I took a different approach and decided that the letters would be the underlying theme instead of the main focus. Everything would still correspond with letter S, but we'd simply be doing activities that started with letter S instead of only doing the S itself (makes sense right?). So since a friend was having a Solar System/Space playdate that week I decided we'd do a Solar System/Space theme for the week!
Sweet P had a lot of fun and so did I! We did 2 days of preschool, went on a field trip to Living History Farms and then had a playdate that also corresponded with our theme. I'd say it was a successful first week back at preschool.
To explain a bit: we'll be doing preschool 2-3 days a week depending on what other stuff we have planned that week. We have frequent playdates and try to incorporate those into our school stuff as well to make it a learning experience. For example: last week (Letter T) we went to the apple orchard and spent most of the week talking about trees...specifically apple trees. That's what works for us right now so that's what we're doing! BBP takes roughly 1 hour. Sprout sleeps for most of the tray portion of preschool and when he wakes up she has free play (which usually involves an extension of her tray activities). I'll try to explain this better as I go. If you're reading this and don't care, just move on to the activities. I'm writing all of this out so that I can look back and see what we did when Sprout is ready for BBP.
So here we go with our Letter S activities.
We use 2 devotional books, a children's Bible and a regular Bible for our Bible breakfast time. I decided to do it in the morning instead of at night so that Sprout could hear it, too (that boy won't sit still for a book to save his life, but he will eat and listen!).
Verse: Sing to the Lord with thankful hearts. ~Colossians 3:16
Song: Put On Love based on Colossians 3:12 & 14 from Seeds of Character
This week we read S is for Singing in Big Thoughts for Little People
, Seek the Lord in My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts
, and Samson's story in A Child's First Bible
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First Day Trays:
Sweet P and I talked about the structure of Baby Bear Preschool and what it would be like. I explained that we'd do our days (calendar time, Our Father, Pledge of Allegiance, Bible Verse), a song (dancing time) and then our trays. She chooses the order of the trays and does them one at a time. We do free play after trays. If a tray happens to lead to another activity we play it out and then return to the trays. If she doesn't make it through all the trays within an hour (some activities can hold her attention longer than others), we move on to free play and save the activities for next time.
Star Wars Printables: I got them last year from Preschool Printables when they were free, but I don't even see them on the website now so you'd probably have to email her if you want them! Sweet P loves Yoda and Chewbacca (she calls him Chewbacc-ie). The pack has puzzles, prewriting practice, which one is different and shadow matching.
Cutting practice: 1+1+1 has a Solar System pack and we used several pieces of it for our unit this week. We used the mini book for cutting practice and she made her own book. She LOVES to cut and she was so proud of the end result.
Planet matching: I cut these out and then she glued. The Planets - Not Planets activity is also from 1+1+1's Solar System pack. This was a challenge as she was learning about planets and didn't really understand what was and wasn't a planet. She just liked gluing!
Marble painting: We used black construction paper with white and silver paint to make it look like shooting stars and galaxies. Instead of putting the marbles in paint and then putting them in the box, she poured the paint onto the paper in the box so it was a bit globby, but it ended up looking like a galaxy! I think I was a bit more into the shaking of the box then she was, she just wanted to see the end result!
S is for Snake: Sweet P was really excited about this snake and his tongue. She glued on the eyes, tongue and she had stars for scales.
Letter S collage with stickers and magazine cut outs
Sticker Letter S
DIY Constellation: The night before she did this activity she'd been doing connect the dot pictures in an activity book. She caught on pretty quick so I gave her some stickers to make a constellation. After she'd put them on, I gave her a white crayon to connect the stars. I asked her what it looked like and she said, "A sock!" The Sock Constellation (and how perfect was it that it started with S?!). She also said "White won't show up." when I handed her the white crayon since she's used to coloring on white drawing paper. She was pretty impressed when it did!
Felt Planet Sequencing and Matching: I made felt planets for her and we used the Solar System pack planets for matching and sequencing. We watched a planets video to learn the order of the planets.
Other Activities:
Making baked sandwiches for the family: Sweet P spread the pesto, cut mushrooms and olives, arranged the toppings and helped grate the cheese on top.
Solar System lunch: I saw this Solar System snack on Pinterest and knew we had to make a lunch, too! My orbits aren't very straight, but you get the idea! The white rings are plain yogurt.
Sun: Grilled cheese
Mercury: blueberry
Venus: large carrot
Earth: banana
Mars: tomato
Jupiter: plum
Saturn: almond butter on bread with almonds for the rings
Uranus: green olive
Neptune: string cheese
Ok, I think that's it! What I can remember anyway! I better do letter T soon so I don't forget!
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