As most of you know I do preschool at home with my two children. I posted a little last year about how I set things up. This year things are a bit different and there are some things from last year I didn't post about.
Weather Chart
I made this myself at the very beginning of my preschool adventures a couple years ago. I have seen many other weather charts but have found mine still works great and my little dragons love it. Therefore I have kept it and see it lasting a long time.
Using some white paper I separated it into 5 columns and 4 rows. 1 column for each day of the week there is school, 1 row for different weather types (sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy). Then wrote "What is the weather?" on the bottom.
I glued the white paper onto some construction paper and slid it into a page protector.
The next part was the most tedious part, but I never have to do it again so I can't complain much. I drew 5 suns, 5 clouds, 5 rainy clouds, and 5 snowflakes on small square pieces of construction paper and cut them out. I stuck tape on the back of each weather type. (I did not have Velcro at the time).
I taped the chart to the window and taped a small pouch to hold all the weather squares above it.
When it is time to look at the weather we look out the window, which is conveniently right where the chart is, pick out which weather square works best and stick it on the correct day and weather spot.
This is how we track the week's weather.
Calendar
This took me a long time to figure out. I searched stores for a good school calendar but could not find one.
So I decided to make my own. My first attempt didn't work out to well. I wrote out a standard calendar on a piece of construction paper and put it in a page protector. This way I could use a dry erase marker to mark each month on the same paper. This didn't work well because I only had one and all of the kids wanted to use it. It was also small which made it hard for everybody to see the days. It didn't last long. I decided I needed a bigger calendar.
I tried to make a calendar on the back of my white board. I thought 'it will be easy to have the white board and the calendar in the same place! All I have to do is flip it over'...yeah, no. Fail.
The back of my white board is like a pin board. I used Velcro to place the months, all of the days of the week and dates. The Velcro did not stick. My days kept falling off!
One of the main reasons I wanted to create a big calendar was because I wanted the kids to be able to touch the calendar. My little dragons LOVE to touch things. Manipulate, move, make their own. I wanted the calendar to bring all of these things to the table. With the days falling off the kids couldn't touch it without everything falling.
Attempt three. I took a poster board and placed the Velcro on that, then secured the poster board to the wall. Nothing fell. I have changed the numbers, the months, and the days of the week and it is still sticking! My kids can touch it, move the Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday pieces without any worries.
Success!
Weekly Folders
This is a new concept I came up with this year. I really love the curriculum I found online at motherhoodonadime but I felt I needed something more.
While we were shopping for school supplies Jerry and I found a hanging 27 pocket organizer. As soon as I saw it I thought '27 pockets, 26 letters of the alphabet, perfect!' Along with the other supplies we bought the organizer and 54 folders to go inside the pockets.
I decided alongside the curriculum I was planning I was going to add 1 folder for each week of study. Which ends up being 28 weeks. Inside the folders were a week of activities that went along with theme and letter of the week.
My little dragons did watch me make some of the folders and saw some of the small surprises I added to the folders. I tried to personalize the folders a bit. I put lessons that had their favorite characters inside and lessons that were appropriate for their age. So they can be proud of their work knowing it is their own.
I am really excited to open these up with the kids each week.
Organizing Me
Lastly I wanted to share how I will be getting my lesson plans to come to life. I have them all written down in 1 folder. They are tabbed for every 5 weeks. I have a title page for each week and a page protector for the magnet or circle time activities of the week inside behind the title page. Then I have the day by day activities planned out thanks to motherhoodonadime.
I am over excited to launch this year of preschool!
As you know I was supposed to start school on Monday. Due to an unknown vacation (with no notice from the bm) Athena will be gone for a week so I decided to wait to start preschool on Tuesday of next week so Athena could start off with us. I also decided throughout the rest of the school year I will continue with the lessons and when Athena is here with us she will be doing the lessons with us. There has been talk of her attending an outside preschool by her bm so my schedule will have to continue as I planned it.
Weather Chart
I made this myself at the very beginning of my preschool adventures a couple years ago. I have seen many other weather charts but have found mine still works great and my little dragons love it. Therefore I have kept it and see it lasting a long time.
Using some white paper I separated it into 5 columns and 4 rows. 1 column for each day of the week there is school, 1 row for different weather types (sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy). Then wrote "What is the weather?" on the bottom.
I glued the white paper onto some construction paper and slid it into a page protector.
The next part was the most tedious part, but I never have to do it again so I can't complain much. I drew 5 suns, 5 clouds, 5 rainy clouds, and 5 snowflakes on small square pieces of construction paper and cut them out. I stuck tape on the back of each weather type. (I did not have Velcro at the time).
I taped the chart to the window and taped a small pouch to hold all the weather squares above it.
When it is time to look at the weather we look out the window, which is conveniently right where the chart is, pick out which weather square works best and stick it on the correct day and weather spot.
This is how we track the week's weather.
Calendar
This took me a long time to figure out. I searched stores for a good school calendar but could not find one.
So I decided to make my own. My first attempt didn't work out to well. I wrote out a standard calendar on a piece of construction paper and put it in a page protector. This way I could use a dry erase marker to mark each month on the same paper. This didn't work well because I only had one and all of the kids wanted to use it. It was also small which made it hard for everybody to see the days. It didn't last long. I decided I needed a bigger calendar.
I tried to make a calendar on the back of my white board. I thought 'it will be easy to have the white board and the calendar in the same place! All I have to do is flip it over'...yeah, no. Fail.
The back of my white board is like a pin board. I used Velcro to place the months, all of the days of the week and dates. The Velcro did not stick. My days kept falling off!One of the main reasons I wanted to create a big calendar was because I wanted the kids to be able to touch the calendar. My little dragons LOVE to touch things. Manipulate, move, make their own. I wanted the calendar to bring all of these things to the table. With the days falling off the kids couldn't touch it without everything falling.
Attempt three. I took a poster board and placed the Velcro on that, then secured the poster board to the wall. Nothing fell. I have changed the numbers, the months, and the days of the week and it is still sticking! My kids can touch it, move the Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday pieces without any worries.
Success!
Weekly Folders
This is a new concept I came up with this year. I really love the curriculum I found online at motherhoodonadime but I felt I needed something more.While we were shopping for school supplies Jerry and I found a hanging 27 pocket organizer. As soon as I saw it I thought '27 pockets, 26 letters of the alphabet, perfect!' Along with the other supplies we bought the organizer and 54 folders to go inside the pockets.
I decided alongside the curriculum I was planning I was going to add 1 folder for each week of study. Which ends up being 28 weeks. Inside the folders were a week of activities that went along with theme and letter of the week.
My little dragons did watch me make some of the folders and saw some of the small surprises I added to the folders. I tried to personalize the folders a bit. I put lessons that had their favorite characters inside and lessons that were appropriate for their age. So they can be proud of their work knowing it is their own.
I am really excited to open these up with the kids each week.
Organizing Me
Lastly I wanted to share how I will be getting my lesson plans to come to life. I have them all written down in 1 folder. They are tabbed for every 5 weeks. I have a title page for each week and a page protector for the magnet or circle time activities of the week inside behind the title page. Then I have the day by day activities planned out thanks to motherhoodonadime.
I am over excited to launch this year of preschool!
As you know I was supposed to start school on Monday. Due to an unknown vacation (with no notice from the bm) Athena will be gone for a week so I decided to wait to start preschool on Tuesday of next week so Athena could start off with us. I also decided throughout the rest of the school year I will continue with the lessons and when Athena is here with us she will be doing the lessons with us. There has been talk of her attending an outside preschool by her bm so my schedule will have to continue as I planned it.
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