Tag: lesson plans

BIRDS PRESCHOOL THEME

The birds theme gives us a chance to use so many different senses and is such a nice way to take advantage of the beautiful spring weather. There are so many different kinds of birds, you don’t have to talk about them all. But I would recommend discussing some that are in your area so that they have a chance to spot them when bird watching. With this theme you could stay at a high level or get more detailed depending on your child’s interest and age.

 M T W Th F 
Religion Read Mary & Martha Story Comprehension Questions** Place some dollops of paint on the Martha worksheet.  Use craft sticks to move the paint around the worksheet. What’s More Important** Daily Choices** 
Language (2)  I sandpaper letter Paint the Ii worksheet with watercolors then place bird stickers around it I binder Color and say the words of the I coloring sheet I miniatures 
Language (4) Introduce THIS sight word Long & short vowel I sort + sight word Long & Short sort + sight word Color the I coloring sheet then say if each picture is long or short I + sight word I picture clues + sight word 
Math (2) 19 sandpaper introduction & use math beads demonstrate the number value Go outside and collect 19 objects to build a bird nest with (acorns, leaves, twigs etc..) Count 19 feathers then sort them by color using tweezers to move them Cut a few pipe cleaners into 19 pieces to make ‘worms’. Then use a clothespin or tweezers to transfer them to the nest for the babies Make 19 bird eggs out of playdo  
Math (4)  Preposition opposite match up  Using the cards from Monday, use a chair to act out the cards one at a time Nest positions**  Prep activity above, but direct the child where to put the worm (left, right, in etc..) Draw a bird cards from Monday and use the preposition with this room printable to place the playdo 
Art/Sensory Bird chalk** Make a bird nest from math objects Make your own birdhouse (This is an easy kitMake your own bird seed Go birdwatching 
Science
Geography
History 
Learn about birds Birds & their feet + Birds & their beaks Birds of Prey Labpook Birds of Prey lapbook continued Match birds and their continent of origin to the map 

Comprehension Questions: 
Name the people in the story. 
What did Mary do while Jesus was at their house? 
What did Martha do while Jesus was at their house? 
When Martha started to complain, what did Jesus tell her? 
Doing work is very important, but it is always more important to listen to Jesus.  What would be more important than work? 

What’s More Important 
Explain to the child that you are going to say two different things and he is to choose which one is more important. 
Examples: 
•“What’s more important, playing with the dog or feeding him?” 
•“What’s more important, getting what you want or making your mommy smile?” 
•“What’s more important, eating ice cream or eating a good dinner?” 
To end the game say, “But what’s the most important thing of all?” Jesus! 
 
Daily Choices 
Discuss choices that we face every day: 
Food to eat:  cookie vs fruit, potato chip vs carrot stick 
Words we say:  loving vs mean, praise vs hurt 
Activities:  pick up toys or leave them out, come when Mommy says come or ignore her request 

Bird Chalk – Use chalk to draw birds of all sizes. Then have the kids jump from bird to bird making a bird call in a different voice depending on the size of the bird. For example, the small birds might have soft little peeps while the large birds have a loud booming squwak. 

Nest Positions – Using an egg and small basket (nest) move the egg around and have the child describe its position. For example: to the right of the nest, in the nest, above the nest etc.. 

POND PRESCHOOL THEME

Perfect for spring, the pond preschool theme is one that my kids love!! It’s a great time of year to get really hands on with this theme and go visit different ponds around the city.

