Orbs

These balls can be found in almost any floral department and aren't that expensive.  Florist use them in vases and, when soaked in water, they balls expand.  Let your child play in them with spoons, measuring cups, bowls, strainers, etc.  They are available in different colors, so I like to mix them together.  This way the kids can sort them by color.  You could put some in a container and practice estimating too.  Preschoolers need plenty of time to explore and this activity allows them to use their large motor skills.  While they play ask them how the water/orbs feel and help them come up with describing words.  The best part about these orbs is that you can leave them out to dry, they shrink back to their original size, and you can reuse them again and again!

Letter of the week: Aa

I am getting ready for this week and, since its fall, have decided to do the letter A so that we can do apple and autumn. Using index cards I wrote "I see a/an/the" (one word on each card).  Now I am printing pictures off the internet of words that begin with the letter A: angel, ark, animals, aardvark, alphabet, acorn, ant, acorn, apple, and ape.  I will put one picture at a time at the end of the sentence and let Lillian "read" the sentence.  The first couple I will need to demonstrate, then we can do a couple together, and then she should be able to read the sentence on her own by the third day or so.
I have also gathered up some Arthur books for us to read.  I am planning a trip to the orchard to get some apples and we'll be making apple ring (flatten biscuits, put a little cinnamon, butter and sugar on them, top with an apple ring and bake.  Easy for kids to make!  In addition, we can cut an apple in half to see the star shape inside, examine and count the seeds, and do floating experiments with the apples.
Another activity we'll do is play matching the alphabet (an "a" word!) - simply matching uppercase and lowercase letters.
We went out in the woods this past week and picked up acorns in preparation for this weeks activities.  We can also use the acorns, along with the apples, to do science (float, magnifying glasses, etc), but in addition we can use them for math: adding, subtracting, cover up a number and have her tell me what number is covered; they can be used lots of ways.
I have an apple cutting sheet to provide cutting practice, and am making a large apple cut out so we can write fall words on them as we think of them the next couple of weeks.  This way if she wants to write about a fall activity she'll have the words to refer to!
It's such a fun time of year and there's so much to do its hard to get it all in!

P Week

We are currently making a list of P words.  It is an ongoing list that we add to each day through out the week.  Lillian loves thinking up words to add.  Often we will be out and about or in the van when she thinks of them so they don't always make it on the list, but at least she's thinking about it all the time.  At the end of the week I will tape her list to the wall so it is handy if she wants to refer back to it.  As she tells me a word I try to draw a little picture beside the word so she has a picture clue too. 
We read If You Give a Pig a Pancake and then we made PINK PANCAKES in the shape of a P.  The kids enjoyed them and it was easy to do. 
We have also read Peter Pan and we have Pinocchio out to read tomorrow. 
Another fun activity we did was to pick up PERSIMMONS and then we made PERSIMMON PUDDING. The kids always love it when they get to cook and they were a great help and enjoyed the activity. 
Lillian was sick this week so we still have one activity left to do: PAINT PUMPKINS!  This is fun to do outside and is easy.  I will incorporate math too by getting a variety of sizes and colors of pumpkins so we can sort them different way, group them, add them, and graph them. 
For snack tomorrow we are going to have PEANUTS.  It is fun to get these in the shells for the kids to break.  Most kids don't realize peanuts come in the shell.
Our last activities will be to make PATTERNS using our pattern blocks and cut out shapes I have and to read a fill in the blank chart about PETS.  Then we will make a PICTURE of our PET. It's going to be a busy weekend!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

If your children are as big of fans of this book as mine are they are going to flip over this activity!  I bought a large Styrofoam cone, brown felt, green felt, small round Styrofoam balls, green duct tape, and florist wire to create my own coconut tree.  I am not crafty at all, but this was really easy to assemble - and I didn't even have any directions!  First I hot glued a large piece of brown felt onto the cone shape and painted the small balls brown.  While those were drying I cut out coconut leaves from the green felt.  Next, I used the green duct tape to tape the florist wire onto the back of the felt leaves.  Then I stuck the other end of the wire all the way down into the top of the cone.  When the coconuts were dry I put a florist wire in them and stuck them down the middle of the cone also.  Lastly, I found some precut felt letters at a dollar store and voila - I have a prop to use when we're reading the book, which is written by Bill Martin Jr and john Archambault.  (Make sure you get the felt flat on the bottom of the cone so your tree stands up by itself).

Water and Paint don't mix activity

The kids really loved this activity.  I have no doubt we'll be doing it again soon; maybe even tomorrow!  I liked it because it is also a pretty interesting science lesson.  You will need: an old container, water for the container, water for clean up, spray paint, and paper.  Cheap spray paint works just fine, it doesn't have to be expensive.  You can use as many colors as you want.  We used up to three colors today.  Lillian, age 5, was able to press the nozzle down on the cans, but Cole, who is now 3, had problems and needed some help with this part.  Make sure you are outside and have on old clothes as the paint does not wash out (this is why you need an old container also). 
Fill the container with water, spray paint on top of the water (it doesn't sink but floats on top of the water!), lay a piece of paper on top of the water/paint (don't push down much, just let it sit there), and then lift your paper up.  Voila, art!  We will use our papers as covers for journals.  You may want to have your kids wear gloves since it doesn't wash off.  However, I chose not to mess with them as they are usually so big on kids and they have problems working with them on.  I just figure it will wear off in a couple days!  Below is a picture of some of our final pictures drying.  It is also helpful to have some news paper or something to set your work on to dry so it doesn't get grass or dirt on it.

UNO!

One word: Uno!  I just happened to think of this card game the other day.  I hadn't played it in years, but we did when we were young, so I headed off to the store and bought us a deck (I think it was $4 at The Christmas Shop).  The kids were excited to see a new game that night and wanted to play right away.  The directions say the game is for kids 7 years and up but that just isn't true.  Granted, Cole was to young at three years old and lost interest quickly, but Lillian was really into the game and caught on quickly.  Needless to say the first few times we play we're going to have to help her learn how to play and the rules, but it isn't going to be long until she is teaching her friends how to play.  Unfortunately it was to late, but she wanted to play again that night and again the next day, so I know we're on to something good here.  We did find out they've added some new cards to the deck (skipping cards, and reverse cards for instance) since we played years ago, so be sure and review the directions before hand.  This game is perfect though for teaching colors, numbers, turn taking, and, of course, good sportsmanship!  We shook daddy's hand at the end of the game and congratulated him on his victory.  We'll get him next time!

Dimes

Currenly Lillian and I are working on money, at this time its dimes.  You do not want to overwhelm a child by introducing different coins at the same time.  Instead, focus on one (generally you begin with pennies) and then advance up as they master one.  However, continue to review coins previously taught so they retain that information.   As I recently said, I purchased some hundreds charts.  After I have given her ample time to explore the dimes on her own I had her place one dime on each box in the tens place on the hundreds chart.  Then, as we say "ten, twenty, thirty" and so on she slides the dime off the corresponding box.  We also reversed the process and counted by tens as we placed the dimes back on the chart.  Next, we took turns placing one dime on a tens square while the other person covered her eyes.  Then that person got to guess what number was under the dime!  Simple activities like this are a game to children and they enjoy playing them over and over and do not even realizing they are doing a learning activity.