Homeschool preschool: artist theme

In January, I started doing additional structured activities at home with Ellie. These follow my ideal way of learning for her: it's child-led, theme-based, and play-centered. See more about our first two months here.

Each month, she chooses a theme. I find or create activities for her in that theme, around broad educational categories. Many of those overlap, but I try to identify a primary learning objective for each one and hit a number of categories each week. Each day we (usually) do one or two activities, depending on our schedule.

We had a hard month and didn't do as many activities, but the ones we did were really, really interesting and fun!

MONTH 3 THEME: ARTISTS 

Math 

• Venn diagram: landscapes and portraits. I printed out a bunch of art pieces from around the world and from all different time periods. I'm not sharing this document because I'm sure some of the art is still copyrighted! I cut them out and then created a Venn diagram with two jump ropes. I explained the concept of a Venn diagram, and then we sorted the first few together. We included abstract pieces as well, which went outside of the circles. She caught on pretty quickly, and it was fun to share my love of Venn diagrams with her! 

• Shape art, inspired by Paul Klee. I used sticky foam so she could attach it easily to her paper. I forgot to make the shapes all the same size (as mentioned in the original source link), but she didn't mind. She ended up cutting some pieces to fit the holes that were left, which I thought was a fine problem solving solution!

• Compass painting: I used this general idea but didn't really give her any guidelines beyond showing her how to use the compass. It was hard for her to coordinate holding the compass and moving it around while keeping it still. 

Engineering

• Drawing things apart, inspired by Da Vinci and from a library book I got out forever ago and can't find anymore online! Ellie picked a flashlight and did what I think is an amazing job drawing all the pieces. My little engineer loved this one.

• Standing mobile, inspired by Calder, also from the library book. Sam loved stringing the beads and buttons on the wire, and Ellie really had a great time experimenting with twisting, curving and intersecting the wire. We also made a funny little dinner with a PBJ and fruit/veg mobile.

Art

• Kind of everything, obviously, but we went to the art museum (it's free here!) and I gave Ellie the camera to take pictures of some of her favorite pieces. We also played some of the games from this link. This was a phenomenal trip. I was a little surprised by how much both kids loved it.

• Print making: we did rubberbands around blocks of wood to get familiar with the idea of printing, and then the kids carved designs (Ellie chose a rhinoceros!) into styrofoam trays. We rolled paint onto the trays and placed paper on top to make our print.

Sensory: Sam did smoosh painting while Ellie worked on one of the other projects. This is just paper and paint inside a Ziploc bag, but kept him entertained for 30 minutes.

Gross motor: This isn't so much "gross motor" as just engaging a different perspective and position for art. We did a lie-down painting, inspired by Michelangelo and the Sistene Chapel. I taped paper underneath our coffee table and the kids painted while lying on the floor. What was most interesting about this is that Ellie almost always chooses to draw people, but she decided to draw a tiger for something different. I am nearly certain this is because of the different perspective.

Fine motor: Tin punching. I bought a piece of punching tin from Hobby Lobby, then gave Ellie an awl and a mallet. She decided to write her name, but she only made it through the first two letters before her hands and arms tired out. Sam got an aluminum foil and play tools version.

Geography: Origami. I just googled patterns and found some great ones -- a crown, a boat, a jumping frog and a puppet fox. Ellie could have done this all day.

Homeschool preschool: fairy tale theme

In January, I started doing additional structured activities at home with Ellie. These follow my ideal way of learning for her: it's child-led, theme-based, and play-centered. See more about our first month here.

Each month, she chooses a theme. I find or create activities for her in that theme, around broad educational categories. Many of those overlap, but I try to identify a primary learning objective for each one and hit a number of categories each week. Each day we (usually) do one or two activities, depending on our schedule.

MONTH 2 THEME: FAIRY TALES 

Literacy

• Write (brainstorm, write, revise) and illustrate our own fairy tale

• Mixed up fairy tales: Ellie picked four fairy tales. For each one, we made a small card (2" x 2" or so) with the protagonist, antagonist, setting, conflict, and resolution. Then we turned each set face down and drew one card from each story element. She LOVED this. We revisited it multiple times throughout the month. She really began to understand how to describe story structure, and it helped in writing our own story as well. 

• Perspective retelling: We used the Melissa and Doug Three Little Pigs set to retell the story. Then, we each picked a character and told it from his or her perspective (she chose pig 3, the girl, and told it as the big sister. HILARIOUS).

• Write a letter to a Disney princess. Apparently, if you mail any Disney character a letter, they'll send back an autographed photo. We haven't gotten ours yet, but it's only been a couple weeks. Send them to: Walt Disney World Communications P.O. Box 10040 Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040

Math 

• Cinderella bar chart: Using our Cinderella stories from around the world (below), we graphed how many included common Cinderella elements Ellie brainstormed (stepsisters, glass slipper, a prince, a ball...).

• Jack and the Beanstalk more or less game: We rolled two die, got two different colors of beans, added them together, and determined more and less. 
• Word problems: I wrote a couple simple, single-digit addition word problems, then had her illustrate and solve (if the princess has three gowns and four necklaces, how many things does she have total?)
• Making 10: I printed out a sheet with sets of 10 blank princesses. She picked how many she wanted to color blue, and I colored the rest red. Then we wrote our equations to equal 10.

Science 

• Potion brewing: Ellie and Sam did this together for an hour. An hour, ya'll. I gave them about 10 bowls filled with random stuff I found in our pantry and fridge. I think I had baking soda, vinegar (dyed green), apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, milk (dyed red), cornstarch, flour, coconut flakes, sprinkles, salt. They each had three "potion jars" to work with, pipettes, and measuring spoons. This was a hit. Notice Ellie wearing her witch wig...

