Letter A week- Apples, Ants, Alligators, and Astronauts (Day 2)

Day 2

Today we continued to talk about apples because lets just be honest, there are SO many fun and cute apple crafts out there that it is way to hard to narrow them down!

Tuesday (apples)

-Apple rolls

-Apple lacing -Torn paper Apple tree

Short vowel apples (reading cvc words)

File folder apple counting

Apple fractions book

Which is different?

Make apple muffins

Apple Rolls 

(No time for flashcards) 

This was a little more challenging that I thought it would be.  I cut the toilet paper roll and then had them paint it 

We then used a stapler to add the green painted leaf....

Apple lacing

(No time for flashcards) 

We used a Trader Joes paper bag and I drew an apple shape and cut them out.  The kiddos painted them.  As you can tell, my 2 year old was in a great mood and loved painting today! 

We used a hole puncher and yarn to lace up most of the apple then stuffed it with tissue paper.  This activity did need my assistance quiet a bit lining up the hole and keeping the apple together.

File folder apple counting with Skittles! 

(Learning Development activities) 

For my 2 year old, I only used the numbers 1, 2, and 3

The 4 year old had the numbers 1-10 on this apple baskets. 

Torn Paper Apple Tree

(3 Dinosaurs) 

I had to get a little creative here since we didn't have brown paper in the house... we just used brown marker and colored white paper!  It actually made it more "bark like" if that is even a word!  Yay for not planning ahead! 

This activity was great at teaching the kids that glue sticks dry quickly and we should only use a little glue at a time. 

4 year old's final product

2 year old's final product 

Short vowel (cvc words) apple reading! 
(Toddler Approved) 

I LOVED this activity!  It did however take some planning prep time.  I laminated the apple so I could use a dry erase marker for the vowel and the kiddos colored the sticks for me.  For those that aren't familiar with the term (cvc), it stands for Consonant, Vowel, Consonant.  These are the first type of words little ones should start with when learning how to read.

Which is different? 

(A teaching Mommy)

other A activities for this week...

Overview lesson plan, Day 1, Day 3, Day 4

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Letter A week- Apples, Ants, Alligators, and Astronauts! (Overview)

I planned WAY too much for this week and didn't get to all of the activities that I had planned on my lesson plan.  Here are the ones that we got to through!  

(Green are activities that need materials and yellow are printable activities.   Each activity activity is linked back it it's original source)

Monday (apples)	Tuesday (apples)	Wednesday (ant, apple cont.)	Thursday (astronaut, alligator)
-Apple books -Lower case apple a	-Apple rolls	-Letter A for ants Ant books	A for alligator and Alligator books
Painting- apple prints on a tree	-Apple lacing -Torn paper Apple tree	-Color by number ant -Capital lower case sorting	-Alligator color words -Color page (pg 80)
-Apple measuring (source) -Apple cutting practice	Short vowel apples (reading cvc words)	- prewriting practice - ant size sorting - ant parts page	Alligator clothes pin
-Matching apples to numbers -Basket of apples	File folder apple counting	Spoon ant craft	Astronaut Lower case a craft Find and color the a's (pg 19)
Color word  (pg 8-9)	Apple fractions book	Apple parts	Read on the moon (book) Toilet paper roll astronaut craft
Apple spinner graphing game	Which is different?	Apple tasting	Letter a video
Make apple scented playdough and play with animal crackers in them	Make apple muffins	Apple rice crispy	Apple cookies and bag for teachers

Click below for descriptions, pictures, and links of our activities this week! 

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

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Letter A Week- Apples, Ants, Astronauts, and Alligators! (Day 1 activities)

Letter of the Week (Aa) 

Day 1

Monday (apples)

-Apple books -Lower case apple a

Painting- apple prints on a tree

-Apple measuring (source) -Apple cutting practice

-Matching apples to numbers -Basket of apples

Color word  (pg 8-9)

Apple spinner graphing game

Make apple scented playdough and play with animal crackers in them

We started our week learning about A is for APPLE!  Here is a link to some really great Apple books from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas.  We found most of these at our local library. 

 Lowercase letter a 

 (No time for flash cards)

This was a great activity that required very little prep time that both my 2 and 4 year old could do!  I grabbed two paper plates, wrote a lowercase letter a on them, and then had both kids color in their apple.  The four year old had to cut out his on apple and leaf for some extra scissor practice. 

Apple Cutting Practice 

Basket of Apples 

(No time for flashcards) 

This was such a cute craft!  I drew circles ahead of time for the apples and had both kids color them and my 4 year old cut them out.  

Then we glued them down and I added glue for the Popsicle sticks



Cut a little grass...



and there you go... super cute basket of apples!



Apple color words
(All our days)

Color word recognition (pg 9) .  I used the black and white version for my 4 year old (pg 8) so he could try and read the color words himself.  