 M T W Th F 
Religion Read A Hole in the Roof Comprehension Questions** Color the Lame Man Healed worksheet.  Then glue fabric on the bedroll and string on the rope. Play “doctor” and talk about how only Jesus can command a lame person to get up and walk Kindness discussion** 
Language (2) Fish for letters (I have a game I will put post it letters on, but you could make this insteadDragonfly sort Pond review letter stamping game (choose duck, frog, turtle, fish or a combination!) Put magnet letters in a bin (the pond). Then pull one out, identify it and sort into 2 piles – letters in your name and letters that aren’t Write struggle letters on green post its (lily pads) and place them on the floor – have child hop to the letter you call 
Language (4) Fish for sight words (like above) Mud writing** Sight word & end sound word stamping game (above) Make and read a fun pond story Lily pad hop like above, but with words you want to review 
Math (2)  Count 18 goldfish then do Fish cracker patterns with them Write 18 on the board, then jump like a frog 18 times counting each jump Count, sort & graph goldfish  Make a shape turtle** Count 18 pom poms then use tweezers to feed pom poms to a rubber duck 
Math (4) Write a time in numbers and have child draw where the hands should go Draw the time with hands and have child write what time it is Greater gator game Make a turtle clock** Practice reading digital clocks 
Art/Sensory Pond process art Frog craft Pond life match up Parts of a turtle puzzle Frog directed drawing OR pond playdo mats (both are freebies from here
Science
Geography
History 
Pond habitat Frog lifecycle + 3 pt cards with frog facts & how frogs grow Learn about the Difference between reptiles & amphibians & do sorting activity Turtle 3 pt cards & facts Alligator lifecycle  

Comprehension Questions: 
What did the four friends do for their hurt friend? 
Do you think it was hard to carry their friend so far to see Jesus? 
These men really loved their friend and knew Jesus could heal him.  What kind things have you done for your friends? 

Kindness Discussion – Focus on the kindness the men had for their friend.  So much kindness that they were willing to do whatever it took to get the man to Jesus so that he could be healed.  Discuss how you can be kind to others as well. 

Shape Turtle – Tape a construction paper head and four legs to a green paper plate ($Tree). Add google eyes to the head. Count out 18 foam shapes and use them to fill the center of the plate to make a shell. (Adapted from Pocket of Preschool) 

Clock Turtle – Tape a construction paper head and four legs to a green paper plate ($Tree). Add google eyes to the head. Have child write the numbers of the clock on the perimeter of the plate and draw hands to make a clock. (Adapted from Packet of Preschool) 

Mud Writing – Instead of a salt tray, make a mud tray with a little dirt and water. Make a list of words that you want your child to practice. Have your child read the word then practice writing it in the mud with their finger or a stick 

Flowers & Plants Preschool Theme

This week we are talking about flowers and plants. I love doing this theme in line with Mother’s Day because you can easily transform some of the crafts into Mother’s Day cards or gifts.

 M T W Th F 
Religion Talk about what prayer is** & say the Our Father – Break the prayer into 5 parts and work on the meaning of  part 1 today (also try to memorize) Work on part 2  Write down a few people you could pray for and put slips of paper in a box. Draw one a night Part 3  Trace childs hand on paper and let them decorate, talk about how you use your hands to pray Part 4 Do coloring page or activity from here Part 5 and try to say the whole thing by the end of the day 
Language (2) q Q tactile letters 
(could use dirt instead of sand/salt) 
Make Q with flowers, beans & seeds. Talk about how Q is always used with U Q Binder Garden tools cards Q Miniatures 
Language (4) end blend CK & ED sight do ‘Do’ worksheet from this pack  Intro CK ends and practice words Intro ed ends and discuss how when more than 3 letters they usually represent the past Practice CK, ED & sight words *discuss trick ed words when ee is present Flower Emergent reader 
Math (2) 18 18 tactile/sandpaper number Leaf counting to 18 (can use real leaves or manipulatives) Teen Flower* (M Plemons Kindergarten) Seed counting* & playdo (M. Plemons Kindergarten) Plant *measuring (Pocket of Preschool) 
Math (4) Learning time set puzzles More puzzle practice from yesterday Time matching O’Clock practice Draw the hands to show the time cards from activity kit 
Art/Sensory Flower sensory bin – dirt, pots, shovel, pomp oms, seeds, fake flowers, bees  Clock craft Paint a flower pot then plant a flower or go pick some flowers Cotton Ball Flowers (happy toddler play time) – could make this for Mother’s Day Draw flowers & Flower puzzle 
Science
Geography
History 
Parts of a plant puzzle & Types of flowers Bulbs Parts of a Tree & Types of roots Tree/Plant of its origin* Plants we Eat 

What is prayer – Prayer is talking to God.  He wants us to talk to Him and is never too busy to listen.  Prayer is thanking God for what He has given us, asking God for things we need, and asking God to forgive us for what we have done wrong.  We can pray anytime and anywhere. 

