Advent/Christmas

4 Weeks of Advent

Hope Peace Joy Love

Books

• Merry Christmas Curious George
• Minerva Louise on Christmas Eve
• Kipper's Snowy Day
• The Winter Visitors
• Hanukkah!

Crafts

• Salt Dough Ornaments for class and friends
• Coloring Christmas pages
• Decorating a picture of a Christmas tree (didn't get to do this one)

Music

• Disney Family Favorites (Christmas)
• Wee Sing Christmas
• Piano Sing-a-long
• Oh Come Oh Come Emmanuel

Cooking/Baking

• Christmas Cookies for the neighbors

Activities

• Decorating the House
• Polar Express Parade at Gramsie's School
• Lighting the advent candles each morning to begin prayers
• Opening a door on the advent calendar
• Placing one stick a day into Jesus' bed to prepare for Christmas

Making ornaments

Sneaking into the presents (and pulling on the tree).

Wrapping ornaments for class

Santa comes after the Polar Express Parade!

Standing by with his Polar Express Ticket

Nature Appreciation/ Camping

November 1-5

Books


When We Go Camping


Amelia Bedilia Goes Camping


Maisy Goes Camping



Toasting Marshmellows


Fred and Ted Go Camping

Crafts

• Coloring a forest and camping equipment

Music

• How I Love to go Camping-Larry Groce on the Disney 4 Album

Activities

• Setting up sleeping bags, a tent, chairs, pretend food and animals inside.
• Observing nature in the front and backyard with a magnifying glass.
• Camping for dinner in the backyard. We set up a tent, grilled hobo dinners, and ate outside.

Halloween

October 25-31

Books

• My First Halloween- Tomie DaPaola
• Pumpkin Time
• Apples and Pumpkins

Activities

• Library Story Time- Dressed up in costumes
• Stuffed animals go trick or treating
• Pumpkin Carving Day in Louisiana
• Kite Flying
• Trick or Treating on Halloween!

Flying a kite with Paw paw Berch II

Zachary's Elmo Pumpkin! He did a great job digging and hallowing.

And the Saints pumpkin just behind Elmo.

Creepy Creatures

October 18-22

Books

• Stellaluna
• The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carl

Crafts

• Making a bat
• Making a spider web
• Free drawing

Music and Signs

• The Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Signs for Spider

Baking

• Sugar cookies of Halloween things

Autumn Fruits and Vegetables with a Pumpkin Emphasis

October 11-15

• Books- The Littlest Pumpkin, It's Pumpkin Time, Eating the Alphabet
• Crafts- Painting a pumpkin picture (MDO), Painting fall fruits and veggies picture
• Music- Autumn Leaves are Falling Down, 1 Little 2 Little 3 Little Pumpkins, 5 A Day
• ABC- Letter H
• Baking- Pumpkin Pie and Roasting Seeds
• Activities- Carving a little pumpkin and putting a candle inside, Pumpkin Patch

Discover Autumn

October 4-8

• Books- Apples and Pumpkins
• Music- Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down
• Craft- Leaf painting and gluing on construction paper. Will make into a place mat.
• ABC- Letter G
• Activities- Decorating the House in Autumn

We of course had to have one blue leaf. :)

These were used for the Autum placemat. Found on google images

I Can See, Hear, and Touch

September 27- Oct 1

We did not do anything this week b/c we went to visit my Mom and Dad. :) But this is what we were going to do.

• Music- Make a sound garden similar to one that was done at Little REaD Wagon with pots, pans and other items hanging on a string and using mallets or spoons to experiment with sounds.
• Crafts- Rainbow Rocks- Heat rocks in the oven and color with crayons when hot enough. Macaroni art-Color different shapes. Glue macaroni around shapes.
• Baking- Blue jello/gelatin squares for texture and home made play doh for texture
• ABC- Letter E

I Can Taste and Smell

September 20-24

• Books- Why Are Lemons Sour, Eating the Alphabet
• Crafts- Ice cream coloring, cutting out and stacking on a paper cone-discussed flavors of each color.
• Music-Apples and Bananas, Fruit Salad, Veggie Song, 5 a Day, Put Your Finger On
• ABC- Letter D and spelling words with Banana Grams
• Baking- Home made ice cream- shakin in a bag. Rice Milk Recipe!
• Activities- Spice Smelling

I Am Special and Rainbows

September 13-17

• Books- I Am Special, I'm Me, What Makes a Rainbow?, Rainbow Rob, Polar Bear and the Rainbow
• Music- The World is a Rainbow, The Rainbow Song, Do You Know the Colors of the Rainbow, You are Special (Barney)
• Craft- Glitter Rainbow, I Am Special Page (handprints, name painted, photo and poem)
• ABC/Print Motivation- Letter C and drawing shapes
• Science- Balloon powered car
• Baking- Rainbow Sugar Cookies

Making New Friends

September 6-10

• Books- Best Friends (Sesame Street), Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney and Tuckers Four Carrot School Day
• Craft- Paper Chain- wrote the first letter of friends names on each one.
• Music- The More We Get Together, I Can Tell that We're Going to Be Friends
• ABC/Print Motivation- Writing a Letter to a Friend
• Cooking/Baking- Banana Bread
• Activities- Pretending with animals (meeting new friends)

