Candy Spinal Column Model

We made these candy spinal columns as part of our Human Body science unit last year.

Anthill in a Jar

Last year, we made an anthill in a jar. It was pretty neat to see them tunnel around and see the eggs appear all clustered together.

Teacher's Planner

I wanted to share this Teacher's Planner that my husband surprised me with this year. I am loving it! 

Obstacles to Keeping a Homeschool Routine

I have tried many different routines. With my husband working shift work, our day to day routine seems to constantly be changing and for homeschooling, I really have to work to make it happen in the part of the day I can count on. We often homeschool Saturdays and take a day off during the week when my husband is home. When he works night shifts, it is up to me to make sure the core of our school happens in the morning, because if it doesn't happen then, then it often doesn't happen since he's home in the afternoon.

But whatever routine I choose, there are many reasons it still might not be working and the problem is not necessarily the routine itself.

A Pair of Red Clogs

We used A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno last week for our Storybook Study.

The Art Lesson

I enjoy using Five in a Row's idea of reading the same story for five days and using it as a jumping point for different areas of learning.

For our storybook we read The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola. It's a story that Tomie tells from his childhood when his first love of art began.

Watercolour Dinosaur Skeleton

We are doing a dinosaur unit for science right now and of course the kids are loving it! 

I tried this dinosaur skeleton craft I found the idea for at The Do It Yourself Mom. Ahead of time, I used a white crayon and traced a skeleton from our dinosaur encyclopedia onto watercolour paper. The kids were so surprised when they started painting and discovered dinosaur bones on their paper!

The Paper Bag Princess

I love doing literature based studies.

Five In A Row has such a good idea of using books to expand on learning. By reading the same book every day for a week, the students really get to know the book well. My kids often observe things in the illustrations that a one time read would never let you notice and I sometimes hear my kids quoting a book especially rhyming verses. I just find that overall they soak up so much more from the book this way. If it's a good book, then reading it every day for only one week is not too much.

Plus, learning this way provides a framework for diversity in our subject matter. This overcomes the monotony that sometimes comes with schoolwork. It allows us to visit and revisit different subjects thereby reviewing and building on what we have already learned in a way that keeps it interesting and new. 

I love researching for our learning time so I have not boxed myself into a curriculum, but plan the week ahead of time by picking a book and then finding something in the book to expand upon for each day. I try to vary the academic subject for each day so that we all enjoy the variety that each day brings.

This week we used the book The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch.

Day 1: Science

The dragon lives in a cave so we read about Caves in our encyclopedia. We discussed how the water collects minerals from the rocks as it seeps through the ground and then leaves deposits as it drips in the caves. Then we put together the experiment for creating stalactites and stalagmites.

Day 2: Language Arts

I wanted the kids to learn about the elements of a story so today I just focused on the Characters. We talked about what a character is in a story and identified the characters in the book: Elizabeth, Ronald and the Dragon. Then we discussed what each character was like. I couldn't find any coloring pages for it so I just traced each character and photocopied them for the kids to color. On the back they wrote or traced the name of each character.

Day 3: Science

The dragon burned all Elizabeth's clothes with his fiery breath so we discussed Fire on this day. I started by lighting 3 birthday candles poked into playdough on the table. Then we talked about how a fire needs three things to burn: heat, oxygen, and fuel. We sprayed water on the first candle to demonstrate how if the fire is cold it can't burn. Then I put a glass over the second candle and watched the flame go out to demonstrate how the fire will go out if it doesn't have oxygen. Then we discussed how when the third candle is burnt up, the flame will also go out. I left the third candle burning where they could see it while we went on with our lesson: Fire Safety. We discussed how if your clothes catch on fire you should stop, drop and roll. Then we coloured a Stop, Drop and Roll colouring page. I made sure to point it out when the third candle did burn up.

Day 4: Art

On heavy paper for watercolour, the kids drew a picture of a dragon with a waterproof pen on one half of their paper, then colored it with pencil crayon. Then they used red, orange and yellow watercolours and painted fire coming out of the dragons mouth and across the empty half of the page.

Day 5: Math

It took the dragon ten seconds to fly around the world once and then twenty seconds to fly around it a second time. We discussed how it took longer for him to fly around the world the second time because he was tired. So we timed how long it took us to run around the house as fast as we could and wrote it down. We did it a second time and then a third time. We noted how it took longer and longer to run around the house.

The links to the experiments and colouring pages are in the blog, but here's the book resources we used:

• The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
• Geography a visual encyclopedia by John Woodward (DK Publishing)

Preschool Colours Activities Schedule

Here's some ideas for putting together a schedule for learning colours. Focus on one colour each week: Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, Brown, Black, Pink, Gray, and White. If the colour is not learned by the end of the week, repeat the schedule again, only doing the starred activities.

Preschool Colours Books by Individual Colour

PreSchool Colour Books

The following is a list of books that show a variety of colours for teaching preschoolers their colours.

• Lemons Are Not Red by Laura Vacaaro Seeger
• Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett
• What Does Bunny See by Linda Sue Park
• Icky Bug Colours by Jerry Pallotta
• Animal Colors by Beth Fielding
• Brown Cow, Green Grass, Yellow Mellow Sun by Ellen Jackson
• Baby Bear Sees Blue by Ashley Wolff
• Sylvie by Jennifer Sattler
• Blue on Blue by Dianne White
• Sugar White Snow and Evergreens by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky
• Freight Train by Donald Crews
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
• White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See by Bill Martin Jr.
• Color of His Own by Leo Lionni
• Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson
• Chameleon's Colors by Chisata Tashiro
• Lion and the Little Red Bird by Elisa Kleven
• Rain Forest Colors by Janet Lawler
• Little White Fish by Guido van Genechten
• It's An Orange Aardvark by Michael Hall

Learning Colors While Handprint Painting

Try painting handprints while learning colours and do one for each colour. (These make great gifts for grandparents and such.)

Learning Colours While Parking Toy Cars

For my oldest, who delights in lining up and parking his cars, this was a great activity. My second also enjoyed it.

Learning Colours While Sorting Candy

Here's an idea your kids are guaranteed to love! Try sorting coloured candy!

Doing "School" with Very Young Children

I've been doing a lot of "projects" (that's what we call them) with my children lately. My 3 year old and I have been very excited since he finished the Preschool program to get the Kindergarten program in the mail. And I recently started working with my 2 year old starting into the Preschool program too.

I'm aware that lots of people discourage trying to teach children academically when they are so young. So I wanted to take a little time time here to address that.

Learning Numbers with Play Dough Mats

What a fun way to learn numbers! My kids love them!

14 Activities for Learning Colours

Here are some ideas I used with my preschoolers to help them learn their colours:

Colour Activity #1:
Mystery Colour Bag

Learning Colours with a Food Flyers Train

My kids love trains so they really enjoy this project. Each time we learned a new colour, we'd add a new train car to the wall.

Learning Colours with a Construction Paper Paste

After learning a new colour, reinforce it by doing a Construction Paper Paste.

Learning Colours with Playdough

Playing with colourful playdough is a great way to reinforce the colours.