MFW K – Unit 2 (Moon)

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Alex is 4 years, 8 months/Max is 36 months

We learned that “I am the light of the world.”
Our letter is Mm (Moon)

PRE-KINDERGARTEN
BOOKS

On The Moon is a FAVORITE of my boys!  Homeschool Creations has a printable unit based on this book that we’ve used with the boys in the past.  This unit contains the cutest little song that my boys just love! The Moon Seems To Change does a nice job of showing the moon phases.
The Moon Might Be Milk has a recipe for sugar cookies that makes for a great activity!

VIDEO We read this book EVERY DAY for a week…and then I thought to look for a video on YouTube.  Alex & I were able to watch this movie on my Kindle while snuggling together in his hospital bed last week.

CALENDAR TIME

BIBLE

We talked about ways that little children can let the love of Jesus shine.
We read how one little boy shared his 5 loaves and 2 fish…and Jesus used that little offering to make a BIG difference!

Singing “This Little Light of Mine”

TACTILE LETTER PRACTICE He’s using a popsicle stick to draw the letter S in his salt box. 
Alex LOVES this activity right now, and he begged to do it every time we did school.
 
Wikki Stix (printable alphabet pages found on my MFW K tab)

Phonics/Tactile?  Alex drew lowercase letter cards from a stack, and then he had to “fish” for the uppercase letter match with our magnetic fishing pole.

PHONICS & HANDWRITING We’ve made our own larger handwriting pages for now because
Alex just isn’t ready for the smaller size of the MFW sheets.

M is hard for Alex to make independently.  He can trace it just fine, but he is not
ready for independent writing yet…which is okay by me.  He’s young!

Singing the A-A-Apple Song

Sorting his picture cards into S words and M words.
Alex was very quick to do this, and he got every word correct.

Stamping every picture that starts with M
& crossing out those that start with other letters
Alex did this INDEPENDENTLY!
  

Today, our cut & paste page contained words that started with either s or m.
Alex had to glue the correct letter under each word.
He did this page independently, as well!  Go Alex!

         

He also cut/sorted/pasted lowercase and uppercase letter M/m.
(my own design, available under my MFW K tab)

circling the beginning letter of each word
(another of my designs, in the solar system prek pack)

Alex’s letter M drawings & words.  He really struggled with the drawing part…he did an EXCELLENT job tracing the letters!  Thanks to Leslie on the Facebook MFW K group for suggesting that we can write the words in yellow for a child to trace with a darker color.

MATH

learning about pairs, writing the number 2
(Yes, we are DEFINITELY using this as K4…writing numbers is still challenging for him!)

cuisenaire blocks – he’s starting to think about size, recognize where certain colors will fit, and put some logic into this.  It was fun watching him!

SCIENCE

We’ve been reading books about the moon phases and watching the sky each night to see what phase the moon is in.  I used white crayon on black post-it notes to make the moon phases.  Alex was to point to each phase as I named it.  He chose to use his feet as pointers ;)

 

After that, I scrambled the phases and asked him to “make the moon grow”.  He did a very good job getting them back in order quickly!

 

We also used black construction paper and white crayon to make a little flap book of the moon phases.  This way, Alex can look back at it later & quickly review what he’s learned.

Just cut each page slightly longer than the previous page & be sure to leave a space for staples at the top of each page.
 

ART Both boys LOVED this easy rocket to the moon craft.  It’s a quick printable rocket to cut out & color, then you glue the “wings” down so the rest of the rocket looks 3D.  Add a white crayon moon & some star stickers.  Finish off with curling ribbon as “flames”.  Easy-peasy!

Would you call this art/creative play?  I don’t know!  We made very simple space helmets.  Alex refused to put any imagination into this, though :(

It’s just 9x12 white paper with the corners rounded and a mid-section cut out.
The straps are stapled to the sides and come together in the back.

SNACKS

We read the book “The Moon Might Be Milk”, and then we made the sugar cookie recipe in the back of the book.  When we finished, Alex & I cut the cookies into the moon phases.  Alex told Daddy the names of each phase.

SENSORY PLAY

We made “moon sand”.   I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing this outside AND on the GRASS!  I didn’t want the mess in my kitchen, so we did it on the patio.  We now have vegetable oil stains on our patio…Dawn dishsoap didn’t do a thing to clean it.  Any suggestions?  :(

I just realized Alex didn’t make it in the pictures…but he was there! ;)

We used 8 cups of white flour and 1 cup of cooking oil.
It is whiter if you use baby oil, but I was afraid Jensyn would eat it…and she did!

 

TOT SCHOOL

(Max is 36 months)

I love watching Max catch on to new things.  Here, he’s using our Beginner Pattern Blocks to make a 7.  Totally self motivated – he just grabbed the blocks and did it.  He was so proud of himself!

Max learned the moon phases, too!
It is amazing what a 3 year old can pick up when tagging along with big brother :)

Max’s rocket to the moon craft.  This craft was so easy and so fun for the boys.  We hung them in the kitchen, and Max tells us every day, “That’s my wocket ship.  I made that!” 

These pages are from my Solar System preschool pack.   I’ve made Max his own preschool “notebook”.  It’s a binder, just like his big brother’s binder.  I slide the pages for the week into page protectors in the binder, and he can do them with dry erase crayon.

Just for the record, I *offer* these activities to my little ones.  I  *NEVER NEVER* force a 3 year old to sit down and do “worksheets”.  Max is free to play or do his own thing.  I encourage puzzles, hands-on activities, etc…and he can do whatever paperwork interests him.

Circling the biggest, crossing out the smallest

     

Max counts (he LOVES to count) and Mommy writes the answer.

Circling What’s Different – this one takes concentration on his part

Holy cow – I was AMAZED at how well he stayed on the tracing lines!

Shadow Matching & Size Sequencing – completely without help!  
I expected the size sequencing would take him a while,
but he had it done in about 30 seconds.

4 part puzzles – again, he did these in no time at all!

 

Count & Match cards – not cut apart
Max counts & tells me how many.

 

Shape Match – Mommy cuts out the shapes.
Max names the shape & glues it in the correct spot.

Color Sorting with foam blocks

magnet page of the moon

 

…and a little playtime…because it’s EASY for big brother to concentrate on school when little brother is hanging upside-down from the trampoline handle ;)

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