A few weeks ago, I started some “preschool classes” with a couple other moms and their boys at our house. We just meet once a week for 2-3 hours but we fill up that time with lots of fun learning for the boys who are 2-3 years of age.The first weeks were a lot of trial and error (with no pictures) and we now have a much better plan and rhythm to our time together (starting around week 5). Since the kids have been having so much fun learning, I thought I would begin to share the lesson plans with you so that you too can use some of the ideas for your own child.
Since week 5, we have learned that it works best for our group to give 10 minutes of free play, then write on the board the letter of the day and a few of the words we are going to use with that letter. Craft time follows next. Then there is a slight transition time as we finish the last prep of the food so they have a small 5 minute free play time again which has been perfect. Followed by snack and story time (we started reading the story while they eat and it eliminated several 2 year old tantrums that way). From there we move to our science experiments, then game, free play and dancing which we usually end with the Hokey Pokey as our last song “activity”. Each group will be different though, so you may have to play around a bit with yours until you find what works best.
Each week is centered around a letter of the alphabet so week 1 is of course “A”:
THIS WEEK WE ARE LEARNING ABOUT THE…
Letter: A
Color: red
Shape: circle
Number: 1
ACTIVITIES
Craft Time
Letter A for airplane (Prep: cut out all pieces of construction paper (back paper is 4.5″ x 6″, you can click on the template below to save and print) and add a couple cotton balls for clouds. Make an example for them to follow. Place all pieces in a sandwich ziploc bag so they can open and assemble with some glue.) **You will find that the crafts up until week 5 are my son’s artwork and not the actual example since I never remembered to take pictures. I also discovered it was way easier to print out an outline of the letter and then cut out the construction paper letter so that it was smoother and was more even and cleaner. That’s the fun of being a mom and learning new things that work best!
Paper airplanes (Prep: have red construction paper and a sample folded airplane)
Game
Red light, Green light (Prep/Learning tips: Cut out circles from red and green construction paper and glue them to popsicle sticks for this game so that you can hold them up as you call out red light, green light. This incorporates the shape and color of the week. It also helps them learn how to listen to directions and act quickly.)
Science
Hot air, cold air experiment (Prep: stretch out a balloon and have an empty soda bottle ready and two containers. When it is time for the experiment, fill up one container with cold water and ice, and the other with hot water. Place balloon over the mouth of the soda bottle and then let them put it first into the cold water and see that there is no change in the balloon, then move it to the hot water and watch it inflate. Move it back to the cold water to watch it deflate. They will probably want to do it several times!)
Story Time
Adam names the animals
Snack
1 airplane sandwich (use a cookie airplane cutter), 1 apple slice, 1 applesauce pack, 1 avocado, 1 pack of animal cookie, 1 ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins on top.
SUPPLIES NEEDED
Books or stories with the letter A
Light blue construction paper
Dark blue construction paper
Red construction paper
Cotton balls
Glue
Green construction paper
Popsicle sticks
Empty soda bottle
Balloon
2 containers
Water
Ice
Bread
Jelly
Peanut Butter
Airplane cookie cutter
Apple
Applesauce packs
Avocado
Individual packs of animal crackers
Celery
Raisins