Preschool Corner ~ Fruit of the Spirit Lapbook

I was visiting Jill’s site last week and saw her post on the Fruits of the Spirit and immediately started printing off a bunch of stuff to do with all of the kids during the upcoming week…and the kids had so much fun working on their lapbooks and learning about the Fruits of the Spirit.

Since our Awana time is done now, we focused on this as our Bible time and also added in some extra activities to go along with the general fruitiness. :) Before I start linking and show you the fun stuff we did with our lapbook, I have to share a little about Zachary’s handwriting.

Zachary finished up his handwriting curriculum at the end of last week, so I pulled out a new book for him to start using  ~ cursive. Can I just say that the boy LOVED it? He’s only worked on the letters ‘i’ and ‘u’ but I’ve found him sitting at the table working on a scratch piece of paper later in the day, practicing his letters.

 Note: From Abeka’s K4 cursive booklet.

Other than our daily reading and writing we started talking about the Fruit of the Spirit and putting together our lapbook. We need the Spirit of God to help us with each of the fruits ~ love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

A quick description of the fruits {Galatians 5:22-23} can be found on the DLTK site as well as some great ‘example stories’ at Child Bible Lessons. While we were talking about the different fruits the boys worked on coloring in a spiritual fruit basket craft from Christian Preschool Printables {doesn’t Kaleb look thrilled to be coloring?}.

While Zachary worked so hard to color his fruit the RIGHT color, Kaleb was more than happy to make every piece of fruit a rainbow. Very much so.

We also colored a cover for our lapbook and printed off some fruit of the Spirit mini-books. Kaleb just glued the pictures of the fruit in his lapbook while Zachary folded his as the mini-books. Inside the books we glued some questions from the Fruit of the Spirit file folder game.

As we matched the questions to their mini-books, I asked Zachary the different questions. For example: “Your brother came into your room and took a toy without asking. How can you show patience?” and we talked about different ways we could show the fruits of the Spirit to others.

 

Bible Verse Card

Click on the thumbnail image to download.

We needed a verse card for Galatians 5:22-23 to go on our morning board, so I put together one in the same format that we did our Awana verses for the boys {and girls} to practice.

Language

We used the fruit of the Spirit words to count out the syllables in words. Did you realize that there are 3 one-syllable words, 3 two-syllable words, and 3 three-syllable words? Zachary sorted his words and put them into his lapbook by syllable count.

Kaleb just glued his and stuck them wherever they landed {grins}.

Character

To tie into the fruit theme, we used this great idea for Runts candy. I filled a jar with the candy and as I ‘caught’ the kids showing a Fruit of the Spirit throughout the day, I gave them a piece of candy {we found our Runts at the Dollar Tree}.

Since the Runts were such a huge hit, we also used them in some learning activities. I have to admit it was HYSTERICAL watching Kaleb periodically stick his little nose down right next to the candy and sniff, sniff, sniff. Zachary disappeared with a bowl when I got distracted….

Color Sorting & Letters

I gave Kaleb a bowl or Runts and he sorted them by color. After he named the color I repeated the color word back to him asked what letter the word started with. “This is red. What letter does red start with?” made the ‘r’ sound

Counting

Next, we lined them up and counted them, trying our best to count with 1:1 correspondence.

Patterns

We used the fruit to make patterns {orange, green, orange, green ~ ABAB} and moved to more difficult patterns {red, yellow, yellow ~ ABB pattern}.

Estimating & Subtraction

Zachary also worked on patterns, but we focused more on less/more and estimating with his pile of Runts. He had to guess which one he had more of and then we counted out to see how many we had of each. We also used them to do subtraction and find out the difference between two colors, etc…

The completed project!

   {and yes, he was trying to make his eyes look like that!}

Songs and Rhymes

The girls knew a Fruit of the Spirit song that they had heard on JellyTelly, so they taught us that, but I couldn’t find it anywhere online to show you all {sigh}. We did find another song though on DLTK that the boys thought was a riot! It’s a cadence/song ~ so really no singing, just more ‘military’ fashion:

I don’t know what you’ve been told…
Galatians’ got the fruit of gold.
Patience, joy, love, peace and faith…
With gentleness He’ll get the praise.

