Valentines - Day 1

Reading Core Standard Craft & Structures 6, 7, 10
Preparation
none
Materials
How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague
Teaching
1. On the cover of the book point out the author and illustrator.
2. Explain the job of the author (to write the words) and the illustrator (to draw pictures to show what the words are saying).
3. After reading each page, ask your child, "How does the illustrator show this?"
This is how I teach it (YouTube video).
Phonics Core Standard Phonics 3.c.
Preparation
In highlighter or marker write the following words on a piece of paper:
the, to and, is

Materials
Newspaper article
Highlighters or Light Markers in various colors

Teaching
1. Have your child take the marker in the corresponding color and highlight each "the" in the article. (In other words, you have written the word "the" in pink, so your child takes a pink marker and finds all "the"'s in the text and highlights them in the pink marker.
2. Repeat for the other words.
3. As your child looks for the words they may find others they missed, so keep all the markers handy.

Writing Core Standard Conventions of English 1.a.
Preparation
Create a race track in the form of the letter "V" on a piece of paper Write "Go" at beginning of letter and "stop" at the end

Materials

"V" track

Small toy car

Teaching
1. Have your child push the toy car along the "V" track, starting at go, and ending at "Stop."

2. Do not let your child go backward.  This is about practicing the letter formation of "V."
3. Let your child race different cars, different speeds, along the track.Math Core Standard - Comparing Numbers 6
Preparation
Create a chart with the different color hearts from a box of conversation hearts with a column for each color

Materials

Chart

Box of conversation hearts
Teaching
1. Have child open box of hearts and arrange hearts in their columns.
2. Ask which column has more or less than the other columns.  Ask which column has the most, which has the least.
3. Ask, "How many hearts from this column would you have to eat to have equal hearts with that column?"
4. Eat some hearts
Watch me teach this here
Art
Preparation
Materials

Paper

Scissors

Glue
Markers

Stickers
Teaching
1. Teach your child how to cut hearts from paper.
2. Have your child create a Valentine for someone they love.
3. Have them decorate it.  You can have them write "I Love You" because seeing "I love you" in child writing is the best Valentine present  ever.

4. Your child can create as many Valentines as he would like.  For my son that was one Valentine.  For my daughter who joined us that was several.

Writing

I have been diligent in having my son follow the writing criteria for the core standards, and he manages to form the letters in his own way to complete the task.  But there's a problem.  He's forming the letters in his own way.  This makes writing more laborious, and more like art, which he hates.  Misery for me.  Misery for him.  I don't believe that misery and education should be simpatico, so until we've learned proper formation of all the letters Writing will be learning proper letter formation.  And so that this won't be boring to him we'll be learning letter formation several ways.  We'll explore the letter formation for 1-2 days, then actually write the letter the third day.  This, I hope, will help get technique down better, and make him a better writer.  Knowing proper letter formation makes for cleaner, neater faster writing.
Teaching for me has always been a work in progress, so while Writing may change, I hope it's a change for the better. 

Space - Day 3

Reading Core Standard Range of Reading 7
Preparation
Materials
Cat in the Hat: There's No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe
Teaching
1. Before reading each page to your child have them be a detective and look for clues in the illustration to guess what the words say.
2.   Praise your child when they correctly guess the text using illustration clues.
Phonics Core Standard Rhyming words
Preparation

Materials

Teaching
1. Say a space word and have your child come up with a word that rhymes with it.  Let your child give you a space word to rhyme.  Laugh at your silly rhymes.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer

Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3.  Have your child find pictures on Internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:
A- Astronomer
B - Bright
C- Constellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - Quick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3
Preparation
I have boxes of small items that I use for teaching this: stamps, beads, fake leaves, fake flowers, colored blocks, etc.
Materials
Small items
Teaching
1. Tell your child to make the number 5 (or chose a smaller number if 5 is too large) with the items.
2.Ask them to explain each time they create the number 5. For example, "I made three bunny stamps and two giraffe stamps." or "I have five blue beads" or "I have one circle and four rectangles."
3. Write their creation as an equation.  Example:
"I made three bunny stamps and two giraffe stamps."  Write 3+2= 5.
Say, "Just like words  say a story.  These numbers tell us what you made." Go through step by step how you created the equation.  ("You stamped three bunnies, so I wrote this three.  This '+' means you added more.  This two says you added the two giraffes."

Art
Preparation
Materials
Large sheet of paper
Water colors
Paintbrushes
Black tempera paint

Teaching
1. Have your child paint their own planet using the water colors.
2.Have your child create the space around the planet using the black tempera paint.
** My son wanted half his planet to be in daylight, half at night so he only painted half of his paper black

Space - Day 2

Sad News  - I can not find any of the pictures I took from this day.  I'm so sorry! I have the video from our Math, though.

