Summer Learning - Letter Pp

Rookie (5 yrs old)

Ace (39 mos)

Ladybug (13 mos)

This week was Letter "P" and I set up their desk area with their RRSP materials, Puzzles, books, and toys that matched the theme which included LOTS and LOTS of puppies, pigs, pink, purple and one toy penguin.

For a "light" week of school, we still accomplished quite a bit.

 Morning Calendar had us doing "P"ushups for our Letter of the Week exercise.

 Fingerpainting was pulled out again and Ace matched his colors without any of my help.

 Rookie is getting really good at his sight words. This week was "to" and in the process I think he learned the words "Let's" and "the". He already knew "go". But every page of his easy reader said "Let's go to the ____" So, he saw the other words just as much as "to".

We took two weeks to do the letter "P". So, week one "P" was traced by a train

...and week two our penguin walked the letter P. Ace is also catching on to "where we start our letters? at the top!" While tracing, he was verbalizing how to write a P. I was very impressed. I think he will be able to write his letters soon.

Ladybug is always in the middle of them and sometimes playing with her toys is more fun.

Rookie really had fun with his dotpaints this week. He decided to alternate all of the colors. He started out with a patter, but Ace moved his paints around and the pattern changed. But still a good effort to add some variety to a basic activity.

 Once again, Ladybug HAD to be in the middle...literally. So, I pulled up a chair for her to feel a part of the group.

Grandmommy and Grandpapa brought these pencil grips from Little Giant Steps homeschool booth and BOTH the boys LOVE to use them. It is helping them both to tuck that middle finger behind the pencil. It is also bringing back the love of using pencils over markers. Thank goodness!

 Scissor skills. I am having to remind Rookie to SLOW DOWN. I think his accuracy would improve...well, it DOES improve when he takes his time instead of speeding through everything.

 Matching Capital and lower case "P"s. Typically an easy activity for Rookie, but he did have to rethink a couple of times since the the two look very similar.

Our memory verse this week is sung to Twinkle Twinkle. I think Rookie knew almost every word by the end of the week.

 As Ace looks on, Rookie sorted small, medium and large. Another easy activity, but it peaked Ace's attention and he wanted to do it too. I took this opportunity to build vocabulary since we wanted to call the small pumpkins "little".

Ace put his pencils in small, medium and large order too. When he does this activity, we also talk about first, second and third.

 Magnet pages for the letter "P" loved by both. By the way, pardon the lack of shirts, we had just finished swim lessons that morning.

Finally, our handwriting. Rookie successfully translated TONS of "P"s to the blank line on the bottom. I can honestly say that giving him the verbal ability to talk through his writing has made a huge difference. Every letter starts at the top. We jump to the top to begin the next line, etc. Handwriting Without Tears has been key to helping him take the next step.

We will be continuing on to letter "B" next week. I'm not sure how many letters we will accomplish before the beginning of the school year, but hopefully we will be able to get in 3 more.