Teen flower – draw a flower center with 18 on it. Then cut 18 strips of tissue paper for flower petals and glue them to the center to make a flower. Draw a stem if you want. 

Seed Counting – Make 18 out of playdough, then count 18 beans and place them on a half sheet of brown construction paper ‘dirt’. Write the 18 on the paper  

Plant measuring – go outside and find a variety of plants/flowers. Use unifix or a tape measurer to measure them – try to find one that is 18” 

Cotton ball flowers – Glue cotton balls on a piece of carboard. Make a couple different colors of water with food coloring and use a dropper to drop the colors onto the cotton balls to paint them 

Tree/Plant of its origin – Unfortunately I cannot find the resource that I have, but it basically has a bunch of different products and shows which plant or tree they come from. Here are some ideas of things that come from plants & here is a printable with a few as well. 

Bugs & Insects Preschool Theme

The bugs that I chose in the science section are ones that we see around our home all the time. If you do not come across these, you can substitute for something more common to your area. As always these are just some ideas for this theme and the activities are associated with what we are focusing on at our house, you can substitute if you are working on something else.

Note: These end blends are not the ones that I would normally start with, but I thought they would be easy because the blends are also sight words (one that we have practiced (and) and one that we see all the time in books that is very similar and can be sounded out (end)).  I am not so much worried about mastering concepts at this age, but more so introducing them.

 M T W Th F 
Religion Read Jesus Returns story – Matthew 28:16-20 Comprehension Questions Color Jesus and create shaving cream clouds around Jesus on the My Father’s House worksheet “Is Jesus Gone?”  Puppet Lesson Jesus Ascends Craft 
Language (2)Sandpaper letter Z Buzzz coloring sheet (we’ll just color this and I’ll point out the letter Z) Letter Z Binder Fill the letter Z printable with bug/insect stickers/stamps Z Miniatures 
Language (4) Introduce sight word by & use sandpaper letters to spell it.  Spring word tracing from EMLC Box Practice the word and + practice sight word of the week: by Use letter magnets to spell END, then write it on the board + by practice Introduce the concept of final blends + by practice Practice final blends with words that end in and and end (I’m using easy examples like land & bend) 
Math (2) Intro 17 sandpaper numbers 17 coloring sheet 17 Bees pollinating** 17 Ladybug spots** Spring iSpy from EMLC Box 
Math (4)Bugs in a jar**  Estimate how many cubes long the bug figurines from the sensory bin are Do an estimation jar with leaves or plants (bug & insect food!) Get a bag of gummy worms or bug gummies and estimate how many is in the pack. Use tweezers to count. Measuring worms from EMLC Box – estimate before measuring  
Art/Sensory Bug moves from EMLC Box Bug sensory bin – bug figurines, fake worms, plastic jars, tiny shovels, fake leaves Make egg carton bugs Go outside and dig for bugs Try to catch lightning bugs this evening 
Science
Geography
History 
Parts of a stink bug Facts about and parts of ants Facts about and parts of a honey bee & more facts Ladybug Lifecycle Facts about lightning bugs 

Comprehension Questions: 

What did Jesus tell the disciples to do after He left? 

What did the angel promise? 

Bees Pollinating – With 17 small bee manipulatives or 17 yellow & black pom poms (pretend bees) use tweezers to transfer them into a flower container to ‘pollinate’ them. Count each one. 

Ladybug spots – Print the ladybug without spots template and then use a dot marker to make 17 spots 

Bugs in a jar – Fill up a jar with pom poms (‘bugs’) and estimate how many are in it. Then count them. If it’s a large jar group in 10’s to count. 

