Friday, August 12, 2011

2011-2012 Tot School Plans

 2011 - 2012 TOT SCHOOL PLANS
Tot School

Munchky will be 3 (39 - 51 month)
T-Rex will be 2 (21 - 33 months)

The boys were away for a few days.  So I thought I'd take the time to get the whole school year ready.   Which took a loooonnnngggg time even w/out the kids.

We will mostly be using Letter of the Week printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler and/or Tot School Printables with theme printables from 2 Teaching Mommies, Homeschool Creations and others.

I usually feel a bit overwhelmed changing themes each week.  So I decided to do theme units for 3-4 weeks and do a different letter each week that corresponds to that theme

 In addition I wanted to focus on one music composer/composition each month and one Caldecott Winning Book each month.

So this is what my week will look like:
  • Musical Mondays:      We will listen to the composer of the month and do an activity with it.  plus do some LOTW/tot printables.
  • Tasty Tuesdays: LOTW/tot printables, a letter craft, and making something yummy.
  • Winning Wednesdays: Read our Caldecott Book of the month and do an activity with it. (Dramatic play, stART project, etc)
  • Theme Thursdays: Work on theme tot/preschool pack and theme craft.
  •  Family Fun Fridays: LOTW/tot printables and field trip/theme games.
Of course we will also be doing tot trays throughout the week.

OUR 2011-2012 UNITS

UNIT 1: THE ZOO

Theme Printables: Zoo Tot Pack at 2 Teaching Mommies.
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: The Lion and the Mouse - Pinkney
Sensory Bin -The Zoo
Field Trip: The Zoo

Weekly Letters:
1:      E is for Elephant - COAH  

UNIT 2: AT THE FAIR
Theme Printables: To be made by me/will post
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: The Ox-Cart Man-Donald Hall
Sensory Bin: Oats, play food, farm animals, different colored ride/prize tickets, fabric scraps.
Field Trip: The State Fair

Weekly Letters:
1:  R is for Rollercoaster (or rides) - To be made by me

UNIT 3 - FALL
Theme Printables: Fall - 2 Teaching Mommies
Music Mondays: Four Seasons: Vivaldi
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: A Tree is Nice - Udry
Sensory Bin: Fall
Field Trip: Apple Orchard

Weekly Letters:

UNIT 4 - ABOUT ME
Theme Printables: My Body - 2 Teaching Mommies
Music Mondays: Jeux d'enfants-Bizet
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: Prayer for a Child - Field
Sensory Tub: Rice, paper dolls, Mr. Potato Head, bandaids, tongue depressors,  tooth brushes
Field Trip: Children's Museum

Weekly Letters:
1: N is for Nose (2 be posted) can use F is for foot at 1+1+1=1
2: X- is for X-Ray -Chasing Marcus (will post additional)


UNIT 5 - CHRISTMAS
Theme Printables: Christmas - 2 Teaching Mommies
Music Mondays: Handel's Messiah
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: Polar Express -Van Allsburg
Sensory Bin: Christmas
Field Trip: Bronner's Christmas Wonderland

Weekly Letters:
3:  C is for Christmas - COAH

UNIT 6 - WINTER
Theme Printables: Winter - 2 Teaching Mommies
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book:The Snowy Day - Keats
Sensory Bin: Winter
Field Trip: The Zoo


Weekly Letters:
3: H is for Hockey- Making Learning Fun - plus others

UNIT 7 - TRANSPORTATION
Theme Printables: Ways we get around- 2 Teaching Mommies
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot
Sensory Bin: Transportation
Field Trip: Disney World!!

