FREEBIE: Alphabet Flip Book Pages

It is so hard for me to find an alphabet flip book to my liking. Hahaha! I'm kind of OC when it comes to materials. I want a specific item but I could not find any on the web. So, I decided to make my own. These are better pieces to use as a flashcard than the alphabet pocket chart pieces I made a few months ago. These pieces will be better used as a flashcard because it is bigger.

My husband and I use these pieces to teach Z the letters, sounds as well as how to write the letters.

I find this flip book handy especially before going to sleep. It is easy to use in bed. You can also use this when travelling just in case you find yourself stuck in traffic with the kiddos.

All you need to do is to download the pages, cut them, laminate them and put them in a ring to hold the pieces/pages in order.

Here is the link to download the freebie! I hope you and your child/ren will enjoy learning the alphabet with these pieces/pages!

Alphabet Flip Book Pages:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4AlFN8-n9QwT1d0d1ljVWEtMVU/edit?usp=sharing

Disclaimer: Pictures in the flip book pieces/pages are not my own. All pictures used in the pieces are downloaded from Google Images. 

Wrapping Up the Sense of Touch Lesson

It has been a long, long, lesson for us. With the unpredictable weather and quantity of work I have to do, I am thankful that we are done with another lesson.

Z had a great time exploring the sense of touch and I think she is ready to move on to the sense of smell. But before that, here is a summary of the sense of touch for you and I hope that I am able to help you mommies in guiding and helping your children if they will have a similar lesson to bring home from school.

ACTIVITIES:

 Texture Rubbings: Encourage your children to explore the outdoors. Ask them what objects you could use to make the rubbings. I let Z decide the objects to rub on after suggesting the first object which is the tree trunk.

 Ice Chalk Painting: A very fun activity but the ice melted so quickly because it was a very hot day when Z and I painted with the ice chalk. They melted so quickly but Z had a great time brushing the melted ice on her oily paper. The recipe can be easily downloaded just type "ice chalk recipe" on the search engine and you will be directed to wonderful websites prepared by mommies.

 Exploring the Sensory Table: Letting Z work at the sensory table is fun...it really eats up time and she has lots of fun especially when the table is filled with water! Here, she played with soil and water. I included rocks that I painted using gold poster color but the paint just washed away! She liked the idea of panning for gold so I decided to add the painted rocks in this activity.

To introduce the sense of touch lesson, I filled the table with different objects that have interesting textures like pom pom balls, wood shavings, sea shells and a coconut husk, not included in the picture is a feather duster.

 Sand Painting: For art, I prepared finger paints with colored sand...you can also use colored sand that goes with the color of your paint for added effects since this is a sense of touch lesson. But since I only have blueish purple and green colored sand, the blue and green paints were the only ones that had sand in them. Let your child feel the rough texture of the paint while he/she creates a masterpiece.

Textured Hands: I also prepared hand cut-outs and pasted different objects with interesting textures on them to introduce the sense of touch.



Making and Playing with Playdough: I decided to try making our own playdough. I am not a big fan of the modelling clay available at the bookstore. Unfortunately, we didn't have food coloring available so I had to use the liquid paint we had handy.

 Aside from Z having a blast making her cake, I also enjoyed playing with it for it was so soft and easy to handle. You can divide the ingredients to make playdough using different colors. I am sure going to make another batch since this batch cannot be stored for a long time and I will be using powdered juice for the scent of smell lesson.

Other Activities: I also prepared other activities for Z to enjoy while we learn the sense of touch. I decided to also focus on teaching her the alphabet and the letter sounds to prepare her for reading since she loves books.

We started with the letter A. I am so blessed that there are a lot of mommies out there who have done homeschooling and sharing their resources with other mommies. You can find the links below to read more about the activities.

Z created an alligator munching on letter A's. She also read the book "Albert's Special Day" and learned how to write the letter A using a tactile alphabet tile.

She decorated her big 'A' and small 'a' with pom-poms.

She also made a small 'a' craft with paper plate. The little 'a' looks like an apple!

To close the letter A, we made a collage of things that start with the letter A!

We also tried dot painting her name using a Q-tip and paint. This activity is also a good fine motor activity as well as teaching the letters of her name.

You can add as many activities as you can as long as you don't go too far from the main lesson. Such activities you can include are playing with blocks, some manipulatives to teach math and other activities to strengthen developmental areas.

