A few things from an 'off' week.

This week has been full of 'NO' and 'I don't wanna' from both boys. Im going to chalk it up to a week of -30 weather and boys who need to get out but whatever it is it's been like pulling teeth to get them dressed or fed much less do any school work. Here are a few easy, quick, little prep, cheap activities we did manage to accomplish this week.

Working with the abacus. RightStart Math has a very nice abacus that is easy to use and color coded by 5's.

We practiced mostly #7 as that is the number we are focusing on this week but played with making some other numbers as well.

Turkey handprints. The top one Loch traced and colored himself (I added the feet) and the bottom one I traced and the boys colored in.Tracing is fantastic fine motor skills work for pre writers.

This is one of those $1 games from Micheal's. For Loch he had dice which he rolled and then took turns moving the pieces that many spaces. (Math, taking turns, fine motor) 

For Asher he only took each tee out and placed it back in a hole. (fine motor)

Magnetic dinosaurs placed and moved on the board. (fine motor, storytelling/pre reading)

I had pulled out my drop spindle and was working with it Loch decided he wanted to as well.

This drop spindle was made from a small wooden dowel and wooded 'wheel' from Joann's. I added a bit of roving that already had some twist in it so it wouldn't just break when spun. He practices Holding the roving in one hand and spinning with the other. 

Pre to the K - this weeks pictures

Fine motor practice - sharpening a pencil. Yay for things that are weird and actually count as school. Just think for a second you need to be able to hold both objects. Hold one still and rotate the other while not dropping the pencil. Forcing the pencil into the sharpener but not too hard. Sharpening until it's sharp but not so much as to brake the tip.

This is a useful skill and fine motor control practice. Perfect for pre-kers or kindy students lagging in motor control.

A game from the sonlight p4/p5 teachers manual. Each player has an ice cube. You roll a die and depending on which number comes up you either add salt to your cube, blow on it, place it in water.... etc. First player whos' ice cube melts whens. 

Covering Science, math, following directions, taking turns.

Cutting Practice. We read stone soup and followed it up by making veggie soup for lunch.

Fantastic fine motor control practice!

( For this I gave the baby his own bits of potato and the wooden play knife so he could 'cut' too)

Attempting to grow a carrot and potato. We hallowed out the inside and added water to them. Failed Failed Failed but it was fun to try.

Science

The Letter I - a giant I on a scroll. "Here ye here ye I proclaim to all the land!"

Literacy, letter recognition.

I got these fantastic geometric shapes at a retired teachers yard sale. We like to fill them up with rice. Sometimes we weigh them against each other eg. is a sphere heavier then a cylinder?

Sometimes we just make a mess which is fun too.

And a bonus: I learned what the difference is between a triangle pyramid and a square pyramid.

spatial recognition, fine motor (pouring), math