Tot School: Thanksgiving

I know I’m WAY behind on my Tot School posts (and Tot School in general for that matter).  We’ve really just been enjoying fall and doing several fall activities.  I thought I’d share a few with you:

We’ve made cinnamon play-dough using this recipe.  I added some popsicle sticks with turkey faces and we’ve been making turkeys.  We’ve had a play-dough Thanksgiving feast.  And even a birthday party in expectation of “Miss Priss’” birthday coming up soon.

I made a giant book “Turkey, Turkey What Do You See” book and a Pilgrim Turkey color matching flip book from patterns at Childcare Land.  I couldn't find it anymore under the free patterns but they do have lots of other cute stuff like a turkey playdough mat.

 

We’ve had picnics:

 

We’ve made huge leaf piles and spent literally hours jumping in them:

 

 

As a family we’ve been working on our chain of thankfulness.  This idea came from here.  Just as she did we started off at the beginning of the month reading “Let’s Be Thankful” by PK Hallinan and talking about all the things – big and small- he was thankful for in the book.  Then we (my husband, Miss Priss and I) all wrote down something we were thankful for on a strip of paper.  Now each night after supper we read a verse(s) from the Bible using this calendar and then we each add a strip.  At the end of the month we’re going to use our chain to decorate the Christmas tree in the basement along with ornaments from Truth in The Tinsel.  It was such a blessing as we sat down to do it night before last and “Miss Priss” already had her Bible and was sitting at the table.  She opened it as though she were reading and said “Chapter 21 – God’s been good to us today!” 

 

"Miss Priss" holding up our Chain of Thanks

 

I’ve also personally been doing the FB Days of Thankfulness.  I didn’t do it last year because I thought, "You’re supposed to be thankful everyday not just everyday in November!"  However, I must say I’ve really enjoyed doing it. It’s made me even more intentional about being thankful.  It's also been uplifting to read everyone else's blessings!  And it really is true:  

“For when I am thankful it’s easy to see, I tend to spend life living more joyfully.” 

PK Hallinan, Let’s Be Thankful

 

Tot School: C is for Colorful Coat

 

Here are some highlights from what we did and learned last week in Tot School using our ABCJLM curriculum:

Bible Story:  Joseph and His Coat of Many Colors

Day 1 -Read story from our Bible Story Book and Coloring Sheet

Day 2 - Reread the story and talked about

Day 3- Using the pictures and story book “Miss Priss” told me the story.  Then she created a coat of many colors using the coat printable and tissue paper.

 

 

Memory Verse- Romans 12:21

Song/Poem- Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Letter C:

-Put cotton on letter “C”

 

-Made “C”s with play-doh

-Did a crayon rubbing of the letter “C”

-Made a letter “C” with masking tape and used it as a road for our cars

-Used our dot markers for letter “C”

 

Science Color Experiment:  We talked about how you could use certain colors to make other colors.   I got out our red, yellow, and blue food coloring.  I told her I needed orange food coloring but didn’t have any orange.  Then asked her if she thought we could make orange.  We put some cool whip (you could also use shaving cream or white icing) in a bag and I tried to get her to predict which two colors we could add to make orange. At first she didn’t get it but by the time we did the last one. She even guessed that blue and yellow would make green.  After making our prediction (one at a time) we added our food coloring and then I let her smash the bag and mix up the colors.   We then recorded our results.  She LOVED this!  She was so excited when it first made orange!  We also made purple (red + blue) and green (blue + yellow).  She was so into this the first couple times I decided to do a video.  Excuse the poor quality!

 

 

 

 

Number 3:

-Counted out groups of 3

She really started recognizing groups of 3 without even actually counting them out.  For example, when we were cooking I had three measuring cups out and she looked at them and said, “You need 3 of those?” 

Fine Motor:

Made “Snakes” with play-doh

Snacks: cupcakes and carrots

 

She tried helping with the icing then said "Mommy I think I'm better at the sprinkles!"

 

Planned on doing candy corn cookies but didn’t get it in!  Maybe during our review week J



Reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar on our Camo sleeping bag

Books: 

Books we read this week

 

 

B is for Big Boat (aka Ark)

This week we went full force with Tot School.  We actually did it four days this week and “Miss Priss” cried because we weren’t doing in on Friday so we ended up having a little “mini” Tot School then!  I still don’t have our area exactly like I want it but I did finish and put up her learning board.  I love having this to go over each morning when we first get started.  I found this idea from here.