Self-control with kind and good…
We’ll be like Jesus said we should…
Ask me what would Jesus do?
Galatians 5 Verse 22

Sound off: Galatians 5
Bring it on down: Verse 22

Galatians 5 Verse 22

WE'VE GOT- THE FRUIT!

(optional ending)
WE”VE GOT- (clap) - (stomp) - THE FRUIT!

Additional Resources

Danielle’s Place ~ crafts and additional activities for the Fruits of the Spirit{many require membership}.

Christian Preschool Printables ~ Fruits of the Spirit file folder game

Lapbook Lessons  ~ Fruit of the Spirit lapbook

Confessions of a Homeschooler ~ Fruit of the Spirit beanbag toss

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

 

NOTE: Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! The point of Preschool Corner is to share resources with others, so please include a link back so that your readers can find some other great blogs and ideas to use with their children.

 

Cloud Nine Jewelry Giveaway

Mother’s Day is right around the corner and if you are looking for some unique and gorgeous gifts for your mom {or yourself}, you need to browse through the Etsy Shop of Cloud Nine Jewelry. The ladies behind Cloud Nine, Alison and Janna, have created a personalized jewelry line that features hand-carved and cast charms and customizable hand-stamped pieces!

I have to admit that I am a little partial to the Momma Bird Necklace at the moment. We have a momma robin sitting on four eggs right outside our dining room window ~ and this necklace is tugging at me! You can also request to have the wording changed if you’d prefer something different. Since my kids call me ‘Mommy’, that’s what mine will say!

If you have a mom that loves coffee you might want to have a look at the Latte Girl Necklace. They also offer two beautiful necklaces for cancer awareness. I love the simplicity in the designs ~ but the detail that each piece offers.

 

But that Momma Bird necklace…{sigh}. Wouldn’t that just nicely wrap up our little nature study right outside our window?

Cloud Nine Jewelry is offering one of my readers a $50 gift certificate to their Etsy store ~ so you can choose your favorite item from Cloud Nine Jewelry…or give it to that special mom in your life!

Here’s how to win:

• Leave a comment on this post & let me know which necklace you would pick ~ it’s that easy.
• Subscribe to my blog by reader or email and give yourself an extra entry. If you also subscribe to No Ordinary Moments ~ give yourself another entry!
• Subscribe to either Janna or Alison’s newsletter to receive updates and give yourself an extra entry.
• Twitter about this contest using the tweet below and give yourself an extra entry.

Enter to win a $50 gift certificate to Cloud Nine Jewelry from @jolantheerb ~ http://bit.ly/dCrxGq

The giveaway is open until Thursday, May 6th at 8pm. One winner will be chosen at random and I will announce the winner next Friday. Please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me.

On Safari in Kenya ~ Our Lesson Plans

Our travels to the Eastern coast of Africa started with Kenya. We learned all about the Great Rift Valley and the heights of Mt. Kilimanjaro, figured out how to sing the chorus of Jesus Loves Me in Swahili, drew lots of fun pictures of safari animals, put together a fun diorama of a savannah, read some great books together, and visited some great websites to learn more about the great country.

Week 1 Layout

Monday

• Introduce East Africa song about Kenya from Geography Songs
• Use atlas and globe to locate Kenya
• Talked about the size of Kenya 
• Independent reading ~ pick a book from the shelf to read

Tuesday

• Review geography song
• Learned {and reviewed} some geography terms: lake and valley, highlands, lowlands, equator,  and savannah
• Learned about the Great Rift Valley and Mt. Kenya
• Learned about the flag of Kenya using our notebooking page

 Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

• Review geography song
• Talked about the climate of Kenya ~ on both sides of the equator, wet and dry seasons, snow on top of Mt. Kenya
• Visited National Geographic for Kids: Kenya site
• Independent reading

Thursday
• Review geography song
• Tried to sing Jesus Loves Me in Swahili ~ well, the chorus at least!

