October ~ Week 1

October is almost here! Click here to download the lessons plans for next week. Please let me know either on here with a comment, or on the Facebook page, if you have any questions!


Prep Time ~ For the Week

1) Change your calendar! You can choose to do this in advance, or with your child. Make sure to discuss this change with your child. Talk about the month and the season. Discuss some things that happen in October, such as Halloween, birthdays, any trips, etc. (anything relevant to your family) and add them to your calendar.

2) Print out the supply list and list of word wall words. The list of word wall words is for the entire month. Just the first 5 are for this week. You can introduce these words any time you feel is appropriate during the week

3) Optional: If you would like you can make props to go along with the "October" song. Download them here, print them out, and back them with cardstock or construction paper. Glue or tape them onto a craft/popsicle stick.

4) Watch the video of the "Be Kind" song. Print out the memory verse to go along with it.

Prep Time ~ Day 1

1) Draw a pumpkin on a large piece of construction paper and cut it out.

2) If you would like to do any of the math and science extension activties with the first lesson, print them out. I would recommend these more for older kids.

3) Visit No Time For Flashcards to see the Elephant E. You can also visit Totally Tots to see their version (I personally like it with the gray better =))

4) Gather your materials

• Variety of pumpkins (you can include squash or gourds for the second part of the activity if you would like). If you were not able to get several different pumpkins, just use one and print this out for the rest
• Pumpkin you drew and marker
• 2 pieces of construction paper
• Crayons, markers, or paint
• Scissors and glue
• Optional: "stick" type of materials such as pipe cleaners, craft sticks, toothpicks, straws, etc.
• 2-3 books from the suggested book list

Prep Time ~ Day 2

1) Print out the memory verse if you have not done so already. Print out the pumpkin clip art to add to your Fruit of the Spirit tree/basket you made in September (the pumpkin is on the second page)

2) Gather your materials:

• Memory verse printout
• Piece of construction paper and marker
• Toothpaste
• Pumpkin clip art printout
• Piece of white construction paper and marker
• Red and yellow finger paint
• Scissors
• 2-3 books from the suggested book list

Prep Time ~ Day 3

1) Collect a variety of leaves. You can either do this in advance, or go on a nature walk and collect them as part of the lesson.

2) If you think your child would prefer an outline for the leaf picture, you can visit this website to print out an outline of an animal. You can also draw one or do without an outline.

3) Print out the pumpkin cards. There is a color page and a black and white page, so choose which works best for you. You can also print out 1 or 2 sets, depending on how many you think your child can handle. Also print out the activity sheet that goes along with it. If you would like to continue using these throughout the month or do several different activities, I would suggest laminating them (you can use packing tape or contact paper), then writing on them with a Vis-A-Vis marker or white board marker. If you're just going to use them this one time then you can just write on them with a regular marker.

4) Gather your materials:

• Variety of leaves
• Book "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert
• Piece of construction paper or animal outline
• Glue
• Optional: contact paper
• Pumpkin cards and activity list
• Shaving cream
• Optional: tray, cookie sheet, or plate
• 2-3 books from the suggested book list

Lesson Plan Posting Tutorial

Everyone should have the Microsoft Word version of our lesson plan template, if you did not receive it by e-mail please let me know! (I can be reached at imagine.more@yahoo.com)

Okay, once you create your lesson plans for the week (remember there are 3 per week) you need to save them as a PDF file. You can download a free PDF file converter by clicking the gray button at Primo PDF's website. You must save and close the document before clicking and dragging it onto the PrimoPDF button on your desktop.

Once it's been converted into a PDF file you can use Googledocs to upload it onto the web. I was using Google Groups, but they have decided to eliminate the document sharing option for groups. Googledocs should work just fine for everyone though. This will create a url for your document so you can link to it on the web.

When you're ready, write up your new post and be sure to include hyperlinks to the required documents. The hyperlink button is the 5th button from the left when you're typing a new post on Blogger. Simply copy the url of the document, highlight the text you want to link through, click the hyperlink box, and paste the url into the hyperlink box that appears.

If you are using any activities or crafts that you got directly off of another website, please direct people to that website through a link rather than copying any content from the website onto the blog. This allows the originator of the activity full credit and gives everyone an opportunity to see the amazing resources out there for teaching little ones! Just be sure to link directly to the activity so nobody has to go on a wild goose chase looking for the activity you're referring to. It should be a simple click and print kind of thing.

There is a small box for "labels" at the bottom right hand of the new post box. I think it'll be easiest if we all just add a label for our month. So if you're posting lessons for October, week 2, just type "October" into the box.

October Supplies

Here is a list of supplies you will need for October! These are in addition to the basic supplies, such as construction paper, crayons, paints, glue, scissors, etc. There will also be some things that need to be printed out, so a printer (preferably color) and paper will be used as well. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns about any of them!

• Variety of pumpkins (try to find them in different sizes, shapes, colors, etc.; feel free to add gourds and squash if you would like; if that is too expensive you can just use one pumpkin and there will be pictures you can print out for the others)
• 2 pieces of large construction paper
• Red and yellow finger paint
• Optional: pumpkin seeds
• Toothpaste
• Variety of Fall leaves (collecting them can be part of the activity)
• Optional: Packing tape/contact paper/laminating machine
• Shaving cream
• Optional: Leaf stickers/foam stickers
• Photographs of family, neighbors, friends, pets, service men/women, pastors, teachers, etc. (about 5 photos)
• Flour
• Vegetable oil
• Salt
• Food coloring
• Cream of tartar
• Pumpkin pie spice
• Glitter
• Popsicle sticks/craft sticks
• Googly eyes
• Pumpkin for carving (other options: pumpkin candle holder, materials for suncatcher-orange tissue paper, clear contact paper)
• Candle
• Orange and yellow tissue paper
• Dice
• Paper plate (black, or white w/ black paint)
• Halloween stickers/foam stickers

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)

October Book List

For those of you who like to plan ahead, the October book list is up! Let me know if you have any questions!

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!)
  

Patience is a Virtue...

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give a quick update so you know what's going on. Some members let me know that the file images weren't printing quite so easily as I'd thought, especially the Little Red House With No Windows and No Doors booklet. So I found a free PDF converter (Primo PDF) and now I'm re-loading all the files for next week's activities as PDF files instead. The booklet for lesson 2 is now re-loaded as a PDF file. Hopefully this makes things a lot easier for everyone.

I'll have next week's lessons all published by the end of the day in the new format, then I'll be publishing a tutorial on Monday for all our lesson planners so we all know how to publish posts, upload PDF files, and all of that.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday!

Teach Your Tot

I found a great website that has a ton of activities to use with Toddlers that you might find useful for building your lessons so I thought I would share it with all of you! It even has a list of books to read with each theme.

http://teachyourtot.com/main/page.php?2

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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!