Homeshooling - 17th Week (24-30 May 2010)

This week is really busy week for me, as Javier is down with hfmd and he is super cranky, he wants me to carry him all the time. Thus I don't have much time to update my blog or prepare my stuffs for the upcoming lesson. Today I finally have time to update my blog as my boys are at my pil place.

Theme for the week: Inchworm It is quite easy getting the materials that I need for this theme. I get most of my printable materials from here.

Based on the Inchworm theme, I introduce them a new vocabulary word: Moths

Since it is not possible to show Javier the actual inchworm, I showed him a video of a inchworm looping. He was rather fascinated with it.

Beside this word, I also introduce some new words which starts with I: Iron, Ice and Iguana. He is quite familiar with most of the picture cards which I showed him, except for the ice, which he told me is water. (well, maybe it really looks like water. :( ) On lesson day 2, I would pass him the word cards to match to the picture. Although he is not sure of the words, but he likes to paste the word cards on the learning board.

Javier likes playing with the ice, he touch, squeeze and smell the ice. :)

Learning Letter I
On Monday: we did a letter I tracing. It has become a routine for us to trace the letter for our first lesson for every alphabet. Javier would automatically take the pencil for the tracing worksheet.

On Wednesday: We did dot art for letter I. He is great in using this dot marker now and he enjoys it.

This is done by Jayden and Javier. Good job for the both of them!!!!

On Thursday: We did a sticker pasting for letter I and a picture of an inchworm. Since Jayden did not go to school today, he joined us for our lesson too.
Alphabet Game:
Uppercase & Lowercase Sorting Activity
We did a lowercase and uppercase card sorting of letter I. Jayden was very interested to join this activity, he keep snatching the cards from javier to sort. End up, both of them fighting to get the cards. :(

Both of them likes this activity so much, they would request to play with it everyday.

Spot the Letter I game
I think this is a great game to revise the letter with Javier. He can spot most of the letter I.

Doing Crafts:
We did a 2 theme related craft this week which is inchworm!!

Craft No 1:
The paper roll inchworm
I used the tissue roll to cut out a few section for the body and head. The boys colour the body and the head green. Then they add the wiggly eyes for the inchworm. Next, I add the attenna for the inchworm (but later I realised that inchworm don't have attenna.... ???? but sinch we already gave our inchworm a attenna, we just leave it as it is)

After completing his inchworm, Javier starts playing with it, inching it all around the living room.

Craft No 2: Handprint Inchworm
I applied green paint on Javier hand for him to stamp on the paper for the inchworm body and head. Jayden prefer to paint his hand himself. After the paint dry, I just add some eyes and mouth for it. (Very simple craft)

Our green Inchworm

Poem we read:
We Sing a poem "Inch, Little Inchworm, Inch Along" which I got it from here (Danielle’s place – There is other fantastic materials for inchworm/ caterpillar over at her website too).. As I sing this poem, I would pretend to be inchworm....I would inch along their legs and hands...they keep giggling and laughing when I do that, but they request for more. They like me to sing this poem, even Jayden knows how to sing it now after listening to it for so many times.

Books we read:
Inchworm and A Half by Elinor J. Pinczes

For this book, Javier is quite neutral to it. He doesn't take it for me to read, but whenever I read it to Jayden, he will sit beside me to listen. Jayden likes this book alot, he would ask me to read it during bedtime.I think Jayden enjoyed the pictures and how the inchworm would measure the veggies but I don't think he can gasp the concept of the inches yet.

Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni

This book is a hit with Javier, he wants me to read it every night. He likes the animals shown in this book. I have borrow a few books by this author, my boys loves it!!! They like me to read the books over and over again. Even when Javier is sick, he still wants me to read this book to him.

This is a story about a inchworm who loves to measure things and then saves himself by measuring.

Learning Maths: Five

This week, we learnt 5. Firstly, I let Javier paste 5 piece of stickers on a paper which I have written 5 on top of it. After he have finished pasting the stickers, I hold his finger and count the number of stickers pasted.

Sorting Size:

We did a sorting of the inchworm from smallest to biggest.

Learning Colours: Yellow
I gathered a few yellow objects and show it to Javier. Beside that, I also showed a some pictures of yellow objects.

I let him colour the oval shape cut-out. As Javier is also learning oval this week, so I try to combined 2 learning into 1 activity.

We played a game of yellow shape sorting which Javier enjoyed alot.

We also did a pom pom colour sorting into the respective colour bowl. After playing, Javier was very helpful to keep all the pom pom and the bowl himself without me telling him. :)

Learning Shapes: Oval
As per the previous lesson, I showed Javier the shape book to let him use his finger to trace the oval shape outline.
Next, I showed Javier some oval shaped objects. He is more interested in the eggs than learning about oval.

Learning Chinese:
We read a 儿歌, 唐诗and a story book for our chinese activity.

儿歌：蝴蝶Jayden is very familiar with this song as he has already learnt it in school. Whereas for Javier, he loves this song.

Look at how they enjoy while singing this song. They take turns to play with the butterfly which we have made during letter B lesson.

Books we read:

洗澡: This book tells about a group of animals having shower togather. It teaches the child the correct way to shower and why the need to shower.

唐诗: 独坐敬亭山 by 李白

Learning science:

Since we are learning ice, I took this opportunity to teach Javier "water" and "solid". First I show javier the ice and told him that this is a solid.

After our lesson, I showed him the bowl of ice again, but this time, the ice has already melt to becomes water.

He dipped his hand inside the cold water to enjoy the coldness!!!!!
After dipping his hand into the cold water, he keep laughing and told me 'very very cold'. :)

Other Activity:
Puzzle:
I printed this inchworm puzzle. Although it is a very simple puzzle, both my boys like to play with it. They will fix and pull it out and fix it again. I used velcro for Javier to stick the individual pieces to the main board.
Pattern Sorting Activity:
Javier doesn't seem to understand the logic yet. I have to explain it to him for a few times before he can put the correct piece into the box.

He would give himself a clap after putting all the pieces into the box.

Craft Activity No1 :
For this activity, it is a revision of colours and numbers. I draw some picture for the boys to colour using a dot marker.

After they have finshed colouring, I counted the numbers of things in the picture. For eg: 1 sun, 2 clouds, 3 butteflies and 4 grasses....

Craft Activity No 2:

This activity was solely requested by them. They took the sea animals foam stamper which I keep inside the room to me. And they told me they wanted to so some stamping using this foam stamper.

This lesson for this week seems a little messy and not well prepared. And we have Jayden joining us for most of the lesson, he tends to disrupt the lesson abit when I am teaching Javier. But neverthelss, the lesson is more fun with Jayden joining us