The last couple of weeks we've been getting into our new homeschool routine and playing some fun review games and activities as Luke moves up to JK and Jonathan into PreK. A lot of their activities will overlap. I've gotten several questions about what we do for PreK/ JK, so I hope this helps answer a few! I knew I'd be homeschooling four boys through Kindergarten and then prayerfully taking one year at a time. So I've invested some time in PreK-K resources and a flexible curriculum plan that makes for smooth years ahead! Of course Lord bless the first born who was just blazing the trail with me!
For PreK/ JK both boys are using Handwriting Without Tears curriculum and a Letter of the Week curriculum. Each letter has its own 1/2" binder, and the bulk of the binder comes from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I've added additional worksheets and activities from other resources as I find them. More to come on what's in those binders.
I'm using Saxon K Math for JK, and I have monthly math concepts that I want to cover for PreK - shapes, numbers, sorting, forming sets, graphing, patterns, and 1-1 correspondence.
We'll have monthly author studies and unit studies to cover literature, science, and social studies. *(As an alternate to author and unit studies, I highly recommend FIAR which covers science, social studies, art, literature, etc through classic picture books. We used FIAR last year and all my boys really enjoyed it! This year I wanted to do some specific unit studies, but FIAR is a wonderful homeschool resource that is SIMPLE yet covers a lot!)
All three boys together will be learning Bible chronologically as we cover Genesis - Joshua from Veritas Press. (Last year we used another great resource for littles, Big Picture Bible Timeline reproducible coloring book. They color as I read the Bible story, and as the year went on, they would lay out the story pages in order. I would take out a page here and there to see if they could recognize what event was missing or out of order.)
Here are some PreK/ JK math and literacy activities that have kicked us off these past couple of weeks. I've linked to free printables which are always helpful! A lot of them are also on my Phonics/ Literacy pinterest board. I'm not the most creative but I've found people who are and learned from them! Hope it's helpful!
These are pictures of activities from the past TWO weeks!
Math
Weekly Shape: Circle (PreK)
Watch "Cindy Circle"
Circle craft project using round sponges from the dollar store and a can.
Fine Motor Circle Activities:
Bead lacing on pipe cleaner
Pick up pom poms with a tweezer and place in the correct colored bucket.
Practicing circles in his Handwriting Without Tears "My First School Book" (PreK). This book includes pages to practice all letters, numbers, shapes, and colors. Luke (JK) is using "Letters and Numbers for Me".
Saxon Math K (JK)
Math Center with pattern blocks
One of the math lessons for Saxon K this week included a pictograph to tell us how many boys and how many girls were in our family. Someone is way out numbered!
Today was our 10th day of school, and we had a visit from ZERO the HERO!! He left a surprise "zero" treat in each boy's math workbox. Lifesaver Gummies. He comes every ten days of school until we reach 100 days!
Literacy
Usually while I'm teaching my first grader math, the younger two have "ABC center time."
Matching upper and lowercase letters with clips, also working on fine motor skills.
Upper and lowercase alphabet bottle cap caterpillar.
Listening to the ABC Song from the Handwriting Without Tears Get Set For School Sing Along cd that I've put on my phone. All of the songs are great for learning!
I hid all the letters from our alphabet puzzle in a container of beans. One little guy fishes out a letter, puts it back in the puzzle, and the other finds it on the alphabet search sheet and colors it in.
Puzzle match for upper and lowercase letters that I found at the Dollar Store.
"Letters in My Name" with magnetic letters.
Sorting wood pieces from Handwriting Without Tears by big lines, little lines, big curves, and little curves. He will use these wood pieces to make letters all year.
I made two phonic literacy games that all three boys really had fun playing.
One is called "Oh No!" from Teachers Pay Teachers. You pull a letter out of the basket and say its name and sound. If you get an "Oh No!" card you have to put all your letters back.
The second game goes "Crocodile Crocodile down by the lake, I'm going to reach right in and see what (letter) you ate!" If you pull out a "snap!" card you have to give him his letters back.
There are lots of ways to use these cards! My little PreK guy has put the cards in order using the animal puzzle side; then he flips them saying, "alligator starts with an a" and so forth. Then my JK kiddo picks up from there and matches the lowercase letter with its uppercase.
At the end of the week I did a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree letter assessment.
Next week we'll start on our letter of the week curriculum!
No comments:
Post a Comment