April is just around the corner, and what is April known for…rain. Well rain is better than snow. I much prefer precipitation that soaks into the ground. You can trade in your shovel for an umbrella. I hope you enjoy this little freebie that helps to celebrate a new month and season.
Just click on the picture above or you can click HERE!
Just a quick post to share my latest learning pack that is now available in my Teacher’s Notebook store. It is filled with a lot of fun spring rain and rainbow learning.
Included in this pack:
You can download it HERE!
Coming Soon!
We are all in anticipation of SPRING around here. Sunshine, warmer temperatures and green everywhere instead of gray and snow. As I look out my window today all I see is more snow, and more gray. I really need spring. So I thought I would have a FREEBIE that will make me think of spring. This is part of a packet that I am working on for spring. In order to have all those lovely flowers out there, we need bees. This is a little activity for counting. I hope you enjoy it.
Just click on the picture to download it!
Or you can click HERE!
…and March is the month of spring, but one look out my window and you can see that Winter still has a strong hold here.
So I thought I would share our winter tree art project. This project is very similar to our fall tree that we did earlier in the year.
The supplies are pretty simple:
I pre-cut the main trunk of the tree, then provided strips of different sizes to create the branches. The child glues the main trunk to the large sheet of construction paper, the adds the branches. I encourage them to think of a Y shape for making all the branches. Next they added the “snow” made from one part glue to one part shaving cream. I got the recipe from several sources on the web. Then paint away!
I did this project at two different times, one with The Director, and Sweet Pea #1, then another time with just Sweet Pea #2. I only got pictures of Sweet Pea #2 doing her tree. I had a snowflake punch, so they added snowflakes, but that would not be necessary. If you notice on The Director’s he also included a squirrel digging for a nut.
I plan to do a spring tree and a summer tree, then do a mini unit on the four seasons. I hope it looks and feels like spring soon. I have had enough winter for this year. If you are still in the throws of winter, you can visit my winter pinterest board for a lot of fun ideas.
I am quite happy to announce that I have updated my “Hoppy Life in a Pond” Pre-K/K learning pack.
This pack has grown from 61 pages to 95. It includes Math and Literacy, a fun interactive reader (for teacher and student) and a lot of just plain fun. Here is a list of what is included:
Here are some photos from last spring when we used this pack. This is just a very few of the items in the packet.
What letter is missing?
Number Puzzles
Sight Word Hunt
Alphabet Hunt (she is looking at the recording sheet).
Pond Puzzle
Sight Word Search
We did an extensive Pond unit last spring. We made the coolest lapbook/journal. If you have never done a lapbook before I highly recommend it. The kids ask to look at them all the time.
If you already have purchase my previous learning pack you can download all the updates. If you would like to download it, just click HERE! Have fun at the pond!
Language Arts (continued):
Reading (see post about R2R program):
We have 3 lessons to go and The Director will finish his Explode The Code Book 2. It has been a really good tool to reinforce beginning blends, and introducing ending blends. He likes this book, and I like that it gives him just a bit more reinforcement in reading. He is a very good reader, but reading doesn’t mean you can write and spell. These are things we still need to work on and I have a couple of ideas in the works (more on that later).
Speaking of writing, we have put the Write Shop on hold for now. I am going to re-examine this option. I really can’t say if it was working or not as we only used it through lesson 3. It was teacher intensive and right now other subjects needed more of my attention. Some times I need to remember that he is only 6 and if he was in public school he would only be in Kindergarten (board stiff). So he is more at grade level in writing, if not a bit behind. But this article was recently shared with me, so I am a little more at ease at this point.
Handwriting:
We still use the dry erase board that I have talked about. I use this mostly to introduce Sweet Pea to letter formation, but The Director loves to show is prowess at letter formation, and even tries to take over the teaching of it to his sister. They both are doing well in this subject.
Geography:
We have finished Maps, Charts, and Graphs Book A and are just about finished with Book B. I am actually trying to hold him back a bit because he just flies through these workbooks. I am also using Evan-Moor Beginning Geography which compliments the workbooks, but we are mostly done with the chapter on map skills. He really enjoys map skills. I am in the process of deciding where to go next. I have a few ideas, but nothing concrete as yet.
Making a Lego globe. I thought this went well with our map skills. I downloaded this from the Lego site, but I can no long find these exact instructions.
