Preschool Progress

We've had another couple weeks of preschool. Here are some ideas to share with you. I try to make my own stuff as much as I can... I'm cheap... :) 

 Our little mascot... :) She loves to come up to the preschool room and be with us. :) I had to sneak this picture in before I started with the others.. :)

 Here is one activity I did that was kind of fun. I wrote her name all out (first, middle and last) and then cut apart each letter. I gave her the letters for her first name all mixed up and had her put them in order and glue them on the top part of her paper.  Then I gave her the letters for her middle name (I have a name tag on her table in front of her- with her whole name- so she sees it all written out) and had her use her name tag to see which letter came next. ;)  Then we did our last name the same way. :)

 She LOVES drippy glue! :) We are always a sticky mess... " I can do it all by myself mom!" :)

Here is a sorting/pattern game I made out of labels.  I colored the labels with different colors/patterns and made 12 of each. I actually did this for Allie's birthday party favors- and called it the bandaid game. :)  I first had her sort them into piles of the same pattern. 

 Then we practiced making a row of patterns. We did ABAB patterns with just two different 'bandaids' and then got trickier and did ABCABC patterns with three different 'bandaid patterns'. I laid the first four bandaids out and she continued the pattern. :) We did several of these. :)

Her journal writing. We just do this once a week. :) Her letter formation needs work, and we do practice that. She thinks she is big stuff when she writes letters /words though. :) We sound out the words and she writes all of the (colored) letters she knows... and I write the (black) letters she doesn't.

 Then she adds a picture. Sometimes she is not that interested in drawing... that's ok. I think that will come. :)

 We also JUST started to practice/ learn how to tie her shoes. I found this awesome little teaching tool at the store where everything is a dollar! :) We learned the first step and are working on the loopy bunny ear part. That is tricky! She'll get it... :) I'm sure!

 Puzzles! She is getting better at these. We are really working on taking our time and being very patient. :) I am trying to teach her to look at the pieces around her and try to find something to go with it on one of the missing pieces. She is getting better. It is excellent fine motor skill practice, and critical thinking/logic.

 I don't like a lot of work books and worksheets, but I do use them sometimes. Just for extra practice, and so she knows how to do some.  We work on staying in the lines with our writing letters and number practice. (that is what the books I do use are).

 Again- dollar store find.

 This is one of her favorite "quiet" activities. I took it up for preschool one day and she liked it- but then we forgot to bring it back down and she really missed it. It is a Leapfrog Tag pen. She has a few books. It is awesome because you use the pen and tap the icons and it will read to you and tell you the story, make sound effects and such. She likes tapping the pictures and hearing the characters talk.

 I have also have been working with her to try to help her learn how to color in the lines. She has taken awhile to get this one, but just this week seemed to really grasp it and has done REALLY well. She likes to color everything one color (we'll work on making it look realistic later), but she stays in the lines! :) Yay! :)

 This was one thing I used to help her- small pictures- one color. We just do a couple of these a day.

 This was another game I made this week. I made it to help her practice her sight words. Most of these words were from our slideshows last year. She knows most of them, but there are a handful she doesn't know. I made this game for my first grades and they LOVED to play. I called it BOOM!  I wrote out each sight word on a popcicle stick.  (I did math facts in first grade too.) and then a couple BOOM sticks. I colored them yellow for Allie.  Then, you put them in a container- and take turns pulling out a stick. If you know what the word is, you can keep the stick. If not, you return it to the container. If you get BOOM you must return ALL your sticks to the container.  Whoever has the most sticks at the end of the time (you decide how long the game goes) wins. :)

 Craft Time. :) She saw this "monster family" in her HighFIVE magazine and wanted to make it... so we did. :) She loves to paint! :)

 Wearing an old shirt of Daddies for painting... :)

 Her Daddy Monster.... (just paint)

Her finished Monster Family- Mommy, Allie, Daddy  :) 

 Another Journal Writing :)

 She was all into drawing herself. :)

 I use these (letter practice pages- you can trace the letter and then practice making your own- capital and lowercase. I put them in sleeve page protector pages and then we use dry erase markers when she needs to practice a letter. Usually she knows how the letter is made, but if we did it before, and then she forgets, she can practice on the practice pages...or we will practice a new letter this way too. I have a pencil pouch in the front where I keep dry erase markers and an old rag to wipe things clean. :) It is something that we can take on the go if we want.

:) It is so much fun to see progress and to see the things she is learning.  We also love to go to the library, and I got a few books about fall. We have been talking about how animals get ready in the fall- for winter... how some migrate, and how some store up food so they have it for the winter, and how some eat a lot so they can hibernate. :) We also talked about crops that can be harvested in the fall.  We finished up our butterfly life cycle stuff- and worked some more on scissor skills and recognizing the numbers thirteen and fourteen.