Quarantineschooling Ideas- Spring, Bunnies, and Birds for Preschoolers

erinbabysteps

I thought homeschooling was tricky, but now I know quarantingschooling is the next level…

First, I thank all of those who have made it a priority to stop the spread of Covid-19 by just staying in and away from people. I have wondered what percentage of Americans have taken this seriously by practicing true isolation. I keep thinking how much worse this could be if the people who are staying in had not made the sacrifices to do so. I also think of how much better it could be if more would take the action to isolate. I wish we could all synch up and coordinate that act, so it really would impact the curve this virus is on.

Anyway, I wanted to be one more voice to add to the others to say- please, stay in if you can. I admire all of those who are and are trying to give the medical world a fighting chance against this virus. Thank you to all of the healthcare workers from the bottom of my heart. I know it is not just you, you put on the line; it is your family too. Your burdens, sacrifices, and selflessness are truly heroic.

I wanted to just share some activities that worked with keeping my boys busy this last week. I have neglected my blogging even though I said I wanted to get back to documenting my children grow, especially in their education and milestones. Since the closing of schools, we have been full gear into activities and learning though, so I felt I should share some things that worked for us.

I love the sharing of ideas when it comes to kid activities. There can never be enough. I have found so many from great blogs and resources out there. We have stuck to a schedule. Truly, it has kept some sanity and given our day after day some direction. To have a concrete schedule we plan out in the morning helps a bit with my otherwise tendency to be all over the place and then not get anything done. It has given us all senses of accomplishment as we track goals and have some order. Abe (4, ALMOST 5 now) and Grant (1.5) need to stay busy or they are at the stage of fighting with each other, which I fear might be our forever stage from here….

We start with a theme that carries on through the week. This week was “Spring ” which lead to the subthemes “Easter” “bunnies” and “birds.”

Here are some activities broken down into the different categories. Feel free to take and use them in your days and share on. Let’s help each other keep these kids from driving themselves and us crazy!

Also, I wanted to give huge praise to ABCMouse.com. They are giving away free membership during this time to help with homeschooling. Though we have not explored it a whole lot yet to give a proper review, the free books they have are enough for me to give them 5 stars. They have a HUGE library or online books. When our day was about birds, for example, I just searched “birds” in their library, and we had awesome bird books to read together. Abe loves the reading part of our day because of the ability to search for any book he wants.

Okay. Here are some spring activities broken into subject.

Math/Science:

Bunny Hop Number Line Game (15 minutes a time, and we did it many times)

WE LOVED THIS FROM https://teachbesideme.com/bunny-hop-number-line-game/.
Refer to her site for better pictures and thorough instructions, but really you just roll a die with addition and subtraction on it, and hop along a chalk number line. It is so easy, and Abe just really liked it.
We did make a homemade die, which was by accident a “weighted die”. It kept landing on the subtraction of 3. I ended up gluing a “+2” over it, so we could win. Haha!

Graphing our Sight Words (2 minutes):

See below for our sight words challenge, but we also take an opportunity to graph the progress Abe has made. He enjoys counting up the number of flashcards he was able to get through, and then can put dot stickers for each card on the graph. We work on counting, number sense, trends, and graphs.

Bird Wingspan Measurement Activity (30 minutes):

The lesson can be found at http://hawksaloft.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Hawks-Aloft-Wingspan-Matters.pdf.
I read through the “Wing Span Matters” article.
Then, we used some of our poster paper rolls to measure out the given wingspans for four birds they have. We added a robin which has a 10″ wingspan and took out the turkey vulture.
We folded the lengths, and Abe would draw in the wings. We cut out the wings to do comparisons. I liked how much measurement and number exposure he got.
We also put hair binders on the ends, so we could wear them, and fly them around.

How Many Jumps (10 minutes): This did not take as long as I thought, but we probably could have stretched it out. Scholastic has some bunny books and this bunny hopping activity at https://letsfindout.scholastic.com/pages/sandbox/activity-how-many-jumps.html. We measured out the distances given for how far a kangaroo, frog, and grasshopper could jump. There was a lot of room for comparisons, and counting work. , and we got some energy out. It was a good indoor activity!

Reading:

5 words (10 minutes-15 minutes): I write 5 words on a board, and he sounds them out. Then, he writes them down to document the days’ words.

Sight Word Challenge (3 minutes): Abe has 30 seconds to get through as many sight words as he can from flashcards I made. When he gets 10, he gets a treat, and the next time I add another set to mix in.

Just read (15- ?? minutes): We go to the right now FREE ABCMouse.com where they offer a TON of free books concerning our theme of spring, birds, and bunnies through a simple search. Also, we have not dived into the books that Scholastic has as much, 9ABCMouse has all we have needed, but Scholastic also has some free books at https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome/grades-prek-k.html.

Art/Crafts:

Eggs (15 minutes):

We used Q-tips to do dot paint to decorate eggs for our window. We always decorate our windows for the holidays.

We also learned about a “Social Distancing Egg Hunt” on facebook where someone had an idea to hang eggs on the window of your home, and get your friends to do it too. Then, take the kids for a walk or drive to count how many eggs they can find.

Footprint Bunny Craft (15-20 minutes, if no bath is counted):

Thanks, https://funhandprintartblog.com/paper-plate-footprint-bunny.html). We put these on the window, so I got two sets of prints from both boys in order to have feet seen on the outside and inside.
I just want to mention how I lifted both boys into the tub with clothes on for them to just wash their feet, and Abe dumped water all over Grant. So, this became a bath time activity too.

Making a Movie (60 minutes):

Abe likes to make “shows” or movies. We created scenery and characters to a song that we knew well. We have tried to make movies before, but they turn out all over the place. Having a song to center our production around, I think, was more age-appropriate for Abe. Here it is!!

Painting/Making a Bird Feeder:

plastic bottle bird feeder collage
We were going to make a birdfeeder like this from https://www.familyhandyman.com/garden-structures/14-easy-diy-winter-bird-feeders/
BUT…

My husband ended up making a birdfeeder for us, so we painted it.

Music:

“Little Bunny Foo Foo” (see our video above in “Art”, for we turned this into a play)

Thanks for Reading!

As usual, I have procrastinated with this. I will be posting my #amwriting update by my scheduled time goal March 31st. I will give a sneak peek at what I’m working on and an update on my progress!

Thanks, everyone. Please add any activities working with your kids during these quarantine times. I hope everyone is safe and well. I pray, pray we can all come out of this difficult time banded together and loving stronger.

Published by erinbabysteps

Hello! My name is Erin, and I am a mom of two boys, Abraham and Grant. I taught high school math for 6 years before taking on full time mom. It has been a transition becoming a full time mom from full time teacher. Though my heart is filled raising my boys and seeing them grow and develop, some days my mind can be overwhelmed with ideas that come from a passion for better education and a desire to still be out in the working world making a difference there. Math has a special place with me given my background. I believe it can be introduced and presented in more contexts than we even realize at the younger age so that just maybe the subject would not be despised by so many. I would love to join back into the network of giving and taking ideas for educating and surrounding my children with great activities. Please follow me and connect up! Let me share all of these ideas I have. With that said I do give a disclaimer that I am not one of those moms who has it all together. I struggle to simply have the floors clean. I so want a rumba, but cannot justify spending the money. Rather than sucking it up and getting on top of the vacuuming, hairy floors are the norm from a cat, a dog who sheds in the winter, and ME sadly, hopefully just temporarily loosing hair after pregnancy. I have those days when it seems like my son is the only one not listening. What I am saying is being a mom is a challenge for me. So, join me, and help me please.

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