We’ve successfully completed Letter H week. Her favorite part was listening to the classic story Little red hen and cooking berry pie at the end of our lesson.
Just so you know I’m not following peaceful preschool curriculum word to word but 80% of our activities comes from it. Generally we skip gross motor activities as I believe most of them are covered in their daily outdoor play. To add a touch of novelty to each week I edit/replace some activities that I feel more aligned to her interests.
Day 1
We started the day by reading the book ‘ The little house’. The message in this book is so relevant in our consumerist culture. Like the little house was jam packed by the rising buildings and pollution, our nature is getting choked by industrialization. We noticed the weather changing in each page of the book and how the seasons were beautifully captured in simple drawings.
For the watercolor drawing she chose the spring season in the book with lovely pink blossoms. We used the watercolor paint set from IKEA and they work perfect for us.
We went for a walk around the neighborhood and collected some fall goodies from nature. And I let her sort the leaves by color and count each pile.
Day 2
I’m glad that this book was added in the list of Letter H because this has been one of M’s favorite storybook. A nice story about the virtues of hardwork and friendship. We used our sand writing tray to practice the letters she learned so far. The tray is from an old Melissa & Doug lacing toy set.
I laid out the glitter glue numbers for her to practice one to one correspondence. She counted colored pumpkin seeds into each cards. I used black paint to dye the pumpkin seeds after carving them out of pumpkins and drying them.
Retelling the little red hen story with felt cut outs was so much fun. We took turns being the red hen and acted out the animals. Story retelling helps them to recollect the sequence and promote receptive and expressive language skills.
Day 3
We started our day by reading this abc book which I found at a local thrift store. The textured alphabets make it a tactile learning experience for the kids. You can check out the Alphaprints ABC in amazon.
Practicing one to one correspondence again using some random stuffs that she found in the playroom. Math can happen anywhere and you can use anything to practice counting during daily routines. Some of those that we do are cereal scoops during breakfast, fruits during lunch, bubbles during bath etc.
Using the lacing toy set to practice fine motor skills. I have her favorite TV show characters here for some encouragement.
She colored the Letter H with pink paint and used some heart confetti (from dollar tree) to fill in them while they were still wet.
Day 4
I couldn’t get this book from our local library hence I let her watch the animated version of the same in you tube. If you need it here’s the link.
Harold and the purple crayon animation
After going to preschool the first thing she learned was to write her name and her current obsession is to write it anywhere and everywhere. I downloaded this name writing template from Pinterest and inserted into a dry erase pocket to practice name writing.
Found some house pictures in old magazines and we cut them out together.
Now it’s time to glue the cut house pieces on a purple construction paper using glue stick to make the collage. I helped her to align the pieces so that they all could fit in one paper.
Playing ‘keep it up’. I made a paddle using paper plate and paint stir stick. Just tape the stick behind the paper plate and you’ve got yourself a sturdy bat to tap the balloons!!
We made our triple berry pie using blueberries/raspberries and strawberries. It’s the first time we’re trying a berry pie at home and it turned out fine except I burned a part at top. But inside it was pretty juicy and delicious. I usually measure out the contents into bowls so that she could add them together and have fun mixing.
She could hardly wait for the delicious pie to come out and it was a perfect dessert for our dinner.
Have you found any of these activities helpful in planning your own peaceful preschool curriculum? I would be glad to hear from you and love to see how you carry out the lessons. Have a happy and peaceful learning period!!