Letter Y

The theme we had for this week was yarn. A few of the books we read were: You Were Loved Before You Were Born by Eve Bunting and Karen Barbour, Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni, Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep by Teri Sloat, This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong. We also read Sometimes Y by Mary Elizabeth Salzmann.

Vocabulary words were yo- yo, year, you, yes, and young. We also looked at the color yellow with Hello, Yellow by Christianne C. Jones and Colors All Around Us: Yellow by Daniel Nunn.

Our sentences for the week were:
You are loved!
Where is the yarn?
Do yaks yodel?
The sun is yellow.

Our Bible verse was from Genesis 16:13, "You are the God who sees."

For science we had a yellow warbler, a yak, and yarrow flower up.

For art time we did some yarn painting. We put the yarn in paint, placed it on half a sheet of paper. I folded the paper in half and then we opened it up. The girls had a mirror image of the yarn paint. We also took some yarn around card stock and wove construction paper through it to make a weaving. The girls really enjoyed the yarn weaving.

Letter X

Extra special letter X! This letter is so hard. We didn't have a theme but we did have a poem.

Extra Special X
By Katrina Lybbert

Excellent, exciting letter X!
So extra special is letter X.
Fox, box, mix, wax,
Phlox, ox, six, tax.
Always an adventure to explore,
With letter X, which we adore!

Six Little Chicks by Jez Alborough, The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane De Rolf, Hattie and the Fox by Mem Fox, Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall, Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss, My "x,y,z" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure, A Fox the Sound of X by Alice Flanagan,

Our Bible Verse was from Genesis 16:13 "You are the God who sees."

For science we looked at: fox, archaeopteryx, phlox.

Texas by Sarah Tieck

During our art time we took a letter X and made a xylophone. I also outlined the girls hands and gave them Q-tips to make x-rays of their hands. We also took some time to do a fun art project and finger paint a pumpkin for this fall weather we have been having. Oh yeah, I knew there was one more, we took some leaves from the backyard and glued them onto the edge of a paper plate to make a fall wreathe that we have been enjoying in our dining room. It looks nice when the light shines through the leaves into the room.

Letter E

We started letter E this week our theme was eggs. Our vocabulary words for the week were: easy, East, early, and exit.

Our poem for the week was:
I Bought a Dozen New-Laid Eggs,
Of good old farmer Dickens,
I hobbled home upon two legs,
And found them full of chickens.  

The Bible verse for the week was from Romans 10:13 - Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

 For science we looked at Electricity. I found a book but it was a little too advanced for the girls. We also looked at elephant seals, elk, eucalyptus flower, and eel.

In our social studies time we read about Thomas Edison, which went along well with electricity.

For art time we made an E, Elephant out of construction paper.

E gluing on her elephant ears. (Look at all the E's in that sentence!)

A and E's finished 'Elephant's.

We have started adding in some writing. I like this because it helps with our reading skills too. I try to incorporate our letter for the week into the sentence as much as I can. This has also helped to introduce punctuation.

Letter F

The letter F was our next letter and our theme was frog. Our vocabulary words were: fish, fun, fan, flag, fly.

Our poem was

"Yaup, yaup, yaup!"
Said the Frog as he hopped away:
"The insects feed
On the floating weeed,
And I'm hungry for dinner today."

 "Yaup, yaup, yaup!"
Said the Frogs; "It is charming weather;
We'll come and sup,
When the moon is up,
And we'll all of us croak together."

We had some great books this week were Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister and
The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. We had some others but I returned them to the library and can't find the paper I wrote them on!

Our Bible verse was from Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

For our math time we looked at a rectangle and the number five.

In our science time we looked at ferret, flounder, flamingo, and flax. We read a little bit about flamingos.

Social Studies we read about Franklin Roosevelt and Florida. We also read a bit about fire safety. This was good for the girls because I haven't done this much. We talked about how to leave a room during a fire. We looked at a fireman's gear and how they are helpful during a fire.

We had lots of fun singing Five Little Speckled Frogs. We were a little slow this week because we had some illness going around our house. Hopefully we can catch up soon.

Letter I

Our fourth week of school! After a month of doing something it becomes a habit, right? Well, at least we are doing a better job of staying on track than we did last year. For our reading time we read: Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni, How do Dinosaurs Say I Love You by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague, Imagination and the Letter I by Cynthia Klingel. Our poem for this week was Inchworm by Katrina Lybbert:

Inchworm, inchworm on the ground,
Crawling slowly, not a sound,
Do you wonder what you'll see,
When you pass beyond that tree?

