Archive for September, 2008:
Tot School
Painting ORANGE
Making Play-doh (in pajamas)!
Other things we did
Read books – new favorites include: Mr. Gumpy’s Outing, If You GIve a Mouse a Cookie, and That’s Not My Lion
Hide and seek with puzzle pieces- this put a new spin on some old puzzles. We "hid" the pieces around the room and Simon went around finding them and putting the puzzle together.
Sandbox Play (does this count as school? It does for a tot!)
Fingerplays and Songs- Simon loves to sing and do motions with songs like "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes; he also just loves "Old McDonald!" I let him fill in the blanks this week (choosing the animals and sounds
Fun Festival Field Trip – Sights and Sounds
Johnny Appleseed
The Bands
Making Cider
Metalsmith
Making Lace
Spinning Wheels
Trapper/Trader
Magician
Shredding Cabbage for Coleslaw
Dancers
Musicians
Fun Festival Field Trip Part 2 – Faces and Names
Silly Simon
Uncle & Lindsey
Elijah & Jason
Fun Festival Field Trip Part 3 – Games & Toys
In the hay maze
Playing with old toys
Simon searching in the corn
Elijah in the Obstacle Course
Weather Words Lapbook
This week Elijah got to choose what we learned about. His choice? Weather!
For the extention, we cut the right side off a file folder and paste the entire thing in to the lapbook. It opens on the right side. The printables are found here.
Some of the answers Elijah wrote in, others he dictated to me and they were pasted in, some were typed straight from the book and cut/pasted inside the minits
Rainwords Hotdog Book
clouds accordion opening up
combination clouds flap opened
how a cloud forms fan
Apple Copywork
I just love these pictures of Elijah working so hard! I printed up pages for him that have the starting dots included. He loved this. It makes life so much easier for him. I plan to keep on doing it all year long! 
Here is the part of a poem he copied:
"When autumn comes, our apple tree is full of things to eat. The apples hang from every branch to tumble at our feet."
A Good Apple and a Bad Apple
Really, this is one of those end-of-weeks where I’m going, "WHEW!" I feel like we’ve covered a lot of ground in this notebook (we hole punched cardstock and put it in a binder instead of using the tradtional file folder). This kid keeps me hoppin’, that’s for sure. He is SUPER proud of this notebook (and he should be). He just kept wanting more, more, more (good apple)! And me? We’ll I’m all appled-out (bad apple).
Most of the printables came from Homeschool Share (Apples to Oregon Unit & Johnny Appleseed Lapbook). A few are from Enchanted Learning (apple tree through the seasons, Johnny Appleseed circle), and one is from Evan Moor’s Giant Science Resource Book (lifecycle printable).
The first page is his copywork/apple drawing in a plastic protector.
Apples to Oregon Section
Mapping Oregon, A tab-book about Oregon, Map showing the Oregon Trail (Iowa-Oregon) that the family in the story probably took.
Covered Wagon Diagram
Figures of Speech- we reviewed alliteration and personification; had an introduction to hyperbole and allusion
Elijah’s "Book Report" Page
This exercise kind of happened spontaneously. Elijah thought the allierations in the book were so funny (cause they are!) that he started alliterating everything. I made up this page for him to have more fun. He didn’t complain about the handwriting at all!
Close up of fruit alliterations
All About Apples Section
Johnny Appleseed Section
Tot School
You’ve got to keep the tot busy…
Building with Smart Shapes by Lauri
These are great for teaching shapes, colors, sorting, and numbers in quantity (the Rightstart way!). Simon also loves to build with them. The shapes fit in to the main piece like a puzzle, too, so you get some fine motor action going on as well. I like them because I can use them as a tool one-on-one with Simon, or he can just experiment with them all by himself.
Simon tried something new with them this week (which is why I grabbed the camera); he stacked the shapes up on each other.
Lots of trial and error to get the tower to stack right, but he hung in there and did it!
Since big brother was learning about apples this week (and next), I made a little "lapbook" for Simon. He went crazy over it! He asked for his "apples" folder more than once. He really had to think to decide which apples to put in each pocket.
Here’s another fun sorting activity I’ve had since Elijah was a tot. The first time I had Simon do this (a few months ago), I thought he was doing it wrong, but as I stepped back (instead of telling him he was wrong and) watched, I realized that he just does things differently! He instinctively sorts by animal instead of color. What a great reminder to me to not rush in to teach him the "right way" to do things.
As for other things we did this week- nature walks, apple orchard, caramel apples, tea-time with poetry, stories, and markers (notice the green on his forehead and the red on his arm!).
Happy Tot-schooling!
Smart Shoppin’!
Ooooooooooh! I love library book sales. I know I shouldn’t throw the word love around, but I REALLY love book sales!
I felt like I got a great haul tonight and my total was a whopping $34. Okay, so $34 seems like a lot, but look at what I got! Lots of books and even a stack of audio books!
Disclaimer: I have no clue if some of these books are suitable for my dc to read, but I will preview and preread.
