Jack and the Beanstalk - Preschool Unit

Letter: J

Story: Jack and the Beanstalk (here are the printables I used to make magnet board characters)

Rhyme: Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley

Vocab words: cow, bean, hen

Literacy Activity: Compound words. I taped the words corn, bean, and stalk onto separate duplo blocks and we practiced building one word out of two smaller words and then practiced taking away a word and seeing what we were left with. We made the word cornstalk and beanstalk. Then I would take away stalk and the kids would shout out the word we were left with. We did the same thing with cowgirl and cowboy later in the week.

I can't remember what days I did what printables, unless they specifically went with the focus for that day (like I know we did most of the letter J printables on Monday). So I am just going to link to the packet and you just realize that I printed worksheets off and we did them as needed/wanted.

Monday: Letter J
Worksheets
Alphabet sidewalk chalk game (found here)

Tuesday: all about beans
We learned about the life cycle of a bean using this worksheet. Cut and paste in sequential order.
Started our lima bean sprouts in sandwich bags. (Instructions here)
Painted lima beans, said some magic words to make them magic beans, and then planted them. I made the kids draw a picture of what they thought would grow. (Day 1 a sucker stick grew, day 2 a small pompom was added, day 3 a bigger pom-pom, day 4 a sucker!)
Beanstalk art project. (found here)

Wednesday: numbers
Sidewalk chalk beanstalk game. I drew a beanstalk on the sidewalk and numbered the leaves from one-ten. Then I would say "run to the 8" or "skip to the 4". The kids loved it.
Add 'em up dice game. I drew a beanstalk and numbered the leaves 2-12. Using two dice we practiced adding/counting. The first person to roll all the numbers won.
Counting worksheets.

Thursday: Review
I made golden eggs out of yellow construction paper and put a lowercase letter on each one since Miss J has been struggling with those. Every time the kids found one they had to tell me the sound it made before putting it in the bag. Max played this over and over by himself throughout the day.
I cut out cardboard giant feet and attached yarn. The kids took turn feeling like giants and knocking over towers and terrorizing their Fisher Price Little People.


We also added a literature element to our days. I have been reading the first story in A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh out loud to the kids. (The one about the balloon and the bees) Then we are working on this lapbook. The book is a bit complex so we read it through slowly and now we are reading it again as we do the lapbook and we will probably read it through a third time as well.

We also started doing a few Brainquest cards at night.

Jane has started reading the first Bob Book, "Mat". I will probably have her read it every day for a week, maybe do these worksheets/activities, and then move on to the next book. She decided she wanted to do this on her own, and so we are taking it very slow and I'm trying not to push anything.

Little Red Riding Hood Preschool Unit

Letter: R

Rhyme: A Tisket A Tasket

Literary Exercise: words that rhyme with red

Vocab words: red, wolf, basket

Day 1: Talked about the letter R. Did R and r cookie sorting, letter finding, and writing practice from this worksheet package. Most of the worksheets/games I talk about are from this packet.
Color mixing. We experimented with mixing colors and learned how to make purple, orange and green.

Day 2: Practiced writing the letter R. Did the scrabble letter word building activity.

Made a map to get Little Red Riding Hood to her grandma's house. Then we made a map showing how we got to our grandma's house. Kids had to recount the "directions" to me and then to grammy over the phone.

Day 3: Did the clothespin number wheel and "add 'em up" dice game. We also glued construction paper to make a letter R.

We drew pictures of our grammies and then used proper pronouns and complete sentences to describe them.

Day 4:  Shadow matching, Cut and paste following directions with prepositions, pattern worksheet.

Learned about healthy and unhealthy food and planned our picnic.

Day 5: This will happen tomorrow, but we plan to replay some of the games from the last week and went on a picnic. The kids will help make the "healthy food" and put them in our basket. At the picnic I hope to have everyone act out the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Preschool Unit

For Circle Time everyday we said our opening verse, did the calendar, reviewed what we'd learned the day before and then said our rhyme.  After that we did our literacy activity and I told the kids the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears using puppets that I mounted onto magnet. The puppets were lost by Wednesday, but at least they were well loved and played with for a couple days.

Rhyme: Pease Porridge Hot

Letter: Bb

Number: 3

Vocab word: Habitat

Literacy Activity: Memory with Opposite Cards (found here)  **My kids top out at about 6-8 matches right now. I chose the easiest ones and went from there. You know what your kids can handle."


Day 1: B is for Bear

Look at pictures of different kinds of bears. Name them and see where they live. What do their habitats look like? What do they eat? Talk about how a habitat is an animal home and each habitat has to have a safe place for the bear to live and food available. Tape a picture of each bear onto a world map where that bear lives.

B is for Bear worksheets. and minibook

Watch videos of the four bears we talked about.
Polar bear video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwZH_aT0FGI
Sun bear video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc8oxe-5dts
Grizzly video   http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/other/videos/grizzly-bear-videos.htm
Panda video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZjlVUG_APs

Go see the bears at the zoo.

Day 2: Porridge

Make an instruction sheet with 4-6 illustrated steps for making porridge (Cream of Wheat or Oatmeal). Go over the steps with the kids before, during, and after the actual preparation of the porridge. Have the kids help you.

