Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: Ii

Friday, April 8, 2011

School Time Week 28 (start of Ii lessons)

Well, I thought we were having a good week as we had our introduction to the letter Ii. I started out strong, ready to go with lessons, but we still didn't get much done. We didn't have art lessons this week as Dani over at the Pineapple Paintbrush was on Spring Break. The girls and I have been enjoying the art lessons, but they had been taking away time from our other lessons.

The girls really seem to enjoy our "Greater Than Game." They keep asking to play what they call the "Dice Game." In this instance Tabitha wanted to have a turn writing in the math facts, so it was practice writing her numbers.

Trying to write a "6"

After mommy's demonstration on what a 6 should look like.

Of course we made out I collages:

Our words this week are: ink, inch, inchworm, Indian, igloo and iguana.

On Monday of course we had our Muffin Tin. It was the introduction to "inches" as everything was cut into 1 inch cubes or pieces.

Then on Wednesday the girls measured the green strips of paper that I cut out in 1 inch increments from 1 inch to 12 inches. The girls learned the 12 inches equal a foot. They learned to place the object to be measured at the left hand side of the ruler.

And they got to see how each strip got 1 inch bigger.

Amelia loves writing H's. Here she decided to make one with the paper. That reminds me, I didn't get any pictures, but they have also been enjoying their build a letter activity.

We took some time to measure our feet and then Tabitha wanted to measure her bear.

Then the girls got to make their I craft. This was a spur of the moment activity that I created that morning. I cut out letter i's from construction paper. Then I traced it on to the blue paper.

The girls were to glue the white i onto the blue i:

Then the dot of the i became a head as the girls drew a face onto it:

They glue on the legs and I attached the arms with paper fasteners. And then they gave their Mr I a rash by drawing on red dots. He became "Mr. Itchy I."

And he could use his hands to scratch his itchys (with help of course).

I came up with this idea after hunting for the book, Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox. A Hello Reader Level 1 book I had for the older children. So glad I kept these books.

This was Tabitha's first exposure to the book. I wanted to see if she could read it. She requested that we share the reading, alternating pages. Here she is reading the book:

She is doing so well with her reading. I actually took the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book out of the library again. I turned to a page partway through the book, lesson 85. Tabitha was able to read it with no help. I really am amazed at how much she has absorbed with out any formal phonics lessons from any of the curriculum I was going to try. The games and projects and Leap Frog DVD's and Starfall seem to have been all the help she needed.

Here are updated pictures of our "Grass Head Family"

I first saw a couple of blades of grass a few days after starting them. Amelia's family has more hair. We are waiting for Tabitha's to start doing better or we are going to replant a couple of them. The girls really want to cut the hair now. Pictures next week.

We actually revisited our G lessons the other day. I wanted to plant some seeds to make a Gift Garden in a Basket for Grandma (my mom) and Grandma and Grandpa (hubby's parents). I wasn't sure if we could get the baskets to them though. When I found out they are all coming up tomorrow for Hannah's birthday I decided we should get them planted.