 

 

 

Here are some highlights from what we did and learned last week in Tot School:

Bible Story:  Noah’s Ark

Day 1 -Read story from our Bible Story Book and Colored theArk

Day 2 - Reread the story and talked about the rain. Did a little Science Experiment I found on Pinterest on clouds and rain.  
 

Put together our Noah’s Ark puzzle.

 

Day 3- Using the pictures and story book “Miss Priss” told me the story.  Then We counted out two of each animal cracker and placed them on the ark.

 

 

Day 4 – Retold Noah’s Ark focusing on the rainbow and then she painted a rainbow

Memory Verse- John 14:15

Song – Arky, Arky

Letter B:

-Put buttons on letter “B”

 

 

-Used our dot markers for letter “B”

-Played in our “B Bin” which included beans, a bottle, banana, ball, brush, block, buttons, and bells.  She sorted buttons, counted beans, and put them in the bottle.

 

 

-Sorted buttons by color talked about which color we had the least and most.

-Created a butterfly with our feet prints.  I painted “Miss Priss’” feet.  Then she painted “Sunshine’s”.

 

 

 

-Played with blocks

Number 3:

-Read Three Little Bears

-Counted out groups of 3 buttons

 

 

Fine Motor:

Introduced scissors and practiced cutting paper

Laced a bear

 

Gross Motor:  Rolled and threw a ball.

Field Trip: We went to Nocolulla Falls this week and visited the barn where they keep the bunnies.

Books We Read This Week: 

 

 

 

Resources:

ABC Jesus Loves Me

This week is Letter C and Joseph's Colorful Coat! 

Tot School Returns-This time with a Curriculum

So I realize this is my first blog on it (Sorry!) but we're actually on our 5th week of Tot School!! 

For those of you who may not know, Tot School to us is basically just a way to hold myself accountable for spending some time with "Miss Priss" each day and teaching her some of the "basics."

This year we are using a curriculum.  I use the word curriculum just as I use Tot School - very loosely!  Nothing is forced or set in stone but funcitons more as a guide for us.  I love doing Tot School with "Miss Priss" and she loves it even more! (Did I mention it's usually the first thing she asks to do when she gets up in the morning?)  What I don't always enjoy is all the planning that goes into the lessons.  Especially with me doing everything from "scratch" last year it was taking alot of my time. This year I knew I was going to have even less time since we also have a 5 month old now! (And boy was I right; thus our fifth week of Tot School and I'm just now blogging that we have this curriculum!)  

So while I do think Tot School and spending time with "Miss Priss" is VERY important I wanted something I could at least use as a guide then add what I wanted to it according to our needs and time!

After searching and reading about many curriculums online, I finally decided on ABC Jesus Loves Me.  I started looking for a curriculum to use at the end of last school year and looked off and on all summer going back and forth between two or three.  Then one day I stumbled across her schedule on ABC Jesus Loves Me and realized it already fit my own schedule almost exactly!  Then I found a link to her blog, Our Out -of-Sync Life and while I was doing my God First Challenge she was doing her on series on scheduling your time to align with your priorities! A lady after my own heart!  The more I read the more I loved so I purchased the curriculum that day.

Here are a few reasons why I chose this one:

1.  It includes Bible lessons and scripture memorization.

2. It is flexible and incorporated throughout our day.  This works well with my schedule and "Miss Priss'" attention span! 

3.  There are several options for you to pick and choose.  You can do as little or as much as your time allows.

4.  There's a built in review week every fourth week to cover anything you may have missed, didn't have time for or just need to work on more.

5.  While letters are introduced and covered, writing in the 3 year old curriculum is not a primary concern. There are several tactile letter activities which is exactly what I wanted for her at this point.

6.  While you can (and I did) order everything already printed out (saved me more time!) it's also all FREE!

7. Includes great selections, ideas and incorporations with the books of the week.

8.  They have a wonderful support group which includes a facebook page, forum, and other bloggers for you to find even more ideas and help if you need it.

That's just a few reasons why we are loving this curriculum.  "Miss Priss" is also loving it too.  Hopefully, in the next few days I will show you some things we've been doing in these first few weeks!

Do you have a curriculum you use with your preschooler? Please share!



In case you are considering a "curriculum" for your little one  here are a few more I thought were great and considered:

Brightly Beaming Resources (Free)
Letter of the Week by Confessions of a Homeschooler (Free)
Hubbard's Cupboard (Free)

Hands on Homeschooling
Little Hands to Heaven (Heart of Dakota)