September--Week Four

Click here to download the PDF file of all 3 daily lessons for the week.

Prep Time--Day One!

1) Set up a simple obstacle course for your child. Some ideas include using pillows to jump over, a box to climb through, a small table to climb under, objects to step over, etc.

2) Check out the No Time for Flashcards Dragon Dd page to see what the craft for Activity Two will look like and for more specific instructions!

5) Gather your materials

• construction paper
• red tissue paper
• marker
  
• googly eye
• glue
• scissors
  
• art smock
• 2-3 books from our Reading List (I suggest There's No Such Thing as a Dragon, Apple Farmer Annie, and Apple Picking Time)
  

Prep Time--Day Two!

1) Check out the No Time for Flashcards Pom-pom Apple Tree page to see what the craft for Activity Two will look like and for more specific instructions!

2) Print out the numbers worksheet from the Confessions of a Homeschooler blog.

3) Gather your materials

• red, green, and yellow apples (or cut-outs of apples)
• stickers
  
• 2-3 books from the Reading List (I suggest Apple Farmer Annie, The Giving Tree, and Apple Picking Time)

Prep Time--Day Three!

1) Print out the Instruction Page for the Apple Tree Through the Seasons Craft from Hubbards Cupboard.

2) Gather your materials

• 2 pieces of construction paper
• Large sheet of light blue construction paper folded in 1/4’s and labeled Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
• 4 small brown construction paper rectangles
• 1 inch squares of green tissue paper
  
• 2 inch square of pink tissue paper
  
• green construction paper hole-punch circles
• 4 each of 1 inch yellow, orange, and brown tissue paper squares, red paint
  
• gluestick
• pencil
• crayons
• 2-3 books from our Reading List this month (I suggest There's No Such Thing as a Dragon, The Giving Tree, and Apple Picking Time)

September--Week Three

Click here to download the PDF file of all 3 daily lessons for the week.

Prep Time--Day One!

1) Set out a bowl of fruit for the day's lesson.

2) Check out the No Time for Flashcards Caterpillar Cc page to see what the craft for Activity Two will look like and for more specific instructions!

5) Gather your materials

• 2 pieces different colored construction paper
• pom poms (also called puff balls)
• googly eyes
  
• 1 pipe cleaner
• marker/crayons
• scissors
• glue
• art smock
• 2-3 books from our Reading List (I suggest The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Our Apple Tree, and Llama Llama Red Pajama)
  

Prep Time--Day Two!

1) Check out the No Time for Flashcards Pom-pom Apple Tree page to see what the craft for Activity Two will look like and for more specific instructions!

2) Print out this picture of an apple (or draw one yourself)

3) Gather your materials

• 2 pieces construction paper
• brown marker/crayon
• green paint
• paintbrush
• glue
• scissors
• red pom-poms
• red kool-aid
  
• 2-3 books from the Reading List (I suggest The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Our Apple Tree, and Pablo's Tree)

Prep Time--Day Three!

1) Gather your materials

• a bag for each child to collect leaves in
  
• 2 pieces of construction paper
  
• glue
• crayons
• tape
  
• 2-3 books from our Reading List this month (I suggest The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Our Apple Tree, and Pablo's Tree)

September--Week Two

I'm formatting this a tad bit differently this week. Let me know if this is more or less helpful :)

Click here to download the PDF file of all 3 daily lessons for the week.

Prep Time--Day One!

1) Print out the Spanish Vocabulary Sheet. This can be added to a word wall,brought out like flashcards to practice, or just kept around to remind yourself of the spanish translation ;)

2) Check out the video of our Spanish song for this week!


3) Check out the No Time for Flashcards Bumblebee B page to see what the craft for Activity Two will look like and for more specific instructions!

4) Either gather 10 real apples or print out some apples to color and use as manipulatives in the Spanish Activity.

5) Gather your materials

• yellow/white and black construction paper
• 1 black/brown/yellow pipe cleaner
• yellow paint
• scissors
• glue
• art smock
• 2-3 books from our Reading List (I suggest 10 Apples Up on Top, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and Adios, Oscar!)
  

