Letter M Crafts

Here are three letter M craft ideas we enjoyed recently!

Monkey Masks

Print out the template HERE, color, cut, and play!

Marshmallow Painting

I found a bubble letter M through google and printed it out. Then we dipped large marshmallows in paint and painted away!

 They got to enjoy a treat of one CLEAN marshmallow :)

We used large marshmallows because that's what we had on hand. You could use a variety of sizes. You could also glue the marshmallows on the M.

Monster M

We got some cutting practice in with this one. Then I just let the kids create!

For more ideas than you'll probably ever be able to use, check out the Letter M Activities page over at The Measured Mom! Love her site.

Love our happy wall!

K is for Kite

This past week in school we kept it simple. I didn't add anything to The Letter of the Week curriculum for Jack (except we started working on Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons). But it worked out perfectly because we did "K is for Kite" and today we went to the "Kite Komotion" festival in Shipshewana! This was our third year going and we thoroughly enjoyed it as usual!

It's free to the public which is how we like to do things. We got to watch professional kite flyers "dance" (according to Marie) and "race" (according to Jack) their incredible kites.

They also had beautiful and fascinating kites anchored to the ground for our viewing pleasure.

That is Jack with his free "ferbie" in his mouth.

The kids got to make their own kites! Marie made one two years ago and still uses it. Somehow these free kites beat out store bought kites any day!

After making our kites, we went out and flew them. Unfortunately, the camera was not on a good setting so no pics to share :/ But the kids had a blast! Kempton only flew his for a minute then decided to chase down everybody else's kites.

We did spend a little money this year and got the kids a shaved ice.

As we were leaving, I asked Jack what letter "kite" started with and he didn't even hesitate to give me the correct answer. He really shouldn't be old enough to know these things.

These flowers are spinning incredibly fast. Interesting that you can't tell in the picture!

Derek's wheel fell off of his truck early this morning while he was headed out to go turkey hunting. Talk about stressful. But spending the afternoon all together enjoying some free fun was a beautiful reminder that God not only is in control, but also blesses us beyond what we could ever deserve. Derek is safe, we have another vehicle to lean on, and we got to enjoy kites on a beautiful day together.

Adding a little education to our vacation

We are heading to Florida! Woohoo! I'm not telling you this so you will be jealous, but I would understand if you are. I mean, I would be.

What's a road trip without some preschool and kindergarten level education involved??

Here are my ideas for the drive down to the sunshine state (and possibly back if they happen to... hopefully!... sleep through a state).

• Each noodle will be provided with a map of the United States that they are free to color (HERE and HERE are good sources).

• As we enter a new state, they will put a star sticker on that state.
• At some point we will stop and take a picture of the 3 kids in each state.
• For Marie (Kindergarten), I will have a page for each state (found HERE) along with a fact sheet I put together (Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, template). She will either draw or write the information from the fact sheet onto her coloring page. 

I also found a Scavenger Hunt page HERE if the littles are interested!

It's very simple stuff but an excellent way to help them realize what's going on as we drive. We'll see how it goes! I'll have an update when we return.

What are some ways you like to teach your kids while on a long drive?

((Check out THESE ideas, too!))

Learning God's Word: Daniel in the Lions Den

We've reached the story of Daniel in the lions den in our Jesus Storybook Bible. This seemed like an easy one to expand on so that I did with free online resources! We also worked on the letter L (for Lion and Ladybug) in preschool because I love when everything works together.

Reading:

Daniel 6
Jesus Storybook Bible
Really Big Book of Bible Stories

The Story of Daniel and the Lions

We got this at the library. It rhymes and the kids loved it.

Verse:

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Focus:

God is our protector. We can trust Him.

Watch:

Youtube video

Activities:

Order story cards
Telling time game (kindergarten)

Word Search (kindergarten)

Retell the story to each other using stick figures

Crafts:

L is for Lion

Daniel in the Lions Den Sunday School Craft

Sidenote, Marie completed her 100th day of school today! Yay!

F is for Fish and Frog

This week I had hoped to get a fish for our schoolroom but that never happened. I still plan to get fish as soon as we can find a really good deal on a small fish tank with a filter (so if you happen to know of one...).

We still learned about the letter F and Jack did wonderfully! The letters are really starting to click with him. Here are two things we did this week outside of the Letter of the Week curriculum that we really enjoyed...

