B is for Balloon

This week we had bbbunches of fun exploring the letter Bb! Here is what we did:

  ABC Book:

Memory Verse:

From Sing the Word From A-Z: Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. You and your household. You and your household. Believe in the Lord Jesus, Acts sixteen thirty one.

Story Time: 
The Beginner's Bible
Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin 
The Biggest Bear by Lynn Ward Bedtime for Frances by Russel Hoban
A Boy, A Dog and a Frog by Mercer Mayer (I love wordless books!) (I had Malachi point to words that begin with the letter b in the story!)

 Poems: 
From A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson: Bed in Summer My Bed is a Boat 


Fun Songs:
Bubbles(Sung to: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) Bubbles floating all around (pretend to catch bubbles) Bubbles fat and bubbles round (make a circle with arms) Bubbles on my toes and nose (point to toes and then to nose) Blow a bubble, up it goes! (pretend to blow bubble and point up) Bubbles floating all around. (pretend to catch bubbles) B..u..b. .b..l..e..s f..a..l..l. .i..n..g to...the...ground. (sing slowly while sinking to ground) From: Everything Preschool - Letter B 

Art: Ball Prints 


Malachi rolled a small ball in paint and then rolled it around on a piece of paper!

  Bubble Prints

We made "Bubble Paint" by mixing 2 tsp. clear liquid dish detergent, 3 Tbs. water and 1/4 cup powdered tempera paint (food coloring works too!). We used a straw to gently blow into the paint mixture until a bubble dome forms and then captured bubble prints by placing a piece of paper on top of the bubble dome. You can use different colors for a "marble-like" effect and use prints to create custom stationary, envelopes, cards, gift wrap, etc. From The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions.


Activities: Balance Beam


Tape a long piece of tape on the floor and have them walk on it trying to keep their balance! I got this brilliant idea from Jolanthe at Our Homeschool Creations. I have always wanted a balance beam for our "school play yard!" We used a 2x4 to give Malachi more of a challenge.

Balloon Buffoonery: 

We introduced the letter b and /b/ sound with a pack of blue balloons to get him excited about the letter b! Here are a couple games we played:

Balloon Soccer 


Hit the balloon around using your head, knees and feet ~ no fair using hands! (The original game had us using only head, elbows and knees - no hands or feet, but Malachi participated in Challenger Soccer Camp last summer and we did not want to undo all that he had learned! We had the older boys play with no hands or feet to make it fun for them).

  Indoor Volley-Balloon Challenge

We made a net by tying a string between two small chairs. You can also lay a bright string on the floor for a net. Children can use their hands to bat the balloon back and forth over the net. To score a point (if you keep score), the balloon must hit the floor on the other side of the net or when it takes more than 3 tries to get the balloon over the net. Games from: Country Friend's Kid Stuff 


Bubbles


Bubble Recipe (from The Unbelievable Bubble Book): 1 clean pail 1 cup Joy or Dawn 3-4 Tbs. glycerin 10 cups clean, cold water. (More if low humidity). Gently Stir. We made unusual and unique bubble blowers with straws, string and wire loops. You can also use strawberry baskets, or anything with holes! Or you can take some wire and wrap it around cookie cutters to make fun shaped bubble wands.
  Bowling


This was Malachi's 1st time bowling! It was fun to watch him wait for the ball to hit the pins and then see his excitement as the pins fell down!

Writing Warm Ups: Bead Stringing

Activities such as this help strengthen the eye-hand coordination and fine muscle control needed for writing. Talking about these activities incorporates the language and helps improve reading comprehension and writing ability, according to Growing Up Reading. Have your child string beans, buttons, macaroni, or cut up straws. Thread a large plastic needle with yarn, or tightly tape one end of a piece of yarn to make it stiff.

Get Ready for the Code Activities:

Quick review of the letter f. Me: (holding up the letter f ) "What letter is this?" Malachi: f! Me: "What sound does f make?" Malachi: /fff/ Me: Can you think of a word that begins with that sound? Malachi: Fish! Moving on to the letter b: Me: (holding up a ball) What is this? Malachi: A ball! Me: What sound do you hear at the beginning of ball? Malachi: /b/! Me: What letter makes that sound? Malachi: b! Vocabulary introduced in this lesson include bus, belt, bike, boots, bird, balloon, basket and box. I love it that they stayed away from digraph blends, such as /br/ and /bl/ - I think those would confuse him at this point!

  Science Time: Bubble Reactions

Fill a glass about a quarter full of milk. Drop a few drops of food coloring into the dish. Immediately follow this with dish detergent. Watch the cool reaction.

  Bubble Freeze

If it gets cold enough in your area. Use a bubble wand to create a large bubble. Then catch it on the wand. Finally let your children watch as it freezes. (I didn't know bubbles like cold!) Source: Everything Preschool - Letter B 


Math Time:

  Bead Sort(Skill: Classifying) I asked Malachi to help me sort a big pile of beads. We sorted beads by color and then by size.

  Beans, Buttons, Pennies (Skill: Sequencing and Prediction) Repeat a pattern of objects two and a half times. Then let your child predict which object comes next. Have them complete and repeat the pattern. We played a variation of this game using various sizes and colors of beads. Malachi was able to complete the pattern, but he was not able to repeat it the first time we played this game.
 
From: Growing Up Reading: Learning to Read Through Creative Play.

Some of the books we used this week:

2 comments

  1. I keep forgetting that we have the Singing the Word from A-Z (until I visit your site....). I need to pull that out and use it too. Our girls still sing those songs from a few years ago! :)

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  2. Will you be my teacher? :-) This blog is enough to make public school students cry their eyes out.

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