Yes, Jesus loves me. Yesu amipenda
Yay-soo ah-nee pen-dah [3x]
The Bible tells me so. Biblia ani sema
Bee-blee-ah ah-nee she-mah

• Looked at Kenya’s currency
• Story from Around the World in 80 Tales ~ The Rabbit’s Tale
• Reading together book on Kenya {from our bookshelf}

Week 2 Layout

Monday

• Review geography song
• Independent reading {for McKenna all week ~ Lions at Lunchtime}
• Completed our mapping activity of Africa

  Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Tuesday

• Review geography song
• Took a little tour via the Time for Kids: Kenya site
• Independent reading

Wednesday
• Review geography song
• Used Draw Write Now to draw a lion and a cheetah
• Learned about the baobab tree ~ the one that looks like it is planted upside down!
• Independent reading

Thursday
• Review geography song
• Laurianna worked on a fun diorama project of a savannah. We found some great 3D animal punch outs that she put together and then made up a ‘habitat’ for them

 

• Added our notebooking pages to our binder and stamped our passports!

Resources and Websites

• National Geographic for Kids: Kenya site
• Time for Kids: Kenya
• Banknotes of Kenya
• World Factbook: Kenya
• Homeschool Share: Masai and I lapbook
• Mission Friends: Kenya
• Scholastic Global Trek ~ Kenya
• Kid’s Africa
• PBS Kids ~ Africa for Kids
• Kids 4 Kenya
• Kids Can Travel

Books We Used
 

Winners ~ and more Winners….

I spent some time last night drawing winners for all of the different giveaways and have some names to share with you all! One of the ladies took me up on my offer of purchasing the book and earned some extra entries, so I’ll be reimbursing her for the book. :)

Ready to see the winners? I’m sending out emails, so if you haven’t heard from me yet, send me an email!

 

Seeds Winners ~ # 23, 119,  464, 205, 84

23. Melissa Juvinall  {Seeds of Courage}

119. Iamredeemed  {Seeds of Praise}

464. Christina {Seeds of Purpose}

 

205. Rockin' C {Seeds of Faith}

84. Rikki  {Power of Encouragement}

 

Time to Learn ~ # 154

154. Michelle said...

I'm an email subscriber.

 

Mailbox Magazine ~ # 80

80. Lindsay said...

I am a follower :-)

 

Preschool Circle Time ~ # 118

118. Nicole {tired, need sleep} said...

This definitely sounds like something I could use!

 

All About Spelling Reader ~ # 28

28. Cindy said...

I am a follower : )

Preschool Corner ~ Spanish Printables

Aside from our normal daily routine ~ handwriting, reading together, math, science projects and fun I put together a few printables for the boys to work on Spanish color words.

Of course, I’m going to share them with you too! Want to know a little more?

They aren’t anything fancy, but just a little something to start the boys with some Spanish and also tie in colors.

Spanish Color Matching Cards

The first set of printables is a Spanish version of the color matching cards that I made earlier. It includes 11 different colors: rojo, anaranjado, amarillo, verde, azul, morado, rosado, marron, gris, negro, and blanco. Each page has a card with the base color & Spanish word and then five picture cards of items that are that color.

The last page also includes some alternative color words for the colors orange, pink, brown, white and purple since there are a few people that use different words for those colors. Download the Spanish Color Matching cards here.

Spanish/English Color Matching Cards

These cards are designed to help your child practice matching colors using Spanish words. There are 8 pages containing 11 dif-ferent colors in this set. One of the cards shows the color word in English and the other color word is in Spanish.

Additional color word cards are provided that do not include a color
sample so that your child can learn to match the actual words together and identify the words. Download the Spanish/English Color Matching cards here. 

You can find other Color Printables on my website and a bunch of other fun preschool printables here ~ have fun sorting by category!

Ready to Link Up?

What fun things have you been doing this week with your kids? What new things have they been learning in your house this week? Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and be sure to link back here too! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Lesson Planet {Review}

Lesson Planet was designed to help teachers find material that is relevant to what the are teaching quickly and easily ~ providing over 150,000 lesson plans and 75,000 worksheets. It was created by educators as a search engine that is member supported and available to any teacher {public, private or homeschool} to use in lesson planning.

