together and watched a old Jack and the Beanstalk movie I found on YouTube. What a fun day filled with some great memories!