Reading Core Standard Reading 8
Preparation
Create a solar system on a large piece of paper labeling the sun and each of the 8 planets. Leave room on or next to each planet to record information learned.
Materials
Solar system paper
Pen
The Planets  by Gail Gibbons
Teaching
1.  Read the book The Planets by Gail Gibbons.
2.After reading return to the book and look at each page.  Have your child tell you one or more things he learned about that planet.  Record what he learned on or in the planet.

Phonics Core Standard Phonemic Awareness 2.d.,e.
Preparation
Write the word "Planet" on a piece of paper. Cut into individual letters.
Materials
Cut up word
Teaching
1. Have your child use the letters from the word "Planets" to create the following words in order.
2. at, pat, sat, set, pet, let, net, ten, pen, pan, tan, tap, lap, sap, nap
3. When you teach this say, "Make the word "at."
4. "Add a letter to make "Pat."
5."Change a letter to make "sat." Etc.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer
 Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3.  Have your child find pictures on internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:


B - Bright
C- COnstellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - QUick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 4
Preparation
Materials
Deck of cards, jacks, quenns, and kings removed

Teaching
1. Shuffle cards and deal 5 cards to each player.
2. Players go through their cards to see if they can put two cards together  to make ten (4+6, 5+5, etc)
3.  Players ask each other for cards to make ten (Example: If a player has a seven they ask the other player for a three)
4.  If other player doesn't have card asked for then player will "go fish" for another card.
5.  When player has two cards that equal ten they have a match and get to keep it.
6.  Player with most matches wins.
Watch how we play here


Art
Preparation
Materials
Black paper
Glue stick
Glitter
Circles cut out of colored paper
Ellipses cut out of colored paper, with center cut out (these become rings for the plantets)

Teaching
1. Have child rub glue stick all over paper.
2.  Have child sprinkle glitter all over paper.
3.  Have child arrange plantes all over paper.
Voila!  A solar system!

Space -Day 1

Reading Core Standard Reading # 4, 5, 6
Preparation
Write the following words on 3x5 cards or strips of paper:
Galaxy, milky way, planet, constellations, Solar System, universe, orbit, rotate, Earth
Materials
Stars, Stars, Stars by Bob Barner
Me and My Place in Space by Joan Sweeney
Words

Teaching
1. Read the books, point to the words that you have written on the paper strips.
2. After reading ask your child what each of the words means.
3. Define the words together.  You can review what the book said about the words if you need to.
4.  Hold up each word, and have your child define it.

Phonics Core Standard Phonics 2b
Preparation
Use same word strips from last activity
Divide a piece of paper into 4 sections.  Number each section 1-4.
Materials
Strips used in Reading activity

Teaching
1. Segment each word into their syllables ("ga-la-xy").
2. Count the syllables in the word ("ga-la-xy" - three syllables)
3. Place the word in the corresponding column on your segmented paper (galaxy goes under 3 because it has 3 syllables)

4. Cover all but the first syllable in the word.  Sound it out together ("ga")
5. Repeat for other syllables.("la," "ksy")
6.  Blend syllables together (Galaxy)
7.  Repeat for remaining words.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer

Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3.  Have your child find pictures on Internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:

A- Astronomer
B - Bright
C- Constellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - Quick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 1, 3,5
Preparation
Cut out two sets of 8 circles out of paper and label them with the name of each planet and the number distance from the sun (Mercury - 1, Venus -2 , Earth -3, Mars - 4, etc)
Materials
Paper Planets
2 Dice
Teaching
1. Place one set of planets in front of each player (probably you and your child).
2.  Have someone roll the dice.  They use the roll to take a planet out of their solar system.  So, if they get a six and a five.  They can take planet six and five out of their solar system.  If they roll a one and a four they can take planets one and four out of their solar system or planet five out of their solar system.
3.  Take turns.
4.  If a player roll a number that they cannot use, it is the other player's turn.
5.  If all numbers are rolled except one, that player can roll both dice, one at a time to try to get the number one.
You can watch how we play here

Exploration
Preparation
Make a black mark on the ball
Materials
Small ball (size of a baseball)
Flashlight

Teaching
1.  Shine the flashlight on the ball.
2.  Point out the flashlight is the sun, the ball is earth.
3. Point the flashlight at the ball.
4. Half the ball will be in the light of the flashlight, half in dark.  This is like the day and the night.  Rotate the ball.
5. Show your child the spot going from the light (day) to the dark (night).