Sunday, March 15, 2015

Homeschool preschool: seahorse 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 2!

MONTHLY THEME: ANIMALS

WEEK 2: SEAHORSES

Literacy: "Mr. Seahorse" by Eric Carle


Science: Seahorse anatomy 




Sensory: kinetic sand (aka, moon sand) play


Fine motor: seahorse transfer (I set up a 6-section chip-n-dip serving tray from the Dollar Tree with water and mini seahorses. Ellie would roll a die and use a spoon to move that many seahorses. The goal was to get them all in the middle together.)

Geography: Clay landforms and bodies of water (we made a peninsula and an island). We did this for about two hours! She loved playing in the clay, talking about what we were making, and then using our mini seahorses to hide in the ocean! 

Cooking/kitchen: Seahorse-shaped sandwiches, and I gave the kids fruits and veggies to make an underwater habitat. Ellie loved making seaweed and coral!

No comments:

Post a Comment