Marker Lid Sorting

Activity: Sorting marker lids by color

Learning Materials: assorted marker lids (any small item that comes in a variety of colors will work), cups for sorting (we use yogurt cups)

Directions:
1) Sort the lids by color
2) Count how many different groups there are

Extended Activities (when ready)
1)  Compare the groups with the most/fewest lids
2)  Count how many lids are in each group
3)  Sort the lids by size

Even further extension (older students)
1)  Chart on a graph how many colors are in each group
2)  Add two groups together
3)  Find the difference between two groups

N is sorting the marker lids by color

I let N choose which color some of the lids were as they could have gone in different groups.

Counting which group had the most.

Kansas Early Learning Standard: Math Pre-4 (by 60 months)

Classify objects and count the number of objects in each category
M.MD.p4.3:  Sorts objects into categories, counts the number of objects in each category, makes comparisons between the categories based on quantity.

Counting and Cardinality
MCC.p.4.1:  Counts in sequence to 30

Count to tell the number of objects
MCC.p.4.4a: Uses one-to-one correspondence when counting the objects

Compare Numbers
MCC.p4.6: Identifies whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group

Tangram Puzzles

Activity:  Completing the animal puzzles with the tangram pieces.

Materials:  tangram puzzles OR printable tangram pieces and templates found here:

Print off pieces and puzzles here:
Tangram Pieces
Use clipart to create puzzles here:
Tangram Clipart
More puzzles to print:
Tangram Puzzles

Talk about the names and characteristics of each shape (# sides, one side is longer, equal lengths, etc.)

Melissa and Doug Tangram Puzzles

Very simple matching of shapes to the outline.

N tried to fit different pieces together to make them fit.

Kansas Early Learning Standards

By 36 months

M.G.t.3:  

Manipulates shapes to place in a form board or simple puzzle.

By 48 months

M.G.p3.2:  

Correctly names shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size.

M.G.p3.3:

Analyzes and compares shapes in different sizes and orientations and uses informal

language to describe their similarities, difference and part (e.g.,number of sides and corners) and other attributes (e.g., having sides of equal length)

M.MD.p3.2:

Sorts objects into two or more groups by their properties or uses (e.g., sorts blocks into 2 piles; sorts by shape) 

M.CC.p3.6:

Identifies whether the number of objects in one group is more or less as compared to the number of objects in another group up to 5 

By 60 months

M.MD.p4.3:

Sorts objects into categories; counts the numbers of objects in each category (limit category counts to less than or equal to 10); makes comparisons between the categories based on quantity.

M.MD.p4.2:

Directly compares two objects with a measurable attribute in common to see which objects has “more of ”/ “less of ” the attribute.

Extended Activities using Tangrams:

1) Sort the pieces by colors
2) Sort the pieces by shapes
3) Count how many in each category
4) Talk about which category has more or less (ex. Are there more blue than white?, Which color/shape has the fewest?)
5) Use the mathematical terms for the shapes (ex.  rhombus instead of diamond, trapezoid, hexagon)

N sorting by colors and counting how many in each group.

6) Let your child come up with their own creation using the tangram pieces.

N discovered that the hexagons fit together.

Have fun watching your child discover the world of tangrams!

Pipe Cleaners in a Jar

Stuffing Pipe Cleaners

Materials:
empty (clean) Parmesan cheese jar
pipe cleaners (cut into small pieces)
straws (cut into small pieces)

Push the small pipe cleaners or straws through the holes.
Dump or shake them out and do it again!

Kansas Early Learning Standards

PHD.t.4:

Coordinates the use of arms, hands and fingers to accomplish more complex tasks 

PHD.p3.2:

Uses classroom and household tools independently and with eye-hand coordination to carry out more complex activities.

K using the straws.

Excellent fine motor skills being worked!

K stopping for a "cheese".

Great eye hand coordination!

Allow your child to lead the activity for as long as she/he wants to explore.  Then try some extended activities.

Extended Activities:
> count the straws/pipe cleaners as your child puts them in
> name colors to be put in (put the yellow straw in, put the green pipe cleaner in, etc.)
> ask your child to put in a certain number of straws/cleaners (Can you put in 3 straws?)