These activities are not that difficult to prepare especially if you have the materials available at home. And if your children go to a preschool, then you can help them understand their lesson more by doing some supplemental activities at home.

It is our responsibility to help them learn and understand what they are studying. It will also serve as a good bonding time with them if we are hands-on especially during the preschool years. It will make learning fun and interesting for them.

Links:
http://crystalandcomp.com/2013/08/letter-of-the-week-crafts-for-preschoolers/ 

Bonding Time: Tea Party

It is that time of the month again where my daughter and I could play the whole day and just relax. We decided to have a tea party. She loves having a tent in the living room that I decided to put it up again but in a more classy way, sort of like a canopy. I just placed a long rod in the middle to give that pointy top.

I prepared iced tea and some chocolate crinkles. Again, Z enjoyed being in her tent. She just loves having it up and watching her favorite cartoons.

I love spending time like this with her. Here, she practiced pouring liquid in a cup. She needed to be reminded to look at what she is doing. She enjoyed it so much that she drank a lot of iced tea. Because of the sugar contents, I had her drink lots of water afterwards. You can substitute iced tea with some fruit juice if you have some at home, that would be a better beverage for the kiddos to drink.

It is a joy to see the smile on her face during this activity. I know that we watch cartoons every day but we do not get to watch cartoons this way all the time so it is nice to make something that we normally do different.

We could have played dress up as well but since it is very hot, we decided to just have our hats and wear them for a photo souvenir.

We are going to do this again during the rainy season since the weather is much cooler, that way we can wear the appropriate clothes for a real tea party, dresses and girly hats. Next time, no iced tea since Z had a sore throat the day after because of too much iced tea. Never again. :)

We shouldn't be embarrass if we spend some time acting like kids with our children, it is OK to act like them most of the time. It brings so much joy to a parent's heart seeing their children having fun with them and being like a kid.

Play with your children, they will not be children that long. There will be a time when they will go out and spend some time with their friends, so make every moment count.

Another bonding time that I know little Z will cherish.

The Sense of Touch

It has been awhile since I have updated TPM. We have not done much because of the summer heat that led Z to be ill most of the time.Even though the summer heat has slowed me down, I am not giving up to teach little Z what she needs to know and the heat will not stop me in spending some quality time with her.

Sensory Hands

Since we are done with two senses - the sense of hearing and sense of sight, we are now learning the sense of touch. I find this lesson interesting and fun because Z would get to learn and feel different textures. For a child, I think it is exciting for them to feel something different.

Sensory exploration is a child's way of examining, discovering, categorizing and making sense of the world. And it's beneficial to provide them with opportunities for sensory play (Morin).

And it is important for children to learn through sensory play and what fun way to do it through the sense of touch. There are interesting textures that you can introduce to the children and I believe it will just amaze them how every object they touch feels different. Z totally enjoyed exploring different materials.

I prepared felt hands, from top left, cotton - soft, sticker paper - sticky, corrugated board - bumpy, sea shells - (individually touched) smooth and bumpy, colored sand paper - rough. Z enjoyed feeling these hands, she said she likes the soft hand because it is like a pillow.

 Z looked into different materials in her sensory table and discovered different textures from wood shavings, pom poms, feather duster, and sea shells. We also explored playing with soil and water.

Sand Painting

There are so many things that children can explore through their senses and we can use the things around our homes to teach them about the five senses.

Playing with Water & Soil

Other activities we did for the sense of touch are the following:
- Texture Rubbings
- Texture Collage
- Sand Painting
- Making and playing with Textured Play dough (will post soon)
- Drawing with Ice Chalk (will post soon)

The texture rubbings was a fun activity as I let Z explored on her own and asked her what other objects we can use to rub...it was her idea to rub the leaf she saw on the ground as well as the towel.

Let your children explore especially if you live in a place where there are parks and other areas where they can discover textures from natural resources.









References:
Morin, A. Why Sensory Play is Important: How Sensory Play Helps Your Child Learn. Retrieved from http://kidsactivities.about.com/od/CreativePlay/a/SensoryPlay.htm

Bonding Time: Tent Time

A few weeks ago, my husband celebrated his birthday. Unfortunately, he was out-of-town and could not celebrate it with the family. During this time, my daughter was crazy (and is still is crazy) about DreamWorks Animation's The Croods and so I decided to build her a 'cave'. We also call it a tent because we paired this activity with making S'mores.

