School Plans: May 2016

Below you’ll find our school plans for the month of May. This will probably be our last formal set of plans as we break for the summer and prepare for whatever God has in store for our family in the way of schooling in the fall! (I think we get our Pre-K offer tomorrow so prayers for our family to have discernment with our schooling decision!)

May: 

• Themed Unit: Insects – Butterflies
  • Tot School-
    • Letter: Bb
    • Number: 9
    • Color: Yellow
    • Shape: Rectangle
  • Preschool Extensions-
    • Reading: Emergent Reader, Writing letters/pre-writing practice
    • Math: Writing #9, Measurement, and Patterns
    • Science: Insects – Butterflies

Week 1: Introducing the Life Cycle of a Butterfly

• Tot School
  • Read several books about the life cycle of a butterfly.
  • Observe our caterpillars from Insect Lore using magnifying glasses.
  • Caterpillar Counting Practice
  • Make a life cycle of a butterfly mobile (Start the first two steps – eggs and caterpillars.)
  • Do the #9 caterpillar from the last week if we have time!
• Preschool Extensions:
  • Emergent Reader: Life Cycle of a Butterfly
  • Caterpillar Tracing (pre-writing activity)
  • Measure our caterpillars and record on a jar sheet (I just made a doc with four jars so we could measure them and record the changes.)

Week 2: Color – Yellow (and attend Lil Studio Art Class)

• Tot School
  • Make a yellow duck for our Brown Bear, Brown Bear book (a cumulative effort over the whole year of Tot School)
  • My kids will also need to make the black sheep, and I need to put this book together.
    • Yellow song
• Science:
  • Observe our caterpillars and discuss the progress in the life cycle.

Week 3: Letter Bb

• Bb box
• Bb Sheet – Bb is for butterfly! (Color the body black and then cover the wings with do-a-dots.)
• Also make a list of everything we can think of that starts with Bb!
  • Preschool extension – Practice writing letter Bb. 
• Science
  • Finish our life cycle of a butterfly mobile
  • Butterfly Life Cycle Lunch
  • Release our butterflies if they are ready!

Week 4: Shape – Rectangle and #9

• Tot School – 
  • Rectangles
    • Rectangle Robots  and/or City Collage
    • Rectangle Rap
  • Number 9
    • #9 Caterpillar and/or Monster (or maybe we can give our Rectangle Robot 9 eyes!)
    • Preschool extension: Practice writing #9
• Science
  • Finish our life cycle of a butterfly mobile

Books:

• Bonjour, Butterfly! (Fancy Nancy)
• Glasswings
• Hermie, the Common Caterpillar
• And these – Fiction on left, Nonfiction on right

*Minus the bottom two, which got put in the wrong pile and are about ladybugs (The Very Lazy Ladybug, fiction) and all creepy crawly things (Called Creepy Crawlies A-Z)

 

Music/Fingerplays:

• “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” by Dr. Jean
• Fuzzy Caterpillar
  • Fuzzy caterpillar curled up on a leaf. (curl up)
  • Spun a chrysalis and then fell asleep. (hands near face like sleeping)
  • While she was sleeping she dreamed that she could fly, (arms like flying)
  • And when she woke up she was a butterfly. (flap arms like butterfly)

• 5 Little Butterflies
  • Five little butterflies by the door.
    One flew away, then there were four.
    Four little butterflies by the tree.
    One flew away, then there were three.
    Three little butterflies up in the blue.
    One flew away, then there were two.
    Two little butterflies out in the sun.
    One flew away, then there was one.
    One little butterfly now all alone.
    She was so lonely, she flew home.
• “I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee!”