Teachers can find resources in the following ways:

• Searching by keyword, grade level and overall rating
  
• Clicking the Narrow, Related or My Recent Searches keyword options
  
• Browsing for reviewed resources by Subject, Calendar or Theme
  
• Exploring relevant State Standards, matched to each member’s state
  
• Utilizing Advanced Search to narrow by duration, method, technology, and more

My Thoughts

You all are probably well aware of the fact that I like to put my own lesson plans together {for the most part}. And make printables ~ lots of them. We use a few worksheets during our day for handwriting and math, but otherwise I put together notebooking sheets based on the topic we are studying.

If I need ideas for a topic we are studying, I might do some searching and digging around on the internet to get my creative juices flowing and go from there. When we were asked to review the Lesson Planet site I was in the middle of planning for our Australia and New Zealand studies, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use the site and find some great stuff.

Unfortunately for me, it really wasn’t. While I did get results, it definitely wasn’t what I had in mind and I found four dead links for the first search I did {I reported them}…but that didn’t start me off well with things. I know that part of my problem is that when I have a specific idea in mind for something it is generally easier to put it together myself. If I’m going to spend time on it, I want it done the way I want it done {because I’m odd like that ~ it is in no way the fault of anyone else}.  However, I am well aware that others love not having to go through the hassle of putting lessons together, being able to find applicable worksheets at the touch of a button ~ and if that is you, it might be a site you want to check out.

I would recommend their free 10-day trial before you purchase a $39.95 yearly membership. Try it out before you jump in to see if it’s something that you would use.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews about this product.
 

This product was given to me for review purposes, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.

Organizing School Paperwork

I know it’s practically the end of the year, so how about we consider this a suggestion for organizing schoolwork for next year, ok?

In reality, I lost the SD card that had these pictures on it and completely forgot that I was going to share the idea with you all until I found it the other day {ahem}.

I’ve used this system for the last few years and it has worked great for us so far. If you remember, our kids are color-coded {they each have their own ‘color’ that identifies things that belong to them}. All of our folders are stored in a wire bin and sorted so that I can quickly grab an upcoming {or completed} folder if I need to find something.

 

It’s a little extra work at the start of school for me, but I take a few hours, pull out all of the workbooks that we will be using for the year, rip out all of the pages and sort them for each kiddo. Truthfully, it saves me a lot of time in the long run since everything we need is divided up and ready to go for each week.

The Method to My Madness

I use six paper pocket folders per child and label the fronts of each folder ~ ones that are pretty cheap. I break the school year up into six 6-week segments {a total of 36 weeks}. The front of each folder is labeled with a name, grade, school year and the 6 week segment that it covers. For example, the front of one of the folders might read:

Weeks 31-36                          Laurianna

                                                 3rd Grade {current grade}

                                                 2009-2010 {current school year}

I separate out the worksheets into six piles for the 6-week segments and then further divide them out into weekly piles. Since our writing curriculum {A Reason for Handwriting} is divided out into weekly lessons, it helps me keep track of the week that I’m sorting. Each week’s worth of lessons/worksheets is then paperclipped together {see below}.

Each week includes our handwriting, math worksheets, writing pages, etc…basically anything that was ‘pre-packaged’ and able to be ripped out of a workbook. As we move through our school year, I keep everything that goes along with that six week segment in that specific folder.

At the start of each 6 week segment, I put all of the papers on the left hand side of the folder. Each week’s worth of paperwork remains clipped together until we work on that week. If we add any paperwork during the week {spelling lesson, test, notebooking sheets, etc…} it is sorted into the pile for the week it was completed.

Completed papers are then moved to the right hand side of the folder. At the end of the week the schoolwork papers for that week are all paperclipped back together and moved to the back of the folder. When we've worked through a six week segment and the folder is full, the folders are put at the back of the wire bin and I pull out the next six week folder for each of the kids.

At the end of the year, all of our folders are put into a large rubbermaid tub that I keep with all of our school records.  If I need to sort through and find schoolwork for a particular child/particular year, it’s so much easier since I already have things color-coded and sorted out for me.

Make sense? Just wanted to share a little something that is working for us in organizing our school work. Let me know if you have any questions!

