Virginia Said:

"Home-made" homeschool lesson plans?

We Answered:

There are several sites for teachers that do what you're talking about. Some of them offer free lesson plan sharing and very inexpensive downloadable units that have been written by teachers. One that's like this is http://atozteacherstuff.com. They have templates for craft projects, language arts and math lessons and units that are written by teachers. Check it out. The site is very professionally put together and easy to navigate. While the lessons are geared at teachers, there is no reason that they couldn't be used for homeschooling or that a lesson geared at a homeschooled student couldn't be posted or sold in a site like this. They have secular and religious items, so really anyone could use it. If nothing else, you could get ideas for what you're trying to do, as it sounds like what you'd like to do is very similar, just for parents, not teachers.

good luck.

Samantha Said:

Preschool lesson about family?

We Answered:

I very seldom seperate the family members...works better all around to do general activities. Here are some we've done recently...maybe you can use them as a jumping board.

We do a lot of incorporating basic concepts so I'll include those as well.
Bear Family Homes (simple pentagon houses with no details)
•Child will arrange houses in numerical order.
•Child will create bear families for the homes. (If you use the different size bears...it naturally leads into conversation about different types of families and who are in them.)
•If time allows, create patterns, add-subtract.

Font Families- sort the letters into a container that spells child’s name. Then glue the different fonts of the specific letter onto a larger block letters. Make to fit on a large piece of construction paper. (3x4 scrap paper rectangles. Glue on a letter square in center. Child sorts and adds other font letters onto each rectangle. Then glues in order onto construction paper. (This activity leads to discussing how even in the same family...we might look different)

Family Counting
This is a family.
Let’s count and see
How many people there are
And who they could be!
We used pictures of different families and discussed them after saying the rhyme as well as counting the members.

We also used the pictures and had the children choose one, glue it to a paper and do a little story dictation.

We let the children choose from a selection of rocks of different sizes to make a family and added features after washing and drying them. We encouraged story telling.

We also focused on the letter F that day... so we did our name activity using a "family of fish". We went fishing for fish (paper w/ paperclips on the end and a magnetic fishing pole). We sorted to each child and they glued in order on a "pond" that they had cut previously. Works better in a small group.

Shape Family Song- I'm Momma Circle shaped like a pie. I'm papa square...four sides have I. I'm sure you are familiar with it. But if not you can email me and I'll send the words to you. We extended it by sorting shapes using the shape family picture cards.

We chose to do a "home collage" during this theme...since families around the world live in different types of homes. I provided various pictures of different types of homes for each child and they glue them onto a background...maybe an H or maybe a basic house shape, etc.

Family attributes
•Child will create a set of four families using family “pretend play people”.
•Child will discuss what attributes caused them to sort them as they did.
•If time allows, incorporate a little social studies/history about why there is such a mixture of families in the U.S. Would be great to have a simple map on hand to show where each family’s descendents came from.

We did Number Families---Spotting numbers... I had large block numerals with various number inside of the block numeral but 5 of the same numeral. They used transparent colored chips to spot the same numeral.

Since our focus letter was F...we made rhyming word family fans. Led to the discussion of last names...we did include that some members of the family did have different last names. (Made a paper fan, sorted the picture/rhyming words into groups and each child made a fan...again...works best in small group.)

Good luck!

Randy Said:

Lesson plans for 2 year olds?

We Answered:

I'm not sure 2 year olds require formal lesson plans. At that age play is much more important than formal teaching. Play is how children learn, and you can provide so much for them just by interacting with them. Sing songs, read books, knock over blocks, bang on pots and pans, find bugs outside, splash in the tub, finger-paint, recite nursery rhymes, play with cars and trucks . . . then do it all again the next day!

Edna Said:

preschool lesson plans?

We Answered:

try http://www.preschooleducation.com it has almost anything and everything on developing lesson plans for preschoolers.

Dave Said:

social emotional lesson plans for preschool? (friendship,family)?

We Answered:

For self-esteem you can have each child tell or demonstrate something that he's good at or likes to do.
Also talk about favorites, such as TV cartoons, foods, games, and toys. If you don't already do show and tell, have the kids bring in something that is special to them. This could lead to common interests which would segue into friendship. What do friends do for each other, and what is a friend.

Family introduces vocabulary as well as the concept. At the preschool age, most kids are still into "MY mommy, MY grandma, MY brother." There are books about family structure, but you could intoduce the idea that we all have several roles in the family. I'll always remember the look on my son's face (he was about 4) when he realized that Grandma was Mommy's Mommy. You could cut out shapes of adults and children and have the children make collages of their families. (Drawing isn't too good at that age)