Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks. I have revised our objectives to really hone in and focus on specific skills Carter will need to master before kindergarten and are appropriate to his age and development right now. I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives. Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually. I have added working on his name as his teachers at school have asked us to work on it at home and I want to remember to include working on it in some form during each of our learning themes. I'm also adding in a section for Elise now that she is a year old. I don't considers her bullet points objectives, they are experiences I want to make sure to expose her to frequently. Her experiences are listed below Carter as bullet points rather than numbers.
The highlighted objectives below are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:
- Begin to organize and focus on writing. (Dictate stories, plan out a story, draw pictures and scribbles to create a book).
- Understand same and different.
- Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book.
- Use age appropriate scissors. (I'm moving on to looking for a thumb and forefinger grasp with writing tools and holding scissors appropriately)
- Develop a better understanding of time (for example, be able to describe when things happen using morning, afternoon, night)
- Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature).
- Count with one-to-one correspondence, begin to identify numerals, being to use ordinal numbers (first, second, last).
- Recognize the letters in name, arrange them to spell name, begin to write name.
- Play make believe/Imitate the behaviors of others (adults and children).
- Know the names of and be able to point out body parts.
- Groups things together by size or color/matches like objects, understands hard and soft.
- Names common objects and is able to point them out.
- Begin to hold writing tools and scribble spontaneously. Can draw a line. Differentiates between a circle and square.
- Follows simple instructions (focusing on words such as in, on, beside, under).
- Others: counts to two, refers to self by name. These I want to start to expose her to, but she isn't quite ready to master then yet.
- I was again surprised by Carter when I showed him the word winter on a sentence strip. He immediately chunked it and blended it because I had told him earlier in the day our next learning theme was going to be about winter. He looked at it and said, "Win/ter, win/ter, winter!"
- I pulled out a cute snowman window cling we had with different body parts, facial features, and clothing to dress him with. Elise and I played with it one afternoon while Carter was still napping. I asked her to put the nose on the face, the hat on the head, the arm beside the body. She got lots of practice following directions which she did when she felt like it. Other times she just put the pieces wherever she wanted. We talked about body parts as we worked. I had her tell me what part of the snowman's body a piece was and then had her point to that part on her own body.
- We read the book Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee. Then we made our own tracks in the snow using Play Doh and some of our animal toys. I asked Elise what part of the animal made the tracks and she said the feet. Carter had so much fun trying it out with different animals and toys to see what their tracks looked like. His favorite was having me look away while he made tracks and then asking me to guess which toy had made the tracks. We counted the animals feet and also counted how many tracks they made in the snow.
- I'd say Carter's favorite was when we played with shaving foam, pretending it was snow. Carter practiced writing his name in the snow. We again used our toys to make tracks in the snow. I drew a circle and a square for Elise and talked to her about the shapes. We had to stop abruptly to clean up when Elise hit her mouth on the table and busted her lip. Carter had just sprayed more shaving foam in his spot and then got up to rinse his hands off. Elise quickly ran over to his seat and was trying to steal it while he was gone, but went too fast and slipped. It was so sad.
- Carter helped me cut some strips for an activity. We have 2 snowpeople we got from my parents for Christmas one year that came with some sort of food in them. They have slots in their hats to be used as a piggy bank I'm guessing. I decided they'd be perfect for practicing with colors and sorting. We cut out little strips of green paper and red paper. Then I had Elise sort the colors into the snowmen by matching the color to the strip on the snowman's hat. I even cut a strip of construction paper and taped it over the original strip because the green was green and blue striped and I didn't want it to be confusing for Elise. She could match the colors up but insisted on dropping the strips into whichever snowman she felt like playing with. So we talked about the colors and then she just dropped them into the snowman she wanted. When she was finished Carter sorted the colors into the correct snowperson. He thought it looked like too much fun to miss out on!
Carter cutting the strips for us. 
Elise sorting the strips into the snowpeople. - During one of the Museum Babies programs we went to this winter Elise had a blast playing with a hot chocolate sensory bin. It had brown beans as the base with cotton ball "marshmallows" and toy cups. I knew I had to save the idea for when we did a winter learning theme. The kids loved making each other cups of hot chocolate and I even caught Elise carrying a cup full of beans around the house on multiple occasions. It was such a fun sensory bin!
- I drew and cut out little mittens and then wrote the letters of Carter's name on the mittens. I showed them to him and then he put them in order to spell his name. When he was finished I asked him if he noticed a pattern with the mittens. He didn't so I pointed out that they alternated between a right and left mitten. Then he told me which mitten would come next in the pattern.
