Week 20 Lesson Plan for Homeschooling Preschool

Cognitive activity ideas

Objective: (Think) Makes connections between different events or pieces of knowledge

The more you read and talk to your child about different topics and answer their many questions, the more they will begin to connect and make sense of these different pieces of information. But you can help them exercise this skill with certain activities. Here are some ideas for this week:

• Teach your child acronyms, like ROY G. BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) for the colors of the rainbow, which connect knowledge to abbreviations.
  
  
• To work on symbols, play with emojis with your child. This helps your child connect ideas and language to picture symbols. Challenge them to find a way to send a text to Dad telling him what’s for dinner or what they did that day with only emojis.
  
  
• Involve your child in a project that involves a larger system of component parts. The complexity of a project like this helps children see how different parts and tools are applied in specific steps in a certain order to achieve a goal. There are so many knowledge connections to be made in these types of activities. Here are some ideas:
  
  - Planting some flowers or vegetables. This involves plants, insects, weather, and human activity interacting to achieve a goal—growing plants.
  - Helping perform minor car repairs, which involves a variety of different parts and tools that work together.
  - Baking from scratch. Following a recipe, kneading dough, seeing how the ingredients interact, watching the change that occurs when something is baked—so many connections.

Literacy

Objectives:

• Identifies uppercase and lowercase T
  
  
• Tells the main sound of /t/

Parent instructions

Choose one activity a day with the exception of #1 and #4, which should be done a few times a week if possible.

NOTE: The letter T is unvoiced. Don’t forget to make sure you’re not adding a schwa (vowel sound) to the end of your T sound. Say /t/, not /ta/.

Activities

• #1 Say the ABCs using your chart from beginning to end once a day, pointing to each letter as you say it. After going through all the letters, ask your child to find this week’s letter—T. Look at and have them trace with their finger the upper and lowercase examples. Tell your child that T is a consonant, which is a name for all the letters that are not vowels. Say, “T says /t/ like turtle.” Try to ask your child a few times a week (during bathtime, driving in the car, etc.) to tell you the sound of T. (Don’t forget to include some previously learned letters, especially those vowels!) If they need help or say it incorrectly, model the correct way by repeating, “T says /t/ like turtle.” Always say it with its example word. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• It’s scavenger hunt time! See how many objects your child can find around the home that begin with the sound of T. Try it outside on a walk. In addition to finding the sound of T, look for the letter itself (upper and lowercase). The Ts don’t have to be in print either. You can find Ts in fence railings that cross, or in how the cracks of paving stones intersect. (Estimated Time: 10 minutes)
  
  
• Cut plastic drinking straws into long and short segments and ask your child to make as many upper and lowercase Ts as they can with the pieces. You could also build them out of Legos or make them out of pipe cleaners. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• #4 Continue going through your letter flashcards 2–3 times a week. Your pile of mastered letter sounds is probably growing! Bathtime, breakfast time, anytime will work when your child is alert and engaged. Use only the cards you’ve learned so far and incorporate new ones as you go. Make sure to mix up the order every time! Show your child a letter card and ask them to reply with the name and sound prompt they’ve learned: “T says /t/ like turtle.” If they reply correctly and immediately, move that card to a pile that you only review occasionally. If they hesitate or answer incorrectly, simply review the correct answer and practice that card again next time. If your child resists such a structured activity, you can drop it in favor of more organic ones such as identifying the letters as you find them on your errands. (Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes throughout the week)
  
  
• Complete a “Find the Letter” worksheet to locate all the upper and lowercase Ts. Use a marker, highlighter, or dauber to mark all the letters they find. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)

Math

Objectives:

• Continued from Week 19: Count by 5s to 100
  
  
• Finds shapes in the environment
  
  
• Continued from Week 19: Knows months of the year
  
  
• Knows units are used to measure

Parent instructions

Choose one activity a day with the exception of #1 and #3, which should be done a few times a week if possible.