BOB Books

If you have not discovered BOB books yet I highly recommend them!  We have 3 full sets now.  Pictured above is the first set.  You can purchase them through book fairs and on Amazon.These contain easy CVC words and some beginning sight words in.  L (my kindergartener now) has taken to these very well.  Once blending letter sounds together clicked with him he took off.  There are also free resources and printables to go with BOB books as well.  What I love most about the BOB books is the simple Dick and Jane structure of the stories.  I know when I was a kid I learned most of our reading skills from memorizing the words.  I memorized the words from practicing them over and over until I recognized the sounds that went together.  I don't remember much about learning phonics, but I remember reading Dick and Jane books and other stories like them.  I am not saying that memorizing words is the best way to read.  But it is an excellent tool, especially for those sight words that do not follow phonics rules. 


Standards

Kansas Early Learning Standards
(standards for children 3-4 years old)

CL.L.p3.2:

Uses pictures and illustrations to tell and retell parts of a story.

 

CL.L.p3.3:

Asks and answers questions about unknown words/pictures in a book.

 

CL.L.p3.4 :

Interacts with a variety of common types of texts (e.g.,storybooks, poems, songs).

 

CL.L.p3.5:

Understands that books have both illustrations and print.

 

CL.IT.p3.3:

Exhibits curiosity and interest in learning new vocabulary.

 

CL.IT.p3.4:

Identifies the front andback cover of a book.

 

Common Core Standards
(the following standards are at a Kindergarten level...not an early learning level)

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.R.F.K.1   
Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.R.F.K.1a 
 Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.R.F.K.1b   
Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.R.F.K.1c
 Understand that words are separated by spaces in print

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.R.F.K.3a   
Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant. 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.R.F.K.3c  
Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

Matching Numerals

Activity:  Match the numeral card to the number word card and the shape quantity card.

 

Standards

 

Kansas Early Learning Standards

 

ATL.p3.1:

Sustains attention to task, especially when adults offer suggestions, comments and questions as a means of support.

 

 ATL.p3.3:

Remembers and follows one or two step directions.

 

ATL.p3.4:

Practices an activity many times until successful.

M.CC.p3.2:

Demonstrates an understanding that number names can be represented with a written numeral.

 

M.CC.p3.5: 

Uses number words to indicate the quantity in small sets.

 

M.G.p3.2: Correctly names shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size

 

Common Core Standards

 

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4 Understand the relationship between numbers and quantities; connect counting to cardinality.

 

Each color coded card has a numeral, a shape representing a numeral, or a number word.

 

N placed the numbers in order first.

N found the quantity cards that represent the number.

The color coding helped N recognize which word matched the number.

 

Pom-Pom Patterns

 Activity:  Making Patterns

1) Create a pattern using the colored pom-poms for the student to repeat.

Standards:

Kansas Early Learning Standard:
 MK 2  Demonstrates an understanding of patterns and relationships.

Kansas Pre-Kindergarten Mathematical Standards:
PK.2 Demonstrates an understanding of patterns and relationships (Algebra) 
PK.2.2.1.Pre4 1 Uses blocks, beads or other materials to make or extend patterns

I found this cute pumpkin ice cube tray to use for lots of activities!

Little learners can work on their sorting skills, too.

Pom-poms in a Jar

 For this activity I opened up the jar of pom pom balls and gave K a can.

K decided to fill up her can.

My can is full.

K then chose to dump the balls into the jar.

I love how little ones don't always need insturctions in order to learn something new.  She pretty much played with the pom-poms and jar on her own for a good chunk of time.  (We also discovered our cat enjoys playing with the pom-poms, too!)

Animal Magnets

K loves animals!  We just happen to own a great set of animal magnets from Melissa and Doug that I picked up on sale at an Atwood's store.  (They have some great stuff their for kids!)

These magnets are a fun way to help little learners identify animal names and sounds.  As they grow and are ready to learn more you can start talking about characteristics of each animal (ie. color of fur/ skin, tall/short, fat/thin, wings/hooves, live in water/ on land, etc.)

Counting the animals one at a time will reinforce one-to-one correspondence.

If you have older ones that know their letters you can use your magnetic letters to match up the beginning sound for each animal.

You could also make name cards to pair up with each animal.  I'll put that on my to-do list!

