I plan on doing the same thing with the July calendar.  I choose activities that she would enjoy and some might not be available for everyone.  Feel free to modify it (here’s the word file) to whatever works for you and your child.

Get more ideas like this over at Homeschool Creations.

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• We started outside to beat the heat with a sink or float center.  I gave them some items in a beach bucket to test.  They had to predict before what it would do before putting it in.  Then they had to record what happened by drawing a picture under sink or float.

• Next we headed back inside to do a little reading on the “beach”.  I put a beach towel down with some chairs.  I put a bucket of beach and ocean themed books in a bucket for them to choose from.  Then I added sunglasses, pool toys, and hats to pretend with.

• After reading, the girls went to a pocket chart/word making center.  I found a cute pocket chart rhyme and then put two white boards out and some letter tiles.  They could read the rhyme and change what animal swam by them.  Then the other person could either write it on the board (which they love to do) or spell the animal with the tiles.  They took turns and stayed at this center longer than I thought they would.

• Movie Center- Ashlyn’s fever started to go up again so I let them watch Finding Nemo.  As the movie went on her fever continued to climb so we will have to finish the rest of the activities another day.  Here is what else I had planned.
• Discovery Table- I had a water table set up with lots of mermaids in it.  They love playing with these in the bathtub.
• Math- Shell Sorting- I had tons of shells set up for them to sort through. They love looking at all the different shells and telling me how they are the same.
• Reading/Art-Then I was going to read them Mister Seahorse and have them paint a seahorse with sponges.  Once they dried we were going to use q-tips to paint dots on him.

Hopefully my girl will feel better soon!

Want More…

Check out some of the Ocean Themed posts at Along the Way, including 3 Ocean-themed weeks.  There are lots of great pictures and lessons on the alphabet, shapes, counting, and art.

Go to Homeschool Creations to see more Preschool activities.

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BECOME A FACEBOOK FAN OF TEACHING TWO!!! 

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With Ashlyn, who is 6, I have been giving her spelling tests and letting her make the words instead of write them.  We work on this each week and I wanted to switch things up a bit from the old school pencil and paper.   She liked it!  I also do making words activities with her.  I used to do this daily with my 1st graders when I taught in the public schools.

Yesterday we were talking about the rule about dropping the e and adding ing to a word.  I had her use the letter tiles and make the word take.  Then I asked her to turn it into taking.  She of course kept the e so I taught her the little rhyme.  Making words activities teaches tons of great phonics skills.  It gives kids the chance to manipulate the letters to see how letter sounds and rhyming go together to make words.  After doing ing words I asked her to make the word night.  Then I had her change it to light, sight, fight, flight, and then sigh. It really helps her recognize the patterns that many words have.

With Emil, who is 3, I have her spell out her sight words by copying them from a list that I make her.  Then I have her find those words in a book that I have just read to her.  Many kids know sight words in isolation but have a harder time reading them in a sentence.  This activity helps with that.

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The other day while I was giving Ashlyn a spelling test, I gave Emily a sight word activity as well.  I wrote out 7 of her words and then gave her some letter stickers I found in the Target dollar section.  The only problem is they are all up case but it made for a good teachable moment.  She had to find the letters to make her words.  She loved it!

So proud of herself!

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• The kids painted the back of a paper plate black.
• While those were drying, we worked on the hats.  They used red construction paper to make a pattern of red and white.
• On tag board white paper I cut out circles to use as the cat’s face.  They used googly eyes, pom poms for the nose, and pipe cleaners for the whiskers to make the face.  They glued that to the paper plate.
• I stapled the hat to the paper plate and then the kids added triangle ears.

After our craft was finished we had some fun Dr. Seuss centers.  The discovery table was filled with little Cat in the Hat toys that they loved playing with after hearing the story.

We also worked on patterning using these great styrofoam red and white circles that my friend let me borrow.  The kids had to stack them up using a pattern as high as they could.  They loved this!

We ended the day by reading Green Eggs and Ham.  I couldn’t read that book without making some green eggs and ham.  Almost of my class tried them and loved them.   My daughter Emily ate two plates full and then asked her Daddy if he could make her some for breakfast on Saturday.  It was a fun day!

Check out more fun craft ideas here and here.

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I made a pocket chart rhyme to have the kids practice color words.  Plus they loved using the pointer and pretending to read.  I wrote on index cards different color words in that color.  Then I printed six small caps and colored them the same colors.  The kids had to match the color words with the right cap.

Emily played with this pocket chart forever when I brought it home.  Then she made a hat out of paper and decorated it with dot markers.

 Check out more great crafts here and here.

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• www.ixl.com- This is a fee based math website for kids from preschool on up.  You can sign up for a free 2 week trial and see how you like it.  It has leveled activities for so many different math skills.  Ashlyn loves it because it times you and gives you a medal depending on how you do.  I love it because you can go to different grade levels depending on the skill.   I also have been using it with my tutoring.
• www.dreambox.com- This is a favorite in the house right now.  It’s also a fee based math website.  We are enjoying the free trial period right now.  It tests your child in the beginning to see where they should start.  Ashlyn had no idea she was being tested because the games are so much fun!  As a former 1st grade teacher, the games on this website are (I feel) on grade level and exactly what they need to be learning.
• www.tickettoread.com- We tried this website out and decided to go ahead and buy a year subscription.  It’s only 30.00 a year and it helps with reading.  The kindergarten level is a lot of phonics activities and then some sight word games.  You have to help find the parts to missing toys that the “zogwogs” took.  The 1st grade level and above works more on fluency and comprehension.  It reads a passage to you and then times you on reading it yourself.  As you get points you get to buy things for your clubhouse.

Hope you enjoy these.  At least for the 2 week trial!   Check out more Kid Friendly Friday posts here.

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I typed up the word Spring for Ashyln and gave her a paper that was divided up into how many letters in a word.   She worked very hard to find 2, 3, 4, 5, and even a 6 letter word that came from Spring.  We talked about how adding the letter s, and finding rhyming words made it easier to think of more.  She also figured out that she could use the same letters in spin and switch them around to make the word pins.  She loved it and was proud of herself that she came up with 19 words altogether. 

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