Preschool Weeks 31-36

I’m so late in posting this.  Gabriela finished preschool in July and is in kindergarten now.  I don’t remember everything we did the last 6 weeks of school, but since I had already started this post, I thought I might as well finish it.  We did quite a bit, so I’ll focus on just a few of the theme units we had fun with.

Musical Instruments

We played two musical instrument games.  One is Musical Instrument Lotto (Nathan, 1987), and the other is Listening to the Music (Battat Games, 1987).  I’ve had these games for years, and I can find neither of them on the internet, not even on ebay.  The first one is great for learning to identify 30 different instruments by sight.  The second one came with a cassette tape with short samples of each instrument playing.  It also has a playing board with a scene full of people playing each of the instruments.  You have to match the sound with the instrument on the board.

We played with two different xylophones.  One was a wooden xylophone, and the other was a fan-shaped metal xylophone.  We had some sheet music for these.  I also have a tubful of rhythm instruments that Gabriela loves to play with.  We have cymbals, jingle bells, tambourines, sand blocks, triangle, rhythm sticks, all sorts of maracas and shakers, and other odd-looking instruments I can’t tell you the names of.  We practiced copying rhythms, and we also played the instruments with music.

Gabriela made this water instrument with her daddy:

Community

We set up a number of dramatic play areas on different days.  This included a sweet shop, beauty shop, vet clinic, post office, and grocery store.  We also set up a town on the shower liner play mat I made a few years ago, and we played Richard Scarry’s Busytown board game.   

Nursery Rhymes

We videotaped a few nursery rhymes that Gabriela memorized (though maybe not perfectly):

We also watched several nursery rhymes from Sesame Street (Kermit’s news reports)!  These are the same ones I watched when I was little in the 70s.  I showed several of these to Gabriela and totally laughed my way through them—hilarious!  Even my older kids enjoyed watching these.  I’ll post a few here, but follow links to watch more.

Summer

Water play—We have a small sand/water table, and I filled it with water and seashells and included a rubber duck, a measuring cup, a strainer, and a funnel.  We were blessed with unusually good weather for England during the whole month of July, so Gabriela got plenty of outdoor play!

That’s it for preschool!  I have no younger children, so Tot School and Preschool are over for me.  If I ever get the opportunity to work with children this age again (which is sort of a dream of mine), I may post more ideas in the future.  Otherwise, this is it!

I'm linking this post to "Preschool & Kindergarten Community" at Homeschool Creations.

History Box Additions

Someday, I’m going to make history boxes.  I’m not sure how I’ll go about it, as I don’t have much in my collection yet.  I’m considering Ancient, Medieval, Modern to start with...until my collection grows into sub-categories.  Eventually, I’d like to be more specific (Ancient Egypt, WW2, Victorian, Colonial American, Renaissance, etc.).  Anyway, if you’d like to read my original post on history boxes (which is like continent boxes), you can go HERE.

Back in the spring, we took an American friend to visit Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire.  There, I picked up a few Tudor-era items (reproduction coins and ring).

In August, we had the opportunity to visit two famous historical sites—one in the southern part of England and one in the most northern part.  The first was the Battle of Hastings site in East Sussex.  The second was Hadrian’s Wall (and Housesteads Roman Fort) in Northumberland.  I picked up some mementos in both places that will be perfect for my history boxes.

This picture includes a reproduction silver penny from the reign of William I, an art print of the Battle of Hastings, and 2 postcards from Battle Abbey (one showing a re-enactment of the battle).

Recently, we took the kids on a field trip to Chester, England.  Chester was a key Roman fort in Roman Britannia, and it’s an ideal location for learning more about the Romans.  We visited two museums while there (Dewa Roman Experience and Grosvenor Museum), and I found more things for my history boxes (and not just Roman stuff). 

The first photo includes 2 postcards (one of today’s Roman Chester and one of what it may have looked like in Roman Britannia times), a reproduction Roman toric (like a bangle) and a reproduction Greek coin.

This photo has a large piece of papyrus, a bookmark made from papyrus with hieroglyphics printed on it, and a reproduction silver tetradrachm coin from the reign of Cleopatra VII.

This photo shows a reproduction coin from ancient Rome (I got this one from Hadrian’s Wall) and a mask of a Roman woman, which I think we bought on a previous trip to Chester.

In writing this post, I thought of some more things I already had that would go well in history boxes (not counting books, and I have LOTS of history books for kids).  Anyway, here are a few more things I can add.  I got the monk at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire, the ship postcard (Cutty Sark) in Greenwich, and the Making Merrye CD…um, somewhere.  It’s a medieval music CD.

Maybe it’s time for me to purchase some boxes!

