Fireplaces in Winter

We finally finished up our winter in the woods theme with Experience Preschool.  We went away for a week at Christmas so have been playing catch up since we got back.  One of the days this week we learned about fireplaces.

Ronan got to look at a picture of a fireplace for inspiration and then paint his own using a sponge.  He loves to paint and even got new paints for Christmas.  Experience Preschool provides all the things you need for the days lessons like paper, sponges, manipulatives, etc.  It does not include some main items that get used every month like paint, playdough, crayons, glue, etc.  These are items that are usually used in most preschool curriculum, so they are pretty standard to have at home if you have little ones.  

Next we played a game where Ronan would roll the pocket cube, that is included in the first box from Experience Early Learning, and used every month.  Today there were cards with different numbers of sticks to go in each side of the cube.  Ronan would count out the same number of wood pieces (all our sticks are buried under snow) and work to build a fire with them.  He really liked playing with the wood and stacking it, and together we worked on counting the pieces out loud.  Lately he has been skipping the number 3 so this game was great to work on counting.   

Ronan helped me build a real fire in our fireplace using the wood pieces when we were done with the game.  

Every monthly box from Experience Preschool comes with an I can read book.  Ronan is not close to being able to find sight words, but these books are good for him to learn and repeat new words.  They are a great addition to the preschool curriculum.  The text is simple which makes it easy for him to learn new words.  He was excited to point to the bed when I said the word, since that is one he knows.  

Ronan loves looking at books, and they are suck a great way to learn language.  The preschool curriculum has recommended books for every day of the month.  Bear Snores On was the recommended book of the day.  We also read Stella, Queen of the Snow.  Next month we start a new theme, baby animals.

Winter in the Woods

This months theme with our preschool curriculum, Experience Early Learning, is winter in the woods.  We've been spending the month exploring things like animals, snow, ice, pine trees, etc.  We spent today taking a closer look at sleds.  

Ronan painted his own sled, and then we attached string to it once it was dry so he could pull it around.  Art is such an important part of early childhood development, and should be included in every preschool curriculum.  I love that Experience Preschool has a different art project for every day.  Some of them end with the children creating something they can play with, like a sled or musical instrument.  Other projects are based on using materials however they want, and really tapping into their creative side.  Art helps with things like fine motor skills, decision making, language building and creativity.  

Ronan rolled play dough into snow balls.  He would roll the pocket cube and put the same number of balls into the sled.  We've been working a lot on counting and this is a way to make it fun.  Experience Preschool always has great ideas that build on math skills in a fun way.  

Every monthly box from Experience Preschool comes with a book that ties in with the months theme.  We read The Shoemaker at the beginning of the month, and have been reading it more throughout the month.  Ronan loves looking at books and being read to and I think that it one of the reasons he's picking up new words in English every day.  

There is also always a puzzle that goes to the monthly book included in the preschool curriculum.  Ronan needed a lot of help with the puzzle.  He is just starting to learn how to manipulate the pieces to make them fit.  These puzzles are too hard for him right now, but with help he was able to get it finished, and then wanted to do it all over again.  Puzzles are great for teaching preschoolers about spatial awareness.  We only have one week left with this months theme before we move into baby animals in January.  

Snowman

This month with Experience Early Learning is all about winter.  We spent a day learning about snowmen, which just happen to be one of Ronan's favorite things.  He even dressed as
Olaf for Halloween.  

Seeing as we live in Maine we have plenty of snow to build a snowman, but so far Ronan hasn't enjoyed being outside in the cold.  Since he didn't want to go out in the snow we looked at the sequencing cards provided by Experience Preschool and talked about building snowmen.  I had Ronan find and repeat different parts of the snowman, like eyes, nose, etc.  These are all things he's picking up, and having a ready to go preschool curriculum helps review words with him using different pictures and books.  

Ronan rolled play dough into small balls and then I helped him count out the pieces to match the numbers on cube cards.  Games that help with skills like 1-1 counting correspondence are always included in Experience Preschool.  Every month there are numerous engaging games in the preschool curriculum.  We stacked the balls into tiny snowmen, which he crushed.

Every day with Experience Preschool includes a craft.  I showed Ronan the included photo of trees in winter for inspiration.  He used bubble wrap to paint snow and worked on cutting paper before giving up and ripping it with his hands.  I like that the preschool curriculum has a craft for every day.  These are good ways to build the muscles needed for fine motor work.  

Deer

We started a new theme for December with Experience Early Learning.  This moth we're using the Experience Preschool curriculum, which is sights and sounds of winter.  Day 1 was spent learning about deer.  

Ronan practiced tracing his name, which at this point is just scribbling on paper.  He's getting better at holding markers (her preferred choice of writing implement) the correct way.  Every monthly box from Experience Preschool comes with new name tags to practice this skill.  

Ronan and Elli made deer headbands.  Ronan can't cut well with scissors yet so I cut out his hand prints for him.  He used the scissors to practises cutting the scraps.  I worked with him on keeping his thumb up and opening/closing the scissors.  These are good fine motor skills to practice with any preschool curriculum.

