Down Goes Your Line, When You Make a 1!

Today we did some catch up and wrap up with the Letter Aa, Play With Me, and the Number 1.  We practiced writing Aa on the laminated Aa card, and in the cornmeal/rice mixture.  Then we made the letter Aa out of craft sticks.  Evan made the Big A, and then looked at me with a confused look on his face.  I asked him what was wrong, and and he said, "I can't."  I asked him what he couldn't do, and he said, "You make a little a, I can't."  So I proceeded to make a little a.  He looked at it and then looked at me.  He said, "Mommy, that's a square and a line, not a circle and a line."  I guess he told me!  I just had to laugh and say, "You're right honey!" 

Making Stick Letters.

Then we finished up some things for the Aa Lapbook.  (See older posts for pictures of the completed Lapbook).

Painting the "Aa is for Ant" picture.

Who doesn't like glitter glue and feathers?!

We also continued to talk about the #1.  Evan practiced writing 1's in the cornmeal/rice mixture.  We turned the Number 1 rhyme into a song, and danced around the room as 1's.  The rhyme goes: "Down goes your line, when you make a 1.  It's easy and lots of fun.  Just be sure your line is as straight as it can be.  Ones like to stand up tall like a tree."  Then Evan made a #1 Train.  Alan wanted to get in on this action, and helped Evan color the train.  After they colored it, Evan decorated it with some Thomas stickers.  In his world, Thomas makes everything better!  When he was done, he insisted that we hang it up by the Number Train above our white board.

Coloring the #1 Train.

Proud of his #1 Thomas Train!

Evan's train on display.

We played a game of "I Spy" with magnetic numbers and letters.  I used A, B, and C, and 1, 2 and 3.  I would "I Spy" a big or little A and the #1 of a certain color and they would find it.  Alan just likes playing with the pieces and putting them on and off the cookie sheet. 

Alan having fun playing "I Spy".

To go along with the #1, we read the Bible story of the Lost Coin from Luke 15:8-10.  Evan loves to get pennies, so he got 9 new pennies to put into his Tiger bank.  After he put the 9 coins in, he tried to take the "Lost Coin" off his picture too. 

Putting his 'non-lost' coins in his Tiger bank.

Evan put some finishing touches on his "Play With Me" Lapbook.  (To see pictures of this completed Lapbook, see older posts.)  We read the story and he acted it out with the stick puppets.  This Lapbook was about Aa is for Animals.  So this evening, we took the boys on a field trip to the pet store to see all the animals.  This was a huge hit!  Alan just ran up and down the aisles squealing!  Nothing like fun, free, Friday night entertainment!

"Play With Me" by Marie Hall Ets

Today we finished the Play With Me Lapbook.  This has been such a fun book.  Evan loves using all the puppets as we read the story and can pretty much recite the entire book by now.  This morning, he was also saying the Bible Verse with me.  We used this 'Before Five in a Row' (B4FIAR) book to coincide with our study of the Letter Aa.  They went perfectly together.

Front and Back cover of the Play With Me Lapbook.

Inside of the Play With Me Lapbook.
Notice the A covered with blue feathers - just like the Blue Jay in the story.

Who Am I? Magnetized Matching Game

Showing the "Aa is for Animals" tab and the Bible Verse.

Showing the animals that Evan wants to play with - he said Yes to all of them!

Classification cards and stick puppets for each of the animals in the story.

Templates for this lapbook can be found at:  http://www.homeschoolshare.com/

Aa Lapbook

Today we finished the Aa Lapbook.

Front and Back cover of the Aa Lapbook.

Inside of the Aa Lapbook

Showing the inside of the "My Aa Art Book" and the Apple Pinwheel.

Showing the "Apples in the Barrel" game and the inside of the Aa words flip chart.

Aa manipulatives - Amazing Apple, Mr. Al the Alligator, Orbiting Astronaut, and Angie A.

Templates for this lapbook can be found at:  http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and http://www.dltk-teach.com/

Aa is for Buzz Lightyear!

Our nephew, Gavin, came over to play today.  The boys had so much fun together.  In between all the playing, we were actually able to get in a little bit of school.  Evan kept telling Gavin, "Come on, let's go play school!"  Evan was so excited to have Gavin here and wanted to show and teach him everything we have been doing.  So we did our normal start routine - change the day magnets and say the Pledge of Allegiance.  Evan wanted Gavin to hold the flag today.

I Pledge Allegiance...

Both boys took turns writing 'Aa' and then we looked through the Aa Lapbook.  We got out all the 'Aa' Puppets and the boys put on plays for each other.  It was so cute to listen to them.  You have to love the imagination of 3 year old boys and how they change their voices for their pretend characters.  It was fun to observe!

Gavin putting on a puppet show for Evan.

Today we learned that Aa is for Astronaut.  There is a flip chart of Aa words in Evan's Aa Lapbook.  These are the words we have been going through and learning about each day.  As we go through this little chart, I will say, "Aa is for..." and Evan will respond, "Apple," or whatever the picture is.  Whenever I get to the astronaut, I say, "Aa is for..." and Evan always says, "Buzz Lightyear!"  So he was pretty excited that we were going to learn about astronauts today!  We looked through several books about astronauts that I had checked out from the library.  Then we worked on our craft.  The boys made astronauts and space shuttles to orbit the Earth.  We pasted pictures of their faces onto the astronauts.

Coloring coffee filters to make the Earth.

