Week of the Letter V (#preschool)

I hope everyone got some fun ideas from last week's letter! Now I am going to share what I did to teach my little kiddo about the letter "V". I got a lot of inspiration for future preschool lessons from doing this letter. One such inspiration will be doing an artist of the week.

Monkey has shown such intense interest in art that I want to encourage him in this area. He listened so attentively during the Vincet van Gogh lesson that I knew I found something he really liked. I am going to start planning these lessons and then I will share them with you! Anyways, here is what we did for the letter V.

Letter of the Week Project

Because it is winter time, I decided that the letter of the week project should be something to bring some cheer into the house. So Monkey created "V is for Violet Vase".

How to make the violet vase:

1. Cut out a letter V from purple construction paper. I just drew a big "V" out with a pencil and then I cut it out of the paper.
2. Cut thin strips of green construction paper. They can be any length because they will make up the flower stalks and branches.
3. Cut out flower shapes from  various pieces of colored construction paper. I used purple, yellow, red, and blue. Again I just winged it since I was short on time (trust me, your kiddos aren't going to care if the flowers aren't picture perfect).
4. Let your kiddo get creative and glue everything on.

I just absolutely loved how this project turned out! And, Monkey had so much gluing all the flowers into the vase.

Reading/Writing

 
I introduced the letter "v" by reading My "v" Book. This series of books really engages Monkey and teaches him about other words that start with the letter "v". We read it each day and practice identifying the letter "v" and saying its sound.

 I made two worksheets to practice the letter "v" using my StartWrite program. I am going to be perfectly honest with you and tell you that Monkey really doesn't enjoy writing or learning things about the English language. He enjoys doing things with his hands so I am brainstorming ways to teach him the letters in a more creative way. Anyways, I do the worksheets so I can teach Monkey about language and why it is important. I know someday he will learn the value. Thankfully, he does cooperate for a few minutes and then it is back to coloring.

The worksheets are good because he is making progress on identifying the letters and points out other letters on the sheet.

Science

Because Monkey hasn't done the volcano experiment, I just knew I had to do it with him. However, I wanted a quick way to make a volcano without a huge mess. And, I found the perfect way!!

How to make a volcano:
*note: I got inspired to design the volcano this way from The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

1. Get a plastic cup and tape it inside a bowl. I used disposable so I didn't have to worry about Monkey breaking anything (he gets really excited about science activities)
2. Place the contraption inside a brown paper lunch bag horizontally. Tape the opening underneath the bowl. Now you have a volcano.
3. Cut out a circle on the top of the bag so the volcano has an opening.
4. Place some baking soda and red food coloring inside the cup
5. Pour some vinegar into measuring cup so it is easier for your kiddo to pour the vinegar into the volcano.
6. Pour the vinegar into the cup with the baking soda and red dye (note: I didn't measure the amounts because it just isn't needed...if there is baking soda left, then pour more vinegar into the cup).
7. Watch the chemical reaction.
8. Repeat.

For older kids, you can go more into the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar, limiting reactants, etc. But with Monkey, I just discussed the chemical reaction and explained why it bubbled (production of carbon dioxide). He really loved the volcano and we did this many times.

I even found a clip of an erupting volcano on YouTube so Monkey could see what a volcano in real life is like. This project is so easy and fun so be sure to do it!

Art

My husband got his education in art, and I want to make sure my kids appreciate art. I was really excited when I came across this blog, Practical Pages, because she provides a lot of art activities that correspond with an artist! This is exactly what I want to do now.

First Monkey and I had a short conversation about Vincent van Gogh. I pulled up pictures on my computer so I could talk about this artist and some of his paintings. Monkey was so attentive that I was completely shocked. My little boy has tons of energy and he is learning how to use it properly (I think I found a great outlet). I printed off a tracing of Starry Night (provided by Practical Pages). Then Monkey got to paint the picture however he felt. It was such a neat experience watching him focus so much on his painting!

Then we did some some vegetable painting! I just found whatever I had in my house so Monkey used onions, celery, celery leaves and potatoes to paint. This was so much fun because he just got to be creative with what vegetables he wanted to use and with what colors. (note: Potatoes are fun to use because you are cut designs into them using a plastic design and then stamp the designs onto the page).

Monkey was the one who got the idea to paint using the celery leaves and I was impressed with his control at dabbing the leaves on the page.

I just love all these paintings!

Check out the following posts for more alphabet ideas!



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

Letter K   Letter L   Letter M    Letter N   Letter O  Letter P   Letter Q   Letter R  Letter S   Letter T

Letter U