*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

You might think ice cream is a summer time treat, but we sure enjoyed ours in November too. Benjamin loved making and eating his own little baggie of ice cream to finish up our study of the letter I. He spent quite a bit of time practicing tracing and writing his letters in his dry erase book this week. He enjoys sitting and working on that while I work with the ‘big kids’ on their school work.

 

I am excited to include some extra Bible time this week with our letter studies. The letter J lends itself well to a focus on Jonah and more importantly Jesus. We have several children’s Bibles (including this interactive one Planet 316 Story Bible ) that we often read from and I will just include a bit more of that and some conversations focusing on Jesus as well as Jonah. We have the DVD for Sight and Sound Theater’s Jonah production that we have waited to watch so I’m hoping to fit that in as a family movie night in conjunction with our letter J studies.

Jets and airplanes are fascinating to many children and are a fun topic of study. There are tons of great books and movies on jets, including several free ones on Amazon Prime. We also have a one that we should be able to stop by and see one day this week that is on display at a local park.

For nature study this week we are going to talk about jelly fish. My son loves the water and has seen many jelly fish, so they should be a fun topic for him even though we will not be able to actually see any live ones this week. We can use this live cam of jelly fish and try this fun jelly fish craft. We can also read Jenny Jellyfish by Suzanne Tate. If you are not familiar with her books, I highly recommend them. They are lots of fun.

In addition to the fun activities focused around letter J we will of course work directly with the letter. This letter J craft ties into our jelly fish study. We will also work on making the letter J both with fun materials (like Play Doh or shaving cream) and writing them in his dry erase book. Unless I have found a unique activity that I think he will really enjoy I normally find it works best to give him a variety of choices and let him pick which one interests him that day. This keeps him engaged throughout the week.

I hope this post gives you some ideas to get started with the letter J. Please share your ideas for letter J in the comments below!

Snack Ideas:

Jelly Beans

Jelly

Jello

Jerky

Jumbo Shrimp

 

Extra Resources:

Letter J Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter j Lower Case Craft Freebie

Optional Activities:

Nature Study: Jelly Fish, Jungles

Jesus (of course we regularly study and read the Bible but this will be a great week to give it a little extra focus)

Jonah (We have a copy of this production by Sight and Sound that I’m hoping to make time to watch this weekend.)

Jars (We keep lots of jars for canning and storing and I think he would enjoy having some creative play using the jars to maybe fill and pour or even decorate.)

Jets (most children find jets to be quite interesting and there are many neat videos and books on them.)

 

Don’t forget to download your free letter J sensory bin printable.

 

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

FREE Fall in Love with Science e-book from Apologia

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea  Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

FREE Fantasy and Fairytales StoryBuilders from Write Shop!

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

My favorite part of the letter H study were the fun hand print turkey papers that we made. He loves finger painting and I thought they turned out so cute. We made several so that we could send them to a few relatives for Thanksgiving. We didn’t get a chance to make the Hot Cross Buns but we did enjoy a hike, a letter H scavenger hunt, and hand print crafts. He also had the opportunity to visit a great little backyard zoo for a field trip this week.  We also spent some time talking to and about our heroes.

 

Like H, I is made up of straight lines that generally make it easier for a young child to write or trace than curved letters. We will practice I as well as the letters he has learned so far in his dry erase letter book. He also really enjoyed the glue and glitter letter activity that we did with G so we may try that again with the letter I or we may use his PlayDoh .

He loves collecting ‘bugs’ so our study of insects should be a lot of fun. We have the book, Pets in a Jar, which is a super helpful resource if you want to collect insects to study for awhile. While it is not just insects, it covers the care of many different insects and has given us many hours of fun and learning.  There are also premade kits that can help give your new insects a place to live while you study it if you prefer.  If you do not want to catch your own insects to view, you could always purchase a butterfly garden kit.  I think we will find a few insects around our home to study and then try the butterfly garden this spring. If you didn’t want to do it this week, it could make a great Christmas or birthday gift since you can get the kit and redeem the certificate for the caterpillars at a later date.

