Hoppy Easter to all our Peeps!

We made a quick and easy Easter lapbook today. Some of the content was borrowed from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Some was borrowed from Squidoo. And some was just plain Googled and put together by Me!

We sorted Peeps, and then made Peep Patterns. The Punk had no idea what a Peep was, so I must make a mental note to get him a pack of Peeps for his basket.

We played the Egg Matching Game, and I was amazed at how well he did. Some of the patterns/colors are very similar, but he matched every one of them correctly.

We then helped the chocolate bunny find his way into the Easter Basket. this is a Word Template I created and I change the clip art to/from for whatever suits our lesson. He's getting much better at staying on the lines. I feel bad that he gets so frustrated with himself when he goes out of the line, but he's so darn proud when he does a good job that I keep giving him more chances to work on this.

Our first maze EVER. Look at that kid! He traced the path with his finger the first time, and then he "knew" how to get there. He is very excited to show Daddy this one.

Our cutting work today was a lesson on "fringing". It was hard for him to not cut all the way through, he loves snipping and shredding paper. He finally "got" it when I showed him we were making Easter Egg Grass.

I printed a simple egg template from Google images, and had him decorate some eggs. We picked his favorite ones, and hid them in the grass he had cut. Then we drew some happy clouds, and he asked me to make "some gwitter-y ones!", so I added a few glitter glue clouds to the back.

The lapbook came together fairly quickly this morning. We ended the lesson by reading Happy Easter Little Critter before his nap.

D is for Doctor

Doctor Who?

The Punk is a Dr. Who fan. He wanted to be Dr. Who for Halloween last year (and made an adorable 11th Doctor!). He watches (screened and parental approved) every episode he can get his hands on. He knows who the Cybermen and Daleks are, but doesn't know Dora the Explorer. And I love that! He's our little Geek (he's super mega ultra into Star Wars too - but only the old ones), and we are very proud of him.

So when trying to find another way to help him learn the D sound, I thought to myself "Duh!" and started printing out all the Google images I could of Dr. Who and the creatures that he battles. The Punk had a blast with this, and I was happy to indulge his nerd-side while having some fun with our school work.

Painting the TARDIS
Writing his name (Photos of himself dressed as the Doctor)
Helping the Doctor Sonic the Daleks
D is for Doctor
D is for Daleks
Sequencing Largest to Smallest
Front of the Lapbook made to look like the TARDIS
The back of his Lapbook
It's bigger on the inside!

As the proud parent of a little Geek in Training, I must now link you to the Punk's entry into a Dr. Who TARDIS contest. All you have to do is "like" the entry (if you have a Facebook account). Easy as 3.14159265 ;) We know there are tons of awesome TARDIS replicas out there, but we think the Punk will find it neat one day to know so many people saw his costume and thought he made an awesome Doctor.

"Allons-y!"

This post linked to Tot School

If you Give a Mouse a Cookie

Today we finished the work we had left on our If you give a Mouse a Cookie lapbook. Some of the items were taken from this resource, but others were things I made to supplement the lesson. For instance - I made the tracing line work showing the mouse how to get to the cookie. The more we work on these the better he will be at tracing letters and shapes one day.

Match the Cookie Game

Lapbook Cover

Inside: Nursery Rhymes that include mice, cookie matching game, drawing of a mouse, I Spy Circles (in the book), tracing lines, tracking his name, If you give a Boy a Cookie story, and mouse facts (they have tails, ears, etc.).

My favorite part of the lapbook was the If you Give a Boy a Cookie portion. I let the Punk tell me a story while I took dictation - starting with the line

"If you Give a Boy a cookie"...

If you give a Boy a cookie he will want some milk. After that he will want another cookie. Then he will want a napkin to wipe up the milk he spilled, and the crumbs. Then, he will want to go for a walk. They will go to Art Class. If the cars come in the neighborhood they will get smashed so they walk on the sidewalk. They make chalk in Art Class. Then they go home and have a snack and draw on the porch with the chalk.

The End.

Linking this post to Preschool Corner & No Time For Flash Cards

Mouse Wheel

Today we (The Punk, the Mouse and I) started our If you give a Mouse a Cookie lapbook lesson. We finished our story wheel, and the Punk really enjoyed it. He was able to tell me the story using the wheel, and then again to Daddy hours later when he came home. What a great tool for story time! I am going to have to see if we can find more of these - it really helps trigger his memory.

If you give a Mouse a Cookie

Hog the Ground

I was super proud of myself for this one - I pretty much created a lapbook on my own to celebrate Groundhog Day! There wasn't much out there in the preschool blog world about it, so I Googled some images, and borrowed from a few places until I had enough info to help explain the Holiday to the Punk. I bow to the Home Schoolers who do this type of thing with multiple children, it's no easy task (but it is kind of fun).


It contains: Groundhog poem, hibernating animals, Groundhog mini-book, sequencing Groundhog shadows, Matching animal shadows, tracing the Groundhog's path back to the burrow, and practicing his name letters, whew!

We made a little Groundhog puppet that pops up and down (and then watched for it's shadow). Then we watched Punxutawney Phil via webcam, and found out that he predicted that Spring will be here soon!

Nothing more than Feelings...

Today we talked about our Feelings. We worked on the Feelings lapbook from 1+1+1 some, but to be honest- the Punk really didn't feel like working on much this morning.

A is for Space Man!

I have discovered the world/subculture/obsession/genius of lapbooking. And I get it. One neat little package of knowledge. Adaptable to any age, any topic. I am excited at the possibilities, and so in love with the lapbooks and information that is available (for free!) on the Internet. This is going to be fun.

Today we started with the Astronaut Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations. It's adorable, and we both had so much fun putting it together. The Punk learned new words, and now knows that "A is for Astronaut" instead of Space Man.