Letter M

So this week we worked on learning the letter M! I chose to start with M because my little preschool monkey's name starts with letter M. I'm not too worried that it's not easy to write yet. I really just wanted to work on letter recognition and sounds right now.

We started off Monday with Marshmallows.

• We filled the outline of a capital M with marshmallows.
• We used Measuring cups to move Marshmallows back and forth between bowls (counting our scoops as we went.)
• We sorted out big and small Marshmallows.
• We glued small Marshmallows to the center of our letter M outlines. That was super easy for me and the girls thought it was super cool.
• We read the letter M book from This Reading Mama. We read it multiple times and acted out all the M words.
• We played Mother May I? and Mommy Says (instead of Simon Says.)
• We went to McDonalds and had McNuggets and Milkshakes. While there we looked all over the place for M's. They really enjoyed that and continued looking for letters as we drove back home.

Tuesday was all about Monsters.

• We put together a Monster puzzle from 1plus1plus1equals1
• We read the Monster Eyes book from 1plus1plus1pequals1.
• We built Monsters out of play dough. I gave Monkey and Butterfly each two colors of dough, cut up pipe cleaners, pom poms, and pony beads, and told them to make monsters. They each approached it completely differently, which was neat. Monkey grabbed her scissors and went after her monsters with them. I liked that, too!
• We played How Many Monsters are at the Door? from A Teaching Mommy. I cut along the edge of the door so we could slide monsters in the door and do a Monsters at the Door version of Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. We also pretended there was a party. One of us would pick how many monsters were at the party and the other would put that many monsters in the room.
• We used small circular reward stickers to fill out the Letter M Dot a Dot page from The Measured Mom.
• We practiced cutting with University Monsters from 123Homeschool4Me. It was a little too hard for Monkey so I cut the paper in half so she didn't have to cut as far. I think we need to work up to cutting a whole page.

Monkeys climbed all over Wednesday.

• We used do a dot painters on an M is for Monkey page from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
• We put together an M is for Monkey puzzle, also from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I glued the puzzle to a foam sheet to make it easier for her to handle. She still had a lot of trouble with it. I think next time, I'll cut her puzzles more like a jigsaw puzzle so she can more easily tell if she's right or wrong.
• We colored Monkey Masks from First Palatte.
• We used a Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed story Retelling Set from 1plus1plus1equals1. Wow, that was a hit. We did it over and over again. We took turns being the mommy and calling the doctor. Even little baby brother got to call the doctor. At six months old, he wasn't impressed. He did try to grab the bed picture and eat it, though.
• We painted Monkeys with Marshmallows. I just drew a monkey on a piece of construction paper. I then put a few colors of tempera paint on a plate and gave my little Monkey some big (and now hard and stale) marshmallows left over from Monday to paint with. She would dab them in the paint and then use them like sponges or stamps. It was pretty cool. Then she experimented with using her elbow to paint. Then her hands. Then she just painted her shoulder and arms. Thank goodness for bathtubs and soap!
• We practiced cutting with Cutting Practice and Matching Cards from This Reading Mama. We didn't cut the moon strip yet. We're saving that for tomorrow. After she cut them apart, we put them all in a bowl and then she sorted them into a monkey stack, a marble stack, and a milk stack. We can't do patterns yet and I'm hoping that sorting practice will help us get there.

On Thursday, we went to the library for story time. After that, we met Daddy for lunch and went grocery shopping. By the time we were done, it was time to pick up Butterfly from preschool so our day was pretty much gone. At dinner we did find out that Monkey and Butterfly had been sneaking some of those hard yucky marshmallows. Ick.

Friday we reviewed some of our favorite activities from the week and watched some Disney Jr. Yeah, it was that kind of a day. Monkey woke up yelling and bouncing off the walls so we just did the best we could!