Pets Week for Preschoolers - Part 3

Pets Week was a success! I apologize in advance for not including a lot of bird activities. It is totally deliberate. I intend to include an "Angry Birds" unit sometime soon so I am saving the bird activities for that time. 

Math - Fish and their bubbles

First seen on My Montessori Journey. I thought it was such a great idea! I made the fish from felt and wrote the numbers with white fabric glue. Adrian then sequenced the fish from 1 to 10 and distributed the water bubbles (cut-up little beads from a small purse I never used) to match the number on the fish. 

An example of matching numbered fish with the right amount of bubbles

Fine Motor Skills / Practical Life - Scooping "bird seed" aka "rice"

I guess I could have bought bird seeds since I'm planning on it anyway but since I had none at home this week, I used rice and pretended it was bird seed which Adrian had to scoop from one bowl to a smaller bowl. It got harder and harder the less seed there was...

Math -Addition with Goldfish

Adrian is loving adding lately and can do it without props but this math was so cute I couldn't resist. I printed it from 3Dinosaurs  (Ocean Part 2 Pack) and inserted it in a plastic protector so it could be used several times. I put goldfish "in the water" and Adrian would count and add the number cards needed under.

Math - Feeding the dog the right amount of bones

A yummy activity. Printed these cards from a clipart found on CogHillCartooning. Then I printed a bunch of them and wrote a number on each and put some Scooby Snacks in a bowl.  Adrian knew exactly what to do; feed each dog the amount of bones desired...and eat the bones afterwards.

Math - Number puzzles

A puzzle-game made by Ravensburger we bought last year. He enjoys it as a puzzle. Haven't played it as game yet. I pulled out the pets cards and he completed the puzzles...and then proceeded to pull out the farm animals and zoo animals as well! :)

Art - Dog Origami

Wanted to do something different so I looked for simple origami activities for kids and found this dog on Origami with Rachel Katz. It was very easy for me, but Adrian needed assistance with pressure in the folds but overall, he liked it much. Mine is the white dog and his the black dog (we didn't have origami paper but two construction sheets could be glued together. Doing it along is a must.

Art - Making play dough balls for pets to play with

Noticing that Adrian is having  a tough time modeling with dough, I presented this activity to him. Very simple; make balls so the Learning Resources Jumbo Pets have toys to play with. He loved the idea but is still in need of some practice to form balls. He's getting better every time though.

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Today, I'm happily linking up to:

Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase,  123 Homeschool 4 Me, We Made That,

and Sun Scholars's For the Kids Friday.

Pets Week for Preschoolers - Part 2

Adrian knows his pets very well but it's still fun for him to talk about them. Every time, he learns something new. For example, while working with the cat whiskers this week, we discussed how important they are for the kitties. Little facts thrown in here and there make it captivating and educational at the same time.

Fine Motor Skills - Pet Lacing Cards

Beautiful lacing cards with pets (made by Melissa & Doug). Adrian laced a new one every day. We tried these when he was younger (3 years old) and it was very difficult. This time, it was no trouble at all although the "under-over" pattern is something that sometimes causes trouble.

Science - Water, air or land?

I really wanted to make better looking water-air-land cards for this  but Adrian was sick this week and as such, time was mostly spent disinfecting and laundering so his little sister and us wouldn't catch the little bug that upset his stomach. In the end, simple construction paper had to do, along with a Toob of Pets to sort into their right category. We purchased this Toob on Amazon for about $10 a few months ago.

Outdoor Play - Sifting "cat poop" from the "litter box"

As yucky as it can seem, it's kind of a practical life activity if you ask me. If we had a cat, Adrian would now be able to sift through the box to scoop out the pees and poops! :) And being that he is a little boy, anything poopy-related is hilarious. So I cut 2 brownish pipe cleaners, and tried to shape them like cat poopies. I then buried then in the sand and asked Adrian to "clean the litterbox". He loved it and repeated the activity.

The pipe cleaners (aka cat poop) in the sandbox (aka litter box)

Outdoor Play - Doing tricks like dogs can do

The outdoors is where, ideally, Adrian would spend all his time. If it's nice out, I try to do an activity outside. He really liked this one. I put together a quick obstacle course he had to complete and the LOVED it. We discusses how dogs can be trained to do tricks, watched a short video and then, Adrian went though the circuit I prepared. He had to catch the ball, walk across a piece of wood while keeping his balance, jump into the hula hoop, walk in between the ladder steps and finally slide down the slide. I modified the course too to make it different because he kept wanting go through it.

