New this year I am adding a bear preschool theme, because it is something my daughter is really into right now. I’ve picked some of our favorite books (below) and we are ready to learn! This plan is for my 3 turning 4 year old who is working on mastering her letter sounds. I have also added some options for my 2 year old in case she joins us for learning instead of nap.
Books: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear & Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See – Bill Martin Jr; Bear Says Thank You – Michael Dahl; Bear Snores On – Karma Wilson; Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Robert Southly; Teddy Bears Picnic – Jimmy Kennedy; Blueberries for Sal – Robert McCloskey; Where’s My Teddy? – Jez Alborough; We’re Going on a Bear Hunt – Michael Rosen
Religion focus: Pick a saint to read about each day
Goldilocks questions – Use the story of Goldilocks to talk about different Q words. What questions were the bears asking? What was on the bears’ bed to keep them warm? Quilt. When Goldilocks fell asleep what sounds were in the house? It was quiet. How did Goldilocks leave the house? Quickly.
Where is the bear? – Get 4 dixie cups and write a letter on each one. I will do B, Qu, K & one of my child’s weakest letters. Place a counting bear underneath one, and have your child say the letter sounds until they find the bear. Repeat as many times as you can before your child bores.
Bear bounce – Place a small blanket on the floor with a teddy bear in the middle. With your child, grab a side of the blanket and toss it up in the air and catch it with the blanket.
We’re adding a forest theme this fall, because it is the perfect weather to get out on a hike in the forest and learn about nature and animals that are gearing up for the winter. This lesson plan was created for my newly turned 4 year old who is working on mastering all of her letter sounds.
Some books we love for the forest preschool theme are: The Busy Tree – Jennifer Word; Baby Animals in the Forest – Editors of Kingfisher; Little Owl’s Night – Divya Srinivasan; We Walk Through the Forest – Lisa Farland
Forest Layers – This link is to a rainforest, but the basics of the layers are the same. Ignore the animals listed. You can talk about squirrels, foxes, deer, racoons, rabbits, porcupines, owls, birds & bears.
I love fall learning because there is a such a visual representation for the kids to see in what we are learning about. It’s a great time to get your kids outside and in nature. This lesson plan is for my just turned 4 year old, who is working on mastering her letter sounds. I also have a 2 year old, who USUALLY naps when we do our learning, but sometimes that is not the case, so I’ve added a couple of ideas of things to do with her as well in case she is learning with us.
Check out these 5 fall ideas too for some more fall fun that we have done.
Fall theme book ideas: The Mouse’s Apples – Frances Stickley; The Pumpkin Book – Gail Gibbons; There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves – Lucille Colandro; How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin – Margaret McNamara; Too Many Pumpkins – Linda White; Patty’s Pumpkin Patch – Teri Sloat
Tree 10 Frame – Laminate the printable, then use play-do to create apples or fall-colored leaves that you can add to the tree. Then give your child a number and have them write it to the right of the tree, above the 10-frame. You can make dotted lines for them to trace if they cannot write on their own yet. (Alternatively, you could have them pick the number out of a basket of number magnets or something). Then have them add the number of ‘apples’ or ‘leaves’ to the tree. Finally, use a fall counter, or more play-do to fill in the 10-frame.
Pumpkin Seed Counting – Line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers and write numbers 0-8 on them in random order (do 4x #8 since it is the focus number this week). Then give your child a bowl of pumpkin seeds and have them count the correct number of seeds into each spot.
This year I wanted to do a special theme for my daughters birthday, and right now her favorite thing is unicorns (or wunicorns as she calls them)!! So we’re doing a birthday/unicorn theme this week! She is 3 turning 4, so this lesson plan is geared toward that age.
Some books that I rented from the library for this theme are: Rabbits Pajama Party – Stuart Murphy; Happy Birthday, Hamster – Cynthia Lord; Mr. Cookie Baker – Monica Wellington; The Secret Birthday Message – Eric Carle; The Night Before My Birthday – Natasha Wing; A Birthday for Frances – Russell Hoban
Our religion focus will be to start learning the Our Father, and in case my 2 yr old decides to join us for some learning, I have these activities set aside for her: 2-part cupcake puzzle, matching cards,4-part puzzle,
Language
Review last name letters and trace in sprinkle tray
Write last name on cardboard. Have child trace with glue and add glitter
Write last name on board. Have child use pom poms to erase while saying letter sounds
To finish out the summer, we’re doing a make believe theme. This is a little different than the fairy tale theme from last week, as that was more whimsical and princess like while this one I think of more aliens, robots, monsters, pirates etc… They are both make believe, but the different themes kind of evoke a different feeling.
Letter/Sight word hop – write words or letters on paper plates and put them on a path (alien path, pirate path or whatever). have child hop over each one saying the word/letter until the end.
Stuffed animal math – For the younger child, set up 6 stuffed animals then count out 20 pieces of play food – feed the food to the stuffed animals and play. For the older child, set up 6 stuffed animals and give them 6 pieces of play food. Write 6 / 6 on the easel and have them divide up the food between the stuffed animals. Have them tell you how many pieces of food each one got – complete the equation. Then repeat this with 3 stuffed animals, 2 stuffed animals & 1 stuffed animal.
Driving letters/words – With masking tape, make review letters/words. Draw dotted lines on the tape to make it look like a road. Have child drive a ‘space ship’, ‘pirate ship’, or some other fun thing over the masking tape to the treasure.
Robot Mountains – On butchers paper, write #’s 16-20 in a zig zag formation. Draw a mountain to the right of the 20, and a robot to the left of the 16. Draw a similar scene 2 more times so that there are 3 chances for the robot to get to the mountain with slightly different tracing paths (zig zag, squiggly, straight for example). Have child connect the dots to get the robot to the mountain.
