Coins Week!

This week I had planned for her to attend our first homeschool field trip with ARCH to Marbles Children's Museum to attend a Dollars & Sense presentation.  So I figured we had better at least learn our coins!  She has played with coins before, but it's been a long time since we reviewed their names, much less their value.

This was my plan for teaching money:
1. Identify the coins by:  hands-on exploration, coloring a picture of each, discuss the color, size, etc. of each, sort them, and make a mini coin book using coin rubbings and tracing their names.
2.  Learn the value of coins:  okay, we are not there yet! ;)

Here is what we DID do:

I put out a basket containing the four main U.S. coins:  penny, nickel, dime and quarter in order of their value, and with a magnifying glass to examine them.  We looked at them together and I asked her to describe their characteristics.  We noted they had different faces, different pictures on the back, she was very interested in finding the different dates, different color, size, etc.

 
She completed a coin worksheet which she colored and we named the coins...for this she matched up the actual coin to the picture.

The following day we did coin name traceables and these three part cards I made for the four coins.  I was really bummed that I neglected to notice that the font I used to make these was very confusing when it got to "p" and q"....argh!  That made it a little harder for her and I could tell she got a little frustrated when the "q" didn't look like the one she was used to seeing!

We completed penny counting: 11-20 (object to number correspondence).

She graphed a bag of coins I gave her, by using some homemade coin stampers.  (Sadly these stampers did not give any detail regardless of whether I used an inkpad or paint)...but she had a different color for each coin, and they were different sizes since they were real coins.

On Friday we went to the Dollars & Sense class where they discussed where money comes from, where people keep money, wants vs. needs, and goods vs. services.  I was surprised that even though it was geared to Kindergarten through Third Grade, she was able to come home with quite a bit of info that she understood to a degree!  Funny side story:  the day prior, we were shopping in Target and I was explaining "wants" and "needs" to her, and I thought she was understanding until she looked me in the eye on the toy aisle and said, "But Mommy I neeeeeeed this doll."  LOL!  Anyway, she got to volunteer at the Dollars & Sense presentation and she was so proud of herself.  Afterward we played in the museum for a few hours before heading home.

Other activities this week included:  ballet class, tracing practice (her trouble letters) p, q, r, s, t  (s and t are soo much better this week!), reviewed sound book, reviewed the blended sounds from last week and played a matching game, dry erase numbers 1-10, library storytime, birthday dinner for a neighborhood friend, Who Am I? Faith lesson on sin and wrong choices...I enjoyed this lesson, because I took a hand mirror and dusted it with baby powder...we talked about how we are made in God's image, but it's hard to be a clear image of God when we sin...just like when we try to see our image in the dirty mirror...we don't see it very clearly.  Asking for forgiveness from God cleans off our "mirror", and Iz loved spraying windex on the mirror and wiping it clean!

Finally to end our week we attended Christian Youth Theater's performance of Cinderella last night.  It lasted from 7:30pm to about 10pm!!!  Woah...and even though we got there at about 7pm, Rob and I had to sit separately (with Isabel on my lap!!) because it was just packed!  She enjoyed it though and I really loved the spiritual twist that was put on the classic tail!  AND, the place was packed with homeschoolers!  Very exciting for us!  The atmosphere was just awesome in terms of friendly people (we didn't even get any groans when Iz and my pregnant belly had to crawl over about 7 people to get to the one seat in the middle of the row that was vacant!)  We will definitely be attending their performances in the future....just making sure to arrive much earlier!

Z Week!

1/17-1/21/2011

Our chalkboard letters this week:  zoo, zebra, zero, zucchini, zip code, zipper, Zsa Zsu (the bird from Lion King), zebra finch, zodiac

What all did we try with zucchini this week?  Zucchini cut into circles, zucchini cut into strips, fried zucchini, zucchini pancakes (no, not for breakfast they were fried for dinner...think more like potato latkes).   Isabel was only mildly interested in the fried zucchini...she did not like it any other way.  Not even heavily "ranched" ;)

She did however, peel and grate zucchini!  And although she was a little nervous about using the peeler, she did quite well with both.

We read What if the Zebras Lost Their Stripes? by John Reitano and William Haines which introduces diversity to young children, while encouraging appreciation of differences.  To follow up this book, I found this car washing activity and applied it to washing the stripes off a zebra!  I cut out a foam zebra and gave him a tail, eye and hooves using a permanent marker.   Iz dove right in, coloring stripes on her foam zebra with washable markers, and scrubbing them off with her sponge...she did this several times and really enjoyed it.

She matched zoo animals to their first letter...wayyy too easy for her.  She was done in less than a minute!

I made some letter Z traceables:  zebra finch, zucchini, zipper, zebra and zoo 

She was very careful, tracing these with a dry erase marker.

Letter Z tracing worksheet: this one she used a colored pencil.  

We made our Letter Z using black paint for "zebra stripes" stamped with a thin sponge.

We read a book about the constellations that appear within the zodiac. 

She wrote and traced our zip code and talked about what it's for.  

We had zig zag lines for cutting practice with scissors.  It is amazing the improvement she has made with using scissors this year over last!  

Other activities included numerically ordering and naming numbers 20-29.  

Gluing the remaining pictures in her sound book for the following sounds:  j, k, n, q, r, u, v, x, y, z.

 And introducing blended consonants:  ch, th, pl, bl, cr, fl, sl, qu.

We went on our first ARCH (Association of Roman Catholic Homeschoolers) playdate at the park this week.  Hopefully we can start making this a habit! :)

Library story time on Wednesday.