Math - shortest to tallest cat whisker

Yeah...about that one. I think I need to make more "whiskers" next time. This was definitely the easiest activity this week. 

Math - Adding spots to the Dalmatian

A well liked activity. I printed a "spotless" Dalmatian (Color-Your-Own) and then asked Adrian to throw a die so we could get this poor creature some of its famous spots. He then had to draw the number of spots he rolled. He really likes our colorful dice (found at a dollar store) and decided he would throw each one once and do the quantity of spots required by each. This is the final version after rolling each die once.  The most difficult part for for him to draw small circles. He can draw circles but not small ones so I ended up drawing the small circles (he'd count for me) and he filled them in. Staying within the lines is also difficult for him so this was good practice.

Pets Week for Preschoolers

While we aren't lucky enough to own a pet, we are graced almost daily by the visit of Miss Nabburg, the neighbor's cat, who happens to be very friendly (aka comes in the house for "routine inspections" and petting sessions). Both Adrian and Zahavah love animals and I thought "Pet Week" would allow Adrian to learn a bit more about the most common pets and yet feel comfortable within the topic. Here are some of the activities we've accomplished this week.

Outdoor Play - "Digging" for bones in the yard

While we didn't really dig like a dog would to find these bones, I sure thought about planning it that way. "What if I put the homemade felt bones in a small Ziploc bag and hid them in the sand? " But no, I stayed low key...As it turns out, the brown bones were not that easy to find in the grass. Leaves have started falling here and as such, they blended in! So I just asked Adrian to look for the 8 bones in the yard. He loves this type of outdoor activity. I made my bones following the Booda Bones size of bones and made two of each so they could be used for matching and sizing from largest to smallest afterwards.

Math - Matching & Sizing Up

Pictured are the felt bones after Adrian matched them up and then "sized them up" from largest to smallest.

Fine Motor - Cutting fish strips

Using scissors can be challenging for a child. Adrian is working real hard at this lately and loves his improvements in making larger cuts, more precise cuts and faster cuts (I'm loving it too!). These scissors are from Melissa & Doug and are great. I love that they do not cut clothes or fingers because honestly, this week, we'd be missing some some skin I'm afraid. I printed these strips (featuring real fish from Utah lakes) thinking we'd work on one daily and that is what we've been doing. Each day brings us improvements in the scissor holding department. Want your own fish strips? Visit Fish in Utah for your copy.

Cat Breed Matching & Memory Game

A very nice (I think!) cat breed game. Printed from VisualDictionaryOnline on cardstock (print 2 copies), then cut to be in the same size. First Adrian matched the cat breeds together and then we played a memory game with these. Adrian loved finding a pair.

Math - Counting Goldfish

This was one of the quickest activities for Adrian. He loves math AND goldfish so he filled the sheet as quick as possible and then proceeded to eat ALL the counters! :)

Fishing Game

This little fishing game took a while to make and I am glad to say it was worth it. Adrian loved fishing with the magnetic wand.  He counted the fish as he went. If you wish to make your own felt fishes, here is what I used: brightly colored felt, sequins for the scales, thread, goggly eyes, a metal washer and polyester stuffing. To complete the game, use a magnetic wand from a magnetic puzzle if you have one. I cannot remember where I found the pattern but drawing a fish is pretty basic anyway. The idea for the game came from Counting Coconuts by the way.

Math - Counting whiskers

A quick activity (a filler, really) involving cats and math. Found at Kidssoup in their free pages to use.

Art & Fine Motor - Adding scales to a fish

I spent an evening cutting little round construction paper circles for this craft. I really wanted to use hole  punched paper (lazy, you say?) but it would have been too small for Adrian to pick up one by one. At the size of a dime or so, these were just right for a pick up challenge yet not frustrating. We used liquid glue and a paintbrush too as glue sticks are a bit too sticky yet not enough sometimes for Adrian. It worked wonderfully and he loved this craft. Get your own fish at Free Coloring Sheets.

Math - Pattern Sequence of pets with stampers

What child doesn't love stamps? Using Melissa & Doug's Pet Stampers, I proceeded to start a sequence of pattern which Adrian had to complete with the right pet AND ink color. He would have done a lot more than 4 sequences for sure. I wish the grid had more spaces as I felt it may be tough to really determine what came next for Adrian but a smaller grid would have meant no room for the stamps...

As pet week goes on, expect at least another post on this wonderful subject.

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Today, I'm happily linking up to

Living Montessori Now, B-Inspired Mama, I can Teach my Child, No Time for Flashcards, and 123 Homeschool 4 Me.