Weekly Letters
1: B is for Boat - Walking by the Way
2: T is for Train - 1+1+1=1
3: P is for Plane - Our Little Monkeys

Holiday Week - V is for Valentine - COAH

UNIT 8 -SPACE
Theme Printables: Space - 2 Teaching Mommies
Music Mondays: The Planets - Holst
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book:  Kittens First Moon - Henkes
Sensory Bin: Space
Field Trip: Planetarium

Weekly Letters
1: S is for star - 1+1+1=1
2: M is for Moon - Walking by the Way plus M printables
3: U is for Universe - space preschool pack - homeschool creations plus U printables

UNIT 9 - THE OCEAN
Theme Printables: Ocean - 2 Teaching Mommies
Music Mondays: Oceannides - Sibelius
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: The Little Island - Brown
Sensory Bin: Ocean
Field Trip: Aquarium

Weekly Letters
1: J is for Jellyfish - 1+1+1=1
2: O is for Octopus - COAH
3: C is for Crab -Lawteedah
4: F is for Fish - COAH


Holiday Week: Easter - COAH

UNIT 10 - WEATHER
Theme Printables: Spring - 2 Teaching Mommies
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book:
Sensory Bin: Rainbow
Field Trip:TBA

1: W is for Wind- to be made by me
2: U is for Umbrella - COAH
3: R is for Rainbow - COAH

UNIT 11 - POND LIFE
Music Mondays: Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: Frog went a Courtin' - Langstaff
Sensory Bin: Pond
Field Trip: Pond

1: D is for Ducks 1+1+1=1
2: N is  for Nests -  COAH
3: T is for Turtle - COAH
4: F is for Frog - 2 Teaching Mommies

UNIT 12 - BUGS!
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book:Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears - Aardema
Sensory Bin: Bugs
Field Trip: Butterfly House

1: A is for Ant - COAH
2: I is for Inchworm - COAH
3: L is for Ladybug - COAH

UNIT 13 - GARDENING
Musical Mondays:TBA
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: TBA
Sensory Bin: Garden/flowers
Field Trip: Botanical Gardens

1: F is for Flower - 2 Teaching Mommies
2: G is for Garden Tools - 2 Be Made
3: W is for Watermelon - COAH
4. Y is for Yard - to be made

Holiday Week - Fourth of July - 2 Teaching Mommies

UNIT 14 - SUMMER
Theme Printables: Summer - 2 Teaching Mommies
Winning Wednesdays Caldecott Book: Time of Wonder - McCloskey
Sensory Bin: Ice Cream
Field Trip: Hot Air Balloon Jubilee

1: K is for Kites - Coah
2: H is for Hot Air Balloons - 2 be made by me
3: B is for Baseball - 2 Teaching Mommies

There are quite a few letters I didn't use from COAH because they didn't go with a theme, we've done them recently (butterfly/caterpillar)or b/c I used that letter twice already.  I tried to use most of the letters 2x  and F is used a whopping 4x, (I wasn't going to do f for fish or frog - but they're too cute. I had to stretch G is for garden tools as I wanted a T-tools week in the garden unit but wanted that 2nd G and not a 3rd T.

I'm excited to get started next week.   I have everything printed and laminated....now I just need to get the tot trays and crafts organized.  If anyone is interested, I am almost done with my excel spreadsheet with my weekly plans that include links for the printable units, letter and theme crafts and tot tray ideas plus list of books, tasty Tuesday food recipes, and list of videos.  I will email it to anyone who wants it and may upload it.  As for now here is the summary of the units with the links to printables.

See what other Moms are up to over at 1+1+1=1.

Have a great school year!
 

17 comments:

  1. Great plans! I'm sure it took a lot of work, but it will be so worth it! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. You are so organized. I have the whole year planned out "in my head." Ugh. I need to sit down and finish.
    Great ideas.

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  3. The hardest part of homeschooling definitely seems to be the planning. You did half the work already! Great job! I wish I were this organised! :) Visiting from Tot School

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  4. You are certainly organized. It looks like a great year!

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  5. Terrific plans. If you need inspiration for the ocean unit, we did oceans this year. http://theadventuresofbear.blogspot.com (look on the right sidebar for the oceans category).

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  6. Wonderful!! I loved how you did it, I may need to redo my plan now...