Lego division – use lego bricks to help solve word problem equations that you make up (ex. If the pirate had 16 swords to share with his brother and sister, how many would each get? If there are 12 shoes to split between 3 aliens, how many does each get?)
Where is the hidden treasure? – On a piece of paper, write out 5 simple division problems (ie: 4/2, 6/3 etc.. ) After your child is done coloring the map from art today, use post it flags to write the answers to the 5 problems and post them on a map landmark (ie: the ship, cannon etc..). Place one other post it with a random number that is not associated to a division problem on a final unmarked landmark. You now have a map with hidden treasure and a lot of decoys. To find the which landmark really holds the treasure, solve the equations (using unifix or some other manipulative) and take the post it with the answer off the map. The final post it left at the end is where the treasure is really buried.
Candy sensory test – Get a couple of candies and have your child describe what they see, feel, hear, smell and taste for each one. I recommend pop rocks, runts, sweet tarts, m&ms (from the math activity) and something chocolate like 3 musketeers. After sampling for the test, you can eat some during the movie.
Fairy tale’s might mean something different to everyone, but to me it’s a mix between princesses and old classics like Jack & The Beanstalk. You could go the total nursery rhyme route, princess and dragons, fairies or a mix of everything. I chose things that my children are more interested in at the moment, but you could always choose what interests your child.
Just a reminder, the division aspect for my 4/5 year old is just an INTRODUCTION of the CONCEPT!! And as always, anything with an asterisk is explained at the bottom of the post.
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Religion
Read the lost sheep
Pick a sheep coloring page, color and cover the sheep’s body in cotton balls
Hide & seek sheep – while your child builds a sheep pen out of magnatiles or blocks, hide a sheep figurine in the room. Have your child find it and return it to the pen.
Hearding sheep – Blow up a few white balloons (sheep) and get a staff (small bat, rolled newspaper etc..). Have your child use the staff to heard the sheep into a pen – this could be under a chair, into the corner of a room, behind the couch, or wherever.
What’s Missing – Put 5 objects on a tray or table and let your child look at them for about 30 seconds. Have them close their eyes and remove an object. When they open, see if they can remember which item is missing. Play again, adding an object every time. Relate to how God knows where everyone is even though there are billions of people.
Fairy wand – cut long rectangle & star from foam sheets. Roll reactance to form a tube. Hot glue star on top. Decorate with gems, sequins etc
Beanstalk letters/sight words – write sight words or letters at the bottom of an egg carton. Write the same sight word or letter on a bean and have them match them up.
Letter Maze – I will use one of the mazes from the source but write the letters M-Q on the correct path for them to follow. I will put other letters on the wrong path and help her do letters M-Q alphabetically to get to the end.
Beanstalk Numbers – On the beanstalk craft, write the numbers 1-15 in the leaves. For younger children, call out a number and have them place a bean on the number you called. For older children have them count out a set number of beans that you tell them (ie. 9) then tell them to place the same amount of beans on a number of leaves (ie. 3 of the leaves). Ask how many beans were able to go on each leaf (in this case 3). Explain how this is a division problem – 9 divided by 3 =3
Beanstalk Craft – On a large sheet of butchers paper, use green dot markers or paint to draw a beanstalk with at least 15 leaves. Glue thinned cotton balls to the top for clouds.
Poison apple letters/sight words/ numbers – Print apples, and write the letters/numbers/words you are practicing on them. Leave the poison apples plain. Mix them all in a pile face down and let your child choose one. If they say the letter/word/number correctly, they can keep it, if not, they put it back. If they pick a poison apple they can pretend to fall into a deep sleep until their parent/caretaker, teacher tickles them awake. Then finish the game until all the cards are gone.
Grow a bean – Soak a few pinto beans overnight, then place them in a Ziplock with a wet paper towel. Tape bag to a sunny window without closing it at the top and watch it grow
Climb the tower – Draw a tower with chalk (like Rapunzel’s tower) with the body of the tower having several jumping boxes (like a straight single hopscotch) I’d do 5 for younger kids and 8-10 for older. In each box write a review letter or sight word. Have the child jump to the first box, saying the letter/word in the box. If they get it right, they jump to the next box doing the same thing. If they get it wrong, they fall off the tower and have to start over. The goal is to make it to the top of the tower to save the princess. You can ‘erase’ or spray the chalk and reorder the letters/words to do the activity over and over.
Alphabet/sight word BINGO – I will draw a simple 2×3 table on paper with 6 review letters, I’ll then pull our letter flash cards randomly and my child will use jewels as BINGO covers. 3 in a row wins. For sight words I will do a 4×5 table with sight words and use my sight word flashcards.
Princess jewel division – Get 3 princess figurines and 6 jewels, ask your child to give each princess the same about of jewels. Ask them how many jewels each princess got. Show them how 6 jewels divided among 3 princesses is 2 so 6/3=2. Tell them that this is a division problem. Can repeat with other equations.
This week we are taking a trip to Africa and going on a safari! (I wish we were really going and not just pretending!) Animal themes always seem to capture my kids attention so I am looking forward to having fun with them. This is what we’ll be doing in keeping on with our theme of the week (you can find a list of our weekly theme and focuses in the freebies section).
Count the number in each row and answer chart questions from this pack – I will also intro the concept of double by asking which row is double the penguin. Then I will show her the 3×2 equation for it
Which are the same? – this is something I threw together for teaching purposes.. I do not have rights to the images
How many cheetah spots? – Laminate and use dry erase marker to draw spots on the cheetahs to solve the equations.
I will use this worksheet to practice the concept of doubling. I will ask her what double or x2 of each would be. I will change the numbers for the giraffes & monkeys to contain 8 & 10 respectively.