She was really excited about this activity and when the time came to build her a cave/tent, all she could say to me is "I love you, mommy". I let her help me by getting the pillows and arranging them on the floor. When it was up, she just went inside and was very happy.

Don't be fooled if you think that we always study (hahaha) we also try to have some fun. I let my daughter watch cartoons, she loves watching animated films over and over again. This day was a marathon of her fave animated films. We watched "Toy Story 2" and "Tangled". I know this activity was based on "The Croods" but I had to ask her to watch other films because we have seen "The Croods" the other day.

While watching, we enjoyed making S'mores. I spent at least Php95 for all the ingredients. If you have some ingredients at home that will be awesome, you can save a lot for this activity. I prepared marshmallows, a bar of chocolate, Graham crackers, barbecue sticks, a candle and matchsticks, and some receptacle for our "bonfire".

It was a fun activity, she enjoyed putting the marshmallow over the flame. Mommies, let's be careful when working with open flames, I made sure that there were no flammable materials in the area. I also had to watch Z closely because if you put the marshmallow to long it will really  burn! It was cool but a bit scary. Hahahaha!

Z liked the cave/tent so much that she did not want to pack up. She even kicked me out of our cave/tent! The S'mores weren't enjoyed that much but Z enjoyed eating the leftover chocolate!

You just need to be attentive when spending time with your kid. Know what he/she is interested in and try to add some new experiences for him/her. Z did not enjoy eating S'mores that much but I know she enjoyed the time we spent together. I know this because she kept saying "I love you, mommy" throughout the activity.

Wrapping Up the Sense of Hearing Lesson...

The sense of hearing lesson was an interesting topic because you will see how kids are so into music. I am no singer and not really musically inclined but my daughter just loves the idea of playing with musical instruments and singing. She gets excited with the idea of playing with a guitar and exploring sounds…we’ll explore more when she starts her pre-k lessons in three months.

For now, here are three more activities that we did to finish the sense of hearing lesson:

1. We made a shoebox guitar

2. Paper cup telephone

3. Listening outdoors with eyes blindfolded

I can tell that Z had a lot of fun. She always asked her dad to use the paper cup telephone with her. We were all amazed that the paper cup telephone worked! Every time we will make something and her dad is at home, we encourage him to join in the fun; that is one way to involve daddy in our study time.

Aside from activities about the sense of hearing, we did other activities as well like telling stories using our felt board, spray painting, and camping (will be posted soon)!

The sense of hearing was a lot of fun. There are a lot of things to explore for this lesson but we will continue in her pre-k days…next lesson is the sense of touch. I’m still prepping materials for this part so posts will be a little late.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES:

1. Exploring wind chimes

2. Sound Safari

3. Book: “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?” by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

4. Making a shoebox guitar

5. Paper cup telephone

6. Exploring sounds outdoors

7. Mystery Bag

8. Egg Matching Sounds

9. Cooking Time: Pancakes, Egg Salad Sandwich

10. Art time: Spray painting

The summer season has begun so activities are a bit difficult to do in our place. But it will not stop the Preschool Mommy to spend some educational and quality time with Z. 

FREEBIE: Alphabet Pocket Chart Pieces

Recently, we started listening to the "Phonics Song" by the Hoopla Kidz (you can download the song on YouTube). We both enjoy the song and it has a nice beat to it.

So, I prepared our alphabet pocket chart to familiarize Z with the letters. I have not begun teaching her the phonics or the letters of the alphabet. We are just listening to the songs and familiarizing ourselves with the sounds.

Here it is, my first freebie for you mommies...the alphabet pocket chart pieces that I made.

Pictures were downloaded using Google Image Search...the size of the pieces are based on the pocket chart that I bought at Teacher's Pet shop behind Philippine Normal University.

If you don't own a pocket chart, you can use the pieces as flashcards. Make sure to print them and laminate to make it durable. You know how our kiddos are when playing with paper so make sure you print them on board paper or something better than paper if you do not plan to laminate the pieces.

Alphabet Pocket Chart Pieces
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4AlFN8-n9QwaTdHWEk0V1o0bTg/edit?usp=sharing