Homeschool Kindergarten Lesson Plans - Weeks 21-25

Although we've been doing a lot of themes recently in homeschool Kindergarten, there is plenty of playing and learning activities that don't exactly fall within the context of those thematic units.  This post will be a mishmash of all that "other stuff" we've been doing that I haven't had a chance to blog about...

Felt Fortune Cookies {Chinese New Year or Valentines Day Craft}

Earlier this month I read A Cricket in Times Square aloud to the twins.  In one of the chapters, the main character was invited to a Chinese dinner and was introduced to his first fortune cookie.  The girls and I made these adorable felt fortune cookies to go with the book and our "China" theme for January.  They would make perfect little crafts for both Chinese New Year or Valentines Day!  They were surprisingly simple to make.  Here's how its done..

Valentine's Mailboxes and Messages

L and E are 30 months old.

In preparation for Valentine's Day, the girls and I decorated mailboxes with heart stickers and dot paint.  L loves to peel the backs off the stickers all by herself, and E enjoyed putting the "Mommy hearts" and "Baby hearts" next to each other on her mailbox.  They also made some written love notes for their babies (Floppy Dog, Baby Duck, and Two Bears). 

L writing 'LOVE' by herself - she said the names of the letters as she wrote them.

 E drawing.  She was very focused on her work, and the final result was very pretty modern art.

L loves to trace, so I made her a heart and the word 'LOVE' to trace.  The problem is I told her to 'connect the dots', which confused her on certain letters.  We'll definitely do more tracing activities coming up, since it looks like she's ready for them.

We left the decorated mailboxes in the living room, and it's fun to see the girls go to them throughout the day and peek inside.  

Valentines Counting Game

Here's a standard math/counting game with a bit of a Valentine's Day twist to it.  I set up a laminated hundreds-board, a spinner from a different board game, and a jar with exactly 100 heart-shaped mini-erasers.  The way you play the game is to take turns spinning the spinner (you could also use dice) and to count out that number of hearts and place them on the board until it is completely covered.

It's a good way of reinforcing identification of digits and introducing higher-order numbers to 100.  Older kids can use this type of activity to work on addition as well as other skills (like discussing odd-even numbers and what happens when you add an odd number to an even number, etc,,,).  The girls played the 'game' for a couple turns, and the E just wanted to put all the hearts down on the board without using the spinner.  She did a great job and was really proud when the board was completely covered.  She removed the hearts in random order and I called out the name of each number she was uncovering, which she liked.

Then I used dry-erase crayons to make a pattern on the other side of the laminated hundreds board (which has blank squares, and L placed the hearts on them to make a pretty design:

This was such an easy activity to set up, and the girls loved using the hearts instead of their usual manipulatives.

$1 Plastic Mesh Baskets = Hours of Fun

Last weekend, I picked up two plastic baskets for the girls (30 months old) in the Target $1 section.  I couldn't have imagined how much fun we've had with these baskets.  They've been beds for stuffed animals.  They've been hats.  They've been props for an apple-picking adventure in our living room (with real apples!). 

We also came up with some great fine-motor activities with the baskets that I wanted to share.  You could also do these activities with Easter baskets, laundry baskets, or even plastic berry containers.

First we weaved ribbon through the holes of the basket:

Older kids could probably weave the ribbon going in-and-out on a single row at a time and make a really gorgeous basket.  We took a more free-form approach.

Next we put straws through the basket.  It took a lot of control to put the straw in one side and then get it to go through a hole on the other side without pushing so far that it would fall:

Finally, we hung some monkeys around the baskets:

L really loved these activities and did them over and over.  E wasn't as excited and preferred to use the baskets as beds for her 'babies'.  I'm sure we'll be coming up with a bunch more creative ways to use these baskets.  I love it when $1 finds end up being picked over expensive toys.



Click on the link party below to see the activities other kids are doing this week.