I don't know why, but I love mail. Getting mail and notes, sending mail, etc. My kiddos love writing notes, too, so these looked extra fun. These really cute mini mailboxes came from the Target dollar spot.
We are going to use them as we practice writing spelling words and sight word this week. They do not relate to our theme of the week, but the kids overheard me telling their Dad about them and couldn't wait to use them.
Last night I made these little envelopes to use with the mini mailboxes. I knew they were really excited about them, so I wanted to be prepared. The first thing the kiddos talked about when we got into school this morning was their little mail boxes, YAY for preparation!
You could use these little envelopes whether you have mail boxes or not. Create a mailbox by cutting a slot into a small box, done! Let the pretend play, fun, and learning begin!
If you're interested in this printable, pop over to my TPT store and download FREE!
We are eating gingerbread cookies, telling lots of variations of the gingerbread man stories, etc. One thing I like to do each week is give my kids a little story to read. Lots of times I find ones that go with our theme on This Reading Mama's website, but this week, I couldn't find one, so I made my own.
That said, I thought I'd share this short, easy reading passage with you in case you have an emergent reader. I like to use these short stories to build confidence in my kiddos about their reading skills. We will use the one with picture cues at first, then we will just read the one without pictures.
We have been enjoying fall. Our fall themes have included fire safety, apples, spiders/bats, monsters, and this week pumpkins!! I love this time of year and enjoyed teaching my kiddos to love it too.
Here is a video about some of the fun things we will do this week!
In our homeschool, my first grader is working on learning his math facts. Honestly, I think not knowing his math facts is making him feel frustrated with math in general. From the teacher end, I do not enjoy dragging him through math each day. It is not a fun process for either of us lately.
Math facts are sucking the life out of our math time - and they show up EVERY DAY in EVERY LESSON in some shape or form! Learning basic addition is, of course, so very important! I think of this as a hurdle for us to cross together. We are going to do it and as a result, he will end up with a very good grasp of addition! That is the goal. If we can do it without drudgery, even better!!!
That said, in my search for ways to make learning math facts easier, I stumbled upon the Math Mammoth YouTube channel. Her trick for adding with 8 and 9 sparked the idea for the "Greedy Numbers". Greedy Numbers is a strategy to help students learn how to add with 7, 8, and 9. The Greedy Numbers want to be 10! They are just a few numbers away.
We tried this a bit during our math time on Wednesday, and he seemed to have an easier time figuring out the problems. Anything to help my little guy learn math without a struggle. My philosophy is WHATEVER WORKS!
Greedy Numbers
Greedy Numbers Set
(shown here printed 2 per page because we are going to glue these pages in Everett's math notebook,
but each sheet can be printed individually as well).
This set includes:
Greedy numbers Bookmarks in color and in black and white
3 posters with poems introducing the greedy numbers
3 worksheets for practicing this strategy
Thanks for taking a minute to see what we are up to this week!
Dina
This past week, we talked about fire safety. It was a fun week full of excitement because for some reason, talking about fire is just fun, interesting and exciting. Maybe it's the element of danger?
Here's our video with the highlights:
Circle Time
We sang "Stop, Drop, and Roll" to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell:
(hold hands palm out for stop, point fingers down for drop, roll fists around each other for roll)
Stop, Drop, and Roll
Stop, Drop, and Roll
If there's fire on your clothes
Stop, Drop, and Roll
After they learned the motions, we sang it while acting it out. They love these kinds of actions songs!
We also sang "Hurry, Hurry Drive the Fire Truck", "I'm a Little Fireman" to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot, 5 Little Firemen.
We used several of these printables, colored and glued them in their journals. We especially liked the "Stop, Drop, and Roll" coloring sheet and talking about Squirt (water drop), Reddy (fire extinguisher), and Buzzy (smoke detector).
Library - we read lots and lots of books about fire safety, firemen, special types of fire crews (marine, aviation, etc). We went to the library for their fire safety day, but they had rescheduled, so we learned about different community helpers instead, then made a fire hat as a craft.
Fire Safety Set - We used my "Rescue" Fire Safety game during spelling one day, and it was really so fun and made our spelling lesson go by so fast!! (Spelling is not a favorite for my son and can take forever, this day we breezed through it without fuss! How refreshing!!)
Nothing like taking turns putting out a fire while you do spelling! So fun! (Can you tell I had fun, too?)
Fire Truck Counting Center - This was a printable I found (pinned on my pinterest board, too). I printed extras of the fire trucks and made some skip counting number lines for counting by 3's and 4's.
Fire Dress Up
I bought these red ninja vests from Dollar Tree and just sewed on the FD part. They also each have fireman helmets from DT.
We started using a daily calendar page this week as part of our morning routine. We usually count the calendar during our circle time, but I wanted help my first grader learn how to write the date.
So far, there has been a lot of excitement over this addition to our day! YAY! How wonderful to hear my son talk about what day it is, and hear him name the date every day in conversation after school time. He's so proud of what he knows.
My preschoolers are also doing a different, more simple calendar page. They too have been proud to trace the day of the week, write the number of the day, etc.
The calendar page I had originally printed out for my son just seemed too much for him (he's not fond of writing), so this is a simplified version. I'm hoping he will like it. If not, I will tweak it. We put the sheet in a page protector to make it dry eraseable. Though he doesn't love to write, he does enjoy writing with a dry erase marker, SCORE!!
Please visit my TpT store and download FREE if you think you can use it!! While you're there, click the GREEN STAR to follow me!!
We are thrilled to be parents! God is so good and His timing IS perfect! We've been praying and asking for a long time and He said "YES"!
Thank you to all of those who prayed with us! We are finally parents!
For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother's womb.
I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.
My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery].
Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.
