Winter In The Woods Animals
December 7, 2019
I’ve had my home preschool for over twenty years. I have used different types of curriculum over the years and even made up my own at times. This post may contain affiliate links. I finally gave Experience Early Learning a try at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, in September. We are on our second school year with them. It was THE best curriculum decision I’ve made in those twenty years.
Each month is a new theme, with four teacher’s booklets for the four weeks of each month. There are twenty days of sub topics that all fit under the main theme for the month, five each week.
Our theme for December is Winter in the Woods. This week we are learning about some of the forest/woodland animals. Children love learning about animals. We have had several sick kids this week that are missing out on the fun. As the year goes on, we should have more children in our group of pictures. It is a fun curriculum no matter how many children we have. But everything is more fun with a full class.
We have a large “circle time” wall that we adjust each month for our new theme. Some of the things are from our curriculum, Experience Early Learning. We focus on three letters and two numbers a month. We also have a nursery rhyme. Our theme poster changes out monthly and we have things to look for in each one with questions that we talk about to get them thinking. We don’t spend a ton of time on the calendar, but we do talk about what month it is and any special dates that are coming up that month. I’ve learned that their attention span for circle time is super short. That being said, I use the time to discuss our topic and get them talking about it. Throughout the day we mention those facts again and again so they can share them with their parents.
The children enjoyed learning about deer on Monday. They made deer “hats” and we went outside to leap like a deer. Our curriculum uses this type of craft throughout the year for different things. It works well and the kids enjoy it. Some of the kids will wear their hat all day long. That shows you how much they like what they are learning. The fact that it is quick and easy to put together makes it a hit in my book. When you have different levels of ability, you can count on them needing assistance and time to get everything done for each child. The fact that this curriculum puts MOST supplies together for you is one of the top reasons I chose it. Any extra supplies I put in my supply boxes and use them when I need to. When we got done “leaping” like a dear, they had a snack and watched Bambi while we worked on getting lunch ready.
On Tuesday, we learned about Hedgehogs. Our craft for the day was using their imagination with a bunch of supplies, including paint. We had little prickle balls to paint with, which we have done in the past. Always a fun element to piant with. They got to use scissors and cut it how they wanted. They had nothing to show them what to do except a picture of a hedgehog. At first they just started trying to cut the paper plate into a bunch of pieces because they really don’t understand the concept of cutting yet. But they are learning, slowly but surely. One child cut a triangle out so we showed him how he could glue it back on and make it look like a face, if he wanted to. Our one 18 month old had assistance but really enjoyed his part in it. He used a marker to help decorate it and helped stick on the eyes and nose. His smile makes me so happy. I enjoy seeing the younger kids grow and learn new skills by working alongside the older children.
Whenever we have a subject like an animal, I get out a book that tells the facts along with one that is fiction with that same type of animal, just for fun. Books are a big part of our school. We have a VERY LARGE library. When we are able, we get out a stuffed animal to go along with our animal theme and the kids take turns holding it when we read the story. That keeps their attention better than just listening to me read, even though I try to draw them into the story by getting them to point out details they see. It teaches them to take turns, too.
On Wednesday, we talked about bears and Thursday it was mice. Friday we learned about owls. We read The Mitten because it has MANY forest animals in the middle of winter. It was a really fun book to read. Each page contained smaller pictures that gave a hint about what animal was coming on the next page. They loved making the owl puppets. All of the supplies were in the bag. The beak and talons had to be cut out of plain black construction paper, but that was easy to do and we ended up with some resources to use later.
Experience Early Learning has a journal for the children to work on. It has the monthly theme, writing practice for all three letters and both numbers, it has a page with the color and shape of the month. The back has some type of puzzle for them to do. Usually a match the items that belong together. They drew their favorite woodland animal on the cover of their journals.
We either purchase the monthly themed Toy Box from Experience Early Learning or we gather the resources elsewhere. There is usually a puzzle in our box. I chose not to get the toy box this month but I found a few things on amazon to add to our class resources. This puzzle is one of them. It has a bunch of the different animals we have been talking about plus a few more. They have done it so many times already in just a few days that we have had it. Puzzles are a big hit with the kids. The bigger puzzles help them work together. That is such an important social skill to learn.
The toy box usually comes with some type of musical instrument. Our drums have come in two separate toy boxes. I found these two little xylophones that have a wood base to add to our class for this month. Music time can be instruments or just singing the songs from the monthly CD that comes with our curriculum or children’s music videos that we have found online. We do some type of music daily. Instruments are usually once a week.
We finished up the week by putting up our preschool tree on the front porch. Every year the kids help put it together and we decorate it with some old ornaments that day. During December, the children will make several ornaments and put them on the tree. The last day of school before Christmas break, they take them home so they can put them on their trees. We moved it to the front porch several years ago because of the Littles that we have in our school and to give our inside space more room. The children enjoy showing their parents at pick up and drop off their ornaments, almost daily, even if they have seen them a different day.
I hope you enjoyed the small look into a week at our preschool. I can’t wait to share more with you. Have you put up your tree yet? What is a favorite Christmas tradition for your family?
