Tot School - Easter Week 4

Kahlen is 39.5 months old

We are following the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 2's called Joyful Learning. For four weeks, we have been learning about eggs and Easter. Check out this post that includes the planning sheets for the last two weeks.

We finished up with our Easter activities this week. While we had a great time, I can say I am really ready to move on to something else! I'm surprised we got through all our activities this week since Kahlen and I were both fighting a nasty cold :( Luckily the boys didn't get it (yet, anyway).

So, anyway, here's our week.

Our trays from our first day went like this:

 We first read "My Easter Basket and the True Meaning of Easter" and went on a scavenger hunt in the living room for something of each color that it describes in the book.

Something green: caterpillar on exersaucer. Something purple: bowl from her tea set. Something red: scarf on her stuffed penguin. Something brown: her dress. Something white: lid from a toy. Something yellow: pajama shirt that she didn't put away ;)

Next, we did an egg "relay". She had to get the eggs from one basket to the other with the spoon.

After she breezed through this one, I had her use a smaller spoon

"Mom, are you crazy? I need help!" 

I'm such a mean mommy, I made her do it all by her self, even though it was harder ;)

After that, she put the "eggs" into an egg carton one at a time using a tea bag squisher (couldn't find my small tongs)

Then we made a handprint wreath. Sorry, no pictures of tracing her hands and cutting them out. Can't trace and take pictures at the same time...

Gluing them together

The finished product, which is now hanging on our front door to replace the cross from a few weeks ago

Then we did our cross puzzle from Confessions of a Homeschooler Easter activities

She's not really into puzzles, it took her a long time to get this one

Tada!

Somewhere in there we also did the E is for Egg magnet page, which she did not want to paint, but did enjoy her magnetic pompoms.

For day two (which was her idea, I was all for watching a movie since I was sick), here's what we did:

We did our stART project first (will post that later today) with The Easter Story (bought for half price day after at KMart).

After that, we did an oval collage. I had stickers, ovals, and glue, and I just handed them to her to see what she would do with them. She came up with using the stickers to stick on the "eggs" all by her self. Of course, then she got lazy and wanted me to peel all the stickers for her.

The finished product

Then we played a game that I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler too. I also made a die (got a template online and just cut it out). We used foam stickers for the markers which we stuck to the paper afterward.

.

It was great practice. She doesn't really know her numbers very well, so I put the numeral and the number of dots on each side. We also practiced taking turns.

Our other activities included our verse song John 3:16 and a letter E tracing page. She's still enjoying her oatmeal sensory bin and we've been able to play outside more too (so grateful for sandboxes!).

I'd say for being somewhat sick all week, it was a pretty good week!

~S

Tot School - Easter Week 3

Kahlen is 39.5 months old

We are following the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 2's called Joyful Learning. For four weeks, we have been learning about eggs and Easter. Check out this post that includes the planning sheets for the last two weeks.

We really focused in on Easter last week with some great activities and crafts that I found all over the blogosphere. Please see my planning post for links to the activities.

Here's our trays for the first day:

We didn't actually get to all the activities on these trays because some of them took much longer.
We started with our bible story and resurrection eggs.
Then we did the first few steps of the Playdough Mountain from Desiring God:

 First, I made the people and the cross. I think probably next year, she'll be able to do this step.

 Mixing the ingredients.

Poking the holes for the cross and the people.

It then has to bake for a really really really long time (like 6+ hours), so we moved on to the next activity :)

We made a masking tape cross:

She was supposed to paint the entire paper, but just didn't want to.

This is after we pulled the tape off. 

That was all we had time for that day since the mountain took a long time, and the bible story portion was long as well.

The next day, after the mountain was cooked and cooled, she painted it:

Before the paint

Painting the mountain.

The completed masterpiece.

I managed to not take any pictures of it after we put the cross and people on it :( We took out the can that we used to help form the tomb and placed all the people in the holes we had poked in it. On Good Friday, we took one of the people, pretended it was Jesus and placed him in the tomb. On Sunday morning, it was gone! She definitely understood it better this year than last, but I think we'll keep doing it every year anyway :)

Our second day of school:

We started again with our bible story and the last two resurrection eggs.

