A day in our preschool

Here is our preschool schedule...

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Preschool

Calendar Activities - month, day of week, date,weather

Reading - 15 minutes of reading

Letter of the Week - various activities, work on letter book, http://www.starfall.com/

Math -number of the week

Bible - read, story, songs, verse, practice hymn
Pre-writing - work in wipe off books
Postcard Learning - choose one post card per week
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Most of her activities achieve more than one goal. For example, working with the calendar teaches number recognition, days of the week, weather, sequence (what comes next), and so on. Reading usually has fiction and nonfiction. We read about baby animals or read I Spy books themed with numbers. Bible is usually combined bible verses from Sunday school or practice hymns she will sing for the congregation. Also, her writing books are more than one subject as well. She is essentially learning to hold her pen right. However, they are themed with numbers, letters, colors, shapes, etc.

So here is a break down of our preschool...

Calendar - We sing days of the week. I always ask her "what comes next?" We put up one of our weather elements. Sometimes she likes to read all the letters on the days of the week. We just play with the calendar until she's ready to do something else.

Reading - We have a dozen of our favorite fiction books, but we usually save those for bed time. Reading during the day is usually structured towards whatever we are learning. Right now she has titles like, Ten Apples up on Top!, Dr. Seuss's ABC, Fairy Numbers, Five Little Bunnies Hopping on a Hill, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, The Alphabet God's Way. She also has some very basic board books that show the alphabet and things that start with those letters. I took a picture of her reading this at her desk though we usually read on the couch or in bed. She likes these books because they are similar to the game she plays on the computer.

Letter of the Week - Each week we focus on a new letter. This week is C c. I focus on her learning the "big" and "little" letters as well as the phonics. This has been a BREEZE with http://www.starfall.com/. I have to limit her time on the computer and she has learned nearly all the lower case letters on her own. Last year we learned the big letters. So I wanted her to learn lower case this year as well as phonics. But while playing the computer games, she learned lower case in no time at all. So we are basically working on phonics and reinforcing lower case.

We are also making a letter book. I make a large letter on the page and she glues things onto it. We also post the letter on her learning board and practice it throughout the week. Another activity we do is walk around the house and look for the letter.

Math -Math at this age consists of counting, ordering, sorting, or recognizing numbers. Math is probably the easiest to slide in with other areas. At the dinner table, she likes to count how many boys and how many girls. We read lots of books with numbers. We practice the calendar numbers. We find numbers in the house. She has an I Spy board book based on numbers.

I have created a caterpillar out of numbers. Each week we post a new letter on the learning board and move the old number to the growing caterpillar.

Bible - We don't have this one nailed down. I have gone back and forth on which bible stories to read. We do well with learning verses and practicing songs. I write her verses on construction paper and hang them on the learning board.

Pre-Writing - This is Breesa's favorite thing to do. Sometimes she disappears and I can find her at her desk doing her workbooks. She is so proud of herself when she finishes. She usually gets a sticker as well.

Post Card Learning - When my grandma passed away she left me a shoe box full of post cards. Being a homeschooler, I couldn't toss them. So I have decided to let Breesa pick one card or group of cards per week. Then I find movies, books, or activities to teach her about that subject. So far we have done the king crab, foxes (snow fox and red fox), and this week it's light houses. We will actually go to see one so that will be exciting. She really gets a lot out of these and it's like a science lesson when we study animals or history when we study something like light houses. We post these on the learning board also.

Learning Board...I am sure by now you are wondering what her learning board looks like. It was inspired by the Letter of the Week curriculum. We post everything we are working to the learning board. When we are finished we move the items to a specified location. The bible verses go on one wall. The numbers go with the caterpillar and the letters go down the side of a book shelf. I haven't decided on a place fr post cards but I may put them in an album to look through. I also keep a sticker chart on the board so that we can keep track of what subjects we are getting done. I don't focus on getting it all done every day. But at least with stickers I know when we did it last. Plus she likes them!!