Careful now, my little friend,
A bird is just around the bend,
Better hide inside that tree,
Where you'll be safe and free!

Our vocabulary words were: inside, ice, island, itch, and inch.

Our Bible verse was: I am with you always. Mth 28:20

For our math time we read  My Four Book by Jane Belk Moncure. Our color was indigo. We also talked about inches. I had the girls pick four objects to measure. This helped us talk about length and width. We took a small ruler and measured the objects. We wrote down the measurements in their notebooks and they drew a picture of what they measured.

A measuring one of her objects.

E counting how tall her cup is.

E and A drawing the objects they measured.

For our social studies time we read about Indiana by Judith Jensen Hyd.

For our art project I cut out a letter I and three ice cream scoops. The girls glued the I and scoops of ice cream.

Now to leave you with a little cuteness!

A, E, and AM all together.

AM, the youngest. How can you not smile at this face?

Letter H

The letter H seemed to go a little better this week. The books we read this week were: Once there was a house, a house that was a Home by Alex T. Smith, My "h" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure, Old Hat, New Hat and The Honey Hunt by Stan and Jan Berenstain, and Hello by Kelly Doudna. Our poem for the week was the Horse's Tail by James McDonald:

The tail of a horse,
Helps it stay on its course
Wherever it's running around.
It doesn't use force,
To help guide the horse
And it makes just a slight
Swooshing sound.

The girls enjoyed this poem because we did some motions with it. If I don't have some silly motions to add to it they aren't as interested in learning the poem. So, I have been changing my poems from our last time of the alphabet and the girls seem to enjoy them more.

We also sang the Hokey Pokey. This was good to help work on left and right again.

Our Bible verse was: And do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Eph. 4:30

For our math time we read My Three Book by Jane Belk Moncure. Our shape for the week was a hexagon. We counted by hundreds a little bit when we could.

For our science time we looked at: herons, harp seal, hibiscus, hippos, hedgehog, horses. We read a book called Horses by Sheryl Doyle. We also looked at Honey Bees and Honey by Lola Schaefer and I Wish I Were a Humpback Whales by Christina Jordan.

For our social studies time we read Exploring the State of Hawaii by Emily Rose Oachs.

For our art time I cut out a letter H and a triangle. We put the triangle on top to make a house. I also drew a dotted outline of four hearts and the girls practiced tracing the hearts. I was going to do it with paints and got lazy and didn't want to deal with a mess.

Letter L

The Letter L! We enjoyed this week, somewhat. The girls are realizing the new routine of school and having school again on a regular basis. They weren't that excited about the poem this week. Our books for this week were: The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift, My "l" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure, The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle, Leila at the Library by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed, and The Little Island by Margret Wise Brown.

We enjoyed singing I'm a Little Teapot.

For our Bible time our verse was: The Lord bless you and keep you. Numbers 6:24

In science our words were: lobster, llama, lilac, leopard, and lorikeet. We also read a book called Lions by Clara Reade. We looked at leaves in a book called Exploring Leaves by Kristin Sterling and Little Hands Leaves by Ruth Thomson.

For social studies we read: A Day with Librarians by Jodie Shepherd, Exploring the States Louisiana by Lisa Owings, Abraham Lincoln by David and Patricia Armentrout

For our art time we made ladybugs.

Letter T

Well, we had a great summer but we needed to get back into our school routine. Despite being slow to going back we have hit the ground running. I have decided to do the alphabet again with the girls. We are doing a few things different this year. Instead of going in alphabetical order we are going through with the easiest letters to write first because we are going to focus a lot on writing and reading. To help with this I took a composition notebook for their journal. Each week we have one page with space to draw something that starts with the letter for the week. The next page has the number and whichever color or shape we will be doing. For the number we draw so many of an object they choose. For the shape or color I have them incorporate whichever one into that drawing. After they explain to me what they have drawn I write out what they told me.

So, for our first week back we started with the letter T. The books we read this week were: Big Truck and Little Truck by Jan Carr, Tony'sTrip and the Letter T by Cynthia Klingel and Robert b. Noyed, Freight Train by Donald Crews, Two Little Trains by Margret Wise Brown, and This Train by Paul Collicut. Our vocabulary words for the week were: top, tip, tomorrow, trolley, train, tomato, and today. We did the Teddy Bear poem like we have done previously and the girls still love it.