Easter Preschool Theme

I don’t know why, but holiday themes are always so exciting at our house. They really just get you ready to celebrate and Easter is a BIG one at our house. Here is what we will be doing this week.

We are reviewing letters this week for my 2 year old and working on the number 16. For my newly 5 year old we will be reviewing our blends and introducing estimation.

 M T W Th F 
Religion Read Jesus is Arrested, Crucified & Risen Comprehension questions* & Jesus is Risen sequencing Use paint to stamp the worksheet with an aluminum foil ball Jesus is King* Make and do resurrection eggs or (another resource here) pick your favorite 🙂 
Language (2) Hide Easter eggs filled with miniature objects (of review letter sounds) – once found, match them to the correct letter E is for Easter Color by code bunny Hide letter magnets in Easter eggs then match the magnet to the letter (print A-Z on a piece of paper to match to) Letter matching  
Language (4/5) Blend scavenger hunt (must be subscriber to get freebie) – can do an egg hunt with this Blend write & read (pick a couple) Sorting blends Write the blend/diagraph Create diagraph eggs (could do blends too) 
Math (2) Count 16 easter eggs from the egg hunt Peeps graphing (after count all the peeps) Count 16 jellybeans Easter roll & cover  Use easter erasers or jellybeans to count 16 in a 10 frame 
Math (4/5) Introduce estimation by putting different sized easter items or candies into jars Peeps graphing (after  estimate how many peeps then count) Get a bag of jellybeans and estimate how many are in it – then practice grouping to count them Estimate how many Easter eggs it would take to fill the bottom of a basket – then find out!  Now that you’ve done some ‘how many’ estimations.. Introduce others too like how much (liquid/volume) and how long (length) – use Easter objects! 
Art/Sensory Make Easter eggs out of playdo and decorate with sequins, buttons, pipe cleaners etc.. Balance an Easter egg on a spoon and have a race Dye Easter eggs Easter dot markers – could also do stamps; and make egg shakers with easter eggs and beans Easter sensory bin – Easter grass, mini eggs, tongs, bunny figures,  
Science
Geography
History 
Fizzy Eggs* Egg races Dissolving jelly beans Protect an egg and do an egg drop Egg crystals 

Comprehension Questions: 

Tell me what happened in this story. 

Which one of Jesus’ disciples wasn’t a friend to Jesus? 

Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? 

What makes this a happy story? 

Jesus is King (from ABCJesus Loves Me) 

Make a paper crown as a reminder that Jesus loved us enough to die on the cross and He is now the King of Heaven.   Precut a strip of paper the diameter of the child’s head.  Allow the child to decorate before stapling into a crown. 

(Using a premade crown, ask the child to identify the object that you have on your head or in your hands.)  Who would wear a crown?  What does a king do?  Jesus would be a great king.  He’s kind and fair, and He loves us all very much.   Many people wanted Jesus to become a king on earth.  The people wanted Jesus to lead an army and take over the country and fight the Romans.  But Jesus said no.  Jesus preached peace because He knew God wanted Him to be the King of Heaven not earth.  Even though He could have been king, Jesus chose to die for us so we could be forgiven. 

Fizzy Eggs – In a bin but some Easter egg halves and fill with baking soda. Use food coloring and vinegar to make a fun rainbow experiment

Earth Day Preschool Theme

For Earth Day I thought it would be a great time to talk about waste, recycling & composting! Magic School Bus Meets the Rot Squad is one of my favorite books for teaching about decomposition and a lesson that my kids LOVE! 