Science:
This is probably where I have dropped the ball the most. We did start out strong with our color science unit. And actually we did more than I even posted about. But I just haven’t gotten to all that I want to. I am hoping we can do Human Body/5 Senses and Solar System/Space before the end of school. I will keep you posted (pun intended 
).
Math:
The best and favorite for last! We started out doing a Math Strategy packet from Shelley Gray. This packet is awesome. We have finished all except the last strategy and that one is Front End Addition, which is double digit addition with and without regrouping (carrying for us older ones). He is really solid in his math facts now. He is a bit of a math geek anyhow, but he has really excelled in this subject. He is routinely showing me fractions, asking multiplication problems and even division. It won’t be long and I will need his help in math 
.
This picture shows a math match/center for making multiples of 10.
I have created several printables for him to give him more math fun. This one he is doing a Hundreds Chart Puzzle. He looks at each puzzle piece, fills in the blanks, then glues it to the hundreds chart sheet.
This is from his Singapore Math 1A (home instructors guide).
Another printable I made last fall for <>= work. He spins the spinner, writes the number in the squirrel tail, spins again for the second number then adds the sign for which squirrels’ acorns are <>or= to the other.
We have finished Singapore Math 1A, and I was looking over 1B and had him take a test to see if we could skip B and go right on to 2A. He did really well on the test, with just a few things wrong. According to them if you get 85% on this test you are proficient at it, so I am pretty comfortable with moving forward. We are going to finish the Math Strategies for Front End Addition and I also got a packet on Multiplication from Shelley Gray as it is started in Singapore 1B and I don’t want him to miss out on anything. He is already doing some multiplication on his own and on some online math games. He also likes to watch PBS online and play math games that go along with the shows, as well as some other math games on ABCya.
That about sums it up for where we are right now. As we progress and start or finish things I will post about them. Thanks for stopping by and if you have a question or comment just leave a comment or email me.
Well it has been some time since I gave an update on our schooling, especially for The Director. So I think I will do this update by subject. I had really good plans going into this year, and we mostly have stuck to the plan with a few exceptions. So here goes:
Language Arts-Reading:
We have completed Ready2Read Level 2!!!! Whoo Hoo. This program continues to amaze me. The Director has really taken off in reading and can read just about anything you put in front of him. Here are some photos of the last parts of Ready2Read Level 2.
Each level of Ready2Read has a theme and Ready2Read Level 3 has an ocean theme. I didn’t quite have the wall ready to go when we started so the first week the ocean was rather bland. But you can see he has 4 sight word starfish, and two word family sea turtles.
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Here he is coloring his starfish according to the directions (the words), but the rest of the starfish needed some research on Google to make sure he was coloring them accurate (his idea). There are some really beautiful starfish.
Now the wall looks like this, I still need to get the title for this wall up but I think it looks really nice. This is a nice addition in our very long and dreary winter. This wall makes us want to jump in and swim to the beach!
Some of the new things in this level are “Word Family Detectives”. He uses a magnifying glass to find the word family words on a mat, then writes them on his recording sheet.
There are a couple of different sheets in each unit for stamping the sight words and the word families.
Word Family sort.
Although the last level had graphing in it, this one has a little twist that most kids enjoy A SPINNER! I just pushed a metal brad fastener through the center and added a paperclip and voila…learning fun!
This sheet he finds the missing letters. Now most of you who have been following me for any time now know that The Director doesn’t like writing. Especially anything that seems repetitive. Sometimes I make him do them, and sometimes I don’t. In this case I had him find all the missing letters, but did not require him to trace all the words.
Each level has word family cards. We use them to play memory. I really like these because The Director and Sweet Pea can play together because each card has a word family and a picture, that way Sweet Pea (who can’t read yet) can play too. My grandkids love memory.
OK…the best for last. Read and Write the Room. This is just plain awesome! He loves this so much and NEVER complains about writing during this. I break this into several days of fun. This is how we play; each word family has a card for several words. I hide the words in various places around the house. He has to look for them and when he finds them he writes them on his recording sheet. Again…no complaining about writing. There are also cards for the sight words he is working on.
Yes, I even hide them in the bathroom.
I have really only scratched the surface of all that is included in R2R Level 3, there is so much stuff in each unit that we have a difficult time doing it all. But I love the choices. It makes learning so much fun.
Well, I think I will stop here for our update today. I will finish our other subjects tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!
