Homeschool PreK Week 18

We closed out the last week of homeschool prek of this year with some learning focused on kindness. To give a little extra practice, I found some free printable Christmas themed worksheets for Rust to work on too because he likes sitting at the table doing "school work" while I make lunch. 

Rusty helped design thank you notes that we deliver around our neighborhood to all the beautifully decorated houses. We love driving home and seeing all the light displays all season. Our note said, "We love looking at your house and your decorations....We know that it took a lot of your time and hard work to set it up. We just wanted to let you know that it was worth it! Your display brings happiness to our hearts and helps keep Christmas magic alive! We hope you have a great holiday season and a very happy and healthy new year! We are glad to live in our neighborhood with you!" Then Rusty helped deliver them by knocking on the door (if they were home) or putting them in mailboxes. 

Rust helped me make two batches of cookies this week: Hershey kiss pb cookies and pretzel/kiss/m&m bites. Then we boxed them and all the cookies he helped make last week and attached our Christmas card to the top. Then Rust helped deliver them to our neighbors before Christmas. 

Rust also made Magic Reindeer Dust for each of his siblings to put in the yard on Christmas eve to make sure Santa's sleigh can find our house. Our reindeer dust was oats, sugar, and sprinkles! He measured out the ingredients and bagged them up for his siblings. 

My favorite part of our kindness activities included all the siblings, but was the most challenging for Rusty. The kids did a sibling Secret Santa exchange and we all headed out to 5&Below on afternoon to do their shopping. They each walked around the store to locate items that would be appreciated by their sibling. Rust had to focus so hard on trying to remember he was there for Olive (his Secret Santa recipient) and not himself - there were so many things that looked fun to him!! He chose a stuffed unicorn and a little clip-on stuffed ball for her carseat. Oh, how he wanted to buy things for himself but he stayed focus and would walk by things he wanted whispering to himself, "don't look at it. don't look at it." (hahhah). Meanwhile, his Secret Santa Violet trailed him listening to him the whole time and then bought the things he wanted! He was overjoyed to receive Violet's gifts on Christmas morning!

Unit: Winter
Lesson: Kindness

Books we read:
Rabbit's Gift by George Shannon
The Littlest Reindeer by Brandi Dougherty
Soft Enough for a King
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

Language Arts:
Copying letters and "reading" the word
letter recognition (a, b, e, m)' 

Math:
Color by number Christmas coloring page
Shape drawing & naming shapes
Counting 1:1 and writing numbers 1-10
Counting ingredients for Magic Reindeer Dust

Art:
Decorating thank you notes with Christmas light strings design

Motor Skills
Wrapping a gift (estimating paper size, cutting, folding, taping)

Life Skills:
Selecting gifts that are within a budget for Secret Santa gift exchange
Patience (choosing gifts for someone else even though your really want them for yourself, waiting to open your own gift, waiting to give your gift to someone else)
Being grateful for beauty around you (neighborhood lights) and acting on that gratitude (writing & delivering thank you notes)
Speaking to adults (delivering thank you Christmas decoration notes)