Mini Unit - Pond

~an overview~

Here's a closer look at what's inside this unit:

Nomenclature Cards (Language). The cards are from Homeschool Creation's pond preschool pack and the wooden letter tiles are from Michael's Craft Store. I got the idea of combining the two from Totally Tots. I know James will like this work, and especially the little jar that's holding the letters. :)

Sensory Tub (Sensorial/Practical Life/Math/Language). A mini version of our larger pond sensory tub.

Graphing Game (Math). Also from HC's pond preschool pack.

Life Cycle of a Frog (Science). This is a fun one - I found this life cycle kit and these cards/chart and put them all together for a great tactile learning experience.

Worksheets (Language/Math/Art). The sheets came from a variety of places: Homeschool Creations, abcteach.com, Google, and KidsSoup.

Stamping (Art). I've had these teeny tiny stamps for years. James will need to visit our "supply basket" for the stamp pad.

Speckled Frogs Felt Set (Language/Music). This adorable set comes from Storytelling Fun. I cut a bit of regular felt to use as our story board since I didn't have room for the actual felt board.

Create A Dragonfly (Art). I found this at our local craft store.

Beginning Sounds (Language). Admittedly, James is past letter sounds, but I'm a big believer in repetition when it comes to learning. Also, I just know he'll love the frog paper clips (which I found here on the island). Cards are from HC's pond preschool pack.

Addition/Subtraction (Math). For this activity I combined these dragonfly beads and the magnetic symbols from this set. That adorable Goldfish container was a gift to James from grandpa - no idea where he got it. Knowing him he sent away for it via snail mail. :)

Bead Transfer (Practical Life). This activity has tongs with it, but I see they didn't make it into the photograph - oops! The frog bath mat thingy came from here.

Poetry Basket (Language). Sans the basket. :) I searched and searched and could NOT find a decent pond poem that I liked (I'm kinda picky about the poems I use for our poetry baskets), so I wrote my own. It's cheesy and I'm sure I broke every rule in poetry, but ah well. It'll work just fine. I needle-felted the pond and dragonfly, the lily pad is cut from a piece of foam paper, and the little wooden duck is from here. There's also a wooden turtle (hard to see him from this perspective), but he's super cute! I won him in a giveaway.

Counting Fish (Math). See my post here about these cute little fellas.

Books (Language). Titles are: In the Pond by Anna Milbourne, Five Little Ducks by Ian Beck, Frog and Toad (Early Reader Series) by Arnold Lobel, and The Tale of Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter.

All packed and ready to explore!

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July Sensory Tub - Pond

I've had this one on my "to make" list for well over a year now! One of our mini-units is going to be a pond theme, so I thought I'd make a full size tub for James to enjoy as well.

Here's what's inside:
:: Multi-colored aquarium rocks
:: Flat glass marbles, large and small
:: Fish net
:: Jar (for collecting pond specimens) :)
:: Mini frog and turtle erasers
:: Little green fish (I cut these from felt) - you may need to click on the photo to see them more clearly.
:: Plastic duck, turtle, and dragonfly
:: Multi-colored purler beads
:: Lily pads (cut from fake plant leaves)
:: Letters

These chip board letters are from my scrapbook stash, which I've had for years, but I *think* I purchased them at Archiver's. I added the entire alphabet to the tub and James will need to dig them out. He can use them to spell the following pond-related words:

Duck, dragonfly, fish, pond, water, turtle, net, frog, lily pad, and rocks.

Click the button below to see a full list of my sensory tubs or click here to view my slideshow on the Counting Coconuts Facebook page.

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