Preschool and Tot School

Yep, we had a busy week, so Preschool and Tot School were pretty much nonexistent! Well, the structured part...we did read a lot of books, visited the library, attended two homeschooling co-ops and squeezed in a little family fun too!

We spent a few days at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg and the girls had so much fun! I was really surprised by how much fun! I was a little worry that they were too young, but it was perfect for them.

Our room...

Izzie loved that she and Mac had their own little "cabin" inside the room...

I loved the fireplace...and yes, we did use it, even though, it was not needed! (We just turned up the air conditioner....kidding!)

View from balcony...we didn't make it outside to swim on this visit! There was also a rock climbing wall and miniature golf course.

On to the gigantic inside water park...

Mac had the best time with the water spouts!

When Izzie is asked, what was your favorite part? Her answer...

Catching Mac on the slide!!

Dinner at the Moose Lodge...

In our own little hut!

Then, on to the show!

Finally, a bedtime story with the Wolf...

The girls were a little scared by the big wolf, but....

They loved the "girly" wolf...

Other sites around the lodge...

Izzie teaching Daddy how to play checkers, her way, of course!

We had a magnificent time....a lot of great memories, cherished....


To see more Preschool or Tot School activities, please visit....

Preschool: Letter L and Shapes

This week, Izzie has been learning about the letter "L", number "2", sight word "see", and shapes! Her Bible Verse for the unit is from Raising Rock Stars (Letter L).

Science this week...learning about herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores. Detailed post here.

Writing and Phonics...with crafts too!

She is becoming so focused on her "school work" and really enjoys writing! Here she is practicing writing the letter L on her dry-erase board (4 pack/$1 at Target).

Sorting capital and lowercase lollipop letters...printable found here.

We had a fun time picking out books this week for the Letter L. We read several books about llamas and completed a capital L llama craft (more pictures here).

Here's here lowercase lollipop letter "i".

And, for her stART project, she created a lion made from circles!

This week for Math, Izzie focused on writing the number 2, skip counting by 2's, and reviewing shapes.

She learned to skip count by 2's! Printable handout here.

She completed a lot of math workbook sheets this week and LOVED it!!

One of her favorite activities was completing this wipe-off shapes activity book. I appreciate these types of books...she can do the pages over and over again!!

I printed off a traceable shapes page and slid it into a page protector to help her draw the shapes. She's really good at drawing circles and squares by herself.

Completing her shapes pocket chart. These wonderful shape cards can be found here! There are several more shapes that are included, but I chose to have her only focus on square, circle, triangle, and rectangle.

Working on her shelf activities..click here to see this week's shelf activities...all about shapes!

Another simple way to review shapes...

Other activities this week included...

Ballet and Tap lessons!

She had the best time and asks at least 100 times a day, "Is it Saturday, yet?"

Water-color painting with Mac.

Playing Sorry! Her newest favorite game!

My favorite picture of the week!

Izzie is 48 months old


To see more Preschool activities, head over to Homeschool Creations!

Preschool: Letter I and Number 1 Unit

Welcome to Izzie's first unit for Preschool 2010! I had planned for the unit to take only one week, but we spent two weeks on it. She reviewed colors, practiced counting to 20, writing the number 1 and letter I, learned about the different biomes and read a lot of books!

Her Bible memory verse (see above picture) for the unit is from Raising Rock Stars (Letter I).

The sight words for the unit were "I" and "can". Instead of making a book, I left the pieces separate, so she could use them to make simple sentences.

The graphics are from Raising Rock Starts (Letter I).

For Science, she learned about the different biomes. For complete details, please visit the original post.

To review colors...

We read Dog's Colorful Day and she completed several activities. Click here to see all the activities for this book.

Her shelf work contained activities relating to colors. Click here to see a detail post about the shelf activities for this unit. I kept the same shelf work out for the entire two weeks.

The game for the unit was Candyland, which is one of her favorite games!

Math activities included...

Learning to write the number one. The Kumon number cards are excellent!

She's using Horizons for her math curriculum.

Skip counting by one's up to number 20. This puzzle is great to use to help her recognize numbers 11-20.

Addition cards by number one (zero to number 9).
0+1=1
1+1=2
2+1+3
3+1=4
4+1=5
5+1=6
6+1=7
7+1=8
8+1=9
9+1=10

She used the magnetic pompoms to help her calculate the total. I was really impressed that by the end of the unit, she had memorized the math cards...so, when she is asked any of the above addition equations, she knows the answer without having to do the math!!

The letter for the unit was letter "I".

In addition, to the sandpaper letters, I created these textured letters for her to trace, while she says the sound of the letter. Printable letters are from here, then I attached a textured ribbon.

She's beginning to write fairly well and enjoyed the various handwriting practice worksheets.

She really liked practicing her writing skills on the lined dry erase board (Target $1).

During week one, she reviewed short sound letter "i', as in iguana and inchworm.

She worked with the Cuisenaire Workbook and Rods.

She read I Wanna Iguana and completed capital letter "I"craft. Original post here.

She loves reviewing on Starfall.

She read Inch by Inch, measured different birds, and graphed the data. Original post here, where there's a link to the graph.

She made a lowercase letter "i" to look like an inchworm. Inspiration from Totally Tots.

And, she enjoyed completing two inchworm file folder games. Printables here.

For the second week, I introduced her to the long sound "i", which she quickly picked up on.

She sorted these picture cards (long "i" or short "i" sound).

To celebrate the long "I" sound, she completed several ice-cream activities...

Capital letter "I" ice-cream cone. Inspiration from No Time For Flashcards.

Sequencing numbers 1-10. Printable here.

Matching lower case and upper case letters file folder game.

Completed a very cute emergent reader.

Used her magnetic pompoms complete the ice cream magnet page.

I quickly made some blank ice-cream cone strips and she went to work with her Dot Markers to make patterns. She is so into patterns these days!

And, of course, we had to complete the unit with ICE CREAM!

To see more Preschool activities, please visit...