I think we will enjoy an ice cream treat this week in celebration of the letter I.  We could always purchase ice cream but I think he will enjoy making his own. There are several very simple ‘ice cream in a bag‘ recipes that can be used to make a small amount of ice cream without any fancy ingredients or an ice cream maker.

Finally, I think we will have some fun with ice. There are some great sensory activities or these fun science experiments. You can get as complicated as you want or as simple as getting a few ice cubes out of the freezer and letting them explore with them.

There are many books that you could use to accompany an I theme but my son is particularly fond of Curious George so we will probably use Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise.  If you are looking for a video to watch, Sid the Science Kid has an episode on ice that is included with an Amazon Prime membership. There is also a Popular Mechanics for Kids episode on Igloos that would work well with this week’s theme.

I hope this post gives you some ideas to get started with the letter I. Please share your ideas for letter I in the comments below!

Snack Ideas:

Ice Cream

Icing (If you want to limit sugar you can use mostly cream cheese with a bit of honey or powdered sugar)

Iceberg Lettuce

Italian Ice

 

Extra Resources:

Letter I Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter i Lower Case Craft Freebie

Optional Activities:

Nature Study: Insects or Icicles

Igloos

Iguanas

Ice (melting experiments)

Iowa or Illinois

 

 

 

Don’t forget to download your free letter I sensory Bin printable.

 

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

FREE Fall in Love with Science e-book from Apologia

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea  Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

FREE Fantasy and Fairytales StoryBuilders from Write Shop!

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Last week we covered the letter G and I almost forgot one of my favorite G snacks, guacamole. We love guacamole with chips, tacos, or even on salads. My son even calls avocados ‘baby guacamoles’ because we generally turn them into guacamole.  The glue and glitter letters turned out really well and were a great quick and easy craft. My daughter even found the green glitter so that it was a green, glue and glitter G.

H is a fun letter and typically fairly easy for a child to draw because of the straight lines.  I think that for our main ‘H’ snack instead of doing snack we will make Hot Cross Buns for breakfast with hot cider. My son loves to help in the kitchen and will enjoy making them with me.  I also found this recipe for hoe cakes that looks tasty. I may try to make some of those to go along with some chili this week as the weather is supposed to be cool.

We started our study of H on Sunday by taking a hike. We had the opportunity to take about a half mile hike down to a small stream and through some beautiful forest. We searched for things that started with the letter H while we were hiking and we found hickory nuts, hanging branches, hickory trees, habitats, and a hiking stick.  You could go hiking on a local trail or even in your own back yard or you could go looking for H somewhere else like the grocery store.

In addition to our snacks we may have our sensory activity be food related. My older children are going to do a history project where they draw in cookie dough and I could easily let him practice his letters on a few of the cookies.

H is for hand print in this weeks art work. There are so many fun hand print art projects but since we are getting into November I think we will do a turkey. He can trace his hand print and then color the fingers as feathers and the thumb as the head. We may also do some finger paint hand prints for fun.

Last but not least, we are going to talk about heroes! We believe that providing positive heroes is an important part of providing our children with the guidance they need to grow into Godly adults. My husband believes so strongly in the importance of this that he wrote and published Heroes Next Door which is aimed toward the teens and tweens age group but can be used as a read loud for younger children.  For our study of heroes we are going to talk about people we know or have read about that have done heroic deeds. With young children I think using people they actually know makes it easier to conceptualize, so we will talk about our veteran friends as well as our friends and family in law enforcement and emergency services.

I hope this post gives you some ideas to get started with the letter H. Please share your ideas for letter H in the comments below!

Snack Ideas:

Hot Cross Buns

Honey

Hoe Cakes

Hersheys

Hot Dogs

Huckleberries

Halibut

Extra Resources:

Letter H Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter h Lower Case Craft Freebie

Optional Activities:

Nature Study: Hurricanes, Horses, Hickory Trees and Nuts, Hills, and Hiking.

