Preschool Theme: Pumpkins

 Preschool Theme: Pumpkins

We started each homeschool day by talking about the date and the weather. Then we sang a song or two. This week's in-theme song was "Five Little Pumpkins," which we watched on YouTube several times throughout the week. Keep scrolling to see what books we read, and which activities kept us busy!

Books

Jack-o-Lantern Felt Board

I made this ages ago when Honey Pot was doing tot school, and we pull it out every year. I left this out throughout the week, and Sweet E and I played with it once in a while.

So many combinations!

Learning Notebook

Just some pumpkin stamping. And when she was done, she decided to count them up!

Learning Lowercase j

This FREE printable comes from Preschool Play and Learn. It was a fun way to search for letters, because it includes lots of different fonts! Instead of tracing the J's though, Sweet E requested giant pushpins to poke holes on them.

Then we practiced matching a few lowercase letters that we've learned so far.

Rhyming Puzzles

This FREE printable comes from This Reading Mama. It was actually the first time Sweet E and I talked about rhymes!

The different ways the puzzles are cut helped her to match them up, but the concept is still tricky for her. A great thing for us to work on again soon!

Kitchen Science - Baking Pumpkin Muffins

Yum!!

Count and Clip Cards

This FREE printable came from Kindergarten Connection. So I pulled out our clothespins, and Sweet E clipped them to the right number on each card.

So proud of her work!

Exploring the Inside of a Pumpkin

This was a great sensory experience for Sweet E! First we made observations about the outside of the pumpkin. After prompting the question in a few ways, I got these responses: "orange...smooth...and round like a circle." Then I asked her to guess what the inside would be like. Unfortunately, there was no Ariel inside our pumpkin. 😂

Next we opened it up, and dunked our hands inside to feel it! I asked her to describe it to me. She said it felt "wet" and then noticed something felt "like seeds."

Together we scooped them out to use in future activities.

(I baked them in a 300⁰ oven for about a half an hour to dry them out. Then I dyed them with some watercolors.)

After I scraped out the rest of the guts, I asked Sweet E to draw a face for our pumpkin. Then I carved it into a jack-o-lantern. I tried to follow her drawing as best as I could. And here's how he came out:

She loved talking into his open mouth, and hearing how her voice sounded!

His name is Geegee, in case you were wondering! And she asked me to make him talk all week lol.

The Inside of My Pumpkin

This FREE printable came from Teachers Pay Teachers. Sweet E and I grabbed a little bit of the "guts" of the pumpkin--the pulp and seeds--and put them in a sandwich bag, which we taped to the back of this page. Super cute!

And she just loved to squish it around!

Learning Lowercase k

We used our fall-colored pumpkin seeds to form the letter K!

Counting Seeds

Then we used them again with this FREE printable from Kindergarten Worksheets and Games. The ink in our printer really needs to be replaced!

She did a great job at recognizing the numbers, and counting out the right amount.

Pumpkin Bracelet

I saw this idea at Make and Takes. First I invited Sweet E to use the orange beads to make a bracelet.

Then I twisted it off, had her put on a few brown ones, and then twisted it again. Ta-da!

She loves her pumpkin bracelet. She was showing it off to everyone in the family!

Pumpkin Craft

We used our dyed seeds again to make a colorful pumpkin.

She wanted to sort them by color in each section!

Name Pumpkins

For this activity, Sweet E first colored in each of the six pumpkins with marker.

Then she cut them out herself!

I added a letter to each one, and then she glued them onto the paper, spelling her name.

This was the first time she used scissors for anything more than practice lines, and I think she did a fine job!

The theme for our next TWO weeks will be Halloween! We're going to do lots of fun and festive activities, so stay tuned!

Preschool Theme: Community Helpers

Theme: Community Helpers

We spent the first day of the week focusing on a firefighter theme, and the rest of the days were a smorgasbord of community helper activities! Sweet E had a lot of fun. Each day we started with our calendar and weather, then we did a few activities throughout the day.

Books

Learning Notebook

Firefighter activity #1, sorting hot and cold things into her notebook. This was a FREE printable from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Put Out the (Number) Fire

Firefighter Activity #2, putting out fires! I cut out little fire shapes from foam, and numbered them 1-12. I stuck them on the bathtub wall, and gave Sweet E a squirt bottle of water. Then I asked her to "put out fire #9" etc. She loved this! As she squirt a fire, it would slide down the wall, and when it reached the bottom the fire was out.

When she put each fire out, she stuck them to the side of the tub, and placed them in number order.

A job well done!

Color-Mixing - Fire Craft

Firefighter Activity #3, finger-painting! For this activity I gave Sweet E red and yellow paint, and invited her to paint the fire with her fingers.