• Free Anna: I froze Ellie's little Anna doll in a block of ice, then gave them salt, warm water, regular water, and spoons, and challenged them to free her. They worked together on this while I made dinner. I would have given them the sink if Sam could have reached it -- our floor was SOAKING wet when they were done (and I had two towels down!).

Engineering

• Building block castles
• Three Pigs experiment: We built houses out of paper strips (straw), popsicle sticks (sticks) and blocks (bricks). We hid a pig inside and teamed up to be the Big Bad Wolf! I had her predict which one would last the longest, but it was a great challenge building things that could be considered a "house" with the first two materials.

Art: We did sparkly princess painting. I know, I know. I'm not into crafts though. And she picked "Artists" for the next months, so I knew we'd be doing tons of art...

Music: We listened to "Peter and the Wolf"

Sensory: Fairy foam during bath, with their fairy house and fairy toys

Fine motor: Lego challenge. Ryan and I made Belle's rose, Merida's arrow, and Rapunzel's tiara out of Legos, then gave her the same pieces to figure out how to build a match. She's big into Legos and we were confident she could find the pieces if they were all mixed together, but if you're just starting, I'd keep each set separate. She also had labels to assign to each piece when it was done.

Geography

• Around the world with Cinderella: We read Cinderella stories from around the world. We used the books for a math activity too (see above). After reading about two dozen books, I landed on the following as ones that were age-appropriate for a four-year-old, represented a variety of cultures, and were recognizable fairly easily as a Cinderella story: Princess Furball, Adelita, Cendrillon, The Gift of the Crocodile, Jouanah, and The Golden Sandal.

• Reading about real-life princesses 
• We drew a very simple map to go with the story we wrote

History: This one annoyed me. I thought I would get out some biographies of historical princesses, but they were all either WAY too text-heavy for my active preschooler, or were so out of touch with the reality of the princess's life (I'm looking at you, Pocahontas) that I gave up. If anyone has read any good biographies for preschoolers, let me know.

Cooking/kitchen: I loved this one! We paired it with a geography and literary activity. We made three special meals, each representing the country where one of the three pillars of western fairy tale literature was from. As we ate, we listened to an audio story from Story Nory.

1. Sauerbraten from Germany, for the Brothers Grimm (Rapunzel, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, the Frog Prince, etc.).
2. Smørrebrød, an open-faced sandwich from Denmark, for Hans Christian Anderson (The Little Mermaid, The Snow Queen, The Princess and the Pea, The Little Match Girl, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, etc.)
3. Cassoulet (holy smokes, this is rich and delicious) from France, for Charles Perrault (Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast)

She asks for this sandwich about once a week now. I did NOT predict that.

What's great is that Ellie has started inventing her own activities for themes. She came up with a game that involved vague rules about matching princess letters and names. She made an Olaf out of sticks "for fairy tale theme," and made up a way to make a dragon with an old egg carton, then had Daddy make one too :-)

Homeschool preschool: horse theme

In January, I started doing additional structured activities at home with Ellie. These follow my ideal way of learning for her: it's child-led, theme-based, and play-centered.

Each month, she chooses a theme. I find or create activities for her in that theme, around broad educational categories. Many of those overlap, but I try to identify a primary learning objective for each one and hit a number of categories each week. Each day we (usually) do one or two activities, depending on our schedule.

We're on month three, and it's working because I'm planning and prepping EVERYTHING the month before. I've tried planning without prepping beforehand, and then I end up quitting after a few days because I get behind.

Here are links and photos of month 1, week 4!

MONTHLY THEME: ANIMALS

WEEK 4: HORSES

Literacy: Uppercase/lowercase horse-barn match

Math: 
Horse race game

Measure things around the house in hands

Science: Horse anatomy

Music: Rhythm cards

Fine motor: Clothespin horse color matching (she discovered these could stand up!)

Geography: Dress up a horse (File 1 and File 2. So. Much. Cutting. So worth it.)

History: Horse gait flipbook with early photography

Cooking/kitchen: Carrot-apple-cinnamon oatmeal (Ellie peeled the carrots and measured the oatmeal; Sam dumped in the ingredients)

Homeschool preschool: dog theme

In January, I started doing additional structured activities at home with Ellie. These follow my ideal way of learning for her: it's child-led, theme-based, and play-centered.

Each month, she chooses a theme. I find or create activities for her in that theme, around broad educational categories. Many of those overlap, but I try to identify a primary learning objective for each one and hit a number of categories each week. Each day we (usually) do one or two activities, depending on our schedule.

We're on month three, and it's working because I'm planning and prepping EVERYTHING the month before. I've tried planning without prepping beforehand, and then I end up quitting after a few days because I get behind.

Here are links and photos of month 1, week 3!

MONTHLY THEME: ANIMALS

WEEK 3: DOGS

Literacy
Alphabet construction to spell dog breeds (using prompt cards)

First letter sound sort (I put pieces of paper on the ground with initial sounds for "bowl," "leash," "food," "treat," and "collar." She had to place those items on the right letter).

Math: Patterning with dog food and treats (we discussed AB, ABC, and ABB patterns, and she experimented with creating her own)

Science: Dog hair under the microscope

Engineering: Design a machine to feed the dogs (I was quite impressed. It was a simple drawing but a great concept!)

Art: Paint with dog treats

Music: I made the worst-ever (don't judge!) color-coded sheet music, then put post-it note flags with the corresponding color on our piano keys. We learned how to play B-I-N-G-O (or E-I-Ban-Gee-Oh as she calls it) on the piano.

Geography: Placing breeds on their country of origin on our big world map

Cooking/kitchen: Homemade dog treats