Mini Lesson Plans

Ever wonder what the learning capacity is of your small child? Ever think ...I wonder just how much water this little "sponge" human can soak in. I always knew that children at Kennedy's age are often called sponges. I learned about it all through my education. So when my own daughter got to the age in which she started soaking everything in, I guess I decided to take it to the next level.

I compare it to the time when I was teaching the Tumbling Turtles class at Precious Lamb Preschool. I had a hodge podge class of part-time students ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 5. I decided that I would treat them all the same, and teach them all the same. So we learned things like Spanish numbers to 10 & Spanish months of the year. Our names & addresses, ABC's, etc. I knew that the 2 1/2 year old was having a blast but I never thought that she would really get all the stuff I was teaching. One day her parents came in and asked me if we had been learning Spanish and I told them we had, a little bit. They proceeded to tell me that they had been out to eat the night before, and her big brother (like 7 or 8) was telling what he had been learning at school. He kept trying to count to 10 but his little sister kept joining in and singing our Spanish numbers song! The parents had no clue! They were shocked and excited as were the people around them in the restaurant. I guess that is when I knew that kids that age could definitely hold their own!

So here I am, mother of 2 little sponges. Kennedy Jane is somewhat of a guinea pig for me I suppose! lol. I guess you could say I'm trying to find out what kind of quality sponge she is. So, I've taken it upon myself to go through our ABC's each week and do a verse, a song, and activities that go with the letter. I have had a couple of people ask about it and so I want to share what I am doing in hopes that maybe someone else will want to use it, or take what I have been doing and make it 100 times better. The key to me is using a phrase that they told us year after year at JBC..."Don't reinvent the wheel!" So I don't. I use a collection of cool things and websites that other people use and then add to it my own ideas and BOOM! I then have Kennedy's mini lesson plans.

Another thing that I would say before starting anything like this with a kiddo that is so little is that they are not old enough to be in school, not old enough to sit down at a table and have lessons or homework or anything serious of the sort. Her attention span is the size of a hmm....well that tiny little quarter sized gourd that she picked out for sissy JulieAnne at the pumpkin patch...yea that's about right! Sometimes I get frustrated if she's not getting something and then I have to set myself straight and remember she's only stinkin 2 years old! So there's definitely some things to think about beforehand. But I'm gonna share what I've done and some GREAT resources! (BTW this is exactly how I make these little lesson plans. I have a notebook and a pen and I do all my researching on Sunday night and write down the ideas that I find & like.)

Letter A~
apple stamping
acorn hunt
"A gentle answer turns away anger." Proverbs 15:1
the Johnny Appleseed song (one of K's faves & if/when you decided to do a song with the week, be prepared to be singing that song a LOT!)
Ants on a log
Ants being hard workers (we fed ants various foods to see what they like best and we watched how hard of workers they are!)
acorn outline on brown paper, glue oats on bottom and cocoa crispies on top part ( we did this at the library and it is SUPER cute!)

Letter B~
cut out magazine B things
painted beans blue
outlined a butterfly shape then hot glued on the blue beans (on blue construction paper of course)
old school songs either "Be ye kind..." which goes with fave scripture Ephesians 4:32 or
The B-I-B-L-E
2 verse choices Be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God for Christsake has forgiven you. or Believe in Jesus so that you and your family will be saved. Acts 16:31

Letter C~
BEST verse "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for it is the right thing to do." Ephesians 6:1
Cute old song O be careful little eyes what you see...
any fun cookie idea that you may have for "c"ookie; we made candy corn cupcakes
colors (paint, crayons, etc. we did colorful leaf collections)
we cut out a green const paper C and glued on the poofy ball things to make a caterpillar (cute!)
obviously a princess crown was painted and given sprinkles and stickers galore :)

Letter D~
drums from formula cans (we didn't do this but cute idea esp for boys!)
Dunkin Donut breakfast was my favorite part of D week!
dancing like D animals
dig in the dirt
cut out letter D of const paper and we glued dirt on it. Messy and fun.
A gift for Dad (we painted a rock with dad on it but get as creative as you want)
play with dominoes
Hickory Dickory Dock, Hey Diddle Diddle, Diddle Diddle Dumpling my son John (cute nursery rhymes that I looked up on youtube and K didn't want to stop watching them!)
couple good scriptures Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." or Luke 6:31 "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."(my fave)

So there ya go. Long yes. But very cool to us! I'll tell ya this, Kennedy yesterday could tell me every verse with a tiny bit of prompting when necessary, could sing every song and even say the new nursery rhymes! She absolutely loves it. She's no pro at letter recognition, but when we turned into Hobby Lobby and Best Buy the other day and she saw the big signs where we turned in, she screamed "AHHHH letter B's mommy! Look!" and I pretty much wanted to cry! lol. The most important thing at this age I think is to just incorporate things into their normal everyday life. If you're playing or doing something fun, make it about the letter. Talk about the scriptures at just the perfect opportunity like when sharing doesn't come real easily, or not very nice words aim towards a sibling. Sing the songs during bathtime, suppertime and all the time! I hope this has been helpful and that some people will like it, use it, or share it with someone else. Here's some of my favorite resources:

woodsonchapel.com
heartofthematteronline.com
these 2 & others have some good scriptures for kiddos that we've used

impressyourkids.org
(a GREAT mom's blog that I used often. She's a good one to follow and did the ABC weekly thing also.)
notimeforflashcards.com
enchantedlearning.com
teacherplanet.com
(those had some good activities or crafts for the letters)

That's pretty much it. Enjoy watching your little sponges become little Jesus lovers! Leave comments :)

Standing in the Gap~~ Rachel