I'm linking this post to "History and Geography" at All Things Beautiful.

Our School Supply List

This blog entry was meant to be posted when school started, but we’ve been very busy since then!  Anyway, here is my list of the school supplies we find indispensible.  These are things we stock up on because we use them regularly.

NOTE:  No one is compensating me for recommending these products.  I’m just listing what we like and use.

For the Kids

1.  Paper Mate Pink Pearl erasers—I’m pretty sure this is the same kind of eraser (rubber, for those of you outside North America) I used when I was in school in the 70s and 80s.  We’ve gone through a lot of erasers, and none compare to Pink Pearl, in my opinion.

2.  Pencils—Before this year, I would buy a pack of cheap, yellow #2 pencils for school.  Last summer, however, after reading at least 2 reviews for Ticonderoga pencils, I convinced myself I had to have some (see posts at Homeschool Creations and Confessions of a Homeschoolers).  The reviews were right, as far as I’m concerned.  These are the best pencils I’ve ever used, and my kids agree!  Our second choice of pencil is the more expensive Smencils (we have the Holiday Smencils).  We love the amazing scents and how well they write, but they’re a bit too expensive for us to purchase regularly.  They’d make great stocking stuffers or special prizes, though.

3.  Glue sticks—We go through glue sticks like crazy around here.  I don’t have a particular brand I recommend.  In my experience, we buy and try until we find one we like, and we stick with that (pardon the pun).  There are some rubbish glue sticks out there that don’t stick well and don’t last long.  At the moment, we’re using an Asda store brand, and it works fine for us.

4.  Dry-erase pens—This is another item we use daily, so I buy a LOT of them.  Not any dry-erase pen will do.  Some cheaper brands are horrid and not worth buying.  Either they barely show up, or they’re difficult to erase.  My personal favorites are Expo and SRX (links are for the actual pens we have).  I prefer fine-point pens for our school use.

5.  Construction paper—I don’t know what it is, but I prefer American construction paper over British (maybe I haven’t tried every brand, but I haven’t found any I like so far), so I stock up when we’re back home.  I buy multicolored packs of 9x12 as well as 12x18, as we regularly use both.  When someone wanted to send us a care package this past summer, I requested some packs of brown paper, too, since the multipacks I bought didn’t have brown.  While Isaac isn’t using construction paper as often now, the girls still use it a lot for various projects.

6.  Copy paper—We use this for printables as well as for notebooking and art.  Any store brand works for us.

7.  For Coloring--We have lots of crayons we been given over the years; however, our preference is Crayola Twistables. The girls each have a set, and they use them daily. In my opinion, they last longer and color better.

We also have a lot of colored pencils. Again, I think cheap brands are pretty worthless. Prismacolor is the best we’ve found, but they are expensive. Our favorite cheap store brand is Crayola.  For those of you in the UK, we also like WHSmith’s colored pencils. The tricky thing with the expensive pencils is finding a decent sharpener. If anyone has a recommendation, do tell!

Crayola brand markers have always worked well for us.  Cheap brands are blah.  Another favorite is Mr. Sketch, but that has a lot to do with nostalgia (I have very fond memories of using Mr. Sketch in the 70s) and the lovely, lovely scents (except the black licorice).  The downside is that they’re more expensive than they used to be.  I got my daughter some for her birthday last year, though.

8. Manila file folders—We mostly use these for lapbooks. We can’t find them in England, so I stock up in the US. Color file folders are nice, but we bought the cheaper, plain folders.

9.  Index/file cards—We use these for memory verses, vocabulary words, flash cards, and various projects.  We use lined, unlined, plain white, and colored.  We like variety!  The lined ones are great for writing, but plain cards are perfect for projects.

10.  Elmer’s glue—This is something else I stock up on in the US—it’s my favorite brand of school glue.  Stores in England don’t seem to carry it, but they do have it on Amazon here.  Although we mostly use glue sticks, we need the multipurpose glue for some of our projects.

Other general supplies we keep in stock:  Baby wipes, pencil-top erasers, spiral notebooks, highlighters,  notebook binders, page protectors, art pads, card stock, rulers, craft supplies, and scissors.  Most of these items we buy cheap wherever we can find them. 

For Mom

Here’s a quick list of school supplies I keep in stock for my own use or for projects the kids do:

1.  Post-it notes

2.  Staples

3.  Tape (all different sorts)

4.  Stickers

5.  Ziploc bags

6.  Paper clips

7.  Printer ink

8.  Permanent markers (Sharpie)

9.  Ballpoint pens (different colors)

10.  Blu-Tack

What “must-have” school supplies do you keep in stock?  What are your favorite brands?