This year we have shifted from looking for preschools to doing preschool at home. If you are on the same boat the follow along because we have been having so much fun!
After some research I learned that at 3 years old we can start teaching toddlers about letters. I have been aligning the letters to with our season, holidays and every day life. It has been a seemless learning experience and the kids have been more involved in wanting to learn.
I have 4 kids doing our at home curriculum, every Sunday I prepare everyone’s box of supplies and the lesson plan and through out the week we all get to do it at home.
Preparing everything ahead of time has made a huge difference when it comes to executing the activities. All supplies are ready and there is no excuse.
By having 4 of us doing the curriculum we can evaluate what is working and what is not and I customize the curriculum for the following week.
This week is a week before Thanksgiving so our theme and letter is the letter T.
Here’s the overview of what we did for letter T of the week lesson plan.
Crayon Control
Through my weekly calls with a retired teacher (and the one who has been guiding me through the development of the curriculum) I have understood the importance of working on crayon control.
This is the ability to hold a crayon correctly, to control the strokes and all those early stages of writing.
Since we are only 3 weeks into our curriculum, this concept is very new to the kids, so we developed he following activities.
Name Recogntion activity
Every morning we trade our names. I took a cardstock paper and wrote his name in capital letters and laminated it.
We practice going each letter 3 times each day. This is giving the kids exposure to their name (the most important letters!) and practice how to hold the marker.
Letter T Printable Worksheet
We have been working and experimenting with worksheets. Although we like more hand on play activities we have found that the kids really enjoy putting the marlins on the paper. We try to make it interactive and leave a lot of freedom to use them.
Sometimes they want to color, sometimes they want to add stickers to it and sometimes they want nothing to do with it. Either way, is ok! We offer the exposure and depending on their mood we follow their lead.
Math Activities
Math is more than number recognition, it is counting and patters ans even shapes.
Each week we pick a number or review the numbers we have learned so far.
The kids can count to 10 already, a skill they learned at two, But they are still working on recognizing the numbers.
Turkey Soup
Turkey soup was so much fun! I created some cards and the kids had to match the number of the item and add them to a pot to make soup.
What I loved about it is that we started as an activity but then the creative mind and pretend play took over and we spent 45 minutes playing with these feathers and pretend beams and eye balls. (And you know 45 minutes in toddler years is like a million years!)
Turkey Number Recognition Feathers
One thing we have noticed is that the kids really enjoy making crafts! A craft with number stickers and we got a math activity!
A rectangle for the face (rectangle = another math concept) and some colored feathers and we have the cutest turkey!
The stickers we small so I did those as I didn’t want Manu to break them while trying to put them on.
I left this on our refrigerator door for display and during the week as we passed by I would often ask “what number is this”
Repetition and exposure is key when it comes to number recognition.
Letter T Scissor Skills
Wow! The love for cutting this kids have is amazing! At two years old we worked a lot on those scissor skills so that now they are ready to cut paper. Now they can hold the scissors correctly and have been getting a better idea how to cut paper, the kids can’t get enough!
A simple scissor activity to create their own puzzle has been a favorite activity! One that I plan to continue to add as we move forward.
After they cut the puzzle we always paste it on a construction paper, it’s like two activities in one!
Letter T Arts and Crafts
Science: Magic Letters
I always like to include a science concept, activity or experiment. This week we did magic letters.
I grabbed a white crayon and wrote “Ha
Shape of the the week: Rectangle