I wrote with pencil so it's hard to see the letters in the picture. - To practice with same and different I had Carter compare a glove to a mitten. I told him the name of each one and then asked him to tell me how they were the same. He said they both keep your hand warm. Then I asked him how they were different and he said one had a spot for each finger, the other had a spot for the thumb and then the rest of the fingers were together. I asked him why he thought they were like that and he wasn't sure. I told him when your fingers are all together they stay warmer but it's harder to do stuff. I had him try picking stuff up with a mitten on and he thought it was hilarious. When we wore gloves or mittens throughout the learning theme I'd have him tell me which it was.
- We discussed winter weather. I asked Carter what kind of weather he thinks of when he thinks of winter and he said cold and snowy. Then I told him it has been winter for about a month, since a little before Christmas, and asked him to identify the different kinds of weather we have had. He said rain, snow, cold, and warm. Then we wrote the different kinds of weather on our back door window so we could make a graph for tracking our winter weather. I talked to Carter about the different labels we needed on our graph and wrote them as we talked. Then Carter would tell me the weather for the day and either I'd write the mark on our graph or he would. He liked it better when I did it because he liked the marks to be really neat and he couldn't make them as small and neatly as I did. When we were done we counted the marks above each kind of weather and determined which weather we had the most of during our learning theme. Carter was very disappointed we'd never had snow and I was too. We talked about how winter weather is the same as other seasons and how it is different. Carter decided we can have rain during any season. One day when we were working on our graph Elise saw us and grabbed a marker. I didn't notice because I was so involved with Carter and when we were done I looked over and she had drawn all over our other door's window with a regular marker. It cleaned off just fine but was still hilarious!
Elise making her own graph - An activity we did during our last winter theme that was a huge hit again was skating on paper plates. Elise was so adorable, working so hard to stay on her plates. She was skating along and stopped to grab a marker and draw on her skates while still standing on them. Carter saw her decorated skates and liked them so much he decided to decorate his own skates. It was so cute because Carter went into our main kitchen area and rolled up our small rug so he could skate through there too.
Elise drawing some more on her plates because she saw Carter coloring on his. - I pulled out the snowmen I made during our last winter learning theme to work on colors with Elise. I had her match the hat to the snowman with that color scarf. She wouldn't put the hats on by herself so I'd put a hat up against a scarf and ask her if it matched. She'd either say yes or no. When it matched I'd put the hat on the snowman's head. Then I'd tell her the hat goes on the head. I'd also really emphasize the name of the color hat and scarf the snowman was wearing.
- One day we were playing with Play Doh and Carter decided to make a snowman all on his own. One of the activities I had planned was to make a snowman out of Play Doh but we hadn't gotten to it yet. I had planned on rolling out balls to make the snowman but he made his more flat like a cookie made with a cookie cutter. It was so cute. I pointed out the circles to Elise when Carter was showing off his snowman. Then we counted to see how many circles were on his snowman.
- I pulled out 2 of Ty's hats and 2 of Elise's hats. I showed Elise one of Ty's hats and told her it was big. Then I showed her one of her hats and told her it was small. Then I gave her the remaining hats one at a time and asked her to match them to the other hat that size. She wasn't too into it but was able to match the hats. Then we counted how many we had of each size. When we were finished Elise played with the hats putting the smaller ones inside the bigger ones and then putting them on her head.
- I had quite a few different Scholastic News magazines about winter and snow. I pulled them out and put them with our winter books in the winter book bin. Carter found them and was so excited to read them and to complete the different activities on the back. He loves using a marker on the laminated magazine to complete the different activities. His favorite was a map where he drew different routes for a snow plow.
- Carter loved the repetition of the Tracks in the Snow book so I decided we should make one of our own. He picked 3 different toys to use in the book and then put them in paint to make tracks on a page. We wrote: Tracks in the snow. Tracks in the snow. Who made these tracks? Where do they go? on the page with the tracks. Then the next page had a picture of the toy telling what it was. Carter didn't want to draw so I drew and he colored the objects in. I was so impressed with how well he stayed in the lines! Then on the last page we wrote where each item was going. After looking at the book, I wished we'd organized it better and wrote what the object was and where it was going on the same page. So I talked to Carter about how we organized it and how we could have done it better. He agreed with me and I told him going back and fixing your work is what good writers do and is called editing.
Our book before we edited the pages. - To practice with circles and squares I helped Elise make a shape snowman. The snowman had 3 circles for his body which we counted. Then we used a rectangle and a square to make his hat. I told Elise where to glue the different parts but she had her own ideas. I gave her the first circle and asked her to glue it wherever she wanted. Then I gave her the next circle and asked her to glue it on top of the first circle which she glued off to the side. When I gave her the last circle I asked her to glue it above the other circle and she glued it on top of the other circle. I helped her glue the rectangle for the hat down and then showed her how to glue the square down so it would touch the rectangle and be right above it and she did that by herself. She did a great job gluing the carrot down where the nose would go. Her favorite part was adding the snowflake stickers to her picture. We talked about how the stickers were circles the whole time she worked. I added a face to her snowman and then it was done.