Hippospotamus (Free video)

Heroes

Horses (Free Amazon Prime video about farms including horses)

Hungry Hungry Hippos Game

Harmonicas

Hygiene

Handprints

Don’t forget to download your free letter H sensory bin

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

Kiwi Crate Deal:

 Get 50% Off your First Month with code: SPOOKY

FREE Fall in Love with Science e-book from Apologia

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea  Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

FREE Fantasy and Fairytales StoryBuilders from Write Shop!

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

We had so much fun with the letter F last week! I love that it timed out so that we were able to go to the fair while we studied the letter F. In addition to our regular fair activities (milking a cow, seeing all the animals, tasting yummy treats, and visiting all of the exhibits), we had a lot of fun trying to find things that start with the letter F. When you consider how many things are fried at the fair there were lots of food options for the letter f: fried vegetables, fried candy bars, funnel cake, french fries, fried soda, fried fish, and fudge. The whole family got involved with the letter f scavenger hunt and we found everything except for the fish. His favorite letter might still be B for Benjamin but he had a great time learning about the letter f.

 

This week’s study of the letter g will be a bit more tame than our study of f but hopefully still lots of fun! No field trips but we will do some nature study, sensory bin work, and Play Doh letter making this week.

Our nature study is going to focus on the giant sequoia trees. We live on the other side of the county from these beautiful trees so a real life field trip is not an option right now. however, I think my son will really enjoy checking out all of the great information and pictures from the National Park Service and the Visit California site.  There is also this cute two minute documentary about the giant sequoias that is free with Amazon Prime. If you wanted to take it a step further you can actually buy a kit to try and grow your own giant sequoia.

We may also take some time to do a little art work related to the letter G. For practicing making the shape of the letter I will use glue sticks and glitter. I will give him a piece of paper with a large letter G on it and then have him trace the letter with the glue stick. After the letter has glue he can sprinkle glitter on it to cover the letter. Shake off the excess glitter into the trash can and he has a sparkly letter G. Since he really loves art we will do one or two chalk pastel projects as well. There is a great green anole in the Backyard Nature lessons or this fun goose lesson in the Pond Nature lessons. If you are concerned about the messiness of the crafts then check out my tips for being able to say yes to crafts and sanity.

Games is a fun extra activity because there are so many options. We can play board games, card games, or outdoor games. Games are a great way to work on various skills while having fun as a family. You can play competitive board games or if the age ranges in your family make this difficult try a cooperative board game like Race to the Treasure  or our family favorite Wildcraft.

Grandparents are a valuable part of a child’s life and this is a great week to spend some time with a grandparent if they live close by or take some time and do a craft or card to send to a grandparent that lives further away. If grandparents are no longer living you could spend a little time this week sharing pictures or telling stories about your parents to your children.

Giving or service can sometimes be a bit tricky when children are younger but there are lots of ways for them to give back to their community. You can make cards to send to people who serve your community or bake cookies for a local fire department. I will have my son help me bake cookies to give to the volunteers that are staying at our church to help with hurricane relief work.  If you want more ideas these 100 ideas were written for the holidays but most could be used anytime of year.

I hope this post gives you some ideas to get started with the letter G. Please share your ideas for letter G in the comments below!

Snack Ideas:

Grapes

Ginger Snaps

Graham Crackers

Grapefruit (we like ours sliced in half, topped with just a bit of maple syrup and broiled for a couple of minutes)

Godiva Chocolate (ok maybe that is mom’s snack)

Gouda Cheese

Extra Resources:

Letter G Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter g Lower Case Craft Freebie

Optional Activities:

Games

Nature study on gnats, geraniums, gems, or giant sequoia trees (online unless you are fortunate enough to live close)

Focus on giving by having them work with you to complete a service project (cards for the sick, cookies for a neighbor, etc)

Georgia ( A great chance to learn about the peach state!)

Giraffe (Live WebCam from zoo)

Grandparents! (This is a great opportunity to spend a bit of time with the grandparents if they are local or make a card or craft for them if they are further away.)

Guitars (My son loves playing around on his small guitar and if you don’t have one in the house you can make one from cardboard!

 

Don’t forget to download your free letter G sensory bin pictures.

 

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea  Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

FREE Fantasy and Fairytales StoryBuilders from Write Shop!

