Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: Littles Learning Link Up

Showing posts with label Littles Learning Link Up. Show all posts

Friday, October 30, 2020

Littles Learning Link Up: Fall Collage Sign Craft

Welcome back to Littles Learning Link up! I'm sorry that I haven't been posting the link up, but we hadn't had co-op for such a long time, and then we had our short summer break. Thankfully, co-op was able to start back up this month (with social distancing guidelines of course). So, now I decided it was time to bring back Littles Learning Link Up.

Each month you will find:

Posts where I share what I have been doing with the preschoolers and kindergarteners I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
Possibly some updates on what I am doing with my kiddos here at home.
The occasional round up post.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool.

This year we started back at the beginning of the Exploration to 1850 year of My Father's World. We had just gotten so far off track, and the children really hadn't remembered much, so I figured at first I was just going to review, but then I realized they would get more out of it if we focused on the curriculum. Tabitha, however, had kept going independently last year, so she is continuing to work on her own.

So, we are learning about very early American history. We are currently focusing on colonial times. I don't really have any pictures to share though.

For math, the children are all using CTCMath again.

For science Harold and Hannah are continuing with Experience Biology from Journey Homeschool Academy, which I posted a review for in July. Tabitha and Amelia are continuing to use NatureGlo's eScience. That review posted just a few weeks ago.

They are also working on writing practice in preparation for NaNoWriMo that starts in two days. I'm curious to see how their stories turn out. I'm hoping to have time to participate again this year. I didn't have time last year. And I have three stories that have been sitting since past NaNoWriMo's. My poor abandoned characters.

We do have two review products we are working with right now. In fact, they are our last for a while. I have decided to take a break from the Homeschool Review Crew. At least for this coming year. Who knows what the future may bring.

Anyway, we are learning about archaeology with Drive Thru History Adventures. That review will be posted next week. And Hannah has been reading a book titled, The Adventures of Rooney Cruz RINGLEADERS from Bible Belles. Look for that review in a couple of weeks.

PreK/K Lessons

Yay, I can post about our co-op lessons again! We have been focusing on fall themes these past four weeks. We started out talking about the four seasons, fall and re-learning some four seasons and leaf songs.

There are Four Seasons

There are four seasons

There are four seasons in a year

There are four seasons

There are four seasons in a year.

First there's spring and then there's summer, then there's fall and winter too.

Leaves are Falling

Leaves are falling, leaves are falling

Trees are bright and leaves are falling

Leaf piles we'll make, we will rake and rake and rake

When trees are bright and leaves are falling

Autumn Leaves

Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down

Autumn leaves are falling down

Lots of colors

Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down

Red and orange yellow and brown

I Love Autumn

We took the children outside and hunted for pretty fall leaves.

Then we worked on a:

Fall Collage Sign Craft

The children cut out the letters F, A, L, and L, which I had printed out onto card stock.

Then they glued them to construction paper. I had taped two pieces together to fit the letters for the word "FALL." They got to choose which fall colored construction paper to use.

I had printed and cut out little pictures to go with each letter.

Fall flowers for F

Apples and Acorns for A

Leaves for L

Then they added some of their real leaves to the sign.

These are the books we read to go with our craft:

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Fall Leaves All Around Round Up

Scarecrow Fun Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post (months ago), there were 4 wonderful posts linked up. As there were no clicks, will feature two randomly selected posts.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's first randomly selected post is:

Gale from Scribbleprints shared Where Art Meets Math.

This week's second randomly selected post is:

Kristen from A Mom's Quest to Teach shared Crafts: R is for Redstone

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Littles Learning Link Up: May 19th, 2020

Each month you will find:

Posts where I share what I have been up to with my elementary-age children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
The occasional round up post.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool.

Hmm, an update on our homeschool. Last week was a no-school week (as we school 5-6 weeks on, 1 week off). However, the children were still using Beyond the Stick Figure for art because that review was due last week. In fact, here's a look at some of the art created last week.

You can read my review here.

Plus they have been using EdShed for math and spelling practice. Harold has also been using Reading Kingdom daily. Tabitha has been learning about computer science and coding with a book from Workman Publishing. She has been working through the book independently and seems to be enjoying her time in the book. Next week I will be sharing my reviews of Reading Kingdom and Workman Publishing. And then in June there will be reviews EdShed (MathShed and SpellingShed) plus Page a Day Math.

We are also going to start in with some history again, though we are doing some review using The Mayflower at Cape Cod (another new review product) plus Time Travelers: The American Revolution (not a review product, just a product I want to try from Homeschool in the Woods).

I plan to get back to our My Father's World studies during the next school year.

Unfortunately I have no more co-op lessons to post about. Hopefully co-op will start back up in the fall.

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Creepy, Crawly, Buggy Round Up

April Showers Brought May Flowers Round Up

Butterfly Metamorphosis/Life Cycle Fun Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 3 wonderful posts linked up. I'll feature a randomly selected post and the most clicked on post.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Gale from Imaginative Homeschool shared Learning Games for Elementary.

This week's most clicked on post is:

Hilbert's Mazes shared Hand Drawn Dog Maze - Free Printable PDF

Join the Party!

