Lesson plan: Sea life

                                                                         

Our plan for today!

Sea life

Key words: sea, beach, sand, fish, whale, shark, dolphin, turtle, octopus, urchin, jellyfish, eal, starfish, crab, lobster, shrimp, shell, stone

Learning objectives: tactile experiences with food that simulate the sea life, name sea animals and learn new, distiguish the animals that are similar like lobster-crab, match by shape, practise the scissors cutting skill, etc.

Materials/preparation: box/tray, spaghetti, blue food coloring, scissors, plastic animals/sea figurines, flashcards about fishes and sea, egg carton case, fingerpaints & acrylics, sea animals stickers

🌊Spaghetti sensory box

For this activity you need to hard-boil half package of spaghetti and let it cool. Put them in a zip bag and add at least five drops of blue food coloring and start shaking and lightly squeezing to spread the color. I also used a few shell pasta with brownish orange to be seashells-follow the same proccedure. Leave the pasta in open air to dry for two hours and they are ready. Decorate your sensory bow/tray with plastic animals or figurines you have related to the theme. Supply your children also with tods, chopsticks, etc. to grab and transfer the pasta into plates. Another great tool is scissors and this way they can practise their cutting skill with a different from paper object.

🌊Sensory play with water and semolina

Another idea for sensory play is to prepare two boxes, one with blue colored water for the sea and one with semolina you have in the kitchen to be the sand. Place the animal figurines on the enviroment they mostly live and let your children enjoy the fun and the mess to move from one box to the other.

🌊Flashcards/matching game

If it's easy for you to print, you can easily find online flashcards about sea life. There are too many creatures in the ocean that your children can learn about, so I suggest to talk about 3-5 per day according to their age in order to remember them. I also have a memory game so we used it for a matching activity with the flashcards and a blue cloth to be the sea. It is a super exersise for visual discrimination. Moreover, you can double print the flashcards to make your own memory game.

🌊Sea box craft

This craft takes a couple of day to finish but it worths it. Use a carton egg case to make the sea box and some blue acrylic color and a brush for your children to paint. Let it dry and the next day you can print their hand on the top of the case to make a fish. Use a bright color and decorate the fish. You can also stick some semolina on a small part of the case to have the feel of the sand or real sand if you can. This treasure box can be used to put in all the goodies you can collect from the beach and the sea like stones, shells, dried algae, etc. and examine them at home.

🌊 Match by shape

Here is an easy and funny activity to do on a piece of paper using either the animal figurines or sea animals stickers if you have, like I did above but it's harder to sketch. Place the animals on the sheet and sketch around them to reflect their shape. Then your children has to recognize the animal and match it with its shape.

''Enjoy your summer!''

SM

Lesson plan: Spring

Our plan for today!

Subject: Flowers

"Dear children & parents, 

the spring project begins and it's gonna be multi-layered. Have fun!🥀"

Key terms: spring, flower, petals, leaves, stem

Learning objectives: To realize that spring is the season of blossom, to see different types of flowers and work through them and to create artificial flowers.

Materials & preparation: tablet, printer(optional), bowl with water, flowers, scoops and strainers, cups, dice, newspapers/magazines, scissors, straw, double-sided tape/glue, colored sheets, markers

💮E-book
Following this link ''Now that it's spring!'', you will find a short e-book with spring images to welcome you to the project's theme.

💮Sensory water activity

As you will see in the video, we are making a fairy soup with petals, flowers and leaves, play with them and freeze them at the end▶️2nd video.
Pick some flowers and follow up! You also need a bowl with water, scoops and cups, ice cube tray or cupcakes.

  

💮Board game

You can download my DIY board game in this link→Spring's board game! You need a dice and you are ready to revise numbers and counting in a flowery version. If there is no printer, make your own handmade board game!

💮Flower crafts with easy materials

For the first craft you will need: coloured paper, scissors, double-sided tape and a straw. Watch the steps to make a lovely hyacinthus.

For the second craft you will need newspapers/magazines/brochures to draw on and cut out flowers. Then, paste them on a colored sheet and draw stem and leaves.  Simple but nice. You have so many flower choices.