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

My son’s favorite letter up to now has been B because it is the beginning of his name and the first letter he learned to recognize, but this week’s letter might become his new favorite. What is so special about the letter F? It is the first letter of his favorite activity: fishing! And to make it even better it is the first letter of our field trip for this week: the fair!

We will be attending our State Fair this week and we are excited to be able to include that in our letter study! In addition to talking about the fair and how it starts with F, I created a scavenger hunt at the fair for things that begin with the letter F. You can download your copy of the scavenger hunt below. There are also some yummy treats at the fair that start with F. We always enjoy splitting a funnel cake and French fries are one of my son’s favorites.

Letter F Nature Study

Our nature study is going to focus on fish. While we may not be able to study those up close this week due to the weather we are going to look at his fish books, color pictures of fish, and hopefully find a few fish at the Marine Fisheries exhibit at the fair.

We will also cover the season of fall in our nature study. While fall officially started several weeks ago, this is the first week that we are slated to have fall weather! With the cooler temperatures it will be fun to go outside and look for changing leaves and other signs of fall. I also have a collection of fall books that I want to incorporate into our days.

Letter F Sensory Activities

My sons loves finger painting and I think that will be a fun sensory activity to help learn the letter F. We are a big fan of finger painting because it encourages fine motor skills, it is easy to clean up, and of course lots of fun. If it feels too messy you can choose a different activity or check out my post on making it easier to say yes to the messy activities.

My son’s favorite number at the moment is the number four. I think it may be a rule when you are a small child that your favorite number matches your age. He wants to eat four of everything, do things for four minutes or four days, and put everything into groups of four. This is a great week to reinforce that number through counting, activities, and possibly add drawing the number 4 in finger paint to our letter activities.

Letter F Literature

Finally what better way to enjoy the letter F than with a few good fairy tales! There are so many great ways to enjoy fairy tales. We can read them in some of our favorite books, listen to them, watch a movie, or even make up our own fairy tales.

I hope this post gives you some ideas to get started with the letter F. Please share your ideas for letter F in the comments below!

Letter F Snack Ideas:

Figs

Fig Newtons

Fish (gold fish)

Fruit Salad (This is a fun one for them to help make. They can use a lettuce knife to help cut and then mix it all together.)

Funnel Cake

French Fries

Fruit (and veggie) Flower Snacks

Extra Resources:

Letter F Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter f Lower Case Craft Freebie

Letter F Optional Activities:

Fishing

Float/Sink experiment

Nature study on fish or ferns or fall

Finger Games

Fair (this one is seasonal but times out perfectly for us)

Fairy Tales (This 5 minute fairy tale book is free if you have kindle unlimited).

Letter F Fair Day Scavenger Hunt (FREE PRINTABLE)

Don’t forget to download your free letter F sensory bin pictures to use this week!

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea  Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

 

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

We are excited about all of the ‘E’ activities for this week! My son loves going out each morning to help his older brother collect eggs from our chickens and he has been learning how to scramble eggs so he will be thrilled to get to help make eggs for one of his ‘E’ foods. He is also working on counting and we are going to incorporate the number eight into our weekly studies. Even if your child is already comfortably counting past eight you can use numbers like eighteen or eighty.

My four year old, like many children his age, can have trouble expressing and explaining his emotions in appropriate ways. I hope to talk about emotions this week and help him with expressing those in constructive ways. I have included a website in the resources below that has some great activities and games to help with that concept. I also love the books, The Grouchy Ladybug  and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I plan to do a letter sort with all of the picture cards from the letters we have covered so far. We will lay out each letter and then have him place the pictures that start with that letter in the rows below the letter cards.

He loves animals so we may make one of these adorable elephant crafts if we have time. We will also use our craft dough to shape the letter E and maybe practice the letters that we have already covered.

Our nature study is going to focus on eggs. We are going to look at the eggs from our chickens and ducks as well as looking at books and information about other bird eggs. We can study how they are various colors, shapes, and sizes. You can also talk about how many people think about birds when you talk about eggs, but other animals such as turtles and fish also lay eggs.

Please share your ideas for letter E in the comments below!

