It has been incredibly hot here this past week, in fact, it has been of the hottest weeks (if not the hottest week) of the entire summer! As a result, we haven't quite felt up to jumping into our fall theme just yet and decided to continue with our ocean theme, which is okay since I have quite a bit more planned :) We integrated our Ocean Theme into different academic areas, but also did some other work in reading, writing and math...
Reading...
Smiley continues to do a great job with his Hooked On Phonics Program. We're half-way through the Kindergarten program. This week, we learned the sight words: with, what, has. I printed them on paper and Smiley decorated them with candy, his favorite sight word activity ;)
(I took the picture before we shook the candy off)
We also continue to like a word family pockets. This week we worked on -op and -ox.
Math:
We continued in our Singapore Early Bird Workbook and came to the number writing. Smiley did great with number one, but struggled with number 2. I really don't want to push him too much at this age and handwriting is the area that is most difficult for him... He grasps math concepts easily and the Early Bird book is too easy for him in this regard; however, the writing part is tricky. I saw that numbers are actually covered in our Handwriting Without Tears pre-K program, and decided to just skip the numbers for now and work on it once it is introduced in HWT, so it all happens in a more step-by-step fashion :) I think a math program that is more hands-on will be a better fit at this time, and I am looking into purchasing some montessori manipulatives for Smiley... In the meantime, we're doing our own hands-on math activities, here with sea snails and shells :)
Writing:
As I mentioned, handwriting is the most difficult area for Smiley, so we are focusing a lot on fun fine motor activities, and keeping the worksheet activities to a minimum for now.
We had lots of fun making a sea urchin from play though and spaghetti, also incorporating pieces of a real sea urchin and a glass eye :) Smiley adored this activity and spent about an hour playing...
He also learned how to write the letter L and did really well with it.
we did some extra practice in shaving cream, which, of course, was a big hit.
Hours upon hours have been spent playing Legos this week. The boy is obsessed ;)
We spent lots of time playing with sea shells....
and did a float or sink experiment while we were at it ;)
Looks like a lot of really fun activities. For handwriting, have you looked at the free printables at http://confessionsofahomeschooler.com ? She has handwriting worksheets for numbers 1-20 and letters. I laminated them and let my little one trace the sheets with a dry erase marker. It's been a very low-stress way to introduce her to writing.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun week! I love your fine motor themed activities! I need to do some more planning in this area because writing is definitely still Sammy's weakest thing but like you said no need to push them they are so young and just working on fine motor skills is important :-) Do you like handwriting without tears?
ReplyDeleteTracy- We love confessions of a homeschooler, but haven't used Erica's printables in a while. Thanks for reminding me! I just printed a bunch :)
ReplyDeleteLindsay- Yes, I like HWT. I like the wood pieces and the way it builds skills (starting with L, then F etc.). What I don't like as much is that there is only one page practice per letter. My plan is to introduce the letter with HWT and then use other resources, such as RRSP and Confessions of a Homeschooler, Sandpaper letters and fun activities (tracing in shaving cream or pudding) to reinforce the letter (and review letters) over the course of the week. So, I guess HWT isn't critical and you could just do these other resources as well :)