I Go To School

August 30- September 3

• Books- Llama Llama Misses Mama, Every Morning at Playgroup, Tucker's Four Carrot School Day
• Letter A
• Music- The BackPack Song
• Crafts- Making a backpack from a paper bag (for a teddy bear), Making a Rock Friend
• Cooking/Baking- helping with dinner
• Activities- Imagination: Playing School with stuffed animals

Find the School crafts here

http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/backtoschoolcrafts.html

Little REaD Wagon- San Antonio Libraries

A branch of the public library called Little REaD Wagon has been doing a Play and Learn series at the library we usually go to, the Guerra library, to encourage early literacy. These ladies travel around to different libraries throughout the year to do their series. We were not able to make all of them, but we did go 4 different Fridays.

The topics they offered were:

• What is early literacy?
• What is print awareness?
• What is letter knowledge?
• What is phonological awareness?
• What are narrative skills?
• What is print motivation?
• Why is vocabulary important?
• What other resources are available?

Each day we attended began with reading a book as a large group and then going off to play with the resources they brought. Some examples of activities are listed below. Most activities had books to read that were related.

1. A sound garden for phonological awareness- hanging pots, pans, and kitchen items on strings for the children to play on.

2. Music instrument exploration- for phonological awareness







3. Writing letters and putting them in a mail box (they did not have to know letters or have skills to write) for print motivation

4. Making play doh with a recipe for print motivation

5. Using tongs to pick up small items to practice fine motor skills for print motivation



6.. Finger painting for vocabulary

7. Planting a lima bean in a pot for vocabulary

8. Looking at pictures from magazines, etc on the wall with a magnifying glass for vocabulary

9. Playing with book character cut outs on a sticks while reading a book.

10. Digging for dinosaurs for vocabulary

11. Playing with baby dolls and learning to care for them for vocabulary

12. Making large bubbles





13. Puzzles



All of the activities were things that are easy to be done at home.

Other books and Activities

For a one week we didn't have a theme and another week we a few different books. We had fun with a variety of activities and spent time with our friends.

• Books we enjoyed- How Groundhog's Garden Grew by Lynn Cherry, Does an Elephant Take a Bath?, Maisy Books, Bearenstein Bears

• Crafts- Coloring, finger painting, play doh

• Music- Exploring instruments, piano melodies on piano, Shamu soundtrack, Playing guitar with Mommy

• Science- Oil and water, making colored water, catching crickets

• Activities- gardening, swimming, playing with Banana Grams letters

• Imagination- Playing restaurant, camping, castles, and driving in pretend cars.

• Baking/cooking- honey bread

Book Theme: Go Dog. Go! by PD Eastman

July 12-16

• Book- Go dog. Go! by PD Eastman
• Crafts- Paperbag puppet of a dog
• Music-instrument exploration
• Science- Mentos in diet coke
• Activities- Unrelated but fun- Riverwalk and Sea World

Other ideas- Make Puppy Chow!

Book Themes: Spot books by Eric Hill

July 4-9

• Books- Where is Spot? Spot Goes to the Beach, Spot's Farm
• Crafts- Spot puppet on a stick- painting, laminating, gluing
• Music- Instrument Exploration to background music
• Activities- http://www.funwithspot.com
• Science- Magnate search in cornmeal
• Baking- peanut butter playdoah
  

Oceans and Lakes

May 24-June 4

• Books- Rainbow Fish
• Movies- Reading Rainbow: Oceans
• Music- The Waves Splash All Around, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean (tune of green grass grows), Row Your Boat
• Field Trips- Sea World, McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels

Crafts

Paper Plate Jellyfish- Made at Zachary's MDO

1. Cut crate paper or tissue paper into thin strips.
2. Glue to inside of paper plate on edges.
3. Poke two holes in the top for pipe cleaner. See picture above.

Aquarium Paper Plate Craft- EnchantedLearning.com

Will need
Blue paint/brush or blue construction paper
2 paper plates
clear wrap
scisssors
glue
stapler
crayons or markers
thread, string or yarn
template of sea creatures


1. Cut a viewing window in one paper plate by cutting the bottom of the plate off (the part you put the food on).
2. Cut a circle of clear plastic about a 1/4 an inch wider than the window and tape to the inside of the plate.
3. Paint the bottom of the other paper plate blue or cut out and glue blue construction paper.
4. Cut out and color your own sea creatures either from this template or by making your own.
5. Glue on background or hang from string on the top of plate.
6. Glue, tape, staple window plate onto back plate.
For a better descrption go to enchantedlearning.com.

Cup O Fish Recipe- From Enchanted Learning

-Blue Jello
-Gummy Fish
-Plastic Cup or for a bigger scence use a big bowl

1. Mix jello according to package directions and pour into plastic cups or big bowl
2. Let cool in the refrigerator until partially set.
3. Place a few gummy fish in.
4. Let completely set in the refrigerator

Can also freeze jello in Popsicle molds instead.

More Ocean Crafts

Science

Salty water vs. Fresh water- My husband came up with a few different samples of water that we got to taste.