Activities

• #1 Practice counting by 5s using your 100s chart. Tell your child that this is counting every 5th number or by groups of 5. First, model counting to 100 by 5s for them, pointing to each number on the 100s chart as you go. Show them how every number ends with a 5 or a 0. Then, count again, inviting your child to count with you. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• See how many 2D and 3D shapes you can find on an outing this week. Wheels on cars, rectangles at the park, cylinders at the grocery store. You could take a list of shapes (words or pictures), a clipboard, and a crayon for your child to mark off what they’ve found. (Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes)
  
  
• #3 Continue to practice the months of the year in order. You can add this to your morning routine of showing them what day of the week it is. Show your child:
  - What months (roughly) coordinate with what seasons
  - What month holidays your family celebrates fall in
  
  Say the names of the months a few times during the week, and invite your child to say each one after you. (Estimated Time: 15 minutes spread throughout the week)
  
  
• Introduce your child to the basic concept of measuring with units. Fill a large bowl with dry rice or beans. Give your child two or three scoops or measuring cups of different sizes. 1 cup, ½ cup, and a tablespoon works well. Next give them a smaller, empty bowl and ask them how many scoops it takes to fill up the smaller bowl with rice or beans. This is a wonderful hands-on demonstration that should involve a great deal of allowing your child to experiment, along with some guidance to illustrate certain principles. Have your child count how many scoops it takes to fill the bowl when using each different measuring device. Show them how it takes a different amount of scoops depending on which one they use. Show them how they also get a different amount if the scoop is heaping full, level, or not completely full. Let them play with this and experiment. This activity is not to master measurement. It is merely to let them see how the tools we use and the way we measure affects the results we get. (Estimated Time: 15 minutes)

Fine Motor

Activities:

• 1 tripod grasp activity
  
  
• 1 finger isolation activity
  
  
• 1 precision activity
  
  
• 1 hand-eye coordination activity

Parent instructions

Choose one fine motor objective each day and then select an activity that practices that objective from the list in Appendix A. Feel free to choose more than one activity or work on more than one objective a day if you like! Just remember that little hands tire easily and short, regular practice sessions are better than long, sustained ones. (Estimated Time: 5-10 minutes)

Download the Appendix A that lists all the fine-motor activities.

Social-Emotional

Objectives:

• (Self-awareness) Demonstrates or expresses personal preferences and explains the reason for the choice
  
  
• (Social awareness) With some support, shows respect for others by using social conventions

Activities

Choose one activity a day (Monday - Thursday)

• Help your child create a simple book about themselves. Title it “A Book About Me.” Caption each page with examples like these:
  - My favorite things are:
  - I like to read/listen to/watch:
  - My favorite place is:
  - Gifts I would like are:
  - Food I like are:
  
  Have your child draw pictures of their responses to each page or dictate their answers for you to write. (Estimated Time: 15-20 minutes)
  
  
• Give your child simple choices (which outfit to wear, what to have for lunch, which park to visit) and talk with them about why they chose what they did. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• Learn about Magic Word #1 - "Please"
  - Play the game "Polite Simon". Instruct the child to do what Simon says, only if he says PLEASE. Think of funny things for the kid to do, the sillier the better! You might ask them to quack like a duck, hop like a frog, trumpet like an elephant, stand on one foot, or rub their tummy.
  - You will do what Simon says along with the child, however you will deliberately make a couple of mistakes by doing the command when Simon did not say please.
  - After this game is over, give them an example of how not to ask for things. Then ask what would be the right way to do it, using the magic word. Be sure to reinforce to them how important it is to use the word please. (Estimated Time: 10 minutes)
  
  
• Learn about Magic Words #2 - "Thank You"
  - Hold different objects in your hand one by one and the child will have to borrow the object from you and then return it. Switch roles.
  - You can ask if the child would like a treat. The response should be the magic words “yes, please.” When you give it to them, the child should respond with “thank you.” (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• Learn about Magic Words #3 - "You're welcome "
  - You will need a sheet of stickers that look like bugs. You will stick them all over your arms, hands, face, and forehead. This act alone will get the kid giggling.
  - When you have all the bugs on, pretend that you are afraid of them. Jump around a bit and pretend you are trying to get them off. Be as dramatic as possible.
  - Ask the child to please come quickly and help you get these bugs off. As the child removes them say “Thank you! Thank you!” After you say thank you, prompt your child to respond “you're welcome.” (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• Learn about Magic Word #4 - "Sorry"
  - Share examples of situations where you did something that hurt another person. And add “I felt sorry.” Ask the child also to share such instances. Discuss that saying sorry means that you realize your mistake and you want to help the other person. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)