Prep Time--Day Two!

1) The night/afternoon before, start dyeing the pasta for our math activity. The instructions are on your lesson plan under Activity One. The pasta needs to dry overnight or you'll end up with some very colorful little fingers for this activity :)

2) Print out the A-P-P-L-E cards and the corresponding apple sequencing cards. I recommend cutting them out and gluing them onto each side of a piece of construction paper or cardstock so they are more durable.

3) Gather your materials

• dried pasta
• rubbing alcohol
• food coloring
  
• plastic baggies
• 2-3 books from the Reading List (I suggest 10 Apples Up on Top, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and Adios, Oscar!)
  

Prep Time--Day Three!

1) Print out the Bumblebee Letter Matching Sheets. You might want to cut out each square ahead of time so the activity goes more quickly, unless your child is old enough to help cut out squares.

2) Head on over to My Montessori Journey to see how she did the Torn Apple Art Project in her classroom. This will give you a good idea of how to structure Activity One.

3) Gather your materials

• paper plate
• 1 sheet each of red, green, and brown construction paper
• glue
• 2-3 books from our Reading List this month (I suggest 10 Apples Up on Top, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and Adios, Oscar!)
  

September--Lesson Three

This is the third lesson for the week of September 6th-11th. Click the image below to print the lesson plan out for yourself.

Prep Time!

1. Print the pages below on printer paper/cardstock and cut out the apples and baskets. Glue or staple the baskets onto another sheet of paper/cardstock, leaving the top of the basket un-attached. You should have created a nice little pocket for apples to go into the basket. You can color the apples yourself or have your child help color them, just be sure you have a mix of red, green, and yellow apples.





3. Gather your materials:

• red, green, and yellow fingerpaints
• 3 apples
• large sheet of paper
• art smock (remember, an old, oversized t-shirt is good too)
  
• 2 books from our Reading List for this month (I suggest The Little Red House with no Doors and No Windows and Apples)

Fun Time!
(For this week since it's new I'll break down each day for you, but all you really need is the printable learning plan above)

1. Pray for the Day--this can be either my suggested prayer or any prayer that works for your family.

2. Calendar/Weather--sit down in a circle or with your munchkin on your lap near the home's calendar. Move any pieces or use a marker to show which day of the week it is. Point out the month and season as well. Sing the two calendar songs together.

3. Songs/Nursery Rhymes--find a comfy spot to sit and sing the Counting Apples song. Use your fingers to demonstrate. If your munchkin is old enough, have her join in too with her own fingers, or just allow her to watch you be silly :) Then sing the Be Careful Little Hands song, this is an introduction into our fruits of the spirit theme for the month.

4. Activity One--Follow the lesson plan instructions to do Apple Stamping.

5. Activity Two--Get out the baskets and assorted apple cut-outs for your child. This activity will depend on your child's age and ability level. There are lots of things you can do with the apple cut-outs. You can have your child sort them into the baskets by color (red apples in the red basket, green apples in the green basket, and so on). You can take the multi-sized apples and have your child lay them out from biggest to smallest or vice versa. Or you can draw 2 simple tree outlines and set a couple apples on each one. Have your child "pick" the apples off of each tree and place them in the basket. The goal here is to see that if you pick 2 apples off of one tree and 3 apples off of the other you have 5 apples altogether! See, it's simple addition :)

6. Read Aloud--read the two books aloud together. If some of your kids are very young or antsy by this time feel free to set them up with a quiet activity like blocks or cars on the floor near you. You can read aloud and they can listen as they play. Keep the books in a basket or something in the main living area so your kids can go back and browse them, look at pictures, or chew on the corners ;-) when they feel like it throughout the week.

Show off crafts to Daddy, Grandma, and whoever else likes to dote on your child!

September--Lesson Two

This is the second lesson for the week of September 6th-11th. Click the image below to print the lesson plan out for yourself.

