Home Preschool - Week 1

So, we are off on a new set of lesson plans for semester 2 of Home Preschool. I've started over on my lesson plans with two goals.

One is to simplify. I'm mostly using two blogs to plan all my activities, and most of them have the printables all prepared for me. I'm using Raising Rock Stars Preschool and Homeschool Creations. They both follow this ABC Bible Verse book (which we already happen to own) for selecting a Bible verse to go along with a letter of the alphabet. And we are doing the letters in the order of the Green Handwriting Without Tears workbook.

My second goal is to include Charlotte, since we are in the process of phasing out her morning nap. She's already been doing circle time with us, and one coloring page each week. Now I'm also including her daily in the actual school work that goes with each letter of the week. So, she has her own set of worksheets, or modified activity to entertain her while Caroline and I work on her lessons.

This is out new Circle Time setup. I got around to painting an easel that my mom no longer used at school during the Christmas holidays (because I wasn't busy enough). I've been pulling the foam letter out of our foam squares to go with each week. We also have our ABC Bible Verse book, and our Circle Time sheets.

Our new Circle Time includes:
Opening Song: This is the day the Lord has made
Pledge of Allegiance
My Country tis of Thee (Caroline learned both of these in BSF and I incorporated them at her prompting... along with a little flag the girls take turns holding from our 4th of July box)
Adding the date to the calendar
Singing the calendar song (Days of the week)
Memory Verse
Reading from the associated ABC Bible Verse pages
Letter related song, rhyme, and/or activity (we usually have 2)


Here are my actual lesson plans, which I'm doing in a spreadsheet now, so might not paste as well.
Week of… Jan 3-7
Letter of the Week - L
Verse - Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.."
Bible Story
Circle Time Rhyme - Lemon poem: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/docs32465/alphabet_notebook/l/lemon_ladybug_rhymes.pdf Circle Time Song - All This Little Light of Mine
Monday: Letter Activity All Cut & Paste/ Do-a-dot
Caroline HWT
Charlotte Letter L basket
Tuesday: Hooked on Phonics All Playdough mats
Caroline Kindergarten Yellow 2:50 ("et") and 2:51 ("en")
Charlotte Basket
HOP expansion (optional)
Wednesday BSF Dentist appt.
Thursday: Math, Science, etc. All Play with plastic bugs
Caroline Worksheet: Ladybug following directions from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/docs32465/grouchy_ladybug/follow_directions.pdf
Charlotte Ladybug coloring page
Friday: Arts and Crafts All Thumbprint Ladybugs
Caroline Cut & Paste bible verse
Baskets: 1 Plastic bugs
Baskets: 2 Bug counters
Baskets: 3 Letter L basket
Baskets: 4 Stacking cups

Caroline has really taken to having a "letter of the week." We have a playlist each week with several songs for the letter. We have fun pointing out the words we hear that start with the letter. Then we think of other words. She begged me for several days to make her a chart to write words that began with our letter. Here is the letter L chart. I wrote "log" and throughout the next days, she wrote "luv (love)," "lmn (lemon)," ladybug (which is in yellow and I can't read it), "la (law - after we saw someone run a red light and had a discussion about it)," and "leotard (very into ballet right now)."

Here are the girls practicing with chalk. Charlotte had fun scribbling, but Caroline did actually practice writing her letter L.

It was fun doing our new activities this week. The biggest struggle was getting Caroline to cut out her Bible verse strips. I thought she'd be so excited to tape them together, and I know she's totally capable of cutting them, but she really dug her feet in about the entire thing. It took about 20 minutes, and sending her to her room out of desperation, before she finally apologized and did her project with a good attitude.