She saw them turn orange right away. It was a great lesson on color mixing!

Once it had dried, I cut the fire out for her. Then she glued it onto a paper, and colored in circles to represent how we made orange.

It looks awesome!

Rescue the Kitty - Dice Game

Firefighter Activity #4, rescuing the kitty. This activity was inspired by a similar one from Mrs. Plemon's Kindergarten. I made a tape ladder beside a magnatile "tree." Sweet E and I each claimed a character at the bottom of the ladder, she was the dalmatian and I was the firefighter. We took turns rolling a die with the numbers 1-3 on it, and climbed up the ladder accordingly. Whoever saved the kitty first, won!

She loves to make everybody talk, so here she is having her pup tell the kitty he's coming!

She won the first game, and requested we play it a second time!

...and she won that one too lol.

Fire Truck Puzzle

Firefighter Activity #5, a floor puzzle!

Alphabet Review + Sensory

Firefighter Activity #6, matching alphabet tiles to fire hydrants. The FREE printable comes from Playdough to Plato. I hid all 26 uppercase letters in our dried beans bin, and when she found each one she said the letter, and matched it on the paper.

Learning Lowercase g - Learning Notebook

We moved on to our next lowercase letter today, and I kept it in theme just for fun. Trace the G's and then put out all the lowercase g fires with water (a blue crayon).

And some lowercase a-g review on our easel!

Community Helper - Dentist

This activity was a huge hit! I printed out a big smile and slipped it into our handy laminating pocket. Then I drew on some numbers with dry erase marker. Sweet E rolled the 1-12 die, and had to erase that number with her special dentist toothpaste (shaving cream).

She loved this so much that we kept it out all week! She or I would continue to draw germs onto the teeth, and then clean them up.

Community Helper - Hairstylist

Just a quick scissor practice activity, pretending to cut hair!

Of course she requested I make them talk!

She came back to this activity later and trimmed their hair even shorter!

Community Helper - Librarian

I created little books, with pictures on them. Sweet E needed to pick up a book, and try to figure out what letter that word started with. For example I'd ask her, "What's this book about?" "Zebras." "What letter does z-z-zebra start with?" "Z!" So she'd put it on the Z shelf.

It was a great way to work on beginning sounds!

Community Helper - Teachers

For this activity I drew shapes on her easel with dotted lines, and she needed to teach her students what shapes they were, and how to draw them.

"This is a heart," she explained to her students.

For such a simple activity, she really loved this one. Anything that includes pretend play, she's thrilled!

Community Helper - Carpenter #1

Hammering golf tees into an egg carton.

Introducing Lowercase h

I decided to introduce our next letter during our carpenter activity, by drawing H's onto Styrofoam. And she hammered more golf tees into them.

And an activity to review all the lowercase we've learned so far.

Community Helper - Carpenter #2

I also invited Sweet E to build a house like a carpenter, by following the blueprint.

She did great!

Community Helper - Carpenter #3

Following blueprints in the block center!

Love these blocks/blueprints from Lakeshore!

Community Helper - Landscaper

Sweet E kept requesting more and more activities! So I came up with this one last minute. I just taped a square onto the kitchen floor, and scattered faux leaves around for her to sweep up into it!

This was super fun for her! I swapped out the broom handle with the dustbin handle, which made it just her size.

She did this three times in a row. Throwing the leaves up into the air each time was equally as fun as sweeping them up!

Learning Lowercase i

FREE printable from Easy Peasy Learners.

Some review on our easel!

Community Helper - Mailperson #1

For our first mail person activity, Sweet E sorted numbered Uno cards into matching envelopes.

Community Helper - Mailperson #2

Then she needed to "stamp" the envelopes by matching the lowercase letter to the uppercase letter. We reviewed A through I.

And then she slipped them into the mailbox!

Such great review!

Community Helper - Retail Clerk

We set up a pretend grocery store, with price stickers on each item.

Then we took turns being the shopper and the clerk.

It involved plenty of counting in both roles, as she told me how much money I owe her...

And also as she counted out money to pay me, when she was the customer.

Community Helper - Construction Worker

An easy sensory bin! I pulled out our kinetic sand, combined with little toy construction trucks and cones. She loved this!

Hard at work!

Community Helper - Trash Collector

I don't often buy new supplies for our homeschool. But while at the Dollar Tree I came upon this adorable little garbage can (pencil holder) and had to grab it! So I came up with a quick little activity for it. I used some leftover paper from a different activity, and cut them into squares. Then I wrote letters on them. And Sweet E needed to sort all of the G's, then crumple up all the other letters to throw into the garbage.

Kitty was even curious about our little trash can!

To extend her play, we got her dump truck and pretended it was a garbage truck. So she could empty the can into the truck, and drive it to the dump!