Preschool: F for Fish

We didn't have Joy School Monday or Tuesday. So, here we are on Wednesday, having preschool again. At the beginning I really focused on the Alphabet. We sang the ABC song with www.starfall.com . Their version includes the letter's sound and a object that goes with it. Since Hailey was the only one familiar with it, she did the actions with me.

Then we went fishing for the letters. I don't have a strong enough magnet to use the fishing pole, so I had the kids go one by one and pick up a fish that has a letter on it.

Hailey and Audrey were able to identify most of the letters they picked up. Hannah and Robert also had a lot of fun but didn't get the concept.

Then I read "One Fish, Two Fish" by Dr. Suess (but only the first half, the rest of the book isn't about fish). Then we did two songs about fish.

After that, they glued fishies on their "Fs".

Hailey did a great job and had them lined up within the F.

Since I knew Robert would only eat them, I didn't give him the option to use glue.

Surprisingly, I still had 30 minutes left so we played with play dough.

F is for Feathers and Fish

On Friday I took Hailey to the McKee's Pet Store to look at the fish and the birds (because they have feathers). Hailey will not go in the bird section anymore because one time when she went in they made tons of noise, flapped around, and scared Hailey. Hailey liked looking at the fish but wasn't overly excited about it. We went to their outside section to look at all their animals out there.

So on Monday to continue our lesson on F we first read a lot of books. We read "Cheep! Cheep!" by Julie Stiegemeyer (all the words rhymed with Cheep) and "How Do You Count a Dozen Ducklings?" by In Seon Chae to talk about animals with feathers. We also read A First Discovery Book about Fish and Dr. Seuss "One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish".
For our craft activity, Hailey glued feathers on the letter F.

Here is Hailey feeling the feather. I rubbed the feather on my face and then on her skin so she can feel how soft the feathers were.

Hailey is analyzing where to put the feathers.

Yeah, here is the finished picture! Hailey had fun with it but it was difficult to glue and put the feathers down on the paper. Too many new things at once is very distracting, so I helped her after letting her try a few times.

Starting the Alphabet

To start off Hailey School, we did an overview of all the letters. Frequently in the car, we repeat the alphabet and Hailey's version is: A, B, C, E, A, B, A, B and then other random letters that are hard to distinguish from each other.

I got this idea of alphabet fishes from http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/ and tried to make my own. I laminated the fishes so they will last longer. Also I couldn't find any eyelets that were magnetic but I thought the design was way cute, so I put eyelets in and put a paper clip near its tail. Hailey was excited to play with the fishes.It was hard pick the fishes up with the magnet, maybe it's because the magnet isn't strong enough, the fishes are too big, or the paper clip wasn't in the best position.

After we got a fish, I would tell her the letter and she would repeat it. She had fun putting the fishes we caught in a pile on the couch.

After we caught all the fishes, we read Dr. Seuss ABC board book together. Also, we read Brainy Baby ABC's.

I made a file folder that has the Sign Language Alphabet and little pictures of things that start with a certain letter. I got the idea from http://onelittletwolittle.wordpress.com/category/tot-school/file-folder-games/ I also had this laminated but didn't have time to put on the Velcro.

This activity was a little harder to do and I had to nurse Robert during this time so I couldn't help as much as I would like.

Another activity I made but we didn't end up doing is ABC bingo. I made four bingo boards using a table from excel and ABC stamps. I think this might be a little too advance for her right now.

At the end of school, we put the caterpillar head on the wall and each day we'll add the letter we worked on. I got the template from http://www.dltk-kids.com/CRAFTS/INSECTS/mcaterpillar-letters.htm I also laminated them after I color them.