Answers to some of your questions

Cindy asked: What do with worksheets that are front and back that you need for another week?

Answer: I usually put it in the week that we complete it. :) I generally write down the page numbers of worksheets that we complete in my planner also, and my planner gets stored with all of our folders at the end of the year.

Allyson asked: I think we'll probably want to reuse workbooks for a couple of children in order to save money. What would you suggest for that? Do you reuse any of your workbooks or do you purchase new ones even if you have a child that will use it the very next year?

Answer: We do reuse some of our workbooks, but there are some that I realized were just cheaper in the long run to buy and actually use ~ handwriting, etc... Several of the workbooks that I use {Complete Writer} are actually able to be photocopied too, so that's what I do in that case. If it's a worksheet that we slip into a page protector {Critical Thinking}, I just record the page number they completed in my planning book.

Super Star Speech {Review}

When we were first asked to review for Super Star Speech, I wasn’t quite sure how I would be able to write a review. There aren’t any major issues with any of our children’s speech ~ and trust me, after working with children who have had speech problems I know how difficult that can be for teachers and parents.

The primary focus of the Super Star Speech site is focused on giving parents the tools needed to help improve their child’s speech at home. They offer a book called Super Star Speech: Speech Therapy Made Simple, a 90 page resource that includes the following:

· Articulation test assesses speech sounds in all word positions.
· Specific instructions and tips for teaching every sound
· 240  picture cards printed on colored card stock (ring bound edition)
· Games and activities for enjoyable practice and drill
· Reproducible lesson plan forms

In addition to speech products, they do offer additional homeschool games and resources. Super Star Games are inexpensive pdf downloads {$3.50 each} that help reinforce subjects that you are teaching at home: grammar, history, geography, science, and more.

We were given four pdf games to try together: Covering the Continents, Silly Snail, Colony Quest, and the Inventors Game.

Covering the Continents ~ players decide which continent a fact describes. If they are correct, they can place a marker on that continent. Once they earn three markers for a continent, it is considered ‘settled’.

Silly Snail  ~ a parts of speech game where players tell what part of speech is bolded in a sentence. If answered correctly the player moves along the game board to that part of speech.

Colony Quest ~ similar to the Covering the Continents game, but players learn facts about the 13 colonies and race to ‘settle’ them

The Inventors Game ~ players learn about major inventions from the 1400’s up to the 1900’s and who was responsible for the invention. The game can be played as a matching game or as a timeline game.

Our two favorites were Covering the Continents and Silly Snail, mainly because they both cover topics we are doing a lot with right now: geography and grammar. :)

Find Out More

If you’d like to find out more about the Super Star Speech program or the games that they also offer, you can visit their website. Deb Lott, the author, also has a blog that provides helpful information about speech development. Several of my Crew members reviewed different products, including the speech program, so be sure to click on the banner below to read more.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews about this product.

This product was given to me for review purposes, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.

Website Update: Printables for Africa

For those of you who have been waiting, I will be posting our lesson plans for the remaining countries we studied in Africa ~ but I just uploaded all of the printables that I made to go along with our studies!

The lesson plans will be following in the next few weeks, but feel free to browse the Africa page on my website! I added map and flag printables for the following countries:

• Kenya
• Morocco
• South Africa
• Tanzania

Enjoy and have fun learning!

Preschool Corner ~ Alphabet Games

This week I thought it might be fun to share a few games that we play to help with alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness. There are a TON of different activities you can do ~ and if you have a fun one that YOU do at home, leave a comment and share your ideas! I’d love to hear them!

Ready for some fun?

What ABC Do You See? Start this game by saying “What ABC do you see? I see something that begins with B.” Let your child solve the riddle by looking around the house and naming the things that s/he sees…a ball, a bear, a book. If s/he doesn’t notice something right away, give some more clues ~ colors, shapes, etc…

I Spy Pictures ~ Grab a basket and go on a hunt through your house for anything you can find that begins with a certain letter of the alphabet. We did this with quite a bit of the alphabet and slacked off a little ~ need to pick this back up and share more pictures with you all!

