ABC Letter Box

As part of our Letter of the Week studies, I decided to add an ABC Letter Box.

First I colored 2 boxes of ABC macaroni noodles and then placed the mini abc's in a shoebox. [I mixed about 1 T. of rubbing alcohol and 10-12 drops of food coloring to about 1 c. of dry noodles in a Ziplock bag. Spread on a paper towel-lined cookie sheet to dry.]

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Next I added objects and different fonts of the letter we are studying to the box.

Tips: Use mini-erasers, buttons, old abc puzzle pieces, chipboard letters, wooden letters, miniatures, and printouts.

I printed out ABC images from Homeschool Creations at a reduced size to fit in our box. 

On the first day of the letter study I pull out the box and have the girls tell me the names of all the objects. We listen to the first sound the word makes. Then I point to the letter and tell them that this is the letter that makes this sound. Here are a couple more ideas:

• Place both the target letter objects and other letter objects into the box.  Have the student sort the objects that start with the letter ____ and objects that don't start with the letter____.
• Match letters with objects. Place several objects from letters learned in the box along with tile letters. Have the student pull out the objects and the tiles and then match the object to the correct beginning sound letter.
• Place only letters in the box. Hold up an object and have the student find the matching beginning letter.

For more ABC Letter Box Ideas check out:
ABC Box from Pink and Green Mama
Counting Coconuts: Alphabet Box plus some game ideas

I highly recommend:
ABC Themed Sensory Tub by Time for Tots (available for purchase $15.00)
ABC Kit w/ objects by Time for Tots (available for purchase $20.00)
They have everything all ready for you! A wonderful time-saver and they are wonderful to work with.

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Preschool Corner and Tot School This Week

Holidays and birthdays always mess up my schedule, so this week we took it easy and didn't have any formal activities. I did spend lots of time planning upcoming units though, and can't wait to post about them.

My girls love to play with these blocks! It was the best $2.00 I've spent in awhile (garage sale score). They build with them, count them, and tell me the names of the pictures and letters.

We read this cute book several times this week. I will have a review posted on Dec. 10th. :)

My 3yr. old turns 4! She is getting so big! We combined her birthday with our Thanksgiving celebration. We are thankful for her!

 She got a set of purple wedgits and idea cards for her birthday. She loves them!

 My 2yr. old loved them too. I found out very quickly that I'm going to need to get another set or two!

 The girls colored wooden Christmas ornaments with markers.

 We hope to put them on our tree this weekend.

My 4yr. old helped me get some of the CHRISTmas activities ready. She really liked this one!

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For more Preschool and Tot School ideas, check out:

CHRISTmas Tot School: More Preparation

I've been printing, cutting, laminating and organizing toddler and preschool CHRISTmas activities to start next week. I thought I'd share some of my prep. work just in case you'd like to get some of these activities ready too.

I laminated these print-outs from Confessions of a Homeschooler with my Xyron 900. I have found that dry-erase crayons work great with the Xyron lamination (dry erase and wet erase markers tend to bead up the first couple times.)

Cut and laminated the star sequence activity found on my blog.

I printed out this cute counting activity from Musings of Me. I made it into a magnet activity with my Xyron 900. The number magnets I picked up at the Dollar Store.

These were a couple of things I picked up at Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Tree. The ice-cube tray, bells and mini-gifts will be used for sorting, patterning and counting. The nativity foam stamps will be used for patterning and crafting, and the nativity die-cut ornaments will be colored and added to our tree.

Then I found some of our Christmas books (I don't know why they were left out this year--I usually pack them up).  Here are my top 10 favorite Christian Christmas books (in no particular order):

1. My Birthday, Jesus' Birthday by Holly Davis (ours went AWOL--if you find it send it back--lol)
2. God's Christmas Gift by Nell Navillus
3. A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker
4. Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck
5. God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa T. Bergren
6. Humphrey's First Christmas by Carol Heyer 
7. The Pine Tree Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs
8. The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
9. The Legend of the Three Trees
10. The Story of Christmas by Patricia Pingry

Related Posts: CHRISTmas Toddler Nativity Box

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Wordless Wed: 1month Cuteness

 

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CHRISTmas Tot Activities: Nativity Box

I mentioned in a previous post that I was thinking about how I wanted to share the meaning of Christmas with my toddler and preschooler this year. I've decided to do CHRISTmas Tot school and have our own CHRISTmas Tot school box of activities (actually it will be several boxes!) I put together our nativity sensory/I spy box for the unit (everything is on sale right now at Hobby Lobby).

I placed everything in a decorative shoe box with some straw from the hobby section.

Other things I plan on adding:

piece of silk fabric to help us remember the wise men
something gold

piece of wool to represent the sheep
muslin to represent the swaddling cloth

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Hands on Geography

Recently, Bright Ideas Press allowed me to pick a product from their store to review. Since we have been doing geography at home and co-op this year, I was curious to see if we could use any ideas from Hands on Geography.

What is Hands on Geography?

Hands on Geography is an idea book written from a Christian viewpoint can be used in conjunction with another curriculum. There are instructions and ideas for many types of hands-on geography projects and games. The material is suitable for grades K- 5th. Here's what you'll find:

• The National Geography Bee
• Homemade Games
• Homemade Books
• The Country Notebook
• Passport Fair
• Joseph's Journey
• Missionary Geography
• Genealogy Geography
• Nature and Geography
• Language Arts and Geography
• History and Geography
• Maps Galore
• Teaching through the 5 Themes of Geography
• Outline Maps
• Geography in a Flash

What I Thought:

This book is a fabulous resource that would be perfect for families who like to do hands-on learning, crafts, notebooking, unit studies or lapbooking. There are some printables included in the book such as notebooking pages, continent maps, and state flashcards. Most projects require you to find the necessary materials--though most are easy to obtain. In the photo above, my son is coloring a map from a coloring book we picked up from the Dollar Store. Each of my older kids made their maps into puzzles---an idea we got from the book.

Besides the project ideas, I liked that there were Biblical geography ideas (mapping Joseph's journey) and missionary geography ideas. I'm glad to have this resource at my fingertips as I continue to plan our geography journey this year.

Check out Bright Ideas Press for fun history, geography, and science resources.
Bright Ideas Press Home Page
Hands on Geography: $14.95

TOS:
For More Bright Idea Press Reviews See:

Disclosure: I am a member of TOS and I was given this product free for review purposes only. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.