She then picked the one with food on it, of course!

She made resurrection rolls:

Rolling the marshmallows in butter and sugar/cinnamon.

Before we rolled them up.

In the "tomb".

While they were cooking, she made a picture frame with Easter stickers I got from Oriental Trading

She also did her C handwriting page from First School.

Then, the rolls were done!

Mmm, yummy!

We also started an oatmeal sensory bin this week, we'll keep it probably for a couple weeks before hopefully doing something less messy :)

Here's everything we put in the bin. The bin itself is a wrapping paper box.

I put the bin on a big blanket on the floor so I can just shake it off outside when she's done. 

We have a "blanket time" every day where she must stay on her blanket. She's been trained to do this since she was very little, so it's nothing new. Just recently, though, I've started letting her play with her sensory bin on blanket time. This is time that I typically use to do my bible study or get something else done that would be difficult to do with her. We usually do it for about 45 minutes (I set a timer so she knows when she's done). She enjoys the time she gets to spend with her bin, most days she plays a little longer after the timer goes off. 

I've really enjoyed our Easter activities, but after next week, I'll be ready to move on to something besides plastic eggs and cross crafts ;)

~S

Preschool Planning - Easter Weeks 3-4

I really really meant to get this up sooner, it just didn't happen :(

Here's the overview for the next two weeks:
Easter at a Glance 2

and here's the detailed activity list:
Easter Detailed Activity List 2

Playdough Mountain from Desiring God

Resurrection Rolls

Easter story sequencing

Easter Puzzle and Die Game

Handprint wreath

C is for Cross magnet page

E is for Egg magnet page

Enjoy!
~S

Tot School - Easter Week 2

Kahlen is 39 months old

We are following the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 2's called Joyful Learning. For four weeks, we will be learning about eggs and Easter. Check out this post that includes the planning sheets for the first two weeks.

This week was a little crazy here in Colorado. Monday was sunny and 70 degrees. Tuesday we had a blizzard. Kahlen and daddy enjoying playing in both.

We didn't really do any stART projects this week because we just read the stories straight out of the bible and didn't have a book to go with it.

For our first day, we did:

We started by reading the triumphal entry in the Illustrated Children's bible. This is not Kahlen's normal bible, and she let me know about it several times! We made it through, though. We then did this simple sticker sorting activity:

I got a huge bag of foamie stickers from Oriental Trading Company and gave her a handful of them to sort into these little buckets that I also got at Oriental Trading Company. Of course, you can't sort stickers and not use some of them :)

"There's Mommy and Kahlen and Daddy and Nate"

Then we did the first two eggs in our Resurrection Eggs set that I made using this.

Next we made a Palm Branch

 I was expecting her to want to play with it after it was dry, but she forgot about it for now.

Then we did a donkey activity

Cutting

Ripping when she got tired of cutting ;)

Gluing

Last she did her dot painting and magnets P is for Palm. I really need to make her some more magnets, she ends up being short a few every time and gets frustrated :(

Shortly after this is when she went outside to play with daddy in the snow, crazy Colorado spring!

Our second day went something like this:

I switched back to her regular kid's bible for today, which she liked much better.

We then did the next three Resurrection Eggs.

Then we started our lamb craft. First I put black paint on a plate and Kahlen dipped her hand in it. She then put it on the paper. We had to wait for it to dry, so we moved on for awhile.

She then chose to do her handwriting practice page, which I got from First School.

Then we used these patterning egg sheets, which I really can't remember where I got, sorry!

They were difficult for her, but we figured it out by the end.

Next she played Easter Memory 

Then we came back to the lamb craft and glued on the wool (cotton balls)

I don't have a picture of the finished product because we had to wait until the afternoon to glue on the googly eyes because the black paint took a really long time to get all the way dry.

That was Kahlen's school for the week.

Soon, Nate will be joining us for Tiny Tot School, he's really started manipulated toys more and scooting/rolling to get to things, so cute!

~S