My kids went all in on the Descendants movies during the Spring. I tried to make sure the themed days would be something they both enjoy and I knew this would be a winner.
It was indeed! As soon as they saw the sign, they ran to get changed into Descendants costumes for learning time.
I went outside of my comfort zone a bit by making my own themed worksheets. It was my first go at it, and I’ll share them here and on my Pinterest page for those that may be interested!
They did great with the worksheets and loved having the theme tied into them! We did some Descendants dancing afterwards, because, how could you not?
“Climb the mountain, not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.” – David McCullough
The World was our theme for Day 2 this week!
We kicked off our time by reading an oldie but goodie “I Am Human.” We love adding this book into our rotation from time to time to open the discussion of kindness, how we’re all connected and what we can do to make the world a better place. The conversation led to why it’s good to reduce, reuse and recycle and different types of ways we can help other people.
I found these awesome worksheets from clevelearner.com via Pinterest. They got to review directions of a compass and started to working on reading a map. Would a map discussion be complete if they weren’t able to create their own treasure map?
They decided to complete the treasure map while dressed as pirates. I took apart an old box and planned to have them create a city out of it. They had bigger plans!
Since they were already dressed as pirates and had a treasure map, why not create a whole island? They got to work with crayons, Play-Doh, figures and anything else they could find!
All in all, Day 2 was a success. The best part was watching their imaginations take over and finish off learning time.
There will be a total of 4 days in this series. A cold ran through the house that gave us a mid-week break!
In the last few weeks I’ve been squeezing in some learning time during the day. Not too much where they feel like it’s “school” but just enough to get some practice in before school starts. They’ve been doing some workbook pages, iPad learning games and having some solo reading time daily.
This week I decided to change things up by having a theme each day for “Learning Time.” First up: Pixar Day!
Have I mentioned how thankful I am for Pinterest? They get me through any kind of spontaneous teaching/learning I end up doing! I found this ‘Inside Out’ worksheet (courtesy of buildingyourstory.com) and circles (which I laminated and cut out).
I had them write out how the felt, in age appropriate ways. ‘J’ at 7 was able to write out sentences, while his sister at 4, copied which feeling she aligned with and one word that caused her to feel that way. They both picked Joy and considering it was Monday, I thought that was a great way to kick off their week!
I created a game with the circles. I turned them all face down and had them take turns picking one. Whatever circle they picked, they had to describe a time they felt like that character.
Since we were on a social-emotional path, we also read some of our ‘Inside Out’ character books.
Staying on our path, we discussed the Silenzio Bruno scene in ‘Luca.’ We talked through silencing negative thoughts, replacing them with positives and being brave! Then they colored this worksheet!
Next up, I snuck in some age appropriate Math! ‘J’ practiced money with a Toy Story worksheet and his sister worked on a Toy Story puzzle to practice number order. I built on both a bit by changing up the number order for the puzzle and having ‘J’ use pretend money to pay for the items on the worksheet.
We finished things up with a Toy Story matching game!
Day 1 was a success and they were excited to see what was in store for Day 2! Stay tuned for more!
Picture it: 5 AM in my house (said in my Sophia Petrillo voice):
‘J’ wakes up, comes into our room and excitedly whispers IT’S EARTH DAY IT’S EARTH DAY!
Do I love how into Earth Day he is? YES
Do I love how he wants to learn more about helping the environment? YES
Do I love that he wanted to buy the Earth a gift? YES
Do I love that he acted like it was Christmas morning and woke everyone else up? No, no I don’t. But hey, ya win some ya lose some.
‘J’ has been learning about Earth Day this week in school. He’s learned all about reducing, reusing and recycling. Watching all of this reminds me that each generation gets smarter. It’s awesome being a fly on the wall to watch it all.
‘J’ and his sister were all in for some Earth Day photos. We worked on arts and crafts by reusing various materials and planted some flowers in old coffee cans. How did you celebrate Earth Day?
L to R: Creating the earth with a paper plate, paint and a ziplock bag, Making flowers out of recycled paper, planting flowers in old coffee cans
That’s how long it’s been since I’ve blogged. I’ve taken some breaks before, but this one takes the cake. Especially because 2020 was about 10 years long alone, right?
Some changes from the last 2 years:
‘J’ is now 6 and his sister is now 4
Last year, ‘J’ ended his Kindergarten year on March 13th and since September has been 100% virtual through his school for 1st grade. His sister is doing homeschooling for nursery school.
Just prior to the shutdown last year, we had an outside evaluation done to confirm (once again) that ‘J’ does have Sensory Processing difficulties and we were about to start working with an OT outside of his school.
Through the ups and downs of the pandemic, my kids are resilient, thriving and learning new things everyday.
I’ll be getting into more details regarding some of these changes, along with many others. Just wanted to say hello and let you know that I’m back!
Just My MomSense 