We used the same Bible verse from last time. I will praise the with my whole heart. Psalm 138:1

For math time we practiced reading a clock. I have a giant clock with movable hands that we used a bit. We also read a book called I Can Tell Time with a Rhyme! By Tracy & Kompelien. It was a good start to introducing telling time. We also did a little with triangles and read Triangles by Sarah L. Schuetz. This also helped us jump into using our tanagram puzzles!

E trying to work on a tanangram project.

For science our vocabulary words were tiger, tucan, tuna and tulip. We read about the Bengal Tiger by Edana Eckart.  It Could Still Be a Tree by Allan Fowler and Trees are Terrific! ByLisa Trumbauer were great for learning about trees. We found a free ap for our iPad called Leafsnap. This ap lets you take pictures of a leaf. It loads up a list of possible tree species along with pictures of fruit, bark,seeds, etc. to help you identify trees around you. The girls had a lot of fun walking around and finding out what trees we had in our yard.

A and E looking at the leaf picture on leafsnap.

A looking at tree bark to try and identify a tree in our yard.

For social studies we read about Harriet Tubman by Wil Mara and Trains by Mary Lindeen. We wanted to start looking at states and found Exploring the States: Texas by Kristin Schuetz. The book was a little advanced for A and E so I just skimmed it a little.

We did two craft projects this week. We made tigers with the letter T and we did a seasons of the trees. I found both of these project ideas over at themeasuredmom.com. She used tissue paper for her trees. I didn't have any tissue paper so I cut out different colored triangles for our leaves, flowers and snow.

Tiger for the letter T.

E added her triangle leaves to her trees.

JSB: Week 8 - God to the Rescue! and God Makes a Way

 I combined the stories of Moses and the plagues (pgs. 84-91) and the parting of the Red Sea (pgs.92-99) into one week. If you would like to break these two up I have it set up fairly easy to do that.

We had two verses this week. They were:

"Let my people go!" and "The people of Israel went on dry land, with walls of water on their left and right." Exodus 14:22

The songs we sang were: Trust and Obey and All the Way my Savior Leads Me. I am sure many know All the Way either from Rich Mullins or Chris Tomlin. Another song is great in telling the story of the Israel escaping out of Egypt is Passover Us by Andrew Peterson:

Well, we all remember Moses on the banks of the river
He said "Pharaoh, you've got to let my people go.
You don't want me to have to tell you this ten times over--
Denial ain't just a river, you know"

And we all remember Pharaoh, he just wouldn't do it
So the plagues they came upon Egypt one by one
His heart was hard and the other nine just couldn't move it
So the last was the worst: the death of the firstborn son

But the Lord, he gave to Moses a word for the people
He said their firstborn sons would live to see another day
"Put the blood of a lamb on the doorway and death will pass right over"
That night all of the children of Israel prayed,

CHORUS
"Lord, let your judgment Passover us
Lord, let your love hover near
Don't let your sweet mercy Passover us
Let this blood cover over us here"

So the years went by and the people they whined and they wandered
And only sacrifice atoned for the sins of the land
So you see the priest he placed upon the holy altar
The body of a spotless lamb
And he prayed,

CHORUS

For our math time we ordered the events of the plagues. It was a little hard to find some pictures that worked for preschoolers but I think they work in the end. Here are the Plague Cards we used for the activity pictured below.

A and E getting ready to put the plagues in order.

E putting the plague of flies in the fourth spot.

For our art project time we decided to make frogs. We cut out circles for the body. I cut out four green strips for each girl to make the limbs. I then cut out two red strips for a tongue. The girls did an accordion fold for the limbs and tongue. For the parting of the red sea we put two pieces of blue paper on each side of a brown and then the girls drew fish and sea animals into the water.

A coloring the eyes on her frog.

E folding the limbs for her frog.

A gluing on her frogs limbs.

E and A showing off their frogs.

JSB: Week 7 - The Warrior Leader

"The Warrior Leader" (pgs. 108-115) is about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. We combined this a little bit with the lesson from week 6.

Our vocabulary for this story was fortress. A really enjoyed hearing about fortresses and their similarities to castles.

For our song we decided to go with a traditional children's song and sing "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho." We have since been singing the song about wherever we go.

For our math time we made a "fortress" of our own by building our own version of Jericho.

A and E putting up the walls of the city.

E adding some more to the walls.

A and E putting houses inside the walls of the city.

The finished city. They even put in a little gate at the front!

We continued learning about castles in our social studies time. Castles and Forts by Simon Adams had some decent images about very early cities and fortifications that would have been seen around the time of Jericho.





For art time we worked on making a shield.

