School's Out!!

Well - obviously - we kind of dropped off the blogging world. . . once again!!  :(

We ended our preschool year - slowly - but I'm so happy with the progress we made this year!!  :)  I admit, it was a little hard to stay motivated all year, (for both of us :), but we did it!!  We went to kindergarten orientation a couple weeks ago, and Hunter is totally ready - by their standards!!  (If not advanced!!)  ;)

We've started our summer routine & things are going pretty good so far!!  We're participating in the summer reading program at the library & working on projects and activities at home!!  We've got little "homework" packets that we're doing each week, so that hopefully, we won't forget what we've learned!!  :)

Here We Go. . .

Ok - no more missing school!!  ;)  We ran our errands early today & came home, (knowing ahead of time that we were having preschool today, just so everyone was prepared!!), and got to work!!

Today we started word families!!  We've been reviewing letter sounds, so the next logical step was to put them together!! :)  We worked on the "at" family, and the "ot" family.  (bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat - cot, dot, got, hot, lot, not, pot, rot, tot)  It was so fun to watch Hunter's face light up when he put the two sounds together & made a word!!  He was READING!!!  :)  We're going to practice these two families for a couple of days & then move on to a few more!!  I'm sure you can just look at the picture & figure out what I did - but just in case, here are the steps:
* Using index cards (or just cardstock cut to about the same size):
- Cut one index card in half & place on top of a full-size card, on the left side.  Then, on the right side of the full-size card, write the suffix of the word family, (i.e. "at", "ot", etc.).  (Basically, you're just using the 1/2 card to show you where to write, so that when you flip the cards over, you can still read the suffix!!)  :)
- Determine how many words will be in the "family" you are working on & make enough "1/2 cards" for each word - you will only need one "whole" card per family.  Write the first letter of each word on the 1/2 cards, one letter on each card. 
- Punch a hole in the top left corner of each card (1/2 & whole cards).  Stack all of the 1/2 cards on top of the whole card, and put a "C' ring through the hole.  Now you have a little "flip-book"!! 
- You can put all the word families on the same ring, because they're separated by the "whole" cards!!

Hope that all makes sense!!  It is totally not rocket science, so just do what works for you!!!  :)

Stubborn

Well, I was going to title this post, "We're still here", but being that I've already used that one, I figured I'd better choose something else!!!  ;)  Unfortunately, my "student", who shall remain nameless ;) . . .  has been quite stubborn lately, and not too willing to participate!!  :(  We had a nice long Spring Break, and then he just didn't want to do to much after that!!  (And, yes, some of the blame is on me - the weather's been so nice & I'm so not a "homebody", so we have been on the go a lot lately!!)  :{ Don't get me wrong, we've done some things here & there, but nothing major!!  (Mostly reviewing letters, sounds & numbers!)  Hopefully, this coming week, we'll be back into the swing of things & have a little more structure around here!!  :)

Polar Wrap-Up

Today, we made an igloo to finish off our Polar Unit!!  (We actually started it the other day, but someone was a little careless & bumped it with his elbow!! :(  We ran out of sugar cubes, so our igloo didn't get a roof, but no biggie!!  (We used a 1 lb. box of sugar cubes, that I found at Wal-Mart for about $1.50.)  We stopped 1/2 way while building, so that the bottom layers could harden - a good idea!!  This isn't the prettiest igloo, but it was fun to do together & he knew what it was. . . . so that's what matters!!  ;)  If you google "sugar cube igloo", you can see some cute ones!!!

Igloo "mortar" recipe:
* 3 c. powdered sugar
* 2 egg whites

Mix well.  If stopping 1/2 way during project, make sure to store in an air-tight container!

Hunter helped me make the "mortar" for the igloo!!











What a cheesy smile!!!  :)













We simply added pictures of polar animals around the igloo - would have been super cute with plastic animals, but didn't have any!!  :(

** If by chance, you're wondering why our "themes" are kind of random - - it's because I let Hunter pick them & if he doesn't know, then I just pick something fun!!!  ;)  We try to tie themes together throughout our randomness, but sometimes it just doesn't work!!  :)

Polar Graphing

Continuing along with our graphing, we talked about Arctic/Polar animals today & did some Polar graphing!!  I found a fun Polar Roll & Graph activity over HERE so we printed it out & put it to work!  :)  (I printed it in black & white & since the pictures were so light, some parts didn't print and I had to draw them in!)  :(  We were only going to graph 10 rolls, but being that Hunter loved this, we went to 20!!   

We also looked at some Arctic animals online - some of his favorites were: Arctic hare, Arctic fox & the polar bear!  Next week, we plan to make an igloo!!! :)

Color Mixing & Graphing

What a fun day!!  We talked about mixing primary colors today!  First, we started with a simple sheet about mixing colors (found it HERE a few years ago) - just using crayons but not actually mixing. 

Then, I divided a piece of white construction paper into 9 squares.  Using red, yellow & blue (and adding a little black, white & brown), I just put a few drops of each onto the squares, and we came up with new colors!!  Hunter loved this!! :)

Next, we talked about graphing!!  What a better way to learn about graphing, than by using CANDY!!!  M&M's to be exact!!  ;)  I've had this M&M graphing sheet forever (sorry, don't know where it came from - but could easily be created on your own!!), and thought Hunter would enjoy it!!  Of course, he did!!!













Bummed that I forgot to take a picture with all the M&M's on the paper, but you can get the idea by his little "circles"!!  ;)

Counting Fun!

Yes - it has been awhile, once again!!  :(  We're doing fun stuff, just not always posting it!!

Our focus lately, is counting to 20.  Today, we used muffin tins & beads!!  This is what we used:
* 1 - 12-cup muffin tin
* 1 - 6-cup muffin tin
* 2 mini plastic cups
* 20 circles (cut to fit inside muffin tins), numbered 1-20
* assorted beads/small objects

Super simple, no instructions needed!!  Just count objects & put beads into the right cups!! :) When we finished, Hunter wanted to make a necklace & spent quality time making his pattern!!  :) (As you can tell, my muffin tin has been used quite often!!  ;)
 (***** Don't mind the random picture placement - - I'm REALLY NOT enjoying the new picture upload process on blogger!!!) :(

Way Too Long!!!

I figured that since the last time I updated the blog was around Thanksgiving, I better update!!! :) We were so busy with Christmas, that we kind of had a really long break - - like about a month or so!! (Kinda one of the perks with only having one student!!) ;)

Well, we started back up last week & just kind of caught up on a few letters that we skipped. This week, we started an Ocean Theme! Hunter has been really interested in the ocean lately, so he picked the theme!! Today, we found some ocean flashcards at Target, (in the $1 section!!), and they're actually quite cool!! Just after Christmas, we went to one of our favorite stores - Half-Priced Books - (off Power & Southern), and we found a really cool book about oceans!! We mostly talked about ocean animals today, and made a cute octopus out of a lunch sack!! :) Our next topic will be ocean habitats!!