Start of Curriculum

*41 Months*

Cricket was so excited to be in her new school room, not to say that everything went well though (see Raising Rockstars). She even wore her special first day of school dress, and let me take some pretty pictures. She was also initially very excited about her prize, silly bands, but they turned out to be a flop with my kiddo. I also pretty quickly modified her seat by adding a booster, so she could work at a more comfortable level. 

I added a couple of things to our daily routine. We added a song about our letter (this week was the ants go marching), and we started our 100 days of school count down. Cricket decided she wanted to x through the numbers as we go, and this works as well as anything else would have. She cracks me up trying to do this though, her little tongue almost always sticks out as she concentrates on getting the x just right!

Letter of the Week

We started our letter of the week studies with the letter a. My intent was to do a is for apple, but I quickly realized focusing on one a thing was not my style. I did use all the apple things I had planned, but I also ended up incorporating other a words. 

This included adding “a is for Auburn”. We had an Auburn day when she wore her Auburn University cheerleader dress, colored worksheets, and worked on our WAR EAGLE! I found this worksheet that let's you change the word, so instead of cheerleader or football you can type in your team name.

We are continuing with Hooked on Phonics and completed the workbooks pages on lower case a, “a” sound, and writing the letter Aa. Other letter activities were tracing, printing, and finding the letter in her name. Cricket also learned the sign for the letter a, and we practiced some of the signs we had stopped using (please and thank you). 

Art

Our major art project was also letter of the week. I had printed the large letter A with the intent of getting her to do a collage, and I wanted to do an apple print painting. Our time was running short though, so I combined the two! I thought she would fill in the A with apple prints, but that’s not what she wanted. So Cricket made apple prints around the A and then painted the A with another color. 

I will say I had to convince her that using the apple to paint would be fun, and that there would be more apples to eat.

Language Arts

On Monday, we went to the library to look for the books to support my a is for apple lesson plan. I was unable to find ANY of the books I was looking for, but I did stumble into some great finds. The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall started and ended by discussing making apple pie from an apple tree, but the majority of the book was about how the tree changed with the seasons ( I may revisit this book, when we do our seasons unit study). I loved the easy reader I picked up though: All Aboard Science Reader Station Stop 1 Apples: And How They Grow by Laura Driscoll. It was very much on Cricket’s level, and it actually taught about apples and how they grow (Mommy learned something too)! I am going to be searching for more of this series.

Math

Our number for the week was zero. I think by the end of the week Cricket had finally grasped this concept. The 0 or 1 worksheet really seemed to help! She also did a printing sheet, but as you can see she digressed into coloring them in. 

We also worked on concepts of above and largest. As you can see in this picture we are still working on correct grip. 

Science

For science, Cricket did this great animal sort game. She did great with identifying the ocean animals, but had a little trouble with farm versus zoo. I understood some of the confusion though since we have seen “farm animals” at zoos before.  For those animals I explained that they could be at either place, but also why they would be on a farm. 

Geography

This week we discussed Alabama and Alaska. We spent more time on Alabama then I plan to spend on the other states, because this is where we live. Cricket did coloring sheets for each state, and we identified them on our map. We read the book Rookie Read About Geography: Alabama. It did cover some of the things I needed it to, but let’s just say I was disappointed. I also got out Cricket’s Alabama map, but she decided this would be a good play mat!

Physical Education

Since Cricket is starting a new harder gymnastics class this week, I wanted to work on her gymnastic terminology. This week we talked about arabesques.  Her first class went great by the way: only four kids in the class; we love her teacher; Cricket tried hard; and her only “issue” was with doing flips on the bar.

Life Skills

As a life skill, we continued to work on sign identification. We have been working on street signs for awhile, and Cricket can identify a stop sign. This week we added restroom signs, and we observed and discussed them. 

Tot School

My second favorite little girl (not so little anymore actually) gave Cricket her collection of Betty Spaghetti Dolls. Cricket has LOVED playing with them all week. We talked about the parts of the body, and they are great for developing fine motor skills. It also inspired a lot of creativity!

Cricket had great fun with her cutting activity. Downside was she didn’t want to stop cutting. I finally had to do a countdown, and then there was still pouting. 

Cricket also worked on lots of puzzles, coloring, and stickers. She also has a new fascination with making tents and hiding in them!

This week was also daddy’s birthday, so we made him a card and cupcakes (fine motor skills, pouring, measuring, stirring, spooning, spreading, and sprinkling).  I also used my guided imagery for the first time, and this really seemed to help Cricket following along. 

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