My friend Cheryle hit the jackpot with this site. If my printer was working I would totally be doing the happy dance. Actually I am still happy with anticipation knowing all this great lit is here waiting.  Catholics note these two links.

F is for Fish

ASL: F  and  fish

F template: glue on feathers or use a stamp pad to fill with fingerprints   Speaking of fingerprints, don’t miss this opportunity to share the fun of Ed Emberly’s fingerprint book!  It has a 5 star rating for good reason. Even little people can make great designs with a bit of help from your pen. The look on their faces when they see what happens to their fingerprints is priceless. : )

Lit:

Saint/Bible story:

St. Anthony preaches to the fishes or the story of Jesus and the Loaves and the Fishes (a boatload of lessons for this story at the link – pun intended ; )) or the Fisher of Men story. We will print this classic art image as well as one of the Loaves and Fishes for Art appreciation as well.

Montessori Trays:  fabric basket, felt board – there are lots of premade sets available or you can get books like Fun with Felt from CHC to make felt saints to go with your studies(can’t find it online so will try to track down a resource later!), feely bag – we took a large ziplock bag, tossed some foam fish into it and filled it with blue shampoo to make a fish ‘pond’. Another feely box option is to put one of a pair of objects into a medium sized can with a large sock pulled over it. The child can reach in but not see the objects. They must pair by touch.  I will upload the pics of both to the Funschool Flicker next week. The sensory box can have feathers this week. (this is our take on a sensory table which is bigger and more expensive) Discovery bottle – ocean (blue food color in water for half the bottle, oil in the rest) Foam work  One of my Montessori homeschool mom friends has made file folder type tray games with craft foam figures like this. Darned if I can find her or her pics!  If you are out there please send me your link!

Snack: Goldfish crackers, fruit rollups, fruit salad (yummy yummy – sorry, I broke into song for a minute ; )) fig newtons, and fish sticks

Math: Fewer/Less than (see lit list) Throughout the week look for opportunities to compare amounts of similar things. Are there fewer apples or oranges left? Are their fewer pennies or nickels in my purse? Are there fewer socks or towels in the wash?  You can have the same discussion about full/empty as an alternative or addition.  Use a ruler to introduce "foot" measure.

Shapes: review previously learned shapes with pattern blocks or geometric solids

Science –  If you are a brave mom you can dissect a whole fish from the grocery store. Its smelly but cheap and memorable.   You can learn about all sorts of fish at enchantedlearning and print out pages to color for the binders. Betta fish make excellent low maintenance pets for the preschool room.  Flower fairy F – Forget me not  You may want to explain to your students that in Victorian days the Forget Me Not was a popular image for embroidery patterns, especially those given to friends.

montessorimaterials has a few different fish card sets to print. Montimats has free fruit and flower cards here.

Lit:

Swimmy

The Fisherman and His Wife

Goldfish and Chrysanthemums  sweet story about a girl who creates a tiny koi pond to cure her Chinese grandmother’s homesickness

Surrounded by Sea by Gail Gibbons

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish

More, Fewer, Less

Fish for Letters game: label paper fish with a letter and paper clip. Fish with a magnet on a string and have the child name the letters he catches. You could ‘fish’ for fridge magnet letters too.

for beginning readers this little fish rebus style story is good fun

Art:  Chinese fish mobile craft or the paper bag fish or the paper plate fish or this very nice Japanese koi fish project   DLTK has even more fish crafts to go with the Fishers of Men verse from Scripture and from the Jonah story.  Footprint craft ideas found here.

Drama – Face painting

Fingerplay (starts with F and is another preschool mainstay:

Fish Story

One, two, three, four, five
(Hold up fingers while counting)
Once I caught a fish alive.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
(hold up additional fingers)
Then I let it go again.
Why did I let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
The little finger on the right.
(hold up pinky on the right hand)

Ta Da!  I figured out how to set up a Funschool Flickr badge dealy this morning. If you go to the right sidebar you can find images from Friday Funschool here at the ranch. The images are several weeks behind the plans at this point due to camera woes but they will be coming as time goes by. Meantime you can check out B and C images. We have had a really good time. : )

Elizabeth and Katherine have had a really good time with their little people as well. They are sharing their letter adventures on Serendipity. These stories mesh very well with Funschool plans and in fact they are using some of those too. It is a beautiful thing when moms put their heads together!