I made my magnet boards with cookie sheets I bought at the Dollar General Store in a 3-pack.  I then spray painted them and attached command strips to the back.  My boards usually hang on the wall, but we (K and N) sometimes like to take them off.

K really loves "ellies" and  'quack-quacks" right now!

Beginning Drawing

 Drawing straight lines, dashes, and "t's".

Standards:

 

Kansas Early Learning Standard:

 

CL Standard 4: Demonstrates emergent writing skills

 

Common Core State Standards:

 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.  (this activity would be a pre-cursor to this standard)

 

 

N working on her "t's"

 Most preschool assessments have this box to check off:  

Writes using pictures/symbols/letters

This activity will strengthen this skill.  Many parents don't think about their child being able to draw lines and dashes, but it is a necessary pre writing skill to learn.
 

Drawing simple shapes

 N is copying a simple shape that I had drawn of a pumpkin and a square.  This type of drawing activity reinforces following directions.

Tracing Book

 Almost each school day N works in her tracing book.  It is simply a 3-ring binder with pages I have printed off from various sources slipped into sheet protectors.  She uses a wipe off marker to do her work.  Here are some of the pages she works on:

pre writing lines

Source:  abcjesuslovesme.com

Letter practice

 Source:  3dinosaurs.com

Numbers

I added a dot with a highlighter to help N know where to start.  She tends to want to start at the bottom.

Source:  lilbunnyhops.com

Shape Tracing

 I have pages of each common shape in the book and N works on whatever shape we might be working on.

Source:  confessionsofahomeschooler.com

More number tracing and number words.

 Source:  confessionsofahomeschooler.com

Number tracing

 Source:  learningpage.com

lines, dashes, and t's

One of the skills preschoolers are assessed on is if they can draw a straight line, a dash, a "t" and some common shapes.  They will also be asked at different times throughout the year to draw a person including at least 3 identifiable body parts (arms, legs, eyes, etc.)

Source:  preschoolpalace.org

Letter Tracing

I have these pages from A-Z all in the same sheet protector.  My plan is to switch them out as we work on each letter.  I also go back to letters we have done before just to keep N familiar with them.

Source:  momto2boys24.blogspot.com

N does not do everything everyday.  I vary it from day to day, depending on what letter, number, or skill we are working on each day.  Or if I need to set up an activity I use some of the pages as busy work.

You can easily create your own book for your little one to work!  You could laminate your pages, but sheet protectors are cheaper!  

Calendar Routine

 I have been working on this for a while now.  I knew I wanted to set up a calendar area this year for N's preschool.  But I didn't know where I would put it.  Saved by the grandparents I was blessed with a wonderful set of bookshelves!  And so my calendar area found its home on the backside of one of the bookshelves. 

 I created the space using duct tape, posterboard, paint chips, and some cheap supplies all found at my local Dollar General. Well, the paint chips were from a home improvement store.  My laminator also came in handy!

Days of the week squares were created using FREE paint chips!  They are attached with blue sticky tack (the yellow doesn't work very well IMO!)

My apples were created with a free template from Teachers Pay Teachers.  I then created a PDF document with 6 apples.  I opened this in Photoshop and added the numbers or letters, printed the pages off, and then laminated them with my Scotch laminator.  You could easily use contact paper as well.  This took the most time and you could easily create something similar with post-it notes or paint chips.  Or if you are really crafty you could use a cute paper punch and make some adorable letter/number cards!

 Here is our rourine:

1.  We sing a good morning song followed by the months of the year song and a days of the week song.

2. Next we talk about what day yesterday was, what day today is, and what day tomorrow will be. I will throw in some color activities here, too.  I am working on new color cards with the color words on them.  Those will be added soon.

3.  We find the number of the date and add the apple, then count all the days of the month. I would like to work on making another set of numbers, either another color set or a completely new set.  In the classroom setting this is where teachers work on patterns.  All of the odd numbers would be one type of card (apples for example) and the even numbers would be another type of card (oranges for example).  So students would repeat the pattern after they have counted the days.  Plus my apples don't really go with the zebra duct tape (but I love it!).

