I originally intended to introduce a new learning theme each week with a corresponding blog post review at the end of the week. But it looks like we are falling into more of a two week cycle with our themes, so my blog post reviews about our leaning experiences will be every other week for now. The two week cycle is working well for me because it is easier for me on the planning side, and repetition is always great for little ones. Plus, I don't feel rushed to try to cram too many activities into the week, but can instead leave more time open for creative free play.
Here is a glimpse at what we have been up to...
Circle Time
Fingerplays and Songs
We have been enjoying some of the fingerplays and songs from the Little Acorn Learning FREE Spring Sample Week found here. Buddy's favorite was "The Seed".
Memory Verse
Our memory verse for the past two weeks was Psalm 92:15. We leaned it by listening to Songs for Saplings Track #18 called "Rock".
Storytelling
Our story this week was "The Little Brown Seed" which I found in the Seasons of Joy Spring E-Book. Buddy really enjoyed this story.
Reading Aloud
We had some books that went along with our theme, so didn't make a trip to the library this time around.
A Garden for Miss Mouse by Michaela Muntean
"The Garden" from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
The Berenstain Bears Show God's Love published by Zondervan
Open Ended Art
Buddy found some electrical tape in his dad's office and LOVES to play with it. So I set him up at the table with a lot of different materials and textures and just let him have fun creating. He had a blast!
Practical Life
Buddy loves to help me clean the mirrors and sliding glass doors. I use Club Soda, so I have no concerns with him running around with a spray bottle cleaning independently.
We also observed that the plant on our porch was droopy and need water.
Creative Play
We had fun pretending to be seeds by crouching on the ground. We would pretend to warm each other with sunshine and water each other with rain fingers until we grew big and tall.
On a rather rainy day this week, I made a puppet stage by hanging a short curtain on a tension rod in the doorway to the playroom. The we took turns having the puppets sing some of Buddy's favorite songs off my iPhone. This was the first time he has ever really enjoyed playing with puppets. I am excited because I love puppets!
Nature
We observed our garden plants which are growing quite nicely.
We cut roses off of our rose bush to display in the kitchen. Buddy wore gardening gloves and was very careful to not touch the thorns. He asked me a lot about the thorns and if they were the same as the ones on the crown of thorns that Jesus wore.
Little Man picked dandelions.
And Buddy studied them closely in his little cup necklace with magnifying glass that is made for collecting bugs and other things. I found it at Target in the dollar aisle.
We cleaned up the area around the back of our sun-porch and planted flower seeds that are supposed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. I hope they grow!
We went on a nature walk and visited the ducks at the pond near our house. We saw a bunch of cute baby ducks!
While we were on our nature walk, we collected fallen petals and leaves. When we got home, we laid them out on some parchment paper on the patio and covered them with a white cloth napkin. Then we took turns tapping the napkin with a hammer until the colors of the petals and leaves bled through.
Play-based Learning Activities
Buddy always enjoys working puzzles. In case you can't tell from this picture and others, he also loves to dress up!
He got creative and stacked some of the blocks from on of his puzzles.
He counted toothpicks...
He played Memory with his Toy Story playing cards. He is so good at this game!
I am trying to gently introduce shapes and numbers by creating opportunities to talk about them. Colors are easy to talk about, because they are everywhere. Buddy has known his colors for a long time with no "teaching" on my part, but just by my referring to the colors of everyday objects in our conversations. Shapes and numbers are a little bit harder to talk about in a natural conversation. So by doing activities that involve shapes and numbers, it creates opportunities for me to talk about them in a more natural way.
When we play Memory, I mention the character and number on the card and simply leave it at that. I try to be really careful right now about not asking him to tell me what the number is, because in these early stages, he is often wrong. I don't want him to become unsure of himself and not want to tell me what a number is for fear of always being wrong. When I begin to observe that he is referring to numbers more often and correctly on his own, I will start working with him a little more directly. But right now, it is just a gentle introduction through conversation.
I bought him some foam stamps that have the alphabet, numbers and shapes on them. He really loved this activity!
I was writing numbers on his little chalkboard for him to match to his cards, and he wanted to write a number. I think he did a pretty awesome job!
Movement
In addition to the usual dancing, swinging and climbing that Buddy loves to do every day, we brought out the bubbles. We took turns blowing bubbles...
And then he had fun chasing them!
A new addition to our backyard are two beautiful stumps that my husband brought home the other day. I have been asking him for stumps for the backyard for a few months. This week, he went with a team of men from our church to help with disaster relief in a town that was hit hard by the tornadoes. They were cutting up fallen trees and he was so sweet to remember that I wanted some. I think they will be great for outdoor creative play used as little tables or chairs, to sit on for outdoor storytime, and for climbing on and jumping off of.
Buddy is very excited too!
Well it has been a fun two weeks! I have been doing a lot of planning and preparation this weekend for our next two themes...Butterflies and Birds. I am very excited! We also have some new additions to our shelves, that I will be posting about very soon. In the meantime, I would like to wish all of you mothers out there a very...
Happy Mother's Day!
Always,
Amanda