 M T W Th F 
Religion Read ‘The Brave Queen’ story of Esther Comprehension questions** Cover the Esther worksheet with tissue paper Make tortilla starts Remember When** 
Language (2)Letter X Sandpaper letter Cover X mat with blue & green playdough Letter X binder Color by letter we will do the last one since we are working on X X Miniatures 
Language (4) Trace the words & intro sight word did – spell with magnets & then write on dry erase board Practice blends that end in ING + sight words Practice blends that end in NG + sight words Hidden sight words (we have not practiced all of these yet so I will change some to our recent sight words) “Recycle King” of ING 
Math (2)Count out 17 green & blue fruit loops then make an AB pattern  What Comes Next & Which is Different Use shaving cream to draw the number 17 and make 17 dots. You can add paint to color green and blue Cutting practice Write 17 on the top of a piece of butchers paper then have child paint 17 lines underneath with a jumbo paintbrush 
Math (4)This week we will intro time: Parts of a clock (hands, numbers) 1hr = 60 minutes; Hour hand & minute hand Half hour & Quarter hour 5 minute intervals practice AM/PM 
Art/Sensory Make a recycled boat (at the end) or paint some recycleables (at the beginning) Go for a walk in the forest/ park and look for natural breakdown (mushroom or fungus, broken down decay, soft ground etc..) playdough and sticks, worms, leaves wood, flowers etc..  Do some composting – if you don’t compost at your home, you can make a simple compost system like this  Pollution activity 
Science
Geography
History 
Types of recycling sort Introduce decomposers & the idea of composting Parts & needs of a worm  Trash, Recycle, Compost sorting Learn about pollution 

Comprehension Questions: 
Name the people in the Bible story. 
Who was Esther? 
Who did Esther save? 
How did Esther have courage? 
Esther had courage to do what God wanted her to do. What do you need courage to do? 

“Remember When…” 
God took care of Esther and Mordecai.  As a family talk about times that God took care of your family in the past.  Start each moment with the words, “Remember when….”  It may take a few examples from the adults for the child to think of an example.   End the time with a prayer of thanksgiving. 

Rainforest Preschool Theme

Rainforest Preschool Theme

This week we will be talking about the rainforest and all the animals that are in it. This tends to be a favorite theme among my kiddos. Here is what we will be doing.

 M T W Th F 
Religion Read the Poor Widows Offering Comprehension Questions Decorate the gift worksheet by gluing on purple construction paper squares  Cut a slit in the lid of a container and make it a bank. Decorate it and collect money to give to the church  Give one person many coins (rich) and the other just 2 (widow). Put offering in a box and see what is left in each pile. Widow gave all, rich man had much left 
Language (2) W sandpaper, green rice writing tray – write with mini rainforest animal Dot to dot – I will pick one write the letter W in the dots and have her make the sound as she stamps W binder Dot to dot – same as Tuesday but with another animal W miniatures 
Language (4) Intro sight word how & S blends – give examples from here – look for S-blend (initial, medial & final words) S beginning blends + sight words S blends cut and paste + sight words Sblend word sort + sight words Visual s blends – I tweaked this for spin & smell. I did pin instead of pen & mall instead of mail to make small 
Math (2) Review numbers with counting manipulatives (I’ll use leaves and animal erasers) Count to different using unifix cubes (snakes) then help write the number on the board Make number pyramids using Montessori beads Montessori spindles 0-9 numbers Rainforest counting 
Math (4) Rainforest addition (anytime there is a 1,5 or 10 relate it to a coin) Rainforest 10s and 1s – relate this to dimes & pennies Shopping for toys  Place value Money yard sale  
Art/Sensory Sensory bin – green rice, rainforest animals, fake trees Make snakes out of playdo – play with rainforest habitat printable Paper plate parrot* Do a rainforest animal craft kit from DollarTree, Michaels etc.. Make a rainstick 
Science
Geography
History 
Parts of a rainforest- look at a couple & find on map: Brazil/Amazonand Africa/Congo Kinds of rainforests – tropical v temperate Look at a few more rainforests & find on map: Nicauragua , Southeast Asian rainforests & Alaska Tongass  Rainforest animal nomenclature  Rainforest fact cards  

Comprehension Questions: 

How much did the widow give to God? 
The rich man gave a lot more money to God than the widow did yet God liked what the widow gave better.  Why? 
When you place money in the offering at church, you are giving to God.  What are other ways you can give to God? 

Paper plate parrot: Cut a paper plate in half and hot glue together to make head & body. Use yellow tissue paper to cover the front half of the head for the beak. Then glue red, yellow and blue feathers to cover the rest. Add a large google eye