💮E-games

Here are two memory games with spring images for your little one based one their age to play and exercise their memory and eye perception. 

Memory game for toddlers

Memory game for preschoolers

💮Practice fine motor and pre-writing skills

I forward you some worksheets for tracing lines and cutting by @motheringwithcreativity. You can find more on TeachersPayTeacher. These are great pre-writing activities to practise. Firstly, trace the line with the finger and then, use a marker. There are also spring themed sheets for scissors cutting.

Printable spring worksheets

"Stay tuned for more spring fun following!''
SM

Lesson_Plan: Numbers_Revision

Our plan for today!

Subject: Numbers 1-10

Key terms: number,one ,two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten

Learning objectives: Revise counting one to ten, start identifying the numbers.

Materials and preparation: computer/tablet, printer (optional), tray/plate, salt/flour, lego bricks, white papers, markers, scissors, glue, bucket, newspaper/junk papers, brush, materials for collage[check below on the arts & crafts part]

➤Sensory activities
Time to get messy!💕 We have two activities using these materials: some flour/salt, a tray/plate - any color except white -, markers, an A4 page, a small brush and the numbers’ flashcards.

👉The first one is a pre-writing activity where you need the flashcards for the kids to see and copy the numbers and the tray to write the numbers on with their finger. One card at the time please. About the tray/plate, must not be white because the flour and the salt is also white and they will not be able to see what they write.


👉The second activity is about seeking and matching the numbers. Write, all across an A4 page, all the numbers from 0 to 10 with different color marker. Write down in line the numbers on a second paper also. After, cover the numbers and the page with a layer of flour/salt and give the child a small brush to start brushing the flour/salt up and revealing the numbers. Everytime the child finds a number, has to name it and delete it from the list. Good luck with the excavation!



➤Lego constructions
Get ready to build some towers! Firstly, lay all the flashcards on the floor in order, from 1 to 10, you can ask some help from your child. It’s not an easy task, so do not worry if they can not find the right following number every time. Once the cards are ready, take the lego bucket, start from the beginning, identify the number and put the right amount of bricks to build the tower for each number, like the example. Count every time the bricks to be sure.

 1   2   3  4  5   6   7  8  9  10

💚💛💙💜💛💙💜💚💚💙

      💛💙💜💛💙💜💚💚💙

           💙💜💛💙💜💚💚💙

                 💜💛💙💜💚💚💙

                       💛💙💜💚💚💙

                             💙💜💚💚💙

                                  💜💚💚💙

                                        💚💚💙

                                              💚💙

                                                    💙 

➤ Action game

For this game you will need some old newspapers/magazines, supermarket brochures or any paper you don’t need. Screw the papers into balls with your children and make plenty of them. Find a bucket and place it in a small distance from you. Write down your names and throw by turns equal number of balls in the bucket. Count how many you put in and see who is the winner! 😁

➤ Arts & crafts

✂This is a big project craft about the numbers that is going to keep your children busy all week long. You have to gather eleven different materials to fill in the big numbers. Print big numbers or sketch your own on papers, one for each number. Provide your children with a glue and let them stick the materials you have given between the lines of the number. One different material for each number. Some materials you can use are (*don’t forget to keep an eye on the children and ensure they are safe*): lentil, rice, couscous, salt, cereals, different colored papers, feathers, pom poms, crepe/tissue paper balls, ribbons, buttons, pencils’ shavings  or anything you can think and find in the house that can be glued. In this way you will create different texture card numbers to feel and you can also hang them in the kids’ rooms to practise every day.

➤ Educational online games

💻The following game is about the order of the numbers and the kids have to click on the one missing. It is challenging so you should give it a try!

🎮https://www.splashlearn.com/math-skills/kindergarten-grade/numbers-up-to-10-gk/count-forward-up-to-10

Note: If you like, you can have the flashcards in order next to you so the kids can see the numbers.

💻This game is also enjoyable offering multiple choices on the tasks. You have to put on the ladybug’s dots by counting, matching or ordering. Easy peasy!