I’ve had my home preschool for over twenty years. I have used different types of curriculum over the years and even made up my own at times. This post may contain affiliate links. I finally gave Experience Early Learning a try at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, in September. We are on our second school year with them. It was THE best curriculum decision I’ve made in those twenty years.
Each month is a new theme, with four teacher’s booklets for the four weeks of each month. There are twenty days of sub topics that all fit under the main theme for the month, five each week.
Our theme for December is Winter in the Woods. This week we are learning about some of the forest/woodland animals. Children love learning about animals. We have had several sick kids this week that are missing out on the fun. As the year goes on, we should have more children in our group of pictures. It is a fun curriculum no matter how many children we have. But everything is more fun with a full class.
We have a large “circle time” wall that we adjust each month for our new theme. Some of the things are from our curriculum, Experience Early Learning. We focus on three letters and two numbers a month. We also have a nursery rhyme. Our theme poster changes out monthly and we have things to look for in each one with questions that we talk about to get them thinking. We don’t spend a ton of time on the calendar, but we do talk about what month it is and any special dates that are coming up that month. I’ve learned that their attention span for circle time is super short. That being said, I use the time to discuss our topic and get them talking about it. Throughout the day we mention those facts again and again so they can share them with their parents.
The children enjoyed learning about deer on Monday. They made deer “hats” and we went outside to leap like a deer. Our curriculum uses this type of craft throughout the year for different things. It works well and the kids enjoy it. Some of the kids will wear their hat all day long. That shows you how much they like what they are learning. The fact that it is quick and easy to put together makes it a hit in my book. When you have different levels of ability, you can count on them needing assistance and time to get everything done for each child. The fact that this curriculum puts MOST supplies together for you is one of the top reasons I chose it. Any extra supplies I put in my supply boxes and use them when I need to. When we got done “leaping” like a dear, they had a snack and watched Bambi while we worked on getting lunch ready.
On Tuesday, we learned about Hedgehogs. Our craft for the day was using their imagination with a bunch of supplies, including paint. We had little prickle balls to paint with, which we have done in the past. Always a fun element to piant with. They got to use scissors and cut it how they wanted. They had nothing to show them what to do except a picture of a hedgehog. At first they just started trying to cut the paper plate into a bunch of pieces because they really don’t understand the concept of cutting yet. But they are learning, slowly but surely. One child cut a triangle out so we showed him how he could glue it back on and make it look like a face, if he wanted to. Our one 18 month old had assistance but really enjoyed his part in it. He used a marker to help decorate it and helped stick on the eyes and nose. His smile makes me so happy. I enjoy seeing the younger kids grow and learn new skills by working alongside the older children.
Whenever we have a subject like an animal, I get out a book that tells the facts along with one that is fiction with that same type of animal, just for fun. Books are a big part of our school. We have a VERY LARGE library. When we are able, we get out a stuffed animal to go along with our animal theme and the kids take turns holding it when we read the story. That keeps their attention better than just listening to me read, even though I try to draw them into the story by getting them to point out details they see. It teaches them to take turns, too.
On Wednesday, we talked about bears and Thursday it was mice. Friday we learned about owls. We read The Mitten because it has MANY forest animals in the middle of winter. It was a really fun book to read. Each page contained smaller pictures that gave a hint about what animal was coming on the next page. They loved making the owl puppets. All of the supplies were in the bag. The beak and talons had to be cut out of plain black construction paper, but that was easy to do and we ended up with some resources to use later.
Experience Early Learning has a journal for the children to work on. It has the monthly theme, writing practice for all three letters and both numbers, it has a page with the color and shape of the month. The back has some type of puzzle for them to do. Usually a match the items that belong together. They drew their favorite woodland animal on the cover of their journals.
We either purchase the monthly themed Toy Box from Experience Early Learning or we gather the resources elsewhere. There is usually a puzzle in our box. I chose not to get the toy box this month but I found a few things on amazon to add to our class resources. This puzzle is one of them. It has a bunch of the different animals we have been talking about plus a few more. They have done it so many times already in just a few days that we have had it. Puzzles are a big hit with the kids. The bigger puzzles help them work together. That is such an important social skill to learn.
The toy box usually comes with some type of musical instrument. Our drums have come in two separate toy boxes. I found these two little xylophones that have a wood base to add to our class for this month. Music time can be instruments or just singing the songs from the monthly CD that comes with our curriculum or children’s music videos that we have found online. We do some type of music daily. Instruments are usually once a week.
We finished up the week by putting up our preschool tree on the front porch. Every year the kids help put it together and we decorate it with some old ornaments that day. During December, the children will make several ornaments and put them on the tree. The last day of school before Christmas break, they take them home so they can put them on their trees. We moved it to the front porch several years ago because of the Littles that we have in our school and to give our inside space more room. The children enjoy showing their parents at pick up and drop off their ornaments, almost daily, even if they have seen them a different day.
I hope you enjoyed the small look into a week at our preschool. I can’t wait to share more with you. Have you put up your tree yet? What is a favorite Christmas tradition for your family?
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