Squirting water on the coffee filter to make the colors bleed together.

Painting astronauts and space shuttles.

Look Mommy, I'm floating!

Then we turned our living room into the moon.  They played in their space shuttle and moon walked while wearing their space helmets.  They LOVED this!  I think Alan just got a kick out of watching them run all over and bounce off the trampoline onto the couch cushions.  When Alan would try to get into their space shuttle, they would scream, "AHHHHH, the monster is coming - RUN!!!"  Gotta love them!

My little astronauts.  To infinity...

...and Beyond!!!

Moon Walking

Quick!  Back to the space shuttle!

We had a really fun day!  Tonight before Evan went to bed, he asked if Gavin could come play school with us again.  It just thrills me to no end that Evan loves school as much as he does.  What a joy it is to share these experiences/memories with these sweet boys!

Aa is for Ant and Airplane

Today's Bible Story was when Jesus was telling his friends about His wonderful home in Heaven.  We talked about how God was making a beautiful home for us there too.  Evan got to paint a picture of what Heaven might look like and we talked about how wonderful it was going to be!  After his painting dried, he glued 'clouds' on his picture.

How beautiful Heaven must be!

Gluing clouds on the Heaven picture.

We also reviewed our last Bible Story about how God created the world and Evan painted a picture of some of God's creation.  When it was dry, he cut out the pictures and glued them onto construction paper.

Painting God's creation.

God created everything!

Until we get to go live in Heaven with God someday, we have a nice home here where we get to live.  We talked about where we live and what our address is.  To help learn our address, we made bandaid puppets and put on plays with our fingers!  Evan loved this and wore his puppets through most of the afternoon.

Bandaid Puppets!

We continued with our study of the letter Aa.  He practiced writing it and we did some more work in his Aa Lapbook.  Today we focused on Aa is for Ant.  We read some Ant books that I had checked out from the library.  He kept saying, "Ewwwww, Gross...Can I touch it?!"  Then we went outside and looked for ants.  He wasn't satisfied with the little ants.  He kept saying that he wanted to find the big ants.  We found some 'big ants' on the fence and he watched them for awhile.  Then I poured a bunch of water into the flower bed and stirred up a whole colony of ants.  He really enjoyed watching them scurry all around.  He found an apple in the backyard that had fallen off the tree.  He didn't realize that it had ants all over it until he picked it up.  He screamed and threw it down!  We watched the ants eat the apple for awhile. 

Admiring 'big ants' on the fence.

Ant colony exposed.

Ants eating an apple

Evan got a package in the mail today from Papa and Grandma Detwiler.  He couldn't wait to tear into it to find out what it was.  He got an airplane!  Couldn't have come at a better time, because the word airplane was next on our list of Aa words.  He enjoyed this airplane WAY more than the paper airplane I had made for him!  At first, he didn't know how to throw it to make it fly, so he just ran around the yard with it.  Then Daddy showed him how it was done!  Once he knew how to throw it, he didn't want to go back inside!  Thank-you Papa and Grandma for the airplane!  Great fun!  He LOVES it!

Evan opening his mail from Papa and Grandma Detwiler

Aa is for Airplane!

Look, Mommy!  I'm flying an airplane!

Hold it like this...

Rescue 911

Today was all about safety.  We talked about how God is ever present, and always there for us.  He is always there, just like our police officers and fire fighters are always there.  We talked about emergencies and what we should do if we are ever in one.  We talked about 911 and practiced making 911 calls on Evan's toy phone.

Hello.  This is 911.  What is your emergency?

I checked out several books from the library on emergency vehicles and first responders.  Evan was particularly excited about the big ladders on the fire trucks.  I surprised him with a new red fire fighter's hat, and told him that we were going to go on a field trip to to the fire station.

Super excited about his new red fireman's hat.

He finished coloring his 911 phone, cut it out, glued it onto pink construction paper (he wanted pink!), and then decorated it with policeman stickers.

Evan cutting out the phone.

Pleased with his work!

Alan got a new yellow fire fighter's hat also.  Now we were ready to go on our field trip!  When we got to the fire station, we were greeted by the fire chief, Darren White.  He was so friendly and took us on a tour.  Before we started the tour, he told the boys that he better make it official, and he gave them both a badge to wear!  He introduced us to the fire marshall and then showed us all the fire trucks and took us all around the station.  He let the boys get up in the fire trucks which made Evan's day.  He talked about driving the fire truck the rest of the day!  What a great field trip!  To see more pictures of our field trip to the fire station, visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25608&id=1707958162&l=b02c1c652e

Little Fire Chiefs

Driving the fire truck!

We continued learning about the letter Aa today.  Evan did some more work in his Aa Lapbook.  To go along with the safety/rescue theme for the day, we learned that Aa is for Ambulance.  He got to paint a picture of an ambulance which lead into him wanting to paint a picture of a fire truck.

Writing time

Aa is for Ambulance.

Evan painting a fire truck.

The Daddy Duck of our Rubber Duck Family is a fire fighter.  We put on several plays with the duck family.

Chief Ducky

Evan had his first attempt at solving a maze today on one of his Aa worksheets.  He didn't quite understand, so we made a maze out of blocks on the floor.  This, of course, turned into making train tracks - it always does!

You want me to do what?

Floor mazes with trains are much more fun!

Train tracks are even better!

The boys had such a fun day.  They continued to play with their fire trucks all evening long. 

Alan playing with fire trucks.

Evan riding his fire truck.