Teacher Turned Momma: Preschool Letter F and Firefighters

When I wrote about my preschool plans for Sophie, I said that I would probably alternate BFIAR with some other general high interest or seasonal themes. This week we did a Community Helper focus on firefighters. I'm still working to figure out exactly how much I should plan for a week to keep her interest and keep me from going crazy. This week we barely had enough (she really doesn't like repeating actvities - any suggestions?? Somethings are a lot of work for doing something one time! Some things I will just bring out another week, but, man, it sure would be great for planning purposes if I could get her interested in doing something more than once.) And, as I mentioned in Miles' post this week, I'm learning that if I don't have something completely prepared at the beginning of the week (as much as is feasible), I am REALLY BAD about following through with it!

I also struggled a bit this week with how much was too much content-wise for a three year old. I had planned on doing some fire safety things, like talking about what to do if you hear a fire alarm, stop drop and roll, etc., but Sophie is very much in an easily scared phase right now. I was very concerned about giving her something to be afraid of. I mean, honestly, I can see her being terrified of the smoke detector because it had the potential to be noisy. So, I went with my momma gut and decided to hold off on some of the things we had planned for the week. I will share some of the links at the bottom of the post, because there were some great ideas. I just didn't feel comfortable doing them with Sophie at this point in her life.

Bible and Character

For Bible, we read about God creating people. We are working our way through My First Hands On Bible. We are keeping a Bible journal together, and I think it may be one of my favorite things. I got the idea from Wildflower Ramblings.

We also continued memorizing Psalm 23 and Psalm 139:14.

This month, we are focusing on attentiveness as our character trait. Pretty much this has just meant using the word and demonstrating what this means, but also brushing up on our ability to pay attention by playing lots of Memory! She loves her Disney Princess Memory and her Dr. Seuss Memory games.

Reading the Alphabet Letter F

This week we mostly just did our Reading the Alphabet curriculum, with a few swaps to include more firefighter activities.

Sight Word Poke. She takes this very seriously. She loves getting to use a pushpin.

Rescue the Alphabet Game. This letter identification game was a huge hit! I put our alphabet magnets on the refrigerator and told Sophie she was a firefighter who had to rescue the letters from a fire. She would stand on the opposite side of the kitchen and I would say, "Quick! Rescue the T!" She would run, find the T and bring it to safety on the dishwasher. She got really into it! Miles played with his magnets, too.

Practicing F.

Melissa and Doug Firetruck Puzzle. Miles "helps" making the puzzle super challenging. ;)

Syllable Count and Clip Cards.

Sight Word Maze.

Firetruck 20 Grid. She rolled the dice and added the appropriate number of unifix cubes. Once again, she made the pattern totally on her own.

Firefighter Patterns. She has the AB patterns down great now, so I introduced ABC patterns and she picked it up right away. This is from the Firemen Printable Pack at Homeschool Creations.

Firetruck Craft. Sophie loved painting this firetruck and then putting it together. This was the first time she decided she wanted to paint something particular instead of just free paint, and both of us were really proud of how it turned out.