4.  Add one more number to our # of days in school.

We count each day we do our calendar time as a day of school.  Some days there is not enough time to do other seat work or activities.   But N is still learning from the calendar activities that we do.  We are beginning the process of place value with tens and ones.
(source: homeschoolcreations.com)

5.  We add one tally mark to our days of school in each month.  N is beginning to learn a little about tally marks.  Eventually we will practice counting by 5's.
(source:  homeschoolcreations.com)

6.  We also use sticks to count our days.  The tub is an icing tub wrapped in duct tape (thanks to my oldest daughter for buying some!)  Once we reach 10 sticks I bundle them with a rubber band and then we will start our counting from 10 (ex.  10, 11 12... instead of starting with one).  Counting up starting with a random number builds sequencing skills.  As we get more bundles of 10 we will begin counting by 10's. 

7.  Each day N decides what the weather is and chooses on or two weather cards to describe it.  We talk about the temperature, but we are not graphing it yet.  That will come soon.

8.  N adds a sticker to her chart for each day she is in school.  We do some counting activities each day for that number (clap 19 times, hop 19 times, do 19 jumping jacks, etc.).  I will be writing numbers by 10's down the right side eventually working up to counting by 10's.

9.  Each day I remove the apples (made the same as our number apples) and ask N to build her name.  Eventually I plan on making apples to build sibling names, parent names, pet names, color words, and later on sight words.

10.  One last calendar activity we do is our Alphabet Clap.  I am teaching the alphabet in order so we started with A.  Alternate clapping once and slapping your knees once and repeat the following:

A (name), short A sound, alligator
B (name), B sound, butterfly
C (name), hard C sound (ck), caterpillar

We say it as many times as N would like to.  Sometimes she says it with me, other times she repeats it.  I am thinking of adding the long A sound and the soft C sound eventually.  Right now the focus is on the most common uses of each letter sound.  We also talk a little about consonants and vowels.  Mostly I just state that A is a vowel and B is a consonant. 

Side Notes:

We are taking our time getting through the alphabet, focusing on each letter.  As she learns all the routines and knows what to expect we will speed things up a bit.

One of the most important things you can do for your child is to go at their pace-especially while they are young.  I don't allow N to be lazy, but I also don't push her.  I want this to be a fun learning experience for her so that when she does start school she will be ready.  

Is a calendar really necessary for your child?  Not at all!  You do what works for you!  I taught my older two children without a calendar routine at home and they are doing fine!  I just wanted to create one at home for my next two.  Maybe I'm getting the itch to go back to work!  Maybe I'm considering teaching preschool when I do!  Who knows!  Teaching N and K at home fills that desire for me to teach right now. 

There are so many ways to create a calendar space for your child!  Get on pinterest and start looking around!  You can purchase pre-made ones or order the fabric ones!  You may even be crafty enough to make your own with fabric! I wanted to try and create mine with as little cost as I could to show readers you can create things while being frugal.  There is a plethora of resources out there and they are free!  All you have to do is look for them!

Letter B Activities

Letter Bb Activities

N completed a variety of activities to establish knowledge of the letter B.  Repetition is very important for memorization.  N repeated the name of the letter B and the sound of the letter B several times during each activity.  It is also important to include upper and lower case letters together when working with individual letters.

Standards

Common Core Standard:  
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1a Print many upper- and lowercase letters.

Kansas Early Learning Standard:  

CL Standard 4:  Demonstrates emergent writing skills

Resource:  ABC printables @ www.3dinosaurs.com
                  Large B @ preschoolpalace.org
                  Do-a-Dot @ www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

Pre Writing Practice tracing B to b

Stamping B's

B is for Bandaid

Do-a-Dot Paint Bb

Counting Beads

Additional Bead Activities:

1) roll a dice and string the number of beads
2) string the number of beads according to the date
3) string a pattern
4) string according to the number of letters in your name (family members' names)
5) string according to the number of family members you have

B is for Butterfly Color Book

Each box contained a butterfly to color a specific color.  N worked on this throughout the week.  It seemed to be a lot to color in one setting.

Do-a-Dot B

N decided to use each color once and then repeat them.

Tracing Bb

N is still learning correct writing skills.

Letter Bb Hunt with Do-a-Dot paints

N had to distinguish between Bb's and other letters including Dd's. 

Miss K using Do-a-Dot

K loves to do schoolwork with her big sister.