Prep Time!

1. Print the pages below if your child is above 1. These are the matching Aa pages for Activity Two. The original activity page comes from here.





2. Print out the Little Red House with no Doors and No Windows booklet. Fold larger pages in half and staple together into a half-page booklet.



3. Gather your materials:

• bowl of fruit
• magnetic fridge letters
• glue stick
• scissors
• stapler
  
• 2 books from our Reading List for this month (I suggest The Little Red House with no Doors and No Windows and It's Hard to be Five:Learning How to Work my Control Panel)

4. Prep Fruit Tree: cut out large brown trunk and green treetop for future use. Tape them on a door or pin them onto a bulletin board. We will be adding one piece of fruit each month to our tree. (Other options: create a basket instead of a tree; you could create a Fruits of the Spirit folder and instead of hanging the tree/basket on the wall ad each fruit to your folder throughout the school year.)

Fun Time!
(For this week since it's new I'll break down each day for you, but all you really need is the printable learning plan above)

1. Pray for the Day--this can be either my suggested prayer or any prayer that works for your family.

2. Calendar/Weather--sit down in a circle or with your munchkin on your lap near the home's calendar. Move any pieces or use a marker to show which day of the week it is. Point out the month and season as well. Sing the two calendar songs together.

3. Songs/Nursery Rhymes--find a comfy spot to sit and sing the Counting Apples song. Use your fingers to demonstrate. If your munchkin is old enough, have her join in too with her own fingers, or just allow her to watch you be silly :) Then sing the Be Careful Little Hands song, this is an introduction into our fruits of the spirit theme for the month.

4. Activity One--this is the first of our Fruit of the Spirit lessons, focusing on one character trait each month. After doing the lesson, explain to your child about the fruit tree/basket/folder on the wall and how each character trait (fruit of the spirit) will be added in as a picture of an actual fruit. Feel free to stop for a mid-morning snack of fruit after this lesson is completed.

5. Activity Two--If you have an under-18 month old, simply get out magnetic fridge letters and let them play. If it's a new activity, sometimes it helps to sit with them and show them how to get the letters onto/off of the fridge and move them around. The LeapFrog Fridge Phonics is a great option for this time, but even the really cheap colored letters are fun for kids too. If your child is able to hold a glue stick (18 months-4 years) then cut out the Aa pictures and read the words for them. They will glue the pictures into the blank box beside the Aa word. Then cut out each large box and staple together to make a little Aa booklet. They can take this to church or in the car to look at if they want, or just add it to their big books. If your child is 4 or older help them to draw a picture of the word in the box, then they can copy the word underneath the picture on the 2 lines provided.

6. Read Aloud--read the two books aloud together. If some of your kids are very young or antsy by this time feel free to set them up with a quiet activity like blocks or cars on the floor near you. You can read aloud and they can listen as they play. Keep the books in a basket or something in the main living area so your kids can go back and browse them, look at pictures, or chew on the corners ;-) when they feel like it throughout the week.

Show off crafts to Daddy, Grandma, and whoever else likes to dote on your child!

September--Lesson One

This is the first lesson for the week of September 6th-11th. Click the image below to print the lesson plan out for yourself.

Prep Time!

1. Head on over to PBSKids.org and print out Activity One: Making Applesauce!

2. Then head over to No Time for Flashcards and briefly look at her Alligator A page so you have an example of how Activity Two will look when finished.

3. Gather your materials:

• 8 apples, peeled and cut into chunks
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• cinnamon
• two bowls
• wooden spoon and/or potato masher
• medium-sized pot
• 2 pieces of construction paper (different colors)
• 2 googly eyes
• white foam paper or white construction paper
• glue
• scissors
• markers
• 2 books from our Reading List for this month (I suggest Apples and It's Hard to be Five)
  

Fun Time!
(For this week since it's new I'll break down each day for you, but all you really need is the printable learning plan above)

1. Pray for the Day--this can be either my suggested prayer or any prayer that works for your family.

2. Calendar/Weather--sit down in a circle or with your munchkin on your lap near the home's calendar. Move any pieces or use a marker to show which day of the week it is. Point out the month and season as well. Sing the two calendar songs together.