I am sharing over at

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Littles Learning Link Up: April 21st, 2020

Each month you will find:

Posts where I share what I have been up to with my elementary-age children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
The occasional round up post.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool.

As I mentioned last week, we haven't really been using our My Father's World curriculum at this time. Tabitha had gotten ahead of us, and I hadn't had time to get to our history readings.

However, that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. The children get on the computer daily. The girls use CTCMath for their math, while Harold has been using that plus Matific Galaxy. We also added Math Seeds back in because they were offering a month free due to the Coronavirus. Reading Express also is offering free ebook workbooks in both reading comprehension, spelling and math, so I downloaded some of those to use. Hannah and Harold have been working on fractions.

Tabitha has also been using a Math Essentials book, which is a current review product.

They have continued using Let's Go Geography during their computer time to learn about countries they are interested in.

Harold and Hannah are also working on handwriting with an ebook from Everyday Education. Yes, another review product.

Harold and Hannah have been taking some art lessons with Beyond the Stick Figure. Here's a little look at what they have been doing in the beginning drawing lessons, where the teacher gets the student to focus on seeing and drawing circles, dots, curved lines, and straight lines.

Mommy's been having fun too:

Unfortunately I have no more co-op lessons to post about.

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Fishy Under the Sea Literature and Craft Round Up

Butterfly Fun Round Up

Butterfly Metamorphosis/Life Cycle Fun Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 2 wonderful posts linked up. I'm going to feature both of them this week.

This week's 1st featured post is:

Hilbert's Mazes shared Hand Drawn Spring Tulip Maze - Free Printable PDF

This week's 2nd featured post is:

Gale from Imaginative Homeschool shared Books from My Childhood: Ocean Tales

Join the Party!

I am sharing over at

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Littles Learning Link Up: Under the Sea Unit: Sea Turtle Lesson

Each month you will find:

Posts where I share what I have been up to with my elementary-age children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).
The occasional round up post.

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

Here's a peek at what we have been up to in our homeschool.

We've mainly been keeping busy with our review products. When it comes to our My Father's World curriculum, I've sort of put that on pause. Tabitha has been reading on ahead in her history lessons, but seeing as we are in colonial times and have been learning about George Washington with our YWAM Publishing book and unit study, and Benjamin Franklin with our Home School in the Woods lapbook, I figured that was great for now. Both of those reviews will be posted this week.

They have continued using Let's Go Geography during their computer time to learn about countries they are interested in. Though they haven't done any of the hands-on projects.

We have also continued math on the computer with CTCMath, plus Harold likes using Matific Galaxy. Additionally they have been getting extra practice with riddle worksheets from Math Galaxy. That is another review that will be posted this week.

We are missing being able to go to co-op. However, as I am behind in my postings, I still have two prek/k lessons to share with you. We had continued our "Under the Sea" unit, and I still had more lessons planned. I do not know if co-op will start up again or if we will be waiting until next school year. I'm not sure what I will do when it comes to this unit if it waits until October to start back up. We'll see.

Moving on to our preschool lesson:

We moved on from seahorses to learn about sea turtles.

We read this book:

We looked at the map in the book to see where the sea turtle spend her life.

Then we started our Paper Plate Sea Turtle Craft.

You'll need:

Paper plates

Green construction paper

Wiggle eyes

Green paint

Yellow paint

White paint to make the yellow a light yellow

Paint brushes

Black marker

Glue sticks

School Glue

Stapler

Scissors

Prior to class you could cut the green construction paper into small hexagons for the scutes on the carapace, plus front flippers, back flippers, heads and tails. However, as the children are getting older, I had them cut them out themselves.

First they painted the carapace green. Make sure to paint the bottom of the paper plates for this craft, so when you staple them together the turtle isn't flat.

We set those aside and then painted the plastron light yellow.

While those dried the children worked on cutting out the scutes and other body parts.

When the children came back from snack and gym, the paper plates were dry, so they were able to glue the scutes to the carapace.

Then they glued the head, flippers, and tail to the unpainted side of the plastron.

Then we stapled the top to the bottom and added wiggle eyes and a mouth.

Paper plate sea turtles:

Then we made a sea turtle snack out of rice cakes, peanut butter, apple slices, kiwi slices, grape halves, and raisins.

First the children spread the peanut butter on the rice cakes.

The grape halves were the scutes and tails, the kiwi slices were the heads, apple slices were the flippers and the raisins were the eyes.

Of course, we also sang our Under the Sea songs.

"One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Once I caught a fish alive."

Plus a song that goes to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus." We found a video for this song online, but I don't have signal at the camp, so we didn't watch it. I just wrote down the words. There were five different ocean animals. And, of course, I added motions.

The shark in the ocean goes chomp, chomp, chomp,

Chomp, chomp, chomp

The shark in the ocean goes chomp, chomp, chomp

CHOMP....CHOMP....CHOMP!

Same pattern for the following:

The turtle in the ocean goes snap, snap, snap...

The crab in the ocean goes click, click, click...

The jellyfish in the ocean goes wibble wobble wibble

The fish in the ocean goes swish, swish, swish (though the one girls wanted to do, The fish in the ocean goes swimmy, swimmy, swimmy...)

The seahorse in the ocean rocks back and forth...