Letter Z - Zebra Week

 These are our homeschool preschool activities for the Letter Z and Zebra week. Last letter!! Archer was 37 months. You can see our full "curriculum" post here, but we will only use some activities each week. The majority of his time is still unstructured play. 

This week was pretty light. He's outgrowing a lot of the activities (but still asks for them) and we're remodeling our basement, which makes toy rotation and accessing material storage difficult. Plus, it is summer and we're trying to get out to parks and on walks when we can. I'm getting excited for next year's curriculum!

This was his shelf setup above his desk. I hung some bulletin board letters, a sign language card (from And Next Comes L) and his work from the week. The shelf had an Alphabet Reader, a Meet the Phonics Letter Reader, and some letter construction.

I used Magnatiles to make a Z on his white board and added fridge phonics. We had some zebra figurines and his clock.

Z puzzles

Letter maze (free to print here).

Magnetic Pattern blocks on his easel. (Template from Confessions of a Homeschooler)

Tracing cards and line tracing (free to print here).

Letter construction (From Tired Need Sleep)

Letter Z Cut and Paste Phonics Hunt

Sand paper letters and letter writing in his sand box.

Letter Z dot to dot (from education.com). 

Using his See and Stamps on a big letter Z

Building an X with Cuisenaire Rods (template here).

Playing with his Osmo letters

We got a set of continent puzzles and he LOVES them. He did this North America one many many times in the last week.

Fraction magnets

Playing My First Animal Upon Animal

He has been so into his United States puzzle and the 50 Nifty States Song that we decided to let him try Sequence States and Capitols. He really enjoyed finding the states on the board, but didn't understand the idea of getting so many in a row to make a "Sequence."

The Scrambled States of America was by far the most read book this week.

We played some Stone Soup

He decided to use his letter construction set to make some numbers. I was actually pretty impressed.

See other Alphabet Posts:

Motivating Children To Learn, Give It Time

 

Photo: Unsplash

Keeping learning fun is a great way to make the activity more enjoyable. Some children may appear unmotivated to learn. Motivation is defined as a desire to invest time and effort in a specific activity, even when difficulties may arise along the way. A student who is motivated to learn will perform the school assignments on their own initiative, will participate more in the lessons, and will enjoy the learning process. They may wish to strive to achieve high achievements that express their potential. Their learning will be more effective and they will not develop a tendency to procrastinate. 

Lack of motivation can result from a variety of reasons and factors. The main ones being: low self-esteem, fear of failure and other negative emotions, such as: anxiety, anger, shame or guilt. It may related to a condition such as ADHD, which is accompanied by a high level of distraction and  impulsivity. It may also cause a lack of focus and difficulty controlling behavior. Learning disabilities, difficulties in organizing and managing time, a study framework or study style that does not suit the student's needs, and more.

What can be done to motivate the child to learn?

A student's lack of motivation is not an unchangeable fate, and intrinsic motivation is something that can be nurtured. Before you rush to judge the child as "lazy", and before you state that "nothing motivates them", here are some tips that you as parents can apply, to stimulate the child's inner urge and motivate them to learn:

1. Your involvement is key. Create a fun environment for them to learn. Promote reading, writing and activities. Look at something such as Age of Learning to make things a little more fun. The greater the sharing between you and the school in general and the children's teachers in particular, the more the child will feel that the dominant figures in his life want to do better with him, which will allow him to feel safer and more protected. A sense of protection and belonging will allow your children to be more available for learning.

2. When it comes to security and protection, convey to the child that you believe in them, that you are confident in their abilities and that you know that they can succeed. A child whose parents cultivate his or her self-confidence will be a child with a higher motivation to learn. One strategy to build on is to start with small, relatively easy goals to build upon.

3. Positive behaviors of the child should be encouraged and reinforced. When the child takes responsibility, when they express satisfaction with the work they have written, when they set goals and strive to strive towards them - be proud. When she/he asks questions, they should be praised, so that they continue to adopt such behaviors, from which they will benefit throughout their life.

5. Don’t punish them for struggling. Punishment causes the child to feel wronged, to develop feelings of guilt that can further delay them. Instead, encourage and try to get to the bottom of why they are feeling so down. Is it the lack of friends at school? A poor homelife? Consider everything.

This is a contributed post

Letter Y - Yak Week

These are our homeschool preschool activities for the Letter Y and Yak week. Archer was 37 months. You can see our full "curriculum" post here, but we will only use some activities each week. The majority of his time is still unstructured play. 

This week and the remainder of the letter weeks will be pretty light. He's outgrowing a lot of the activities (but still asks for them) and we're remodeling our basement, which makes toy rotation and accessing material storage difficult. Plus, it is summer and we're trying to get out to parks and on walks when we can.

This was his shelf setup above his desk. I hung some bulletin board letters, a sign language card (from And Next Comes L) and his work from the week. The shelf had an Alphabet Reader, a Meet the Phonics Letter Reader, and some letter construction.

I used Magnatiles to make a Y on his white board and added fridge phonics. We had a Little People X-Ray fish and his clock.

Letter construction (From Tired Need Sleep)

Sand paper letters and letter writing in his sand box.

Dot letters from (Confessions of a Homeschoolers)

Magnetic Pattern blocks on his easel. (Template from Confessions of a Homeschooler)

Letter maze (free to print here).

"Playing" Chickyboom

He decided to make "numberblocks"

Some Water Wow

See other Alphabet Posts:

4th of July Preschool Activities

I meant to get this posted before the 4th, but life got crazy and I didn't get it done in time. However, I decided to go ahead and post now, so that I'll have ideas in the future (and anyone else will).

His artwork and books for the week. Scrambled States Book was the best loved book.

Playdough bin had some rollers and cutters, a star extruder, USA and star cookie cutters, beads and stars (cut from beaded necklaces from past parades), red and white "diamonds" and blue glass gems, and star buttons.

We did this super simple wreath craft. I just cut a "wreath" out of a stiff piece of sparkly felt (using dishes for the circles) and gave him a bag of felt star stickers.

Felt flag "puzzle" on the Nugget.

4th of July Cuisenaire Templates

This was our first attempt at marble painting. I forgot to include a pic of the final result, but it was fun. Next time we might need to use slightly thinner paint. The marbles tended to get stuck in the thick globs of paint.

Painting with his star roller.

Fireworks Addition Roll and Cover

I got out this US States tray puzzle, not sure if he was ready for it. The first day we mostly did it together, but he has done it on his own almost every day since. In fact, we ended up going out to buy some other continent puzzles because he liked it so well. We're also now working on learning the Fifty Nifty States song. I like this Youtube Video because it shows where the states are on the map.