Weekly Wrap Up!

This week we focused on:
Letter of the week: N
Color: Brown
Shape: Triangle
Character Development: Thoughtfulness (See this post here)
Bible Verses:
"No one can serve two masters." Matthew 6:24
"So in everything, do unto others what you would have them do to you." - Matthew 7:12
Fine motor skills

In December I did an informal assessment with both of the boys to see what colors, shapes, and letters we needed to focus on. CA needed practice with the color brown. Hence, our color of the week.

I found a few great activities at Preschool Palace for shapes and colors.

We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear and then worked our Brown Bear puzzle to coordinate with it.

JP breezed through all the colors.

CA needed a little reinforcement on a few colors. Here I am doing what I love, teaching my blessings.

I had plans to do a bug theme this week, but honestly we ended up doing a lot of other fun things too. We did use parts of this awesome printable from 1+1+1=1 on bugs and nets.

We used brown paper bags, brown markers and brown stickers for this craft.

For some tactile practice I put brown paint in a ziploc bag and asked CA to make shapes and letters for me. He really enjoyed this activity. JP wanted no part of it. :)

Then we used the grocery ads to search for brown items to cut and paste onto brown construction paper.

Then we pulled out our new tracing stencils that some sweet friends handed down to us.

Overall, we had an awesome, busy week learning and having a ton of fun!

Check out my new page to see where I linked up this week!

Thoughtfulness-Character Development

This week we have focused on thoughtfulness. I want to train my boys to be thoughtful, kind, and considerate. We discussed the meaning of being thoughtful is showing consideration for others; considerate. We have also been focusing on learning this verse: 

"So in everything, do unto others what you would have them do to you." - Matthew 7:12

We made our thoughtful card together. This week I printed the word, meaning and verse on card stock. Then JP decided he wanted to decorate it with apple trees! Quite thoughtful of him! I found clear plastic magnetic frames that we aren't using anymore and thought these would be perfect to hold our cards and keep them on the refrigerator. Then we can all see them on a regular basis.

We then baked homemade brownies to go with our color of the week. As we were quickly getting ready to go see Daddy at work one afternoon I reminded the boys that we could be thoughtful and share these brownies with the other coaches at Daddy's school and the boys were so thrilled to be thoughtful. I think they truly enjoyed thinking of someone else. We talked a lot about how the treat would make the other person feel. And oops, I forgot to take a picture of our baking adventure and our giving of the treats. Oh well. :)

I also decided to start an "I caught you being good!" chart. I wrote "JP can..." and "CA can.." although I used their real names on it instead of their blog names, therefore I won't be able to show you a picture of it. Sorry. :( I have then been putting a sticker with an affirmation of what they did right on the chart. One thing I learned from my teaching days is that children love validation, affirmation, and positive reinforcement.   So far today, JP's chart says "JP can give compliments." During calendar time this morning JP told CA what a great job he was doing being the calendar helper. It was precious! CA's chart says "CA can say please.". I plan to keep this posted on the refrigerator as a way to see their progress. This is also helping me to praise the boys specifically. I hope this makes sense even without a visual.

Hoping my children become more thoughtful,
Trina