Thursday, May 2, 2013

By the Pond for Preschoolers - Part 3

Concluding our Pond Unit was bittersweet. I think Adrian and I both really liked the topic and could easily have gone on...but just like a fun game, it's probably best to leave things be when they are still at peak! :) The theme can always be further explored next year after all.

Addition Lily Pad Math
Math - Lily pad addition

I really need to start pinning. For the past few weeks, I have seen lily pad math everywhere. Of course when came the time to look them up, I had the hardest time remembering who had created them and where to find them! Ugh. I usually write it all down (yes...I'm a bit old-fashioned...) but I guess I thought I'd find at least one! Thankfully, 123 Homeschool 4 Me had a very nice free printable all ready for Adrian. Adding is still something we are working on so we still use objects to make it tangible as you can see. Here, we used glass gems (Tedi, our bargain store had an entire jar for 1 euro!). The frog had a 4 + 4 addition so Adrian put 4 pebbles on one side and 4 on the other side. He added them all and picked lily pad number 8 for his frog to reside on (good job!). Then, everything was "swept" aside for another addition.


Cards Counters River Rocks
Math - Counting River Rocks - Explaining Odd and Even Numbers

Adrian has been counting for years now but I never really took the time to explain the difference between and odd and even numbers (how "odd" is that?). I guess that escaped me. Last week, I took the time to add these words to his growing vocabulary by taking the time to show him the alignment of his river rocks. He liked it so much he actually made me "create" bigger numbers so I could "quiz" him whether that number was odd or even... :)

Land Water Forms Matching
Language & Science: Water and Land Forms

The pond is a water form but there are so many out there. What a nice way to introduce other water forms I thought! Thanks to Tiffany (she donated her cards to Montessori Materials), I printed my own brown and blue nomenclature cards and we began learning all about these land and water forms. Later that week, I got a copy of these same forms but this time, I got a copy of what they might look like in real life (visit The Helpful Garden for these). Adrian now had to match "bay" with "bay" and "cape" with "cape. Not an easy task for all the cards I'm afraid but it was a good start...



Fishing Game Felt
Felt Fishing Game

This was really more of a just for fun game. It does take some coordination to catch the fish but still, Adrian is quite good at it now. We've used these before. I made them myself and you can read all about them in my previous post about Pets.

Monet Talk
Artist of the Month: Claude Monet

Every month, I try to remember to introduce a new artist. For April, I chose to go with Monet who, like us this week, was a big fan of the pond apparently! :) We talked about the artist himself, mostly thanks to Making Art Fun. At such a young age, basic information is really all Adrian will absorb and even then. He yawned and fidgeted throughout "the lecture". We quickly moved on to the art part where we looked at the work of Monet, paying attention to the colors used and the subject of the art. As much as possible, I try to have Adrian come up with the observations (such as: Monet love to paint landscapes it seems!) but sometimes, I almost have to give him choices of answers. :) After looking at several art pieces, we got to work choosing to "reproduce" a pond filled with water lilies. See the results below! :)

Water Lillies Pastel
Water Lilies by Mommy

Water Lillies Preschool
Adrian's Rendition of the Monet Masterpiece!
It was Adrian's first time using oil pastels and he liked it very much.
He pressed as hard as if they were crayons so the colors are not as muted.


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If saying good bye to the pond unit is bittersweet for you to, I invite you to make some flower pot and dragonfly cupcakes like we did! :) I actually volunteered to bake these for the bake sale at my son's German school. The Germans having no cupcakes (unless you visit "american bakeries in huge metropolis I've been told), they were a very big hit! :)


Flower Pot Cupcakes
Flower Pot Cupcakes 
Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, Chocolate Sprinkles, Sugar Leaves and Lollipops!

Original idea seen on Once Upon a Cookie.

Dragonfly Cupcakes
Dragonfly Cupcakes
Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Licorice Antennae, Pretzel Wings and Smarties Head (skittles/M&M would work too! I just love Smarties!)

Original idea seen on The Daily Cupcake.

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Your comments make my day ! 

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Today, I'm happily linking up to


If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!

6 comments:

  1. Fantastic unit study! I love the land form matching game!

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    1. Thank you so much! It was a fun and education time! I was surprised at how much there was to do with a topic such as "by the pond". Definitely worth doing a study!

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  2. Great unit study, and adorable snacks! Featuring you this week on Mom's Library!

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    1. Thank you Ashley! The cupcakes were a big hit. So easy to make too and very seasonal. A feature? Oh thank you so much! It's always flattering to be featured. So many people link up every week with wonderful posts too!

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  3. I love that you included a study of Monet to go along with your pond theme. Thanks for sharing this post in the Discover & Explore linky. Excited to see what you share for our Zoos and Wild Animals theme this week.

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    1. Thank you Shaunna! I try to link in art and music whenever they seem to just flow in our thematic. The pond and Monet seemed so natural. A bit like Summer and Van Gogh! :) Zoos? Well we sure did explore that thematic quite a bit. It will be exciting to link up! Thanks for the invitation!

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