Apple spinner graphing game 
(A teaching Mommy)

Apple scented play dough recipe

Letter A week - Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4

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Homeschool Material List

Preschool is all about fine motor skills.  Yes it is important for children to learn certain objects but they can't get enough practice strengthening those core hand muscles.  A good number of my activities are based on working those tinny hands.  If you are just getting started with homeschooling and are wondering what are some great materials to have on hand... here are a few of my staples that I try not to run out of.... please comment if you have other items that you always have on hand that I left off my list.


Yarn- I try and do at least one lacing activity a week.  You can also use yarn for art projects to make hair!
Beads- These are great for sorting colors as well as lacing
Pom Poms- Wonderful for color sorting and other arts and crafts (you can also attach magnet tape to them- see my "how to")
Clothes pins- Another great fine motor exercise that I use a lot with counting cards

Puzzles -  I try and stick with number, shape, alphabet, or other educational puzzles but any puzzle helps fine motor skills
Construction paper- We use this everyday!
Glue sticks I find that liquid glue is way to messy for this age group and takes forever to dry
Kids paint- I have a pack of 10 different colors.  These are great for color mixing and any other painting activity you may do
crayons/markers- I tend to lean with the least messy so I go with crayons.  If your kid will only color with markers, by all means, stock up on some.
dry erase markers- I have my kids use these on the easel or any of the laminated pages that I make.

Laminator or clear paper protectors- I purchased a small laminator that I use at home because I plan on using a lot of my printable with 3 kids at home and then bring them along to the classroom when I go back to teaching elementary school.  If you aren't going to get as much use out of your printable pages, it probably isn't worth the time and investment of a laminator and all the color ink that you will go through.  Another alternative to a laminator is clear paper protectors.
Hole punch - For lace up cards or any thing you might want to hang up.
Educational games/flash cards- I have a few rhyming, classifying, and blends games that I have my son do for center time. Carson Dellosa Publishing have some of my favorite games/puzzles here

Pattern Blocks- These are used quite a bit in elementary school so it is a wonderful idea to get your children used to them.  If you want to save $, you can make them yourself out of foam paper.
Googly eyes- I'm not sure why, but a tons of my activities use these!  You can ap to draw them yourself you if you want to save the expense.
Recyclables- Start saving toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, shoe boxes, ect.
Student tray- These are like $2.50 each at Micheal's and are wonderful at keeping your materials together, not to mention crayons from rolling all over the place.

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Art Activity- Paint with water and chalk

Materials needed: 


Black construction paper, Chalk, water in a jar lid or small cup or bowl, sponge or paint brushes 

Directions- 

1. Have child "paint" the black paper with water (mine thought that pouring the water on the paper was the way to go)

2. After the paper is wet, have the child draw with the colored chalk.  This makes wonderful and bright colored markings!  

Note- Don't stress to much about this activity if the child is more interested in the painting than the drawing portion.  My son was more into dropping the chalk into the cup of water and my daughter just wanted to soak herself with the water.  Remember- they are still learning and exploring even if they don't do it exactly as you'd planned :)  Also, I choose to do this outside so I wouldn't go nutso when someone spilled water or started coloring the walls but you could also do this as an indoor activity on a cookie sheet with less water.

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A year at a glance- Monthly curriculum

School will start for us after labor day.  This year, I will be working with my oldest (almost 4) three days a week since he will be attending preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I will also be working with my youngest (19 months) three days a week as well.

I am such a planner and need to have everything scheduled out and planned or let's just face it, it doesn't get done.  This summer, after moving into a new home, our schedule got turned upside down and if I'm being honest,  my intention was to have "school" 4 days a week and we just barely had a "throw something random together and the last minute" activity maybe once or twice a week at most!  I am vowing to really make "school" a priority this year in our home.  Every month that goes by, these kids are soaking up new information.  My goal is to help make their learning as rich and full as possible.

Currently, I am in the middle of planning out our year at a glance.  Basically, just a list of very basic goals/themes that I want to cover each month.

For example: September will look something like this...

3 year old- 
Letters- (I-Q) covering 2 letter sounds a week.  (We will also being reading a few small words)
Math- Recognizing #'s 1-12 when written, review all shapes and focus on octagon, learn time to the hour, learn to count to 20 (he has been stuck at 14 for over a year now!)
Colors- review all and practice mixing to create new colors
Theme- Friends, All about Me, Five Senses, Apples
Bible- We usually go along with the stories/verses his church class does


1 year old- 
Letters- learn ABC song and start introducing Letters threw books and magnet letters
Math- Learn to count to 10 (she can do 2-7 currently)
Colors- Red and Green
Theme- Body Parts, Five Senses, Apples 
Bible- We usually go along with the stories/verses his church class does

Here are some other great sites and examples that can help you create monthly goals for your child(ren)

Mother Goose Time 

Preschool Palace 

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