Preschool: Letter H

I taught Caleb’s preschool today, and it was a little nutty. I was glad to see that Caleb was completely comfortable being himself around his preschool friends since he usually clams up in groups, but it also meant he required more than the usual amount of intervention.  I’m so thankful that he’s making friends!

Here was what I came up with for the Letter H:

Opening play time: Build houses using boxes.  We used various sized boxes to make houses for elephants, giraffes, big puppies, little puppies, and even frogs.  Part of this time was spent hiding in the boxes as well…and spinning with boxes over their heads.  Boys….

Introduce the letter: Read the letter.  Say the sound.  Repeat for hat, hug, and hop.

Story: Heaven.  Since we had been building houses just before this, I started off by saying heaven is Jesus’ house.  We also read an abbreviated story about heaven from The Jesus Storybook Bible.  Heaven is a wonderful, exciting, happy place! 

Heaven Sorting Activity:  What is in heaven?  What is not in heaven?  I loved seeing the kids imitate the happy, sad, and angry faces.  Hilarious!

Song:  Big House, originally by Audio Adrenaline.  We used a kids’ version.  I took the time to introduce some hand motions before playing the song, and the kids actually followed along and did the actions as the song played.  Usually, when we’ve tried songs, I see a lot of “deer in the headlights” faces. 

Craft: Heaven’s gate.  We spent a lot more time talking about what is in heaven during the craft (along with monitoring glue stick usage).  The kids glued on things they thought would be in heaven like Jesus, angels, toys, good food, trees, and musical instruments.  Then we glued a door on top, showing that Jesus is the only way to heaven.  On Caleb’s, I think Jesus got buried under the Christmas tree and piano:

Bathroom break

Game: Hide and Seek with the letter H.  Our kids are too young for full-blown hide and seek, so I simply hid an “H” cut out of construction paper and had them find it. 

Snack time: Honey Nut O’s.  Before snack time we talked about how God Hears us all the time, whether we whisper, shout, or just think.  so we practiced by whispering, shouting, and then thinking, “Thank you for snack.”  Whispering and shouting went really well.  Not so sure they got the “thinking” part.  We also spent time talking about what kinds of foods would be in heaven.  Foods like Halloween candy, oatmeal with “flies,” mac and cheese, and ice cream.

Craft (again): Thank you card for the guy in charge of the Paint-A-Plow program. (By this time the kids were done with crafting!)

Show and Tell: Each child brought something that started with “H” and told us about it.  Honda, helicopter, horses, hammer, heart, hot rod.  This is another time when Caleb needed some intervention…to not hammer on his classmates. 

Counting by Hundreds: I had written 100, 200, 300, etc. on different sheets of paper.  We read the numbers together, and then I laid the sheets of paper on the floor and had them find different numbers that I called out.

The end.  They were done and ready to play, and moms were starting to come. 

If you’re still reading, you must be my mom.  It takes quite a bit of planning to keep 6 active preschoolers engaged all morning long!

Letter S

If you’re like me you’re getting tired of reading these posts about crazy preschool-ish alphabet activities.  Summer was in full swing early last week, so we spent a lot of time swimming and splashing.  

Attribute of God: Strong
We had plenty of teachable moments while the storm sirens went off during a big storm Wednesday night.  We talked about how strong the winds were and who made the wind.  Thursday we toured the neighborhood several times, looking at the big trees that were uprooted or blown over by the strong winds.  If God can do that so easily, think how safe we are when we take refuge in him!

Story: I had planned on retelling the story of Samson, but didn’t get in gear to do it. 

Song: Mighty to Save

Common vocabulary: saw, stop, sad, splash, strawberry, swim, spaghetti, smoothie, sundae, Saturday, Sunday, sunscreen

People we know: Sophia!

Activities:

• Thanks to a delivery of prime hand-picked strawberries from Grandpa and Grandma, we enjoyed strawberry sundaes, smoothies, cereal, yogurt, and pie! 
• Splash pad (If you’re not in the area, we have fancy sprinkler systems at several parks in town…and they’re free!  Sophia loved it and “dove” right in.  Caleb still likes to stay mostly dry, but is learning to tolerate more water in his face.)
• Swimming in the kiddie pool
• Swinging (I can’t believe I haven’t taken pictures of the kids on the new swing set yet!)

(It got a lot of attention this week.)

Letter R

Attribute of God: Rescuer
This is a theme that The Jesus Storybook Bible hits really hard, so the term was already familiar to Caleb. For his book, we used this picture along with 1 Samuel 17:36-37, 2 Samuel 22:20, and Colossians 1:13.  We also played a game where Caleb pretended to be drowning in the crashing waves (a blanket) and to being eaten by a crocodile (a stuffed caterpillar).  After all that fun, he would yell, “Help!” and I’d come to rescue, pick him up, and put his feet on the rock (a laundry basket).  A little cheesy, but perfectly fun.