- Last year after Christmas I bought a craft set with foam pieces to make different crafts. We used it to make winter wreaths with the foam pieces and other materials. Elise was mostly interested in dumping confetti on her wreath and gluing down already made pieces. Carter spent most of his time decorating the snowman pieces and then gluing them to his wreath. It was so cute to see how much time he spent making faces and clothing on his snowman.
Carter cutting out arms for his snowman.
Elise's finished wreath. 
Carter's finished wreath. - I also got a container of foam stickers for making snowmen after Christmas last year. The kids had a blast using them to make snowmen. We talked a lot about body parts as well as where on our body we wear certain articles of clothing. I tried helping Elise so she could get the head on top of the body but she was insistent on doing it her way so we just talked about the names of the body parts. Carter informed me that he liked the glittery pieces the best and that he has a friend at school who really likes glitter too. It was very cute!
- Last year I saw an adorable cardinal handprint craft. I loved it because it made me think of my Grandpa Eddie. His favorite bird was the cardinal. So I saved the picture on my phone all year to remind myself to make it during a winter learning theme this year. The picture looked like the person had painted branches and snowflakes on the picture. I am not a very good artist so I decided the safest way to not ruin the picture was to cut the branches and snow out of construction paper and glue them down, then using snowflake stickers for decoration. I was so happy with how it turned out. I was a little caught off guard by how little difference there is in the size of Carter and Elise's hands. She is growing up so fast!
I love those sweet, little hands! - Carter made a very cute paper plate polar bear at school. He was so proud of it and was very excited to tell me that he got to use hot glue with his teacher's help. Any time he gets to use glue it is a win in his book!
- We used coffee filters to make snowflakes. I folded the coffee filter up for Carter and showed him that when you open it up after cutting it there is a really cool design. We sat and made a bunch of them while Elise was napping. Carter had such a blast with it and asked to do it multiple different times after we'd done it together. After we'd made quite a few, I quit making them and strung our snowflakes on yarn to make a garland for the mantle above our fireplace. Carter was so excited and kept bringing me snowflakes to string up. When I was done with the garland I had Carter count to see how many snowflakes we had on it. He was so proud of his work!
- Carter made the cutest little soda bottle penguin at school. He was so proud to tell me he got to use hot glue for the pom pom on the penguin's hat and the wings with the help of his teacher. I think he loves the responsibility of getting to use something hot. It's so cute how he gets excited about it each time he gets to do it!
- Another project from school was a shaving foam snowman. Carter explained to me that they got to rub the shaving foam in until it was rubbed away and then got more shaving foam to rub onto it. He loved this project and told me all about it without me even asking him!
- With it being winter and cold outside (for most of our learning theme) we enjoyed hot chocolate multiple times. Carter loved being able to make it himself by using warm water out of the faucet. He was so adorable making hot chocolate for Elise and himself when he had gotten the okay to do so.
- I'd say the most fun activity of this learning theme was pretending to hibernate. We read multiple books about animals that hibernate. Carter remembered lots of details about which animals hibernate and where they hibernate. We talked a lot about dens and burrows as well. One day we pretended to be bears and created a den with blankets to play in. We snuggled together for warmth and pretended to sleep. Then we got out the tunnel that goes with Carter's tent and pretended it was a burrow underground. We pretended to be chipmunks and gathered balls (berries) and cars (nuts) to eat every few days when we woke during our hibernation. Carter would tell us when it had been a few days and we'd all pretend to eat our food. Elise had a blast playing along with us and did a great job of watching us to see what to do. Although she did find it hilarious to go in and out of our den over and over, eventually knocking it down.
The kids playing in our den before I added the last blanket. 
Carter carrying berries to his burrow in his cheek pouches. 
Elise having a blast being a chipmunk!
- We sang 5 Little Penguins to the tune of 5 Little Ducks. We used the penguin bath toys we had from Carter's birthday party. The kids loved acting it out by knocking the penguins into the bathtub as I sang. I made the song up in the moment, there may be a better version floating around somewhere. The song went like this:
5 little penguins went out one day,
over the ice and far away.
Mother penguin said,
waddle, waddle back,
but only 4 little penguins waddled back.
Continues on until no penguins come back.
Mother penguin went out one day,
over the ice and far away.
Mother penguin said,
waddle, waddle back,
and all 5 of her little penguins waddled back.
- During a winter learning theme we naturally had to sing Frosty the Snowman. It is one of Carter's favorite songs and got a lot of air time around here during the learning theme!
