Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

Another alphabet activity that really tests how well your preschooler knows the alphabet.  Also a good building block for all those ABC order lessons that will come up in the coming years in school.  This is another activity I have not spent much time doing.  I usually focus on one letter at a time.  Singing the alphabet while looking at the letters weekly is what I think helped Little Dragon complete this activity.  For this activity I randomly wrote letters on the board and blank spaces.  I left more spaces blank then filled in, I had high expectations for Little Dragon.  Doll Dragon needed something to do as well so I had her come up with, and spell, a five or more lettered word starting with the blank space letters that Little Dragon was filling in.  This worked out great!  Both of them exercising their brains to succeed this challenge. Doll Dragon tried a couple 4 letter words but quickly noticed the letter count was...

This activity went with our letter E, Easter theme you can find here When I saw this activity I really liked it.  It is super easy to make and it is open for many different levels of learning. When creating your symmetrical egg you can make it as easy or as hard as you like.  Materials paper pencil/marker Before we got started I explained, by example on the board, what we were doing.   I had two older dragons with me when we did this activity.  To make this more challenging and to take up a bit more time because I knew they would finish fast, I had each of them design half an egg for the other person.  Together we brainstormed some ideas on what they could do for their egg designs and they were quickly excited to start.  This activity is great for fine motor skills and extra pencil holding practice.  For the Little Dragon I tried to do designs he may see in his letter practice and I also threw in some challenges.  He i...

I know I know a typical Easter letter choice and theme.  But Little Dragon hadn't quiet mastered letter E yet and Easter was the perfect time to reiterate this letter, plus I thought it would help him remember.   We started the week of with our bin of eggs You can call it a sensory bin because there are some sensory experiences here, but none my dragons hadn't experienced before. This week We played some egg games  Stack 'Em Don't Crack 'Em Egg Toss Minute to Win It Roll and Stack We practiced handwriting and reading on the white board The older dragons unscrambled the words and Little Dragon had to read the unscrambled word. And fixed sentences Little Dragon had to find all of the letter e's in the sentence He also did some standard letter E handwriting Little Dragon worked in his red binder In the red binder we go over what day it is the number of the day (the date) before and after  cl...

This activity went with our  sh sound unit There are over 300 shark species swimming in the world.  When learning about sharks we had to go over some of them to give Little Dragon some extra shark knowledge.  I chose to go over 5 Hammerhead Tiger Great White Whale Shark Megladon We didn't go into a lot of detail on these, Little Dragon is only five. The first thing we did was go to the library and check out some books on sharks.  Then I printed  this worksheet  for a more visual/physical understanding.  We can also keep a printable.  I cut the separate pictures and names of the sharks and put them all on the floor.  I then asked Little Dragon if he could identify any of the sharks.  He easily identified the Sharks. We talked about what made them each different.  Little Dragon colored the Sharks Then I put them on the white board, pictures in a column and names in a ...

In pre-school Little Dragon has been learning about mail men for the last two weeks. When his teacher first told me the topic and letter I told Little Dragon we would learn more about mail men. Now we have gone over mail men and community helpers twice so when I told Little Dragon we would learn about m is for mail man he was was disappointed and asked if we could learn about something else. I can't say this upset or surprised me.  I get bored teaching the same things. So when we got home we brainstormed letter m topics.  I thought he would go for monkey, maybe mommy but he went with meat eaters.  Which he came up with on his own during our brainstorming.   This topic was a bit difficult for me to plan at first.  I would like to expand on this more but there are only so many hours in a day (and so many when mommy's are not being pulled in every direction) to make a impromptu plan.  This Week  Keeping with our theme we did a few me...

Because Little Dragon is in an outside preschool now I did not make a lesson plan for this year.  I have been trying to supplement the things he is learning there, here.  His teachers do not have a lesson plan or a syllabus that I can use as a reference so I am blind to what we will be learning until I see his teachers after school on Mondays. Some weeks what they are learning about is something we have gone over already at home or Little Dragon simply is not interested in learning more about.  On these weeks I ask him what he wants to learn about.  Together we pick a letter he is struggling with and assign a topic to it.  It been working out quiet nicely. This Week  Little Dragon has been learning about The 3 Bears so we got out the magnetic board and did some story telling. Little Dragon practiced his handwriting by writing the story title himself. He also practiced some art skills by drawing the house details for the Bears.   ...

Week 6 Letter: E Theme: Egypt Number: 6 Bible Story: Joseph the Dreamer Bible Verse: Each and every perfect gift is from above.  I hid the letter magnet only once this week. I was running out of hiding places moving it and Little Dragon lost a few letters during his hiding turn. ☺️ Start We did a lot of dancing like an Egyptian at the beginning of our days. This was a lot of fun! Of course I do owe a bit to The Bengals for such a great song.  Bible    Day 1- We read Joseph the Dreamer Activity- Jealous     Day 2- We read Sold! Activity- coat of many colors Day 3-  Joseph and His Brothers Activity- Forgiving Fingers Day 4-    Joseph and His Brothers Activity- Weight of  a Grudge Day 5- All three stories Activity-Little Dragon retold the story using the magnetic board.  Motion Put hands together over the head and move head around like an Eg...