Tot School - Creation Study Week 1

This week we started our two week study on creation! We are going to assemble all our daily projects into a lapbook at the end. Our focus letter this week was K. We are are spending one day on each day of creation, and doing activities centered around what God created that day. In addition, we are singing a super cute creation song I found here. It's got a verse for what God created each day. Naomi loves to sing and it's a fun way for her to learn what God did on each day. I had a hard time getting pictures this week, but I've included what I have. I introduced the unit by going to this link and reading the verses. It was a little over her head, but I thought it was important that she heard the story from the Bible, and not a watered down version to begin with. She liked the music and slideshow too. After that we read the story from her children's Bible, which was much more on her level. I'm also reading this version to Naomi too. Our first day we did activities centered around...

In the Beginning

We talked about how God made the whole world, and how he holds the whole world in his hands. We have "The Whole World" song CD, and book to go with it, so we played that several times, and looked at the pictures. Nathan enjoyed that too. Then she colored this world and hands from here. She's getting so good at her coloring! I cut out the hands but she cut out the world with my guidance.

Doing her "K" Do-A-Dot page from COAH. She can't get enough of these! You can also see where she had been playing with her Lauri stacker pegs. I made a list of all our educational, open ended toys. I use this as a quick reference guide, so I don't have to think. Then, when I'm putting Nathan down for his first nap in the morning, I choose something from the list for her to play with idependently while I put him down. She doesn't HAVE to play with it, but she always does! There's something about me setting a specific item out for her that she really likes. I like it too because 1) it keeps her busy and quiet when I'm putting Nathan down, 2) she's practicing different skills each day through the different toys I choose, 3) all the wonderful, educational toys we have are getting used regularly, instead of sitting forgotten on a shelf. We have lots of stuff, so it's easy for us to forget about things. Not because we don't enjoy them, but because we don't always think about them! This system is accomplishing many goals, requires little thinking on my part, and keeping both Naomi and I happy. :-) I think it's important to mention that, in my opinon, this system wouldn't be nearly as effective if Naomi's room was messy. By setting out one toy in a neat room, it enables her to focus on that one thing. When there are tons of things out, it seems like she drifts amilessly from one thing to the next, without really playing with anything. Not that her room doesn't get messy! It is just part of our bedtime routine to clean it up before she goes to sleep.

Creation Day 1

First we read a mini book version of the creation story. Then I gave Naomi this black sheet of paper and we talked about how in the beginning there was nothing but darkness. Then God spoke and there was light. She was VERY impressed by this! We talked about how after God spoke there was day and night. We kept one side of the paper black to show night, and painted the other side white to represent light and day.

Naomi doing a shape matching activity from 1+1+1=1.

Listening to a Barefoot Book (love these!) on CD. She getting good at listening for the chime and turning the page herself. For us, this was a big step!

Cuteness here joining in on some puzzle fun.

Creation Day 2

Showing how on day two God created the skies and seas. I got this art idea from here. We used cotton balls to make the sky, and then finger painted the sea. To make waves Naomi used the hard tip of a paintbrush.

Tracing the letters in another creation mini book. We do one page for each day. I am going to use these as sequencing cards she can put in order once we get through all the days.

Making music with our various instruments. Nathan was actually really playing the Kazoo! SO CUTE!

"K" is for kite! Naomi had fun making a pattern block kite (from here). Nathan liked exploring the shapes under extremely close supervision!

Creation Day 3

Naomi working with her Lauri foam number puzzles. She really loves these and they are great for counting and number recognition.

God created the land, plants, and trees on day three. This was just a coloring page I printed off. She colored the stems of the flowers and bark of the tree. Then we ripped up little pieces of tissue paper, crumpled them up, and glued them on to make 3D flowers and tree. This was fun! Naomi liked ripping the tissue paper and gluing. I found this idea here. We played a math game online where we counted apples on a tree. It went well with what we were learning this day!

Here Naomi used her Do-A-Dot paint to find the all the letter K's (from COAH). This was a fun twist instead of just circling the letters.

Working on writing the letter K. Naomi likes doing these pages, so I encourage her to continue. I do not think any child should be forced to do worksheets at this age!! She enjoys it, so we do them, otherwise I would not.

Here's a close up of our finished flowers and tree. We were both proud how it turned out!

The main pages I got our printables from were from DLTK and Christian Preschool Printables.

That was our week! We only do planned school activities four days of the week. That gives us a free day for playdates, trips to the library, errands, etc. Also, I always am over enthusiastic in my planning, so by only planning for four days, it gives us one day to finish up anything we didn't get to earlier in the week. We normally do most of our schooling in the morning, and then save our art project for the afternoon. I love schedules and routine, but it does vary from day to day based upon how we are all feeling. If parenting has taught me anything, it is to be more flexible! :)

Check out 1+1+1=1 and Preschool Corner to see what others did this past week! Come by again next week to see the end our our Creation Unit and our finished lapbook.

Karla