- Carter loved singing and acting out this next one by pointing at body parts and pretending to be a rabbit. The song goes like this:
A chubby little snowman
had a carrot nose.
Along came a rabbit
and what do you suppose?
That hungry little bunny
looking for lunch.
Ate the snowman's carrot nose,
nibble, nibble, crunch!
- We also sang a 5 Little Snowmen song and used our snowmen from the hat/scarf color matching activity to act it out. The song goes like this:
5 little snowmen fat.
Each with a funny hat.
Out came the sun and melted one.
What a sad thing was that!
Down, down, down (as you move the snowman away because it's melting).
- I went onto youtube and typed in winter songs for kids. There was an awesome playlist that I played on my phone while we did activities. Carter's favorite was I'm a Little Snowman because it was a song he learned at school.
- Carter played the Make a Snowman game on Starfall here. We had played this one before during our Christmas learning theme but Carter still loved getting to dress the snowman as well as read the story and hear the song.
- We played a snowflake match game on PBS Kids here. I loved that this game talked about symmetry. Carter chose the half of snowflake that matched the snowflake on the top of the screen. We talked about how the snowflakes looked alike and how they looked different as he played.
- This one was probably Carter's favorite because he loves dogs and he likes the show Martha Speaks. The game was called Dogs on Ice, you can find it here. Carter listened for words and picked the dog that was following the directions given.
- We also played a Weather Transformer game on PBS Kids here. Carter got to change the weather and see how that affected the back yard. There was a thermometer on the side of the screen. I had Carter look at the thermometer and we talked about how it changed as the weather changed. He noticed that the color went up when it was warm and down when it was cold. I explained that's how a thermometer works. The liquid in a thermometer rises in heat and lowers in cool.
- I had planned on going on a nature walk in the snow and then going sledding, but we didn't end up getting the snow that was predicted. Instead we went to the art museum. As we looked at different pictures we talked about whether it looked hot or cold in the picture and I had Carter tell me what he saw in the painting that made him think it was hot or it was cold. I really made sure to point out the paintings with snow in them or that looked like they depicted winter weather. I had him notice the colors that were used a lot to convey cold weather. He noticed a lot of white for snow and then darker and cooler colors as well. There was even a neat display when we first walked in of snowflakes kids had made hung up from the ceiling so we got to walk under them! That's where I got the idea to turn our snowflakes into a garland to display.
The kids looking down at the snowflakes from the second floor. It was even cooler to walk under them!
- Deep Snow by Robert Munsch
- The Mitten by Jan Brett
- One Mitten by Kristine O'Connell George
- Mice on Ice by Rebecca Emberley and Ed Emberley
- Straight to the Pole by Kevin O'Malley
- Ten on the Sled by Kim Norman
- I Love You Snow Much by Sandra Magsamen
- The Snow Bear by Miriam Moss
- Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows
- Winter Is Here! by Kimberly Weinberger
- Sailing off to Sleep by Linda Ashman
- Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee
- Franklin's Bad Day by Paulette Bourgeois
- The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader
- Follow the Polar Bears by Sonia W. Black
- Hello, Snow! by Hope Vestergaard
- Pip and Squeak by Ian Schoenherr
- Henry and Mudge and the Snowman Plan by Cynthia Rylant
- Antarctica by Helen Cowcher
- The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
- White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt
- Snowball Fight! by Jimmy Fallon
- Snow Dance by Lezlie Evans
- Snow by Melvin and Gilda Berger
- Who am I? Snowy Animals by DK Publishing
- Where Is Home, Little Pip? by Karma Wilson
- Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
- I Am Small by Emma Dodd
- Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead
- Skippyjon Jones Snow What by Judy Schachner
- Old Bear by Kevin Henkes
- Frosty the Snowman by Steve Nelson
- Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple
- Every Autumn Comes the Bear by Jim Arnosky
- Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Meschenmoser
- Toys Meet Snow by Emily Jenkins
- Winter by Ann Herriges
- Winter by Julie Murray
- Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
- Counting on Snow by Maxwell Newhouse
- Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick
- Red Sled by Lita Judge
- Red Hat by Lita Judge
- Snowballs by Lois Ehlert
- In the Snow by Sharon Phillips
- Snow Music by Lynne Rae Perkins
- Why Do Bears Sleep All Winter? by Mary Englar
- Bears Hibernate by Susan Gray
- Animal Hibernation by Jeanie Mebane
- Hibernation by Anita Ganeri
- Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner
Very fun theme, and cute activities. I like the ceiling of snowflakes at the museum. We hung snowflakes from the kitchen ceiling once, but I don't know if you remember it.
ReplyDeleteOh fun! No, I don't but I do remember making snowflakes out of paper.
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