Goodnight Moon Unit

Grace is 18 months

Jonathan is 37 months

A couple weeks ago we did a Goodnight Moon unit. Goodnight Moon is included as a book in Sonlight P3/4 as well as Before Five in a Row. We combined activities from several different sites (see links at bottom of post). 

Sensory Bin

I made the kids a Goodnight Moon themed sensory bin. I tried to get a good picture of what was inside, but all the pictures were blurry. The green "room" had black beans, silver stars, white "moon" (pom poms), three bears from our counting bears, a cow, red "balloons" (pom poms), and a cat. Both Jonathan and Grace had a lot of fun pouring, spooning, transferring the beans back and forth. 

Books 


We read Goodnight Moon several times as well as:

* Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
* Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle
* The Three Bears illustrated by Byron Barton

All of the books were a hit with Jonathan. Grace liked Goodnight Moon the best, but also sat through the Three Bears.




Misc

We talked about balloons and reviewed colors, using a printable from Homeschool share. We also had fun playing volleyball with a red balloon. (And we listened to Nena's 99 Luftballoons while we played!)

We practiced beginning sounds, which he aced!

And worked on categorizing things into single or pair:

We counted stars:

Played with our shape clock:

And worked on putting mittens and socks on a clothesline for some fine motor work:

 Some things I didn't get pictures of include playing Volleyball with a red balloon, matching rhyming words, playing Teddy Mix & Match, eating teddy grahams and "full moon" cookies (Oreos)


We had a lot of fun with this unit-- be sure to check out these wonderful resources!

Resources 


Goodnight Moon Printables @ Homeschool Share
Goodnight Moon Printables @ Homeschool Creations
Goodnight Moon Activities @ Delightful Learning
My Goodnight Moon Pinterest board

Linking this up to:

Tot School @ 1+1+1=1
Preschool Corner @ Homeschool Creations
Link & Learn @ No Time for Flashcards


Have a great week!

Montessori Monday: Fall Sensory Bin/Sensory Bin Activities

Jonathan has really been enjoying playing with the sensory bins I've made recently. For our most recent sensory bin, I made a fall themed bin:

In it I used:

- brown aquarium rocks (from Walmart)
- silk leaves (bought last year from Target $1 section)
- red pompoms
- fake acorns, pinecones, gourds, apples (from Target $1 section)

Here are some things we've done with it:


Practiced spooning and transferring the aquarium rocks from one container to another (Jonathan is quite proficient at this).

Practiced dry pouring the aquarium rocks (Jonathan was more interested in this activity, but made a bit of a mess with it!)

Practiced spooning the larger objects and putting them into muffin tins

Worked on ABAB patterns with the acorns, apples, gourds and pinecones.

Jonathan really just wanted to line things up:

Sorted the leaves into piles based on their colors

Sorted the various objects:

Not only does it provide some fun sensorial play, but it's also great for practicing both practical life skills and basic math skills!

I'm linking this up to these lovely blogs!

Tot School Preview: Monkey Sensory Bin

We're back! We spent a little over a week down in central Illinois celebrating Grace's birthday and visiting my husband's family. Now we're settling back in at home and ready to start looking at monkeys this week.

I haven't shown this to Jonathan yet, but here's the monkey sensory bin I created:

It has brown aquarium rock, green and yellow pompoms, some fake trees, and pipe cleaner "vines" for the monkeys from our monkey toob to hang on. I'll give him the usual spoons, cups, and tweezers to practice transferring and pouring. He's been loving these sensory bins, so I think he'll have fun with this one. :)

I'm linking this post up to:

Tot School @ 1+1+1=1
Link & Learn @ No Time for Flash Cards
The Sunday Showcase @ Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Montessori Mondays @ One Hook Wonder
Pinterest Tuesday @ Our Country Road
For the Kids Friday @ Sun Scholars

b is for bug- sensory bin

This week we're reviewing the letter Bb while exploring bugs. I found some great resources to help me with a bug unit, so I'm excited for this week. Our farm sensory bin was such a hit last week, that I decided to make Jonathan another bin this week:

I made this sensory bin using green rice as "grass" and throwing in bugs from our Safari Insects Toob. To dye the rice, I followed a recipe I found at a great site called Teach Preschool: 


1 tbsp rubbing alcohol
green gel food coloring
3 cups white rice 


I combined the alcohol with the food coloring and mixed it in a baggie. Next, I threw in the rice and mixed it up until it was a nice grassy green color. I spread the rice out in the sensory tub overnight and set it by a dehumidifier to get rid of the alcohol smell. By the morning, it was ready to play with! Easy peasy! Deborah @ Teach Preschool also has a recipe for making colored rice using Kool-Aid. I think I may try that next time.

Sensory Activities for Newborns

I'm learning that it's important to provide a stimulating environment for a newborn. One way to do this is by trying to stimulate the five senses:

Hearing
- talk with her
- sing to her
- play music in the background
- have a musical mobile

Seeing
- place your face near hers when you talk with her
- show baby toys such as rattles or stuffed animals
- provide stimulating black and white images for her to look at

Touching
- hug, pat, kiss and rock your baby
- take her for a walk in the stroller
- walk around with baby in your arms
- dance with baby
- have baby feel different textured fabrics

Smelling
- if you wear perfume, put a drop on baby's blanket
- put an article of your clothing in a safe place in baby's crib

Tasting
(note: you can't do much with taste yet!)
- feed baby when she's hungry
- provide a pacifier or allow baby to suck her thumb