Puzzle Time

I HATE PUZZLES. I have never liked puzzles. I think puzzles are hard. But, I do know the value of puzzles: doing puzzles on a regular basis reinforces logic, critical thinking, reasoning, visual, reading, and math skills. Puzzles sharpen kids' visual perception, aid their understanding of logic, and help them learn to simplify complex situations. Doing puzzles builds persistence and creases focus and helps them stick with a task until the end. Children who are avid puzzlers also often find it easier to gather information, assess a situation, and find a quick solution to a problem. So, if I did puzzles maybe I will develop some of these skills too! Therefore, we introduced a Family Puzzle.
We set the puzzle up on the dining room table which we rarely use. Then over the course of days or weeks we slowly work on the puzzle until it is finished!

Kate helped to put the final pieces into the puzzle this morning! Good work Kate - she may be only 4 years old but she is already better at puzzles than I am! This puzzle was 300 pieces - I think we will stick with that amount for a few years - I can't handle any more than a 300 piece puzzle!

Letter S

objective:

a. to recognize the beginning letter /s/ sound

Points to Remember:

1. Even though a word begins with "s" doesn't mean it makes the /s/ sound such as shell, sheep, and ship - they make the /sh/ sound. Do not include these in your Letter Ss bag.

Lesson:

1. Today we introduced the letter /s/ sounds. The girls pulled one object at a time out of the Ss bag. Some they knew and some I needed to give the correct word. We listened to the letter sound and said, _______ begins with the letter S for each object.

2. In the itsy-bitsy miniature bag we have sponge, Santa, soda, spider, spatula, spoon, snail, seal, star, square, stamp, spools, strawberry and snake.

Modifications:

1. I plan to bury the object in a tub of sand for Brooke to dig out and identify.

2. Later in the week, we will sort the object that begin with the letter /s/ and those that do not by adding a few extra itsy-bitsy miniatures into the bag.

Computer Time

We spend a little bit of time playing on the computer each week. It is my opportunity to introduce some computer vocabulary that the girls will need in Kindergarten as well as focus on academic skills. Here are our favorites:
1. Star Fall.

The girls practice alphabet skills as well as stories. This is good practice for moving and controlling the mouse.

2. Nursery Rhyme videos

We watch and listen to Nursery Rhymes at this site and this site. Sometimes we watch them on You Tube as well.

3. Power Points

Letter Alphabet Power Points from 1+1+1=1 are great. Here is a video of the Letter T and information on how to get them.

4. Microsoft Word

Brooke and Kate like to type letters into a document. They have fun finding letters and seeing them pop up on the screen.

Outside Alphabet

On the nice warm days that are soon to be coming our way, turn your outside time into Alphabet Learning Time. We look a large roll of paper and I wrote each letter of the alphabet on it.

We then looked around the yard and garage for items beginning with the letter sound.

For the /g/ sound we found grass, golf ball, an old gummie, and an old grape (our yard really isn't that gross, I promise)

For /h/ we found a helmet, for /j/ a jumprope, for /k/ a kite, /l/ is a leaf and a lid, /m/ is a milkbone, and /n/ is a net

/p/ is a pinecone, /r/is rocks and rubberbands, /s/ is sunglasses and a scuba diver, /t/ is a top and a tennis racket

I was really surprised by all the items we found outside! Brooke and Kate needed a lot of help with recognizing the beginning letter sound, but that is waht learning is all about!

Poor Kate

My poor Kate had her tonsils out on Tuesday and if that wasn't bad enough, ended up getting really sick from the medication. Then she got dehydrated and a whole bunch of problems began.

She ended up in the hospital for a few days to get better. Eggs, bacon and Sprite helped! We are back home and she is still recovering!

Valentine's Day

We made these cute little Valentine suckers as classroom gifts. They are made from 2 candy canes in the shape of a heart with white chocolate and sprinkles in the middle. We found the idea in the February Family Fun Magazine. We put them in a plastic bag and tied a string with a card around the stick.

We began the day with red heart-shaped pancakes....a few with frosting and sprinkles on them! A great way to start the day! Plus Daddy got each girl a rose for Valentine's morning.

I packed a Valentine's Day lunch with pink yogurt and strawberries, dried cranberries and heart marshmallows, and I Heart You peep, a heart-shaped ham and cheese sandwich, red fruit strip, and cookies. There was strawberry milk to drink!

As tradition, we bake a Kindness Cake each year. The top is covered with hearts that say why we love each other. For example, I love Kate because she lets me play in her room and she shares her toys (from Jake) or I love Brooke because she is nice to me (from Kate) and I love Jake because he is nice and he is a boy (from Brooke). Every member of the family writes one for everyone else in the family. So we each make 4. Then Daddy reads them before we eat the cake.

I love this balloon because our puppy is terrified of it. He barks at it and watches it intently at all times. Someone (Jake I think) put him in his crate and put the balloon right outside! Poor dog stared in fright at the balloon until I came to rescue him!

February playdough

Our February playdough is Chocolate sented playdough. Look here for my recipe and just add a 1/2 cup of cocoa. We had an empty Valentine's choclate gift box and were able to practice making circles, squared, and rectangle candies. We also had some heart cookie cutters for making Valentine hearts

Lunches J,K,L,M,N,O,P

Our Jj lunch included jelly rolls, J-shaped cheese (cut with a candy cane cutter, Jello-O, jelly beans and a Candy cane that looks like a J. They had juice in their water bottles.

K lunch was kidney bean salad, Koala Crispy bar, Kisses, Kiwi with a kitten pick. Also, a HelloKitty water bottle. And my favorite thing that starts with K - Kate!

Ll lunch was fun! We have lettuce, Lima beans, lemon bar and a lemon slice, lemonheads, chocolate lips, licorice and Lego candy blocks with lemonade to drink!

Lunch for Mn is muffins, Mickey and Minnie cookies, marshmellows, mango, meatballs with marinara, and mac and cheese....with milk in the water bottle.

Nn lunch is nuggets with ketchup for dipping, noodles (with peas and carrots), nuts and Nilla Waffers. Oo lunch was a O-shaped sandwich with fruity O's cereal, oreos, oatmeal cookie, olives, oranges and O lifesaver gummies.

Letter Pp lunch....peaches and pears, popcron and pretzels, pizza bites and pepperoni, and some pumpkins I saved from Halloween (impressive, huh?). With Pomegranate Blueberry V8 juice in the water bottle.