Preschool Corner: Lightbulb Moments

School time is finally getting into a ‘groove’ and routine for us, which is a HUGE relief for me. I’m not a big fan of anything chaotic and crazy, so it’s nice to feel that we’re settling in. Zachary is really enjoying having his workboxes and strips to help him along and knows his morning routine now too.

Even though I haven’t really had the free time this week, I’ve been fiddling with graphics and html, and I made a new graphic for the Preschool Corner. If you’ve used the code on my sidebar to link to Preschool Corner, it should have already changed over for you! :)

This week I’m going back to breaking up what we did by subject/area since that’s the way my lesson plans are laid out, they way I’ve done it in the past, and it’s a lot easier to remember things that way. And just to let you know, in a few weeks I’m going to be teaching at our local co-op and will be sharing what I am teaching during that time too.

Bible

This week we talked about Adam and Eve and being obedient to God. It was actually a GREAT practical hands-on lesson and we walked through examples of what different actions were pleasing to God or ones that showed disobedience. Later in the day something came up and Zachary put two and two together with our lesson and had a ‘lightbulb’ moment, realizing that his choice was not the right one. {And Mommy shouts ‘hurray!!}

Math

Zachary is about impossible to stop in his math lessons lately. I had only planned to have him do a little at a time, but he gets upset when I try to have him stop.

Okay!!!

This week we’ve been focusing on writing numbers up to the number 6 {more on the handwriting aspect of it, since he recognizes the numbers}, making sure he understands the difference between right and left, following simple one-step directions, and following directions ~ i.e color the shirt on the right green and the pants on the left red.

Zachary is also working on telling time to the hour using a standard clock {i.e. non-digital}. He had fun playing some bingo games and folder games that cover telling time too.

Science

The two caterpillars that went into their chrysalis at the same time almost 2 weeks ago, both emerged on the same day and Zachary was able to help release one of them too. Both of the butterflies were boys, so the kids have been so excited that we had ‘twin boys’. :)

Zachary also worked on finishing up his mini-book on a caterpillar’s life cycle. See his little caterpillar on the cover?

Phonics & Reading

We’ve been working on the ‘th’ sound this week and the two different sounds that that blend makes {think of the words ‘this’ and ‘things’ and see how your tongue feels different when making those ‘th’ blends}. He’s also working on the ‘ng’ sound.

During this year we’ll be using the Rocket Phonics program with him and I’ll be posting about his progress throughout the year. I’m really enjoy it at this point because it goes along very well with our spelling program.

Spelling

For spelling this week, Zachary learned about counting syllables in words and how to build the ‘ch’, ‘sh’ and ‘th’ sounds. He also worked on spelling words with the short ‘u’ and short ‘e’ sound.

I would normally have him use the letter tiles on the board to spell the words, but since his two older sisters sit down and write theirs out…well, he wants to also.

Before we start our spelling for the day {using the letter tiles and the board}, I mess up a bunch of the letters and Zachary is getting quicker putting them all back into alphabetical order. Watching him mentally singing the ABC song to put them in the right order just cracks me up!

Handwriting

Since Zachary has a pretty good handle on his uppercase letters {they are at least recognizable}, we’re working on lowercase letters and how they are formed. This week’s focus was on the letters o, c, g, q, and d.

Geography

Some of the things we are doing in geography are a little above Zachary, but he still sits with us and listens along. He did help with our country meal – well, with the eating end of it, that is. :) We made Pico de Galo and he thoroughly enjoyed that.

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