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. 

Additional Links

Practicing Fire Safety with Dolls 

Easy Fire Safety Activities for Kids 

Fire Safety with Preschoolers 

Sparky.org - free apps, activities, and more! 

Fireman Number Recognition Game 

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place, Homeschool Creations PreK and Kindergarten Community,  and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood

Jesse Bear What Will You Wear (BFIAR) and Letter T (Reading the Alphabet)

This was our first week of Preschool activities and I think we both really enjoyed it! Like any great Pinterest-loving mom, I got a first week of Preschool picture (taken unapologetically during the second week of Preschool...).  She looks so grown up.

Before Five in a Row (BFIAR): Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

So I think we are going to really enjoy using BFIAR. This week was a lot of fun.  I was worried how Sophie would take to reading the same story each day, but she really liked this one, so it wasn't a struggle.

These are some of the activities we did beyond the ones suggestions in the curriculum book. 

Shape Stamping. 

Dressing the Bear Family for the Weather. She really liked this activity.  We love our Melissa and Doug Bear Family, but we added the weather "spinner" (ha, without the spinner...) to tell her how to dress the bears.  She did this for a long time.

Measuring Jesse Bear's Lunch. And other printables from Homeschool Creations and HomeschoolShare.

Bear Pancakes.  No pictures, because I don't want to end up on a Pinterest Fail compilation, haha. But my children loved it so that's all that matters!

Reading the Alphabet - Letter T

We followed the Reading the Alphabet curriculum almost exactly this week. Sophie really enjoyed the activities and was super proud of herself when she could read the Letter T Reader (with sight word "a"). 

Poke Page. She felt so grown up getting to use a push pin!  

Tracing T.

Syllable Count and Clip. This activity is just the right difficulty for her right now - its challenging without being frustrating, and she is so proud of herself when she figures it out!

Sight Word Maze and Word Search.

Letter T 20 Grid Math Game.

Letter T Reader Pocket Chart.  She loved working on reading the words using the pocket chart. The magic wand sealed the deal. And who can use a magic wand without a tiara? Not my daughter.

Turtle Number Matching. She is really great at recognizing numbers up to ten, but those tricky teen numbers are throwing us for a loop!  We are trying some activities just for exposure right now.  She drew a number card and had to find the match on the turtle.

I am definitely excited to see how this curriculum is going to work out for us.  At this point it seems like a great fit for Sophie, who, skill-wise seems on the verge of learning to read, but maturity-wise doesn't seem too interested in learning how yet.  We'll take our time and explore some sight words and play with phonics with this curriculum and pick up more when she's ready! 

Linking up at 1+1+1=1 Tot School Gathering Place, Homeschool Creations PreK and Kindergarten Community,  and Teaching Mama's Everything Early Childhood