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The following ideas come from a wide variety of sources. Additional information and notes in parenthesis are not necessarily my reviews of the products listed. If you have an idea you would like to see added, please email it to me.
Things
To Do: Finger-painting with yogurt,
pudding, whip cream Play-doh Sandboxes and dirt. Make mud pies.
Yummy!! Water tables -- can be filled
with water, rice, sand, feathers, hay, anything just be creative. Use various
things to play with such as utensils, measuring cups and spoons, funnels, tongs,
sifter,... Remember to include some things that won't work to further enhance
the experience. Nature walks -- sit and watch
the ants, look for birds in the trees and new plants sprouting up. Look for
changes in the colors around you, weather changes, and more. Hand rhymes and songs Lacing shapes, string wooden
beads, and puzzles Chores and basic hygiene Legos, wooden blocks, Lincoln
logs, Cutting paper Coloring Magnetic letters with a lap
size magnet board (you can use an old cookie sheet for this) Stickers Notebooking Own homeschool stuff, as much
as possible. including a notebook to draw/write, own pencil box with
whatever drawing implements she is permitted (if they can be different or
new from her usual drawing materials, so much the better), safety scissors (they
make some that only cut paper, not hair or clothes, if you think that's an issue.)
and glue stick. Own "worksheets" at
the pre-K level matching, coloring, etc - there's lots of printable stuff on the
internet, just do a search for printable worksheets
rounded point toothpicks and play dough
- if you are really ambitious, you could draw some simple designs on index
cards (2D) or make samples (3D) for her to try to copy. A 9 x13 baking dish or
jelly roll pan with a thin layer of flour or cornmeal in the bottom for drawing
with a finger OR spray shaving cream on a baking sheet and draw,
shape, etc.
A coloring book with large,
simple line drawings for mosaic fun - fill in the drawings with small
pieces of colored construction paper (cut into squares or tear; paint
sample cards free from your local home store is great for this) glued on with
glue stick.
Take a sheet of paper and draw
some coin sized circles on it. Let her cover the circles with counters or
coins. Have some sheets with more circles and some with less. To make it
harder, use different sized counters or coins and make the circles
different sizes too. Shelling salted peanuts- and
then when a large enough amount has been shelled ( and not already consumed) you
can put them in the blender with a dash of vegetable oil and make peanut
butter. Then the younger one can spread the peanut butter on crackers, and have snack
during the next lesson period.
Taking the kernels off Indian
corn. And in case you happen to have a hand crank wheat mill around- grinding
wheat berries into flour. (I know - most people don't have a wheat
grinder- but if you do, it should keep your little one entertained for a while.
Especially if the goal is enough flour to then make pretzels or pizza for
lunch)
The main thing to remember is to keep whatever activities you choose special for school time only, not other times. Anything that looks like or is what big people use is fun and special.
Activity Buckets:
I keep several of these around for my children to explore.
Quiet things for them to do during reading time when they have ants in their
pants and just can't seem to sit still no matter what I try. These are clear
medium-size Rubbermaid buckets that I fill. Some of these I keep on hand for use
not during school but at other times when I need to keep them busy and quiet so
I can talk on the phone, deal with guests, deal with a sick child, or other
things that come up. Not everything I have for each box fits in all at the same
time. Rotate the contents to make it more fun.
Be creative and create your own. Share your ideas with
me! I would love to add some more to this list!
Art Bucket:
Coloring books, paper, regular scissors, scrapbook scissors,
cutting cards, stickers, crayons, colored pencils, stencils, washable markers,
a ruler, Crayola Wonder markers and Finger-paints (with the books and paper).
Sometimes I throw in a glue stick but I try to keep it simple.
Puzzle Bucket: I have 2 of these.
This is mainly for older children. Madlibs, crosswords, word finds,
dot-to-dots, other activity books, regular pencils, and erasers are all in
here. Those reusable sticker books and write and wipe books are also fun to
add to this. The second if for the younger ones -- wooden puzzles, lauri
puzzles, and other small puzzles go in here. You can also have the kids make
their own puzzles put in Ziplocs and put in here. We also added some puzzles
we got from brighter learning visions and put them in here when we were done
using it with the kit. Another good thing is those matching games where you
match capital letter to lower case letter. Mama animal to baby animal. Etc..
to this kit.
Solitary games Bucket:
Zone pieces, cards, Rush Hour, Cuisenaire Rods and Books.
Pattern Blocks and Books.
Math/Science Bucket:
Counting Bears and cups. Peg board with pegs and cards. Dice.
Fraction pieces. Thermometer. small scale. pinecone. feather. a rock. paper
clips. I also have a few Ziploc bag activities in here too. Plus some other
manipulatives though I am not recalling off the top of my head what they are.
Kid Knex Bucket:
A bucket filled with pieces and instructions that came with the
kit on how to build some things.
Lego Bucket:
Same as the Kid Knex Bucket
Products:
Concentration
My First Brain Quest This is a great series and is excellent for taking along with you when you are traveling. It teaches basic skills/information from the youngest age up to 6th grade. I believe that is the oldest level I have seen this for. There are also subject specific sets as well. Teaching
Resources: Preschool
Readiness The Preschool Busy book by Trish Kuffner.
The Toddler Busy Book by Trish
Kuffner.
The Baby Busy Book by Trish Kuffner.
The
Play and Find Out series by Janice Van Cleave Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready by June Oberlander
Website
Resources: Before
Five in A Row (B4FIAR) is an excellent unit study
that works for many families. It didn't work for ours though. The plan is to
read one story each day for five days and to do activities to enhance the
child's comprehension of the material. Letter
of the Week has
activities for various age ranges including preschool and Kindergarten (as
well as younger) to teach the name and sounds of the alphabet. Best of all --
its free! |
Copyright © 2006 Tuscan Sun Academy
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