Stop, Drop, & Roll

We are learning about Community Workers this month.

Last week was the Post Office and this week was Firemen.

We had a lot of fun with this one and really learned a lot.  We didn't do much outside of our theme work.  I'm in the process of finalizing our actual subject work for the new year.  I decided to stick with making our own themes but sourcing out our main subjects.  We will be using Math-U-See, Explode The Code, and A Reason For Handwriting.  She'll start those curriculums after her birthday.

For now though, we are enjoying our fun themes and working in the reading, writing, and math as we go.

Here's what we did this past week...

Fireman Worksheets from Homeschool Creations

We printed out a few from the Kindergarden Pack and Josie breezed through them.  I introduced more than, less than, and equals and Josie loved it.  We played with that sheet everyday.  She also got to use a ruler to measure the fireman tools and and do a few mazes.  She loved that too.

The reading sheets were not fun for her so I left them off.  I've pretty much decided to wait until we do Explode The Code instead of randomly doing reading work.  We'll stick to our Word Family games for now.

Five Little Fireman Song & Art

Painted hands?  Glitter?  Fingers turned into people?

Yup, this one was a hit!

Nature Walks

This one doesn't have anything to do with firemen, but it was SO gorgeous out all week that we went on quite a few morning hikes in the woods.  We brought along our collecting bags and loaded up on leaves and pine cones!

Science Experiment

For science this week, we talked about what a fire needs to burn (fuel, heat, and oxygen).  Then we took each of those things away and observed what happened.

This was a lot of fun and so easy to understand.  It's a great experiment. 

STOP, DROP, & ROLL

Of course we had to practice stop, drop, and roll.  Although I pray we never have to use it!

Field Trip

We ended our unit with a field trip!  Most of Josie's little friends have been to the fire station lots of times, but this was our first trip.  It was SO interesting and our guide was the nicest man.  The kids had a blast and learned a ton!

And I think Gabe may have "Be A Firetruck Driver" on his life list.  The kid did not want to get out!

Mail Call!

Before I share this week's Post Office fun with you, I have to give a quick update on Larry the Pumpkin.

This was the last check we did on October 31st.

It was nasty and gooey and smelled pretty yucky.

It was really interesting to watch it decompose.  I had originally wanted it to be totally decomposed before we threw it out, but it was grossing me out so we tossed it in the woods.

And now on to our Theme of the Week:

The Post Office!

I had a Pin Board full of ideas and all the supplies to get them done, but my brother had to have a scary surgery and we had to wait for some scary tests to come back so my mind was just everywhere but on school.  We did get a few done and had a really great field trip, so here's what we did.

Vocabulary Card Game

I made some cards up with words that had to do with the post office and a bunch of popsicle sticks with letters on them.

Josie picked a card then we raced to find the letters that spelled the word.

Word Family Game

Just 4 envelopes with the word family's "address".  She had to put the word in the right envelope so the mailman would deliver it to the right house.

I had super cute envelopes planned out but this was all I could muster by the end of the week.  

If I had this one to do over (which I will be doing), I would write the "at", "ail", "all", "am" REALLY big.  As a super duper beginner, she had a hard time figuring out which part of the address she was matching to the word card.

Once she figured that out though, she loved this game.

Post Office Field Trip

I had done this field trip about 10 years ago when I worked at a preschool so I set it up and invited our homeschooling friends.  A few families ended up not being able to make it, but the girls that did come had a good time.

The guide spoke a bit above a 4 year old's attention span.  Even if they couldn't follow everything she was saying, they did seem to really like seeing behind the scenes.  

And the Moms really enjoyed it!  It is crazy how much goes into sorting the mail!

The trucks were the highlight.  Josie keeps talking about how they drive on the wrong side of the car!

It is so much fun to have some friends that are homeschooling too!  Trips like this are so much more fun with friends!

Check out Homeschool Creations Link Up for a ton of great theme ideas!

Up next is the Fire Station!

Doctor Unit

"A cheerful heart is good medicine!"

Proverbs 17:22

Last Summer, when we took Gabe to the Doctor to get caught up on his missing shots, the Doctor somehow thought it was a good idea to tell Josie she'd be getting her shots when she turned 4.

The Doctor then proceeded to stick her baby brother repeatedly as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

As you can imagine, Josie has dreaded turning 4.

I actually got her to fess up that the shots were the reason she was so fixated on being 5.  Guess she thought she could skip the shots if she skipped 4!

Well, she did turn 4 and her Well Check was scheduled for Friday.

My poor baby was so nervous.

I decided that we would focus on Doctors and Nurses last week to try to ease her mind.

It didn't work, but we still had a good school week!

I found this Doctors And Nurses Preschool Pack over at Homeschool Creations.

It was perfect.

We didn't do all the activities this week.  Some of them are just too easy for Josie.  So we worked on the Memory Verse, the Pre-Writers, and the math sheets.

I love Homeschool Creations Memory Verses.  She does 3 different versions, one with just the words, one with a couple picture cues, and one with words and pictures.  We put them up in different places and work on them throughout the day.  I usually give her the first couple words then she finishes it.

She's always been quick with memorization.

And we read a ton of books about going to the Doctor.  Her favorite was Corduroy Goes To The Doctor.

I also picked up the BrainQuest Book at Goodwill.  

Josie LOVED it!

I was interested to see what she already knew that was actual Pre-K work. 

She's still working on writing the letters correctly and we're just starting Sight Words, but the rest of it she picked up very fast.  She really loved the pages where she had to find what was wrong with the picture.

She's very interested in reading but I'm not sure where to go from there.  I'm trying to read to her more.  She knows all the letter sounds and we've been watching Leap Frog Word Factory so she's picking up on blending the letters together.

I recently read a post about the difference between reading programs that are Phonics Based and Whole Language Based.  I'm leaning towards Whole Language since that seems to be the most natural but I'm not sure yet.

So I guess for now, we'll just read, read, read!

Next week is going to be crazy so I'm pretty sure we will just do some pages in this book.