Another resource I am very excited about are the TLC Lessons books. (Not to be confused with the TLC Life lessons on tv lol!)  I ran across references to Kaye Espinosa’s series of project books on several early learning sites and was intrigued. When I unearthed some samples I was sold. These books fit my criteria for large-Montessori-family friendly materials. The instructions are written to the student and the results are satisfying.

After the teacher/mom creates the pack of materials, the student can self select a project and complete it fairly independently (assuming he is a reader. Otherwise he may need a bigger sibling to help with direction reading). They help children learn to follow directions, perfect their fine motor skills, and practice spatial awareness. Students learn to make circles, ovals and triangles by cutting off the corners or halves of square papers. They then assemble the pieces according to the instructions. While Mrs. Espinosa is a kindergarten teacher it seems as though these projects would work well through the early elementary grades. In fact a slightly older child could probably do a bang up job very independently.

I love both the concept and the end results. These projects are very much in line with the type found in Natural Structure, a guide for implementing Montessori at home. The NS authors recommend making trays with all the materials needed to independently complete a lesson. TLC will help you do that. They tell you exactly how many papers and in what size and colors to include in your ziplock bag. I would think this would make a good project for a mom’s night.

My children are independently moving furniture at the moment so that is the end of this review. <g> Gotta go help with the room swapping. Check these out and let me know if your family implements any of these project books and if you have a favorite. Once we run through these samples I am going to have to lay down some cash. : )

Our Letter of the Week is E.  See if your child can make out  the E in the image left. <g>  Our theme is the Egg, the shape is oval, the color white (it is too a color – Tomie De Paola says so ; )), and the number is 5.

ASL E and egg

Lit:

Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones – Ruth Heller  This is a great book which teaches about all the animals which are hatched.

Horton Hatches an Egg – Seuss

From Egg to Chicken

Just Plain Fancy is Patricia Polacco’s sweet story of the dilemma an Amish girl faces when her hen hatches a very unusual chick.

Five Little Ducks (who also lay eggs) If by some misfortune you don’t have Raffi’s musical version do treat yourselves to that! Some of my fondest motherhood memories are Raffi songs blasting on the van radio when my big boys were little. I had to sing this book. It just seemed right. : )

The Eagle and the Beetle (Aesop) a nod to classical curriculum. This story involves eggs as well.   Aesop’s Fables are a marvelous addition to any child’s education. Older children can use them for copywork and composition ala IEW.  We are all about multilevel learning. : )

The Elves and the Shoemaker – Grimm  Free online or any illustrated version

Theme unit for Chickens Aren’t The Only Ones.

Discovery Bottles – Static Electricity

Montessori trays: use egg slicer on boiled eggs this week. Use an oval stencil (metal insets) to complete this egg minibook. An extension is to make lines with colored pencil filling in the ovals like this. If you don’t have insets you can make a stencil from a plastic container lid and an exacto knife. Make E’s and 5’s from playdough to cover letter card. Match patterned plastic egg halves. If your child is ready you can put an uppercase letter on one half and a lower case match on the other.

Snack/Practical life work:  make egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, scrambled/fried/poached, and omelettes.

Math – match these eggs by number of dots. Put jelly beans in egg cartons with the spaces labeled with 1-12 (or use a half dozen carton with just 1-6) Match these by pattern or print multiples and use them to make repeating patterns. You can glue your patterns to be recreated onto a control card.

virtual games: I don’t recommend many of these but if you need 10 minutes to make  a phone call you can tap these resources.

Art: lots of options. The obvious would be to dye the eggs. An extension of same would be to explore pysanky egg art. Patricia Polacco’s book Rechenka’s Eggs is excellent here. If that is too ambitious there are printable pysanky eggs found here. Cover the E template with eggshell collage. (use the shells saved from those boiled egg dishes)   I love this string art project. Very multisensory and by golly the finished project will, drumroll please, fit in a binder. <g>   Did you know that egg yolk makes an interesting paint technique? Scroll down to Maryann Kohl’s submission. Her books are must have’s for art instruction.

Movement: tape off the floor into a curvy path and have children push boiled eggs along. Walk the line – make an oval tape circle and have the children walk the line carrying the eggs on spoons.

Verse: Humpty Dumpty (craft project on link and here)

Saints/bible heroes: Esther and St Elizabeth of Hungary  Decorate a crown shape (or make one for the child to wear!) with sequins and include in binder with the children’s retelling of one of these queens’ stories. 

Enjoy!