A Week of "I"

Spring is finally here! So we can now start doing activities outside which will be wonderful. I would love to hear about your preschool adventures so please let me know by commenting below. Like my other posts, here is the preschool lesson template and my filled out lesson "I" preschool template.

Monday - Reading

Because Monkey was so excited to read My "i" Book, we ended up reading the book first. I just have to say that these books are so wonderful! I'm glad my mom held onto them because Monkey loves reading them. I will catch him sitting in his bedroom flipping through the pages and "reading the words".

After we read the book twice, I convinced Monkey to do the letter of the week project. I didn't see any letter of the week crafts that really stuck out to me so I invented my own (I decided to be brave)! Monkey loves to paint so I decided to do "I is for Icicle". I simply cut out the letter "I" and some icicle like shapes. It doesn't matter if its perfect because your kiddo will understand what the shapes are. Monkey glued the icicles and then he got to paint with white and silver glue. I had some fabric paint squeeze bottles which worked out so well because he could squeeze out the paint and decorate the page. Monkey wanted me to paint too so I made the snowflakes. It was a fun project!

I ended the day by showing Monkey how the letter "I" is made using 2 different methods. The first method was one that I have used many times. We made the letter "I" using the play dough letter cards from the website, makinglearningfun.com. The second method was having Monkey write the letter "I" using crayons. Monkey attempted this for a few minutes, but quickly decided that he would much rather scribble and draw. I figure the constant exposure of writing/making the alphabet will help him to learn the alphabet. And, I am not extremely worried since he will just turn 3 in a few weeks.

Tuesday - Science

Homemade ice cream!! I really wished the weather would have been nice today because I wanted to do this activity outside (I didn't want a huge mess). Oh well. It still worked inside . I used this ice cream recipe for the mixture. I would recommend cutting back on the cream and using more milk. I used 1% milk with the cream and it was way too rich. If I do this again, I will cut the cream in half and replace with milk. But, it still was delicious.

Monkey shook the bags for awhile but got bored and ran off to play with his toys. He did come back to try some of the ice cream. Doing this homemade ice cream yields soft served ice cream.

It was fun to talk to Monkey about how the ice cream was made. I tried to explain that we added rock salt to the ice cubes to make the mixture "colder". Monkey is a little young to understand the concept of lowering the freezing temperature and colligative properties. But, with older kids you can have a lot of fun taking temperature measurements and comparing how long it takes to get the ice cream to set with different amounts of rock salt.

Wednesday - Math

I thought it would be fun to continue the ice cream theme by making felt ice cream cones to teach about shapes, colors, and numbers. I got my inspiration for the felt ice cream game from The Iowa Farmer's Wife.  I loved this blog's ice cream game idea because you can teach about shapes, colors, and numbers all in one project.I made 3 sets of ice cream cones: 1) capital I, 2) lower case i, and 3) Let's count.

You will need: a black permanent marker, various colors of felt, and scissors. Using a cookie cutter, I traced circles on the pieces of felt and then proceeded to cut them out. I then cut out triangles of the cones. I then drew a capital I and a lower case i on one cone and on one set of ice cream circle scoops. I decided to make 9 scoops for the letters and 9 scoops for the numbers (I wanted to focus counting from 1 to 9).

Monkey had a blast playing this game. At first, he just placed the ice cream scoops wherever he wanted to. But, then he started to match the ice cream scoops with the correct lower case i and the upper case I.

I helped him count the ice cream scoops.He can say the numbers, but putting the numbers in the correct order is something he hasn't mastered yet. At least we have a fun game that will help us count numbers now!

Thursday - Art

Monkey had a blast painting with ice cubes and kool-aid powder. This fun idea came from Tippytoe Crafts. I was so happy it turned out well! I made ice cubes with tooth picks in the middle of them (make sure to use sturdy tooth picks since it will make the painting easier).

I recommend letting the ice cubes to start to melt first because it makes the painting easier. I placed a small amount of water in the ice cube bowl because Monkey didn't want to wait.

I bought various kool-aid powders (I bought the cheapest ones) so I would have lots of colors. I poured about half of the powder into some Styrofoam bowls and just let Monkey do what he wanted to do. He had fun picking out the colors he wanted and using an ice cube to paint over the powder.

Friday - Physical Exercise

The weather today was just so beautiful that I knew today would be a fun day to go outside and get some fresh air. I decided to play "I spy" with Monkey as we went out on a walk. It was fun saying I spy and asking Monkey if he spies the object that I was describing. He loved pointing out the objects I was talking about.

Of course, our fun "I spy" game ended being "I spy a park" so we ended up enjoying this beautiful day playing on the swings, slides, and other playground equipment. Monkey had a blast!

Saturday - Music

I wanted to teach about instruments to Monkey, but I knew this topic is so huge to cover. So I decided to focus on one instrument which was a harp. I thought it would good to work on some fine motor skills so the harp became a lacing project. My inspiration came from the harp lacing project came from b3ok-crafts.blogspot.com (it can also be used for St. Patrick's Day and that it how I discovered the activity when I was trying to find ways to celebrate the holiday). Anyways, the blog provides a template for you to use! Monkey had fun lacing the harp. He didn't lace it "properly", but I liked the idea where I could teach him about a harp through an interactive way.

The one thing I would recommend is using cardboard! I first used card stock and it just isn't strong enough to withstand the pulling of the yarn. Then we took a break and watched StoryBots. Monkey just loves these videos so we watch them every week.

Sunday - Religion

Because we were gone most of the day visiting family, I did a really simple lesson. Because we have a globe at the house, I thought it would be fun to teach Monkey about Israel. He hears a lot about Israel from our scriptures so I thought I would show me where Israel can be found. I first showed him where we lived before I showed him Israel. I know he probably won't remember where Israel is located, but the exposure to maps was worth the effort!

I then got a map of Israel and showed him where Jerusalem and the Dead sea were located. He seemed interested. I think I will try to do more maps so he can start seeing the big picture of what he is learning about.


Want more ideas on teaching the alphabet? Then check out these fantastic and exciting posts:

Letter A   Letter B   Letter C   Letter D   Letter E   Letter F    Letter G   Letter H