And we tried a homemade dot stamper art project, that really ended up as a disaster after a miscommunication.  I thought her first stamped page was just a "practice/test page" and suggested later that she fill it up with dots, and started dotting it myself.  At which time, she burst into tears and told me I was "ruining her face"...apparently her test page was really a picture of a face!  Woops!  I felt awful and apologized, but it had already ruined the moment...from there on out she was very upset and I was upset that I had upset her! LOL! 

What a week! ;)

Y week!

 1/10-1/14/2011

It was time to jump back in and finish up the last two letters of our Letter of the Week "curriculum"....I say "curriculum" in quotation marks because I just ended up piecing activities together that I found here and there.

We made our Y out of yarn!

I created a yellow sensory tub which she eagerly excavated! 

This really had nothing to do with the letter Y, but I found the color wheel activity off of Mama Jenn's blog and thought Isabel would just love it...she really likes the fine motor eye-dropper activities.  It's just dropping one drop of red blue or yellow to match the colors, then using a toothpick to stir the colors together in each circle, and finally placing a paper towel over your colors to absorb the colors!

Below, I made my own three part cards for Isabel to try using "Y words".  What are three part cards?  I first discovered them when working at a Montessori school several years ago.  The child gets to match picture to picture, then word to word, and it helps them learn visual discrimination and build up their vocabulary!  Iz really liked this, I think in part because it was something new, and I think she felt pretty accomplished in being able to look at the words and decide if they matched or not.  My only frustration (in hindsight) is that I didn't print out the words in a bigger font!

 

Also not a "Y" activity, but she rhymed every single one of her rhyming cards this week!  I only put half the cards on the shelf at any given time (rotating them out), but this week she asked if she could try all of them at once!  And....wallah!

Here are some of our Y words for the week:

 

We also worked on a Y tracing worksheet, which she was quite frustrated with.  Between capital and lowercase Y she just does not have an easy time yet.  She practiced tracing out Y in the sand tray, colored in a "find the hidden Y" worksheet, and worked on a "which word begins with Y" worksheet as well.  We measured each other with a yardstick, and that was about it for Y week.

Y words that I thought of:  yak, yodel, year, yesterday, yarn, young, yellow, you, yam, yo-yo, yogurt, yawn, yellow jacket, yolk, yacht, yell, yardstick, yes

Ballet!

This January I registered Isabel for her first dance class with the city parks and recreation department.  She is in a very small class of four girls, but with a very knowledgeable and capable instructor, and she just loves it.  Her favorite thing is her teacher (I just asked her!), but I know for a fact she also likes her little pink leotard and footless tights too ;)  The class only lasts 4 weeks (one Monday each week), but I'm pretty sure I'm going to put her in for next month as well.  The instructor says that Isabel is just a delight to teach and the only one in the class who remembers the names of the moves and steps she teaches.  They would also continue to learn new things next month, so it's not like she would be repeating everything she has already learned!  I'm really excited that she enjoys it so much!  The class focuses on introducing both ballet and tap steps, but we just call it "ballet" class :)

Three Kings' Day January 6th, 2011

 January 6th was Three Kings Day, also known as the Epiphany.  This was the first time we have celebrated this feast day.  We remember the three wise men who came to visit baby Jesus, and thus celebrate the "epiphany" or "making known" of God the Son coming to us as a human, in Christ Jesus.  This week we had been to the library and found a book about how people in Puerto Rico celebrate Three Kings' Day.  Isabel was really excited about their traditions, so we decided to try a few of them.   (Above is a picture of Isabel doing some traceables I made:  wise men, star, frankincense, myrrh and gold.)

Below, you see Isabel making a box for the three kings which she put under her bed the night before Three Kings Day.  The three kings came and left her a small gift in her box during the night.  We also put out a bowl of grass and a bowl of water (according to the custom!) for their camels :)

 Below is a picture of the sweet rice dessert (which we actually served for breakfast on Three Kings Day).  It is usually served as a dessert the evening before.  "Arroz con dulce", it is made with rice, coconut milk, raisins and some sugars.

Below:  We made a three kings craft, complete with  their traced names; Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspar.  Isabel still remembers their names!!  (And this was the first year I think I really learned them too!)  All in all it was a fun celebration and a great way to remember this feast that our church celebrates of Jesus being made known to the world!

A few pics from Christmas Day 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas with Rob's side of the family.  You can see the pic of Isabel with her two cousins!  Iz loved leaving out milk and cookies for Santa as well as "reindeer food" on the back porch.  She was delighted to see that the reindeer made quite a mess on the patio table, even turning over a chair to get to the food!

Her favorite presents this year were:  Go-go My Walking Pup, Fisher Price Loving Family Dollhouse (she has played with this EVERY DAY since Christmas), an easel and paints, a retired Littlest Pet Shop ladybug that was available for sale last year, but not on shelves this year, and a ladybug pillow pet. 

It was a lovely Christmas and the following morning we woke up to this:

4th Week of Advent 2010

She was very proud of the geometric pattern snowflake!

Tonging mini bows!

Matching nativity characters to the letter(s) that starts the sound of the word.

 She graphed the contents of her sensory tub this week!

Above is one of the placecards we made (for Santa).  The rest we made for all of the family who came over for Christmas breakfast.  You can see her making the fingerprint reindeer faces in the previous picture.

Counting star shaped buttons.

An attempt at a gingerbread man peanut butter and jelly sandwich.