We learned a little about the life cycle of a frog. Jack cut out (with a little help!) and pasted this chart together.

We had already done some coloring earlier and getting Jack to color more than one thing is just not worth the effort. But he loves to cut and paste!

This fish craft I found in a random little craft book I have in my stash. It was a HUGE hit!

Marie made the third one completely on her own.

Supplies:

• Construction paper
• Tissue paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Googly eyes
• Markers/crayons/glitter/etc (optional)

Directions:

Draw the shape of the fish and have the kids cut it out and glue an eye on. Then cut out shapes (or have kids cut out) from different types of paper (we used construction paper and tissue paper) and have the kids glue them on the fish. Let them decorate as desired. Cut out strips from the tissue paper and have them glue the strips as a tail.

Hours of fun will follow this super simple craft! Who knew?

Linking up here:

D is for Dinosaur

This week in preschool we worked on the letter D. (We obviously don't do the alphabet in order! I like to incorporate things going on around us like "S is for Snow" and "V is for Valentine").

We use the Letter of the Week curriculum by Confessions of a Homeschooler. I love it! Marie worked through it, too. But when Jack is in the right mood, he could basically do everything in one sitting. So here is a rundown of what we did beyond the curriculum...

Marie helped write down some words we came up with that start with the letter D.

We colored and cut out dinosaurs (find lots of free coloring pages HERE) and put them on our heads!

Got out our Target Dollar Spot workbook...

And worked on some shapes and gluing with this cute stegosaurus craft. We also learned that the stegosaurus was an herbivore and was probably a very slow moving dino. They enjoyed playing like they were loud, slow stegosaurus'.

While I was researching ideas for this, I found that Answers in Genesis had this set on sale!

I am so excited about it! (As I'm typing this, it is still on sale!) We watched some of the video with this D is for Dinosaur lesson, but I plan to go much more in depth in the fall before we take a trip to The Creation Museum (where kids admission is free this year! Woot!)

Next week in preschool we plan to work on the letter F for Fish, and hope to get a fish for our little school area! Homeschooling is so fun.

(I found many of these ideas from Mommy Lessons 101. There is also a free D is for Dinosaur preschool pack over at Teaching Mama!)

"Circle Time"

Most days we start school together and this is what the routine looks like...

Prayer time.

Bible verse review.

Songs:
Alphabet
Days of the Week (To the tune of "The Adams Family")

(Sorry for my loud voice. If I didn't jump in, this video would be ten minutes long.)

Months of the Year



Books of the Bible



Calendar.

We found this calendar at a garage sale.

Bible story.

Split for separate lessons. We usually come back together at some point to do a craft, read, and/or watch the occasional youtube video.

This gets changed up a little every once in awhile, and some days we scrap all of it but the Bible story. But I do love having them learn together. Marie is already becoming an excellent teacher!

Learning God's Word: Psalm 23

Usually for "Bible Class," the kids and I will read from The Jesus Storybook Bible one day, color a coloring page from a download I have with a shortened version of the same story another day, then go back to The Jesus Storybook Bible, and so on. Sometimes I will incorporate ideas from the handouts they get in Sunday School. But I'd really like to do more! I'm in the market for a great, theologically sound Bible curriculum (so if you have recommendations, please let me know!), but until then I'm going to try to put a little more effort into teaching my babies God's Word.

This week we read from the Jesus Storybook Bible about "The Good Shepherd." So I decided to spend a little bit more time on talking about God as our Shepherd.

Focus:

God is my shepherd and will take care of me. (I can trust Him).

Memory Verse:

"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." Psalm 23:1

We used THIS website to make the trace page.

Reading:

Jesus Storybook Bible "The Good Shepherd."
The Word and Song Bible "Psalms. The Psalm of the Shepherd King David."
Psalm 23 NASB and ESV versions.

Activities/coloring:

Psalm 23 Bingo (123 Homeschool 4 Me)
Psalm 23 word search (kindergarten)

Psalm 23 maze

Story Comprehension

Jesus and the Lamb coloring page

Songs/Poems:

Psalm 23 Song
Jesus Loves Me

Craft:

Shepherd toilet paper roll

Handprint Sheep

We also happened to have this DVD...

I don't plan to always be this elaborate, but we sure had a great time! Looking forward to do something like this again! What have you and your kids been studying in God's Word?