Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Learning About Rectangles

Our Rectangle section was pgs 66-71 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool. We traced, colored and wrote the word rectangle as well as counted the sides and wrote the number 4. We also talked about what other shapes have four sides, specifically, squares and diamonds. 

For our first application J sorted square and rectangular stamps. Once she was finished she got to play with them, of course! 

Secondly, I had her make a rectangle using legos. She initially ended up with a square but eventually figured it out. This was a good problem solving activity. 

Finally, some graham crackers for snacks!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Learning About Triangles

Today we did pgs 60-65 in The Comprehensive Curriculum for Preschool focusing on Triangles. We practiced writing the word triangle, tracing triangles, counting their sides and writing the number 3.

For our first project I drew some black triangles on black paper and had J cut them out with craft scissor. Once she finished her triangles, J glued them on a pumpkin to make a fun, fall face!

For our last project I cut some slits in the bottom of a toilet paper roll then shaped each square into a point to make triangles. This was a really fun stamping project and was great to make the sun and flowers. We also ended up with a color blending lesson where J got to see that blue and yellow make green and purple and yellow make brown!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Learning About Squares

My daughter, J, goes to preschool two mornings a week and does the typically 4 year old curriculum of a letter a week. For the rest of the time I wanted to start a supplementary learning program at home. We finished the Big WorkBook for Preschool this summer and she really enjoyed it so we moved on to the next book in the series. We are now using the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills: Grade Preschool. It seems to cover a lot of ground so I am going to build some very basic lesson plans around this workbook. Just thought I would share in case anyone else wanted to come along for the ride! Happy Homeschooling!


Today's lesson was on squares. We used pgs 55-59 which included tracing squares, as well as the word square, and coloring in just the squares on a page with several shapes. We added counting the sides as J traced them and also practiced writing the number 4. J also added some family portraits for your viewing pleasure... =)

For an activity, we walked around the house looking for 10 squares. A very simple, but fun application! We went from room to room and even baby C had fun following us and watching J rummage around.

For our second game, I put some painters tape around a tile and had J sweep poms poms inside the square. This is a great activity for hand eye coordination. J got a kick out of me hamming it up by saying "AH-AH" whenever she would try to cheat and use her hands. When that game got old, we switched to her sweeping one color group at a time. And now you just worked on colors!

After our games we had some square crackers as a snack and called it a day!

I hope that this can help someone out there who has an a kiddo interested in learning but maybe you don't have the time to plan things out from scratch. I am learning that lessons don't need to be too long or involved to be effective. So this is my attempt to keep it simple and fun for parents and kids alike! Enjoy!