ivey league preschool: all about A

This week we decided to officially start preschool!

We're doing a very relaxed "letter of the week" kind of schedule, while also being flexible and doing a variety of things so we won't get so bogged down with one letter at a time.  Caleb knows his uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as their sounds, so I knew he would get bored if we tried to write letter A every day, read the same books every day, etc.

I decided to kick off the week with an art project, so we made apple prints with paint.  Caleb really liked this since he likes anything having to do with his easel!

Didn't turn out as "apple-y" as I thought, but it was still fun to use a fruit as a stamp!

We also worked on a "do-a-dot" worksheet.  Caleb used some of his stamps to fill them in.

 We also used some play-doh to make A's:

We also worked on numbers 1-20.  Caleb is very close to being able to count to 20 without mixing some of the "teens" up, so I found a free worksheet online where you glue in missing numbers.  He only needed a little help with this so I'm sure he'll be able to do it on his own soon!

I also wanted to do a Bible story for each week.  Since this week's letter was A, we learned about Adam and Eve.  Caleb found their story in his storybook Bible and we reviewed it together.  Then we did some activities out of a preschool pack I also found online.  We made puppets to act out the story and counted "flames" to represent the angel guarding the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword (Caleb counted and I wrote in the numbers for him).  We also talked about Adam naming all the animals.  Caleb would tell me what animal he saw, then he'd sound it out to figure out what letter it would start with.  Then I'd show him which word to draw the line to in order to connect it with the corresponding animal.

Finally, we did a letter A collage.  I went through a few old magazines and cut out a variety of A's.  This way Caleb could get used to seeing letters in different shapes, sizes, and fonts.  As he glued them down, he often commented on what made them different from what he was used to seeing:  "This A's skinny," "This one is short," and so on.

 

We also read a variety of books that showcased the letter A in some way:

Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss

The A Book by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Albert the Albatross by Syd Hoff

Arthur's Reading Race; Arthur's Teacher Trouble; Arthur's Birthday by Marc Brown

One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J Pinczes

Zack's Alligator by Shirley Mozelle

Obviously we read other books as well!  :o)

Finally, we listened to a little classical music while we worked.  I've found that some quiet music in the background helps Caleb focus.  This week we listened to "Carnival of the Animals" by Saint-Saens.  I'd tell him which "animal" we were listening to (birds, tortoises, lion, etc.) and he thought it was so cool!

I think we'll keep doing this kind of thing for the time being.  I like not having any set curriculum (there's plenty of time for that in the future!), but it's also nice to have several themed activities prepared in advance!

Links:
Apple-Print Painting (Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds: Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers)
Do-A-Dot Alphabet Printables (Homeschool Creations)
Play-Doh Letter Mats (Homeschool Creations)
"I Can Count to 20!" Activity (Teachers Pay Teachers)
Adam and Eve Preschool Pack (To The Moon and Back)