Snack Ideas:

• Eggs
• Enchiladas
• English Muffins
• Elephant Ears (no not real ones… the fried dough ones)
• Eclairs (this is a great mom snack!)

Extra Resources:

Letter E Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter e Lower Case Craft Freebie

Optional Activities:

Nature study on eggs, egrets, or eels

Work on the number 8 (jump 8 times, find 8 rocks)

Work on Emotions concept (excited/sad/mad)

Experiment with elastic

Learn about electricity

Don’t forget to download your free letter E Sensory Bin pictures to use this week!

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea  Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

FREE Fantasy and Fairytales StoryBuilders from Write Shop!

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

I want to be transparent, we did none of the ‘C’ activities on our list last week. Our schooling was put on hold as we dealt with the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. While our family was blessed to still have a safe and dry home, many people in our community were not so fortunate. Once roads were passable and our power restored we worked with our church to help those that needed assistance. We are still helping but hope to fit in both some C and D activities this week to get caught back up. I’d love to hear what you did for letter C.

This week we will be using the printable cards (free download below) in a sensory bin, eating “D” snacks, sorting through the cards from all four of the letters, and doing some dirt themed ideas. My four year old loves dirt and will be thrilled to do anything that involves playing in dirt or getting dirty. I think we may use dirt for our sensory letter activity by doing a ‘dirt’ tray instead of a sand tray and letting him trace his letters.

Please share your ideas for letter D in the comments below!

Letter D Snack Ideas:

• Dates
• Doughnuts
• Dirt Cake
• Dolmas (This may be a new food for many preschoolers but my son loves these stuffed grape leaves and they can be found in many grocery stores).
• Dairy

Letter D Extra Resources:

Letter D Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter d Lower Case Craft Freebie

Letter D Optional Activities:

Nature study on dirt! (Use a magnifying glass to look at how dirt is different in different places or what you can find in the dirt.  You can even experiment to see what happens to the dirt if you add water or if you sift it through a sieve. )

Dashing… practice running fast, maybe even set up some lines and time yourselves

Drawing

Dates/Days (You can begin working on calendar skills or days of the week. There are some really fun songs to help learn the days of the week.)

Dollars (You can begin talking about money and the concept of dollars and coins.)

Don’t forget to download your free letter D sensory bin pictures to use this week!

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea  Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

 

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Our second week back was quite different than the first! This week has been a whirlwind for us as we prepare for Hurricane Florence. I’m writing this and setting it to post on the blog just before she hits so that you will have next weeks letter resources even if we do not have power. We had really hoped to do bird study to go with the letter B but between hurricane prep and many of the birds leaving before the storm we have delayed that part of our lesson. He did enjoy ‘reading’ the new Young Naturalist Backyard Birds Field Guide that I picked up for him. It is perfect because it has most of the birds we normally see on our walks but isn’t’ so long as to be overwhelming to a young child. Hopefully once the storm is over we can get back to our walks and identify the birds that we see.

The letter B was a review for him because it was the very first letter that he learned since it is also the first letter of his name. This was a blessing this week with my limited time. He was able to practice writing the letter B and review A by painting them with his paint brush. We also looked at the picture cards and have plans for him to use his sensory bin while we are hunkered down waiting out the storm. It should be a good quiet activity for him.

We also thoroughly enjoyed ‘B’ foods this week. The big kids got into figuring out ideas and we went a little further than normal. We had bagels, breakfast burritos, bananas, blueberry dessert, and even biscuits. My daughter cooked the biscuits and surprised him with one in the shape of a ‘B’.

This week we will be using the printable cards (free download below) in a sensory bin, eating “C” snacks, sorting through the cards from all three of the letters, and doing some camping themed ideas. We had actually planned a three day family camping trip and the timing was working out perfectly, however, the storm has postponed that trip. Depending on the weather and storm damage we will either camp in the backyard one night or set up a ‘tent’ in the living room and pretend to camp.  I even have a great book of camping poetry that we can read together.