3. Songs/Nursery Rhymes--find a comfy spot to sit and sing the Counting Apples song. Use your fingers to demonstrate. If your munchkin is old enough, have her join in too with her own fingers, or just allow her to watch you be silly :) Then sing the Be Careful Little Hands song, this is an introduction into our fruits of the spirit theme for the month.

4. Activity One--follow instructions on the lesson plan. This one's not too messy, but a bib might be good for younger kids. Once the applesauce is made you can take a break from all this hard work and have a mid-morning snack!

5. Activity Two--this one includes markers and glue, so I'd recommend an apron, old t-shirt, or bib for the under-3 crowd. Draw a large, uppercase A on the construction paper with 2 triangles off to one side near the top of the A. Let your child color it however they want. While they color, cut out some white triangles for teeth. Cut out the A (don't cut off the triangle spots for the eyes). Glue it on the second piece of paper. Glue the googly eyes onto the triangle spots. Glue the teeth onto the inside, bottom portion of the A, that's the alligator's mouth. Let it dry.

6. Read Aloud--read the two books aloud together. If some of your kids are very young or antsy by this time feel free to set them up with a quiet activity like blocks or cars on the floor near you. You can read aloud and they can listen as they play. Keep the books in a basket or something in the main living area so your kids can go back and browse them, look at pictures, or chew on the corners ;-) when they feel like it throughout the week.

Show off crafts to Daddy, Grandma, and whoever else likes to dote on your child!

Prepping for September

Alright everyone, we're just 2 weeks away from our start date, yay!

To make sure everyone feels confident and prepared going into the month I thought I'd explain a bit and open this post up to any questions for those joining in on the lessons.

First, make sure you have glanced over the supplies list for Week 1. Click the image below and print it out if you'd like. Most things are pretty standard, and other things like construction paper, googly eyes, and fingerpaints are things that will be used for future lessons so don't feel like they are one time things. If you need ideas on the cheapest place to find things you don't have just let me know! As a hint, Target's dollar section has googly eyes and IKEA has a $5 small set of primary colored fingerpaints. Construction paper can be found anywhere for pretty cheap, as can markers and crayons. I'm getting apples from our backyard tree (aren't you jealous, hehe!) but I'm pretty sure those are easy to find elsewhere :)


Second, hop online or head over to your local library to reserve some books for this month. Below I have the entire month's list of suggested books. Don't stress if you can't find all of them, this is a suggested list, not the end-all-be-all of reading time! So long as you can scrounge up 2 books per week you'll do just fine I promise. Oh, and The Little Red House with No Windows and No Doors is a printable booklet I've adapted that you will be able to print out, fold along the crease, and staple into your own little book. Very cute and very easy I promise!



Third, think about where you want to do your crafts, songs, and reading time. Then you can put your craft supplies in easy reach. Remember, old shoeboxes make perfect boxes for craft supplies and they're free! Don't forget an old t-shirt or bib for an art smock. I plan to hang my son's in our pantry door for easy access since we do crafts at the kitchen table.

For reading time it might be good to have a basket for books around. You can refill this basket with library books every month, so your kids can browse books related to our theme whenever they want. This way library books stay organized in one area, easy to round up when they're due.

As for lessons, we (the planners) will be making the lesson plans and posting them 1 week in advance every time. Each week will have 3 days of lessons so you can choose which days you want to do the activities. When we post the lesson plans for the week just print them out and glance them over to see which materials you'll need to get out for each day. That's it, no creativity or teaching license required I promise!! Just plan to sing songs, do a craft, read a book, and enjoy your kids. Then show off their crafts to dads and grandparents to ooh and ahh over.

Now that I've written a novel and hopefully not scared anyone off, any questions?