 

Letters All Around ~ Do you notice letters in everyday objects? Take a walk and look around your neighborhood for different letters of the alphabet. A tire is the letter O. A tree can look like the letter Y. The top of the telephone poles make the letter T.

Noodle Letters ~ Take a 24” length of yarn and have your child string uncooked noodles onto it {I like ziti the best}. Tie a knot at each end. Lay the noodle string onto the table and have fun forming letters with the string!

Flour Tracing ~ Spread a thin layer of flour {or something like rice} onto a cookie sheet, making sure surface is covered well with flour. Use your index finger to make a capital and lowercase letter in the flour. Some other great options that are similar ~ put pudding, paint or shaving cream in a baggie, seal it up and have fun tracing with your finger!

Water Painting  ~ When the weather is nice, take a container of water and some paintbrushes outside and ‘paint’ the letters of the alphabet onto the pavement together. How long will it take for the letters to disappear? Can you name the letters again before they are gone?

Letter of the Day ~ Take a month and pick one activity to do every day that starts with the letter of that day. If the letter of the day is M, think of all the things you can do: You can make muffins or monkey bread, drink milk, count money, play marbles…you get the idea!

Don’t Forget!! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the giveaways that are listed with the Curriculum Clean-Out! There are some great resources up for grabs!

Favorite ABC books

Ready to Link Up?

Share what you are doing with your kids! Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below and link back here too! The updated guidelines can be found here if you need them.

 

 

Facebook Addicts Please Apply…

You may have noticed a few buttons shifting and being added into my sidebar. I’ve added a Facebook connect button!!

Facebook is a great way to connect and be able to quickly reply to people and share with others without having to come up with an entire post on something! If you are on Facebook ~ come and visit the new fan page that I set up for Homeschool Creations yesterday. I’ll be posting links to fun stuff that I find as I go along ~ little extras that don’t always get posted here.

Hope to see you there!

All About Reading ~ What Am I? Review

The folks at All About Reading and All About Spelling never cease to amaze me.

Seriously.

I was thrilled when they introduced their first All About Reading book and now that I have the book What Am I? in my hands…I’m just plain giddy. Especially since I know that there are even more coming!

What Am I? A Collection of Short Stories coordinates with the first 14 lessons of the Level 2 spelling program, but you do not need to use the All About Spelling program to use the books. It is a hardcover collection of ten short stories for beginning readers, each with beautiful illustrations, similar to the first reader that All About Reading released last fall.

Stories in What Am I?

1. The Bench
2. An Elf in the Alps
3. Broken Robot
4. The Bake Sale
5. Matt the Musk Ox
6. Skunk Hotel
7. Champ
8. Pine Tree Pet Shop
9. Just for You: Poems for Fun
10. What Am I?

Features of What Am I?

• Engaging graphics ~ ink sketches that tell enough about the story without giving away the wording to the reader.
• 160 page hardcover book ~ it’s sturdy and will stand up to little hands
• Story difficulty progresses through the book.
• Stories will appeal to both boys and girls ~ the themes range from animals to robots {and our kids enjoy them}.
• It ties in with the Level 2 All About Spelling program ~ a huge plus if you are using it!
• There are more coming!! Four more readers are scheduled to release by the end of 2010 along with a teacher’s manual ~ the books are being illustrated right now!

These books are still a little above Zachary’s reading level {he is working on the Level 1 spelling program and reader}, but McKenna can confidently read them to Zachary and Kaleb, and I’m happy to let her! Because they are hardcover, I know that they will easily survive the bumps and drops of daily life. We love these books so much and plan to own all of them.

Find Out More

What Am I? A Collection of Short Stories by Marie Rippel and Renee LaTulippe is available at the All About Reading website for $19.95. In addition, there are also two more readers available: "Cobweb the Cat" (All About Reading Level 1 Vol. 3) $19.95 and "Queen Bee: A Short Story Collection" (All About Reading Level 1 Vol. 2) $19.95.

Shipping has always been extremely fast and I would also highly recommend their homeschool spelling program that we are using with all of our children.

Click on the Homeschool Crew banner to read other reviews about this product.

This product was given to me for review purposes, and I do not have to return the product to the vendor. I was not paid for this post. All opinions expressed in this post are mine.