🎮https://www.topmarks.co.uk/learning-to-count/ladybird-spots

''That was it! I hope it was a useful project and you had fun. See you soon!''

SM

Lesson_Plan: Colors_1

Our plan for today! 

👉All our occupation plans include crafts and activities for which you are going to use simple materials that you already have in the house. Sometimes you might have to print or you can create what you need on your own. Feel free to use an alternative way and adjust the activity to your preference and availability. After all, it's only about fun!😀

Materials and preparation: Toys, computer or projector to play songs and videos, crayons or markers, art paper(red, blue, yellow, white), printer, scissors, glue, flour, water, food color, cream of tartar (optional) 

Key terms:  red   yellow  blue

Learning objectives: Revising the primary colors so the children will be able to name, identify and separate the three basic colors - red, blue and yellow.

 ➤ Introduction

Select  any three toys from the kids’ room - one red, one blue, one yellow. Cut 3 circles of red, blue and yellow paper and place them on the floor. In case you don’t have colored paper, you can draw 3 circles on white paper and color it with your children. Then ask ‘What color is the toy?’. They might answer correct, if not it’s ok. Repeat the question for each of the toys and name the colors. Ask them to put the toy on the right circle according to the color. 

 ➤Song

The next step is to click on the following link where you are going to watch a small video  with the three colors being introduced. You can repeat also the colors and motivate your child to name loud and clear the colors. ➢https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iev1wgRVdwo  

*If you don’t / can’t watch it, you can only listen to it and raise up each time the right color circle. After this, the three colors will be more clear in the child’s mind. 

➤ Independent  practice

It’s time to play and and have fun! Count till 20 and ask the kids to go and find one red toy, one blue and one yellow and place them again on the right circle. If they need more time, you can count again. Alternatively, you can count till 10 for each color - toy separately. Repeat the game till you run out of toys!

Something that children adore to do is using the play dough, especially when they make it! With your help we are going to make easy homemade play dough that you can preserve in the fridge for a week at least in a plastic bag! The best part is that we are going to color it with food colors and make it even funnier. The ingredients are simple, you have them in your kitchen more or less, and the procedure very easy, so please follow up.

Ingredients

*1 cup of plain flour

*½  cup of salt

*1 tablespoon of cream tartar (optional)

*½  cup of water

*1 tablespoon vegetable oil

*4 drops of food color {If you don’t have food color you can use liquid paint like tempera}

Instructions

*Mix together the flour, salt and cream of tartar. 

*Mix together ½ cup of water with a few drops of food coloring and the oil with a spoon. 

*Slowly pour the water into the flour mixture, stirring as you pour. Stir until combined, then knead with your hands until the flour is completely absorbed. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour until it doesn’t stick at all.

 *Repeat process for other colors you want to make. 

* Notes *Mixing the food coloring with the water before combining with the dry ingredients allows you to blend them by stirring, without staining your hands.

➽ You have so many ways to play with the dough. You can make shapes, sculptures and freestyle creations, you can use your cookie cutters, you can provide your children with materials like buttons, straws, etc. by color and dip them in the right dough or let them play on their own free way as long as they want. I’m sure it will take long! BE SURE TO ALWAYS KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR CHILDREN AND CHECK THEY PLAY SAFELY.

➤E-book

Here is a free online illustrated book based on the colors we are working on today. 

https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-the-little-yellow-monster-short-stories-for-kids/

This story is about a little furry yellow monster that lives inside a sock and all the fun he has with his friends. It discusses a nice message about friendship.

➤Arts & Crafts

All you need for this activity is to find some pictures of items that naturally have the colors red, blur, yellow and print them. However, if you don’t possess a printer, you can sketch them handmade on a A4 white paper. Give to your children red, yellow and blue craft paper and ask to tear them apart in small pieces. Give them some glue to use and stick the right color pieces inside the lines. Your collage is ready.

(*RED APPLE *YELLOW SUN *BLUE DOLPHIN)

‘Hope you liked it. Stay tuned for the next lesson plans about colors!’

SM