Learning About Daytime: Day 3 (Easy Preschool At Home)
Today we moved on to talking more about the sun and learning about daytime. My kiddo loved this day because I was able to incorporate some truly hands-on learning opportunities. Check them out in the rest of this post!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through a link in this post, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.
LEARNING ABOUT THE SUN, MOON, DAY, + NIGHT: WEEK 3 dAY 3
Learning About Daytime: Day 3 Ideas
Letter of the day:
D is for day. I created a simple free printable ‘D is for Day’ page on Twisty Noodle. I drew a horizon line towards the bottom of the D. My kiddo used a blue crayon to color the blue sky in the upper portion, and a green crayon to color the green grass on the ground. Then he added a foam sticker sun and some clouds as well.
Word of the day:
Instead of working on his name, my kiddo wrote ‘day’ with 4 different writing instruments. (I grabbed that printable page from First And Kinder Blue SKies on Teachers Pay Teachers!)
Book of the day:
Sunshine, Moonshine. By Jennifer Armstrong. Illustrated by Lucia Washburn.
Journal prompt of the day:
During the day I… (I switched up our journal format a bit for some variety, and used half of this printable prompt instead!)
Activities and play we enjoyed:
I pulled a simple sundial kit out of my craft stockpile that I picked up at Target last summer. My son and I assembled it together, and talked about it as we worked. It gave him some great fine motor time, and also a little bit of number practice as well. After it was all constructed, we turned down the lights and used a flashlight to represent the sun. (It was a rainy day where we were!) He loved seeing the different shadows and calling out the ‘time’. We also checked out some time lapse videos on YouTube to really see how the shadow moves over the course of a day. (The kit is pretty much a foam circle with a paper straw standing in the center. You can totally DIY this without an actual kit!)
I pulled out some new geoboards and rubber bands for the first time, and was surprised how much my kiddo LOVED them! The day before, I played with them a little bit. Through trial and error, I created a sun on one side of a board, and a D (for day) on the other. My 4 year old grabbed a blank board, and we worked together on recreating both the sun and the D. He needed some guidance and prompting to correctly recreate the images, but my main goal with these was extra fine motor work, so mission accomplished. Plus, he asked to play with them several times the rest of the day, so major win in my eyes!
YOU MAY NEED THESE FOR LEARNING ABOUT DAYTIME…
colored pencils / crayons / markers / transparent tape / pens / scissors / pencils / double sided tape / composition notebook / index cards / rubber bands
But PLEASE Remember…
This is what is working for us during the pandemic, for the time being. It may seem overwhelming to your family to attempt anything like this. Or if you’re like me, you may welcome a little structure in your days. It’s important for you to consider the needs, emotional health, and learning styles of your entire family, and make adjustments as needed. The goal is NEVER more stress, more comparisons, or more guilt.
Keeping the above in mind, here’s a little bit more about our process…
- We’re aiming for about an hour of ‘school-ish’ work a day. This might included coloring, painting, writing, drawing, stickers, and more. My 4 year old is used to attending UPK for two and a half hours a day, 5 days a week, so 1 hour seemed like a good starting point at home.
- I build a ton of breaks and flexibility into our days and weeks. I plan 5 days of ‘school’ each week, and we generally accomplish all the activities by stretching them out over 7 total days. Some Wednesdays, we just can’t do school. So we’ll make it up later, if we can. Again, the goal isn’t stress or pressure, so flexibility is key.
- Variety is helpful for my kiddo. His attention span is short, so most of what I plan is quick, and we change styles of learning often. You know what will work best for your own families.
- Our journal is simply a basic notebook. Every day, I provide a prompt, and my child draws a picture on a blank index card. I tape that into the notebook, and write most of the prompt. At least one or two words are written larger, in dots, so my son can trace them.
- I have a pretty well stocked supply of craft and learning materials already, and know that may not be the case for you. Be creative, be flexible, and be open to compromise! We also have a large home library for the kids, which is very helpful right now!