JSB: Week 6 - The Forgiving Prince

The Forgiving Prince (pgs. 76-83) tells the story of Joseph, being sold into slavery in Egypt and bringing his family to Egypt to join him.

The verse for the week was:

"God sent me before you to preserve us." Genesis 45:7

Our vocabulary for the week was: dream, magnificent and famine.

In history we read about Egypt. The Story of the Nile by Dr. Anne Millard was great for the pictures to look at and talk about different things we found. I didn't like that the book was not arranged chronologically (it was set up geographically by heading north on the Nile). Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley went more in depth than we were ready for but was great to look through and read little bits here and there. The illustrations were very well done. Our last book was also entitled Egypt by Julie Murrary.  This book was good for giving a little bit of history and some more modern information too. The text is a little, not much, bit more age appropriate for early elementary grades.

For our art project I drew a basic, I mean really basic man, on a piece of paper. The girls used the watercolor paints to color a "coat of many colors."

A beginning her painting.

E almost finished.

E and A showing their handiwork.

JSB: Week 5 - Son of Laughter

The story of Isaac, laughter, a son born to Abraham and Sarah (pgs. 56-61). The verse we used for this week was:

"Look to heaven and count the stars if you are able. So shall your descendants be." Genesis 15:5

Our vocab for the week was trust and sacrifice.

The song we sang was "Trust and Obey."The third verse goes along well too.

Verse 1:
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey. 

Refrain:
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Verse 3:
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.

For our math time we practiced counting as high as we could. A and E really don't like to count so we have trouble getting past 20. So I thought we could use our animal cards from Noah to help us practice counting. It got us up to 80 so it was a good start.

For science time we looked to the sky. We read two books about the sky. The Night Sky by Robin Nelson was a good beginning book but it only focused on the moon. The Milky Way by Steve Kortenkamp was the other book we used. This book had some information I thought was really good for A and E but then there was some details I didn't want to get into, so we skipped it!

For our art project we decided to make a lamb face mask. A and E practiced their cutting skills by cutting a pink triangle and two large pink ovals. We glued the pieces onto the back of a white paper plate. I drew a mouth on and cut out two holes for eyes.

A cutting one of the pieces for her face mask.

E putting her cotton balls around the outside of her plate.

Baa, Baa. Looks like we have two little lambs wandering around!

JSB: Week 4 - A New Beginning

A New Beginning (pgs.38-47) tells the story of Noah.

Our verse for this week was a little longer and more complicated than I anticipated but it is a good representation for the story of Noah. I think if I were to do this lesson over I might paraphrase it some. Anyways, here is the verse:

 "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth." Genesis 9:13

The vocabulary we had this week was: ark, plan and rainbow.

A really enjoyed our song for the week Standing on the Promises. The second verse seemed to be very applicable with Moses in the storm and rain for 40 days. Check it out below!

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Through eternal ages let His praises ring,
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.

Refrain

Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior;
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.

For math we worked on counting to 40. (We have trouble getting past 20 sometimes so this was helpful in getting us to count higher.) We tried to find all sorts of things that would help us to get up to 40. Some of our favorite things to count were:

For science we read about rain and rainbows. Some rainbow books we read were: Nature's Light Show: Rainbows by Kristen Rajezak and Science Matters Rainbows by David Whitfield.

Our art project was to make a rainbow.I cut out a white piece of paper to look like a cloud and then we cut strips of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. We glued the strips on the cloud.

E adding her colors on.(We put them in order backwards so they would be in correct order when it was flipped over.)

Next we added some clouds. We pulled apart cotton balls and glued them on to the cloud.

E and A showing off their rainbows!

JSB: Week 3 - The Terrible Lie

"The Terrible Lie" (pgs. 28-37) continues the story of Adam and Eve in the garden and their interaction with the serpent.

The verse for the week was:

"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" Genesis 3:1b

Our vocabulary for the week was: perfect, sin, promise and forever. Some of these ideas were hard for A and E to understand but it at least got us talking about some new topics.

For our math time we  used our Testament Cards and Creation Cards from the previous two weeks. (Part of our math was also tied into our science time.)

In science we learned about gardens. Watch Me Plant a Garden by Jack Otten and A Garden Full of Sizes by Simone T. Ribke were some books we read to learn about gardens. A Garden Full of Sizes talks about big and small, tall and short, thick and thin, etc. It was helpful to look around the house for items that fit these descriptions.

For our art project we cut out a tree and glued it down. The girls could then draw animals or Adam and Eve in the garden. It was a really easy art project but both girls seemed to have a great time drawing and coloring.