Week 2: The Letter C and The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Next week we start our new letter. Letter "C" We will be reading the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar and doing activities that go along with the story....Next week we will be in the kitchen cooking up some colorful caterpillar cupcakes, creating our letter "C" page for our ABC book and learning all about patternpillars. I have a lot of great activities in store this week so come along as we learn a few more lessons on the little stuff!

A is for Apple Part 2

Today we started working on our A page for our Alphabet book (this will be an ongoing activity throughout the year) For each letter studied we will do a 10X10 art project representing each letter. Today Kaitlyn used an apple and some paints to make apple prints on her paper. We reviewed the different parts of the apple and she reviewed her colors by naming the red, green and yellow paint as we went along. When we were all done we practiced her cutting skills by adding fringe ( small tiny cuts along the edge) to the red letter A I cut out previously.

Our second project was designed to help Kaitlyn with following steps in a process and multiple directions as well as work on her fine motor skills. I cut a small paper plate in half and used a piece of white construction paper to make a center for the apple Kaitlyn tore red construction paper into small pieces and then used her glue stick to glue them onto her plate. When she was done I connected the two plates by attaching them to the white construction paper (core) and then she used green torn construction paper to make her leaf. We once again talked about the parts of an apple. Naming them and pointing them out. At the end I drew 4 seeds we counted them and then she traced over them trying to keep her crayon marks inside my lines, it was a little harder than it looked :)

We reviewed our counting skills by playing a little apple tree game. I found all supplies for this at my local Hobby Lobby ( love that place) I would give Kaitlyn a number and she would count out that many apples and place them on her trees. We would compare trees and I would ask which one has more, less etc. She loved playing the game and of course asked if she could keep the trees for her dollhouse when we were done...love her :)

Here is our finished unit, she did a lot of projects that were hands on and fun. She loved getting messy with the paint and using all of the art supplies. But the part she enjoyed the most was the books she wanted to read each of them every night before going to bed, she loves to read her books :)

For the next two days we will have shorter sessions of "school" so w will focus on practicing her writing skills by using her blackboard and crayons to write the letter A, we will also play "learning games" Various puzzles that reinforce, alphabet, spatial relationships, shapes and colors. Most of which I picked up in the dollar section at Target...a teacher's favorite place!

Lesson 1 Color Sorting & Letter Recognition

Today was our very first activity we started off with a few basic skills
Color Sorting
Color Identification
Letter Recognition / Writing
Fine Motor Skills

Here are the supplies we used, you will also need a hot glue Gun and a Hair Dryer (Adult use only)

Step 1:  Begin by identifying the colors of the crayons, have your child pick three or four of their favorite colors. We chose 3. Kaitlyn chose orange, pink and green. She sorted them into three different containers.

Step 2:  (step 1) Glue a piece of cardstock onto the top of your canvas. (step 2 + 3) Glue the crayons onto the cardstock using the hot glue gun. (step 4) Once all colors are glued onto the cardstock place it upright in the direct hot sun. Place wax paper underneath to collect drippings. If you are not in a sunny location or the temperature is to chilly you can also achieve the same effect using a hair dryer on the high heat setting. Simply blowing the hair dryer on the crayons will help to melt the crayons and spread them down the canvas.

While we were waiting for the sun to work it's magic we read a book about how crayons are made. We learned about wax and how the different colors start off as a powder and are added to the wax to make crayons.

After our book, we put together some of our learning puzzles, we went grocery shopping, took a nap......and finally checked on our project. The crayons had just started to melt and drip down so we brought it inside to use the hairdryer to finish the rest.

Kaitlyn learned all about the effects heat has on an object, she can tell you that the sun is hot and heat melts wax crayons. ***Important beginning understanding of how the world works :) After we were finished and the wax dried ( about 10 min) I cut the crayons into smaller pieces with a pair of scissors.

Kaitlyn learned all about the letter K, we practiced writing it on paper, and used our learning puzzles to learn about the sound a K makes by comparing "K" pictures, and tracing the letter "K" with her finger. She then painted her wooden "K" brown and added some small pink polka dots ( found in the scrapbook section at Hobby Lobby)

Kaitlyn starts with a "K"!

Mommy Hot glued her letter "K" on and Kaitlyn added a few owl stickers to her art work....and viola a finished masterpiece.....Kaitlyn learned quite a bit by having fun and now she has a unique piece of art that she made from scratch, I think I know the perfect spot for it, right on her bedroom door.