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  7. Wow, what great plans. Much more organized than I could ever be. So impressive. Looks like a wonderful year.

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  8. Wow, can`t believe how organized you are. That is great though- I am sure it will help things run smoothly!

    Love how you planned it out too!

    How does your younger one go with the printables? Mine loves to draw/colour right now but is not so interested in the letter sheets etc because of his age. He much rathers blank paper and crayons or markers!

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  9. What a lot of hard work! I really love that you have a composer for every theme. I've been wanting to incorporate music studies for a while. Thank you for sharing!

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  10. Thanks everyone! I'm really NOT organized, that's why I HAD to get it done while the kids were away. Doing it week to week is just too hard on me. BTW it took about 30 hrs of pretty much uninterrupted time to do the year, if anyone's contemplating it.

    @ Lulu - my young one has done some printable stuff in the past...but it would really just be scribbling (as is with the elder (except for pre-writing practice)). He does like to have pictures/letters/numbers on them and will say whatever the picture is. He is pretty much interested in letters and numbers and will say them although usually not the correct ones. But he is getting the concept of what they are. My goal for him this year is to know the alphabet and 1-10 as well as develop his fine motor skills. The HARD part is the matching/counting/color cards. As the older knows what to do and the younger is still in the stage of grabbing,looking and tossing in the air. I expect a lot of fights coming up.

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  11. Still this inspired me to try and get a bit more organized!! I think I will take some of your themes and ideas for inspiration {if you don`t mind!} - love how you sorted out the letters for each theme too. So helpful!!

    When you say he does like to say the letters numbers pictures- do you mean your younger son? I assume so. My boy is still non verbal except for 3 words or so- all English so far.

    He can find some letters though if asked {mainly the letters in his name- if I ask where is the N he can find it etc} or colours.

    I hear you on the grabbing, looking and tossing in the air. Sounds like my boy! No doubt in a years time I will have the exact same problem with my younger one!!

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  12. @ LuLu, my eldest son was pretty much non-verbal until he was about 20-22 months old. He didn't even say Mommy and Daddy until then. He knew ball, green, animal sounds, and a couple other words. But when he did start talking he knew everything: he could count to 10, knew all the colors, shapes, animals, letters. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't doing tot school at the time. This was mostly from my reading books to him. He was very content to sit with me and read book after book. He would also point to things in books. I think you'll be surprised at how much your boy knows when he starts talking.

    My eldest is definitely a book learner...he still doesn't like to do much with counting clip cards, graphing etc. I know he has the head knowledge of one:one correspondence and things like that, I'm working on getting him to use those activities to teach him to use his head knowledge in a problem solving way and for those fine motor skills.

    My youngest started to do everything early, walking, talking, climbing :( But doesn't like to sit still for much book reading. He knows a bit of letters, numbers, from listening to his brother, but doesn't care to really take the time to associate them with their actual counterparts (except for animals). So I'm hoping he will take to the various activity cards to learn his essentials. It's amazing how different they can be.

    My computer got a virus. And right now I can't access the file I made with all the links I made for tot trays and crafts for each week. Hopefully I can get that fixed...or I'm not going to be as organized as I thought!

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  13. So Inspiring! If you find the excel file, I would love a copy!
    Thanks for sharing all of your hardwork. it's really helpful for those of us who are newbies and have no clue what to do.

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  14. So I totally keep coming back and I just LOVE how you've planned your year out! Would you mind sending me a copy of the file if you can find it? Thanks!!!

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  15. Would you be able to email me your weekly plans? That would be a great help! jpalus13@gmail.com THANKS!! these look great!

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  16. Thank you so much for this amazing list - I love your planning! I know this post is from over a year ago but is there any chance you are able to email me your weekly plans? I really need help with my organisation skills! Thanks! lncollett@gmail.com

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  17. Your website has been an answer to my prayers. Can you please send me your excel plans for 2011-2012. Thank you! sunnyred103488@yahoo.com

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