Elli and Ronan played spotted fawn.  They took turns rolling the pocket cube and putting the same number of cotton ball spots on the deer.  Ronan is working on counting, and can get to 6 by himself so far.  These games are good at reinforcing 1-1 counting correspondence.  I love that Experience Preschool comes with educational games that the kids think are fun.  It's a great preschool curriculum with fun and engaging lessons.  

The suggested book of the day was Stranger in the Woods, which the kids loved.  We also found another book in the library, Where Snowflakes Fall, which is about animals in winter.  

This Little Piggy

This month with Experience Early Learning we have been given the chance to review their new Experience Toddler curriculum.  It comes with 4 weekly themes, and just like their preschool curriculum everything is included.  Last weeks book was This Little Piggy, and all the activities for the week centered around this book.  Every day we reread the story, plus we also listen to it being read on the monthly CD.

The first day we read the book Ronan had to find where the pig was on every page.  He's just learning English so having him repeat words while matching them to pictures at the same time is helpful.

The Experience Toddler curriculum comes with 4 activity cards for each day.  One of the activities was using the 5 little pig stickers to retell the story.  Ronan worked on pulling the stickers off the sheet, which is a good fine motor activity, and then he colored the paper.  We listened to the story being told on the CD while he worked on this.  On of the great things about using Experience Early Learning as a preschool curriculum is that there are different curriculum levels to choose from.  There is one for babies, toddler, and preschoolers.  There is also a literacy/math workbook you can get for prek kids, a toy box option, and a Christian based curriculum.  It's nice having so many options in a preschool curriculum.

Ronan had to sort pink foam triangles into a pink cup, and yellow ones into the yellow cup.  I had to show him what to do quite a few times before he understood the colors needed separated, but once he understood it he easily sorted them out.  He even started saying yellow.  He really liked doing this and dumped them out a bunch of times and resorted them.  

We used the same triangles that were included in the Experience Toddler curriculum to work on pattern mats.  After that we danced to songs on the CD.  Ronan loves music so he always enjoys when songs are playing.  

Toddler Curriculum

We've been using the new Experience Toddler curriculum this month.  It's set up a bit differently from the Experience Preschool curriculum, but it's still really easy to use.  Each week focuses on a different book and has activities that go along with it.  It's a great preschool curriculum for younger kids.

The week we focused on a forest friends book about resourcefulness.  The Experience Preschool curriculum also comes with he same forest friend book so you can easily use both preschool curriculum with multiple ages at the same time.  

We started by learning the sign for fall, then we read the book.  Every time I said fall/fell/fallen the kids would drop a pom pom into a bowl to make it fall.  Ronan loved using the pom poms and after we were done with the story he continued to drop them into the bowl and dump them out and start over.  One of the nice things about the Experience Toddler program is that it comes with a monthly CD with all 4 stories recorded as a read aloud.  While we worked on the rest of the activities we listened to the CD and got to hear the story again.  

Ronan worked on building bridges with popsicle sticks in play dough.  This is good fine motor practice and he loves using play dough.  

While Ronan worked with play dough Elli used the play money from the preschool curriculum to do math problems.

She made a wallet to keep her play money in.  

While Elli was designing her wallet Ronan got to sponge paint a triangle tree.  Triangle is the shape of the month and it is reinforced with games, crafts, math work, etc.  

Experience Toddler

This month we have been given the chance to review the Experience Toddler curriculum.  It's set up a little bit differently than Experience Preschool, but just as easy to use.  It's still a complete preschool curriculum in a box.  Instead of a lesson plan book with daily bags you get activity cards and weekly bags.  There is a suggested order to use the different bags, each of which comes with a book.  There are 20 cards in each weekly bag, you just match up 4 of the same number (we started with one) and you have the whole days lesson.  

We started off by reading the book that was provided in the preschool curriculum, "Bella and the Umbrella."  This was a long book and I wasn't sure if Ronan would listen to the whole thing, but I think the big colorful pictures really helped hold his attention.  After we finished it he said book and flipped it back to the beginning to read again, but I told him we'd have to wait and read it later.  One of the things I love about Experience Toddler is that the books are included as read alouds on the included CD.  My 6 year old is just starting to read and later sat and listened to the book while following along.  Of course Ronan heard the story playing and came in to listen to it again.  

There was a sticker sheet with a scene that went along with the weekly book.  Ronan worked on his pincer skills trying to get the stickers off and put them o his paper.  He ripped a few of them trying to get them off the sheet, but was getting better by the end.  

There was also an included double sided play dough mat.  Ronan practiced rolling play dough into balls and counting to 4.  He loves play dough and I like that the mat keeps the play dough from getting all over everything.  Our last activity was dancing to and holding up a yellow piece of paper (we used a yellow egg) when we heard the word yellow.  Each monthly box from Experience Toddler comes with a monthly CD that is a great addition to have with a preschool curriculum.  Ronan loves music so we wound up listening to all the songs.  Our first day was a success and I think this simplified preschool curriculum is a better fit for where Ronan is developmentally at this point.