Letter "T" projects

Just a few projects for letter "T" to add to our ABC book....

1.  Trees

Easy peasy: all you need is a penciled basic outline of a tree, paint, and Q-tips and you can make a sweet tree for letter T!  My 5 year old made a plum tree, while the 3 year old and 2 year old made apple trees. 

2. Turtle

Example 1: 

This was done by my 3 year old.  We focused on naming colors and shapes while she glued them on in any manner she chose.  Great for fine motor skills (gluing on the little pieces) and practicing colors and shapes. 

Example 2:

 This is my 5 year old's. We are homeschooling her for Kindergarten and are currently working on patterns.  Each row she made up a new pattern to practice and she cut out the turtle body and head to practice scissor skills.  She knows her colors and shapes, but of course, you can always review those too, because why not?

3. Tulips

Cover a piece of paper in paint of all colors (be sure there is a good amount of green for stems!) Once the paint is dry, you can cut the green section into long, skinny rectangles for tulip stems and the other colors into tulips.  I cut out the basic tulips and my 5 year old cut the tops zig zag to practice her scissor skills.  The 2 year old merely painted, the 3 year old painted and glued on the tulips and stems (hers is the picture at the top) and my 5 year old painted, cut some parts, and glues hers and the 2 year olds.  Fun project, pretty result.  We made some of the tulips into little cards to send to people since we had extra tulips.  :)

4. Trains

 

You need 3 rectangles (1 big, 1 medium, 1 smaller), 2 small triangles, a sqaure, and 4 circles. 

5 year old: I drew outlines of the shapes, and she did the cutting herself and glued the train on and drew all the train tracks (on both pictures actually because she got so excited)

3 year old: I cut out the shapes, and we worked on shape recognition and following directions as I verbally directed her to glue to the pieces on the paper.  I did need to show her a few times what I meant, but we worked using phrases like "place the circle next to the other circle" or "place the little rectangle on top of the medium rectangle".  

Lots of fun with letter T!

T for St. Therese of Lisieux

We decided to try out homeschooling for our 5 year old, Kayla this year.  I've been working with her and our 3 year old on their alphabet, among other things, for several years now, but with Kayla starting Kindergarten, we have made our homeschooling just a tad more formal.  Each morning we have a nice little routine going and it is neither too loose or too rigid for us, so it works out nicely in our home.  I want to do Saint studies that last about two weeks and give us a chance to really learn about some of the saints with a bit more depth.  We have been working on a Saint alphabet for a long while now, which is a great way to introduce some great Saints when the kids are young, but now that Kayla is in Kindergarten and Elise is preschool age, we are going to combine the two projects and have even more fun.

We are reading a few chapters a day in a simple chapter book about St. Therese (part of the Encounter the Saints series).  Reading a couple chapters a day should put us finishing the book in two weeks.  Additionally we work review of her story and facts about her life into other aspects of her curriculum like reading and math, and so far our first Saint study is a lot of fun.  Today we completed the St. Therese for our Saint alphabet and added her to our wall.  I make all the Saints, so the project is not so much for the kids to do, but experience more long-term.  We hang the Saints in our entry way, and learn fun facts about the Saints and use them to review our alphabet plus it's a nice reminder of our own goal towards holiness.  Here's Saint Therese and a few fun facts....

the beginnings of putting St. Therese together....

               

And the finished product. 

Fun Facts:

• Therese had 4 older sisters (Marie, Pauline, Leonie, and Celine) 
• Therese became a Carmelite at the age of 15. 
• She was very humble and viewed herself as merely a little wildflower in God's garden, but knew that her role, though small and unnoticed, would bring glory to God just as much as the roses and lilies of the church if she loved God to the best of her ability.
• She loved nature and used it often to explain God's presence.  
• She became very ill, but remained cheerful despite her discomfort.  
• She died at the age of 24 and later became a Doctor of the Church.  
• She practiced a simplicity of life and love of God that she called "The Little Way"

Her feast day is October 1 and she is the patron Saint of missions, florists, and aviators.