Coloring is always a fun activity. He can color the letter ‘C’ or just his own creation. He also really enjoys the chalk pastel lessons from ‘You Are an Artist‘ so I will be sure to include a couple of those if we have power and internet.  He knows his colors but does sometimes get a couple of them confused so we might do some fun activities with colors to reinforce that concept.

I would love to do a nature study on creeks because there is so much so see and do at the creek. They are great places for play and exploration (supervised of course) under normal conditions. However, with the predicted flooding we will probably postpone that study as well. If you are in an area not affected by the storm I highly recommend spending some time observing at a local creek.

Please share your ideas for letter C in the comments below!

Snack Ideas:

• Cheeses
• Carrots
• Celery
• Clementines
• Cookies
• Cake
• Cottage Cheese
• Crackers

 

Extra Resources:

Letter C Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter c Lower Case Craft Freebie

Optional Activities:

Coloring

Work on Crunchy/Soft concept

Nature Study on cicadas, creeks or crickets depending on what you have nearby.

Camping (real or pretending in your living room or back yard)

Homework and Horseplay has some great ideas for a camping themed tea time!

 

 

 

 

Don’t forget to download your free letter C sensory bin pictures  to use this week!

 

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

The World of Peter Rabbit and His Friends Only .99 on Kindle! We love Beatrix Potter’s stories and this one includes her original illustrations.

Sunny Under the Sea  Free (always double check because Amazon changes prices regularly!)

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!

FREE Fantasy and Fairytales StoryBuilders from Write Shop!

*Some of the links in my posts may be affiliate links see below for more information. *

Our first week went wonderfully! I know that it may not always be as smooth but he was so excited to have his own work and feel like one of the ‘big’ kids. He loved learning all about letter A and practicing finding it and writing it. He also loves our nature studies so he enjoyed finding ‘ants’ and learning about them.  I thought we were going to work with shaving cream and drawing our letters but we switched it up and made the letter A with Play Doh for one of our tactile activities.

This week we will be using the printable cards (free download below) in a sensory bin, eating “B” snacks, doing some physical activities with balls, and a study on birds. Now that we have two letters worth of cards we can also start working on sorting them and matching the picture with the beginning sound.

I’m really excited about the bird study because my son loves birds! We often take walks to look for birds and we even got him an inexpensive bird feeder to hang in our front yard so that he could watch the birds from the kitchen window. Bird studies can be as simple as sitting outside and watching for birds. If your child shows interest there are also some great simple bird guides both in print and online to help you identify the birds. You could even just talk about their size and colors.

He has a set of sorting bears that we may use to work on the concept of big and small in keeping with the ‘b’ theme (big bears). This is a great way to also help develop fine motor skills. You could also use stuffed animals or other household objects.

Remember that it is important to keep it simple and engaging. Children learn best through play, so while we will learn about the letter B I want to keep it fun and active. This is one letter that my son actually already knows (it is the first letter in his name) but I think it will be fun to review the letter. Also, keep in mind that letting them help prepare the snacks can be a great way to start teaching them the valuable life skill of cooking and preparing food.

Snack Ideas:

• Banana
• Biscuits
• Blueberries
• Bagels

Extra Resources:

Letter B Upper Case Craft Freebie

Letter b Lower Case Craft Freebie

Optional Activities:

Play Ball (This is a great way to get in some physical activity and work on gross and fine motor skills.)

Nature Study on Birds or Bees ( This can be done for free by just going outside and observing nature at your home or local park, but if you want to attract more birds to your yard or make it an on going project you can add in an inexpensive bird feeder or this simple field guide for backyard birds.)

Work on Big/Small or Bitter/Sweet concepts (You can use sorting bears or choose activities from around the house to work on big/small and for bitter/sweet you can choose simple foods like lemon juice/ candy or fruit)

Don’t forget to download your free letter B sensory bin pictures to use this week!

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library 

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies!

Apologia Digital Back to School Sale 25% off through 9/15!

Wind in the Willows on Audio for only $2.95

Alice in Wonderland on Audible for less than $1!!

FREE: Check out this great new FREE resource for classical and Charlotte Mason education! Classical Christian Education & Charlotte Mason. Great for folks already homeschooling or if you have friends that are looking into it!