PAGES

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Preschool Theme: Human Body/Birthday books/activities

Thanks to a camera crash I lost many of my pictures from our human body theme. Thanks to my husband I do have a few. Here's a few highlights.

CELEBRATING BEING
Dover has a great set of baby sticker paper dolls. You can dress/undress baby (printed on the back page)  using stickers, and give him or her things to do. They come in boy and girl options. I chose boy because T is a boy!

Wiki sticks numbers set has a birthday cake. Practice counting and decorate a birthday cake. Fun math activity!

Make birthday and greeting cards and read a fun book about birthday parties in Spanish and English called Bravo! Make sure any cards are addressed to someone else. We also shopped for a gift for someone who celebrated his birthday.



Writing practice. Child writes name, traces birth date, and writes age down.


BAKE


Bake a cake, or in our case apple pumpkin muffins in celebration of birthdays and being alive.

 A fun activity with practical life skills and measuring...math skills!


Whopper Cake is a great book to read with this activity. 

It's a hilarious story of a man who decides to bake his wife a surprise, record-breaking cake for her birthday. By Karma Wilson with Will Hillenbrand.

It's Curious George, isn't that enough of a recommendation? Curious George finds all kinds of party supplies and tries to help out the man with the yellow hat. 



HUMAN BODY

Read DK Human Body

 We played Twister, too, learning about crazy movements our bodies can make!

Read From Head to Toe by Eric Carle and act out the story. Great gross motor skills practice. We read it in Spanish for practice learning our body parts in another language! Wish I'd been able to rescue some of these photos!

Build a human body puzzle. Covers science, fine motor, and math. 
 

This is a great puzzle because it's built in layers. You work from the skeleton, add the organs, muscles, skin, and finally clothes. There are boy and girl puzzles available. They are anatomically correct. Made by Beleduc

Other good books to read on the human body:
My Five Senses by Aliki all about the senses of the human body. 
Germs Make Me Sick!  by Marvin Berger made a big impression on T. He grew very cautious (not frightened, just careful) about washing his hands, sneezing into a tissue or his sleeve, etc. We also played nurse with a doctor kit.




 FOOD/NUTRITION

There's a great book by DK called Food.

 I wish I had pictures to go with this. Get a plate and set it on the table. Have your child set their place. Next, read the DK/Eyewitness book called Food. After you finish, announce to your child he's going to create a healthy meal shopping in the cupboards and fridge! Help child get out items that would create a healthy, balanced, and tasty lunch or snack. If your child wants, let him or her "check out" at the "grocery store" before bringing the meal "home" to "cook". Suddenly math is involved too ;)

  Activities Inspired by


Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: 2 Ingredients = More Fun than Play Dough (Making Oobleck)

 If you keep it moving, it's solid.


 Hold your hand still, it starts oozing and feels like a liquid.
 Oobleck is made simply. Mix 1 part water to 2 parts cornstarch. It will be hard to mix!

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Ask Me Whooo (Teach basic Biblical truth to song)

Question: What is catechism?

Answer: Catechism is a summary of the basic beliefs of the Christian faith in question and answer form.


Why teach children about the Bible using catechism, rather than just stories? It's a proven effectual way for children to grab hold of the basics. Just as children are given memory tools in school to help them learn geography, grammar, math, and history (if you're a homeschooler, think of AudioMemory, Veritas Press songs, Classical Conversations) catechism is a means of teaching -and letting the children own the answers to- the most common questions kids have about God, the Bible, Jesus, and their faith.

Questions like:

 Who made me? (God)
Where is God? (God is everywhere)
Does God know all things? (Yes. Nothing can be hidden from God.)
Where do you learn how to love and obey God? (In the Bible alone)
Who wrote the Bible?
What does it mean to believe in Christ? ( to trust in Him alone for my salvation),
What is prayer?
What does Christ give us to teach about prayer?
 All these and many, many more are answered in children's catechisms. 


Yes, catechisms. Plural. There have been many evangelical, Protestant catechisms written. Catechism used to be widely used by both Protestants and Catholics. In recent decades it has become much less mainstream. Generally if an evangelical hears catechism they will assume Roman Catholic. Still, it's never died out because it's so effective. In fact, teaching catechism (i.e. foundational Bible truths) and Bible verse memorization together is generally found in circles of conservative Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, Lutherans , and some Baptists.

While there may be variations on some particulars by slight theological differences catechism is a source of unity in the faith as they agree and teach the same truth as to the essentials of the Christian faith: the truth of God, His word, salvation in Christ alone...the five solas of the Protestant reformation. Through catechism doctrine (means simply teaching btw) doesn't divide, it unites. Ever heard of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals?

Ask Me Whooo has pleasant music (even to mom's and dad's ears) that makes learning some of these questions and answers about the bible so easy. Another nice thing about this three volume set is after each set of catechism questions are several scripture proofs. Bible verses that teach what the q&a was summarizing!

Pages