Observe the porridge and make a "word web" describing it. Our describing words for porridge were "White, hot, soft, smooth".

Try the porridge with different toppings and vote on whether you like it with a specific topping or not. Make a simple graph of the Yeas Vs. Nays. Count each vote and then add both sides together to make sure all votes are accounted for (but really to begin teaching basic addition)

Day 3: Number 3

Do 3 Worksheet
Do sizing worksheet. Color, cut, count, sort into small medium and large, glue.

Talk about small, medium, and large throughout the day.

Day 4: Opposites

Set out an opposites exhibit and then have the kids help you label each thing with the appropriate word. We did Hot vs. Cold, Soft Vs. Hard, Wet Vs. Dry. Review each item and word (you're trying to build a little word recognition here)

Do the pattern worksheet

Day 5: Max's Birthday so....no school!

Rapunzel

This week, we learned the story of Rapunzel.  Not familiar with the story?  I had to shorten and simplify it, because the original is just a tad long and complex for my 3-year-old.  I would be willing to put up a vieo of me telling the story if you want some ideas on how to tell a story out loud.  Let me know, if you would like that.

You will need:

popsicle sticks

contact paper

yellow yarn

vanilla wafers

strawberry frosting

Monday: Tell the story and talk about the letter.  This week's letter is H for hair.  Draw a picture of the story with a big letter "H" either on the window, or on a large sheet of paper and display it by the kitchen table so you can talk about it at meal times.

Tuesday:  Make Popsicle stick puppets.  You can use the pictures I have here or find your own.  Color them, cut them out, and tape them on popsicle sticks.  If coloring holds your child's attention, have them join you, if not, do it on your own.  Then tell the story with the puppets.  Laminate them if you want them to last longer.  Your kids will want to play with them!  I added a small braid of yellow yarn onto the tower so that Rapunzel could "let down her hair".

Wednesday: Act it out.  I surprised the kids by braiding a long bunch of yarn and fastening it to our stair railing.  When Miss J woke up she shouted for me to "Come and Look!  It's Rapunzel's hair!"  Then she wanted her brother to come help her get it down.  Later that day we acted out the story with some letting down Rapunzel's hair and someone else climbing up the stairs holding onto it.

Thursday:  Make "hair art"  Cut several different lengths of yellow yarn.  Cut a large piece of contact paper into some shape(a heart, sun, tear drop) Then decorate it by arranging the yarn on the sticky part.  Cover with another piece of contact paper, and hand in a window.

Friday:  Eat it!  Make Rapunzel's tower out of Vanilla Wafers and strawberry frosting. 

 Don't forget to tell the story at least once every day!

Fairy Tale Preschool

I realized last week, that the preschool curriculum I was using was ok, but I didn't feel passionate about it.  So I decided to make up my own.  I really want my learning interactions with my kids to be about more than just the ABC's and 123's.  I feel like with reading and talking to them (and a healthy dose of letter factory) kids will catch on to those things in their own time, without it being pushed.  I wanted to give my kids more of a literary foundation than just the basics.  Thus, my fairy tale preschool curriculum.

Fairy tales, folk tales, myths, fables, and legends are an important basis to understand future literary works.  Especially more complex works that will draw on them for allusions and metaphors.  They also teach a child about how a story works, the build up, the foreshadowing, the climax, the end.  Children love fairy tales!  Adults may find some of them in their purest form gruesome, but children don't think like that.  They just enjoy the story, and when good wins out over evil, they feel safe in their world.

The way I am doing it, is that every week we focus on a different fairy tale.  Last week it was "The Gingerbread Man".  This week it is Rapunzel.  I choose a word from the fairy tale and make it's first letter, the letter of the week.  Then I write the letter really big on our window, with a small illustration of the word.  Sometimes I add a picture from the story.  This week, H is for hair, and there is a picture of Rapunzel's hair flowing out of her tower to the witch down below, while the prince hides and watches.

Every day of the week you tell the story.  I highly recommend telling the story aloud without a book.  Children love storytelling, and imagining what is happening.  Get into it.  Add some details, give your characters different voices, change your volume.  If storytelling isn't your forte, practice a few times to make sure you have the story right.  Try and keep the story as similar as possible with every retelling.  Repetition is key.  Don't be surprised when your little one asks you to tell the story again, and again, and again!

Every day of the week has a different theme/activity to go along with the story.
Monday - tell it
Tuesday - Puppet Show
Wednesday - Act it out
Thursday - Arts/craft it
Friday - Eat it

So last week I told "The Gingerbread Man" story on Monday, went over F is for Fox and printed off a picture of a fox to show the kids.  Then Tuesday, I printed off these coloring pages of the different characters in the story, we colored them and taped them onto popsicle sticks and told the story using the puppets.  Wednesday, we acted out the story together.  Miss J couldn't decide who she wanted to be and tried out several different characters.  Thursday, we decorated felt gingerbread men and turned them into hand puppets.  Friday we baked, decorated and ate gingerbread men cookies.

I will post what we are doing every week and you can follow along or use past stories if you want.  Or you can make it up for yourself and just follow the flexible guidelines for each day.  The most important part is telling the story every day.  I have already had so many fun moments with my kids, and the thoroughly enjoy this part of our days.   I can't wait to share more with you!