Bible Story: The Rich Young Ruler from Matthew 19
We kept it pretty simple.  I pulled out the camel from our Little People Nativity Set, a blunt tip needle, and we read the story from my Bible.  Main idea: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Song: Rejoice in the Lord Always

Common vocabulary: rain, red, run, rainbow, raisin, rock, root, rub, rice, ramen

People we know: Grandpa Ray, the Ryons

Activities: We kept busy visiting relatives, building and playing on the new swing set Luke built, and hiking over roots and rocks in Palisades. 

Letter Q

Guess I wasn’t very quick to get this posted since we’ve already done Letter R.  I could add a quip, but it’d just be the quintessential excuses. 

Attribute of God: Quick (as in quick to listen, forgive… Ps. 103:8)

Bible Story: Queen Esther

Song: Um, yeah.  I hit a blank on this one. 

Common vocabulary: quack, quarrel, queen, question, quick, quiet, quilt, qwerty, quinoa, quarter, quesadilla

Activities: playing loud and quiet games, typing using qwerty keyboard, doing everything quickly, making rubbings of quarters

Just because:

Teaching Attributes of God

I’m pretty passionate about teaching my kids that the Bible is more than a group of fun and strange stories; namely, that it’s a way to know God.  As such, I’ve been trying to incorporate an attribute of God into each week’s alphabet activities with Caleb. 

Sometimes the most effective discussions come at random times of the day—cleaning up after lunch, singing songs at the piano, sitting in the middle of a pile of toys—and it helps me to be prepared and looking for opportunities.  Other times, it’s helpful to create opportunities.  This week we played a game where we pretended we were drowning and someone came to rescue us.  We had a bit of fun, and hopefully it’ll give Caleb a clearer picture of how God relates to us.   

I’ve also recorded each attribute so that we can look back and remember what we know about God.  Each page includes the attribute in large text, some clip art or a drawing to help us remember, and a Bible verse.  Every so often, Caleb and I will sit down together so Caleb can “read” the book to me.  I’m amazed at how much he remembers!

Some are simple:

Some have several pictures:

God is the Creator along with pictures of some of the things he made.

Here I explained holy by saying God never makes mistakes.  We then drew pictures of several commonly made mistakes around our house—breaking dishes, yelling in anger, not sharing, etc.—and drew a line through them. 

Some, I mean, most are good reminders for me: 

Immanuel: stick figure with a barely visible person next to him and Joshua 1:9.  A good reminder that God is with me even when I can’t see him, and that if I look closely I’ll be able to see him at work. 

More than anything, the time we take to draw or look at pictures and talk about them is beneficial. I pray that as we think and talk rightly about God, our hearts will turn to worship the One who is worthy of so much more than we can give. 

Letter Pages

Each week that Caleb and I have done alphabet activities, we create a letter page early in the week.  I mostly use it as a brainstorming tool.  At first I did most of the brainstorming, but now Caleb is coming up with words to add.  I write the words we come up with and then draw a simple picture (I’m no artist.) so that Caleb can “read” the words himself.  Depending on the week and on his interest level, we may have a lot of words or just a few.  The pages usually end up with scribbles, and I remind the teacher in me that the scribbling is a mark of interest and attention more than destruction.

Letter P

Attribute of God: Patient

Bible Story: Peter walks on water. Matthew 14.  We used a blue blanket, a paper boat, and a couple stick figures from our Easter tomb to tell the story.

Song: “Have Patience” from Music Machine’s Agapeland, 2nd verse of “I’ve Got the Joy…”

Common vocabulary: penguin, purple, pink, puppy, potatoes, polite, please, pizza, pretzels, peach, pancakes, puzzle, pepperoni, peppers, pajamas, pudding

Activities: Picnic at the Park, Pudding Paint

Caleb sitting in his “house”-otherwise known as the tree stump.

Letter O

Attribute of God: Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent
Ok, so Caleb doesn’t quite get these words yet, but he understands that God sees him wherever he is, that God knows how many hairs are on his head, that God is strong enough to do anything, and that God can find him wherever he goes.  Several times this week, we acted out Psalm 139 as we read it.  We also tried counting how many hairs are on our heads (Matthew 10:29-31).  We made it to 20 before giving up and saying “lots.” 

Bible Story: The Widow’s Offering from Luke 21:1-4
Another dramatic presentation.  Caleb got the big bag of toys representing the rich people bringing their offerings to the temple.  Sophia got the little bag carrying 2 toys representing the poor widow.  Which offering is bigger?  Even though the rich man gave more stuff, the widow gave more of her heart. 

Song: Old MacDonald, Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord

Common vocabulary: octopus, owl, on, off, oatmeal, omni-, orchestra, opposites, OK, obey, omelet, onion, orange, offering, ocean

Books: Owl Moon (one of my favorites) and several non-fiction books about owls and oceans

Food: omelets, mandarin oranges, Cheeri-O-s, oatmeal cookies

Activities:

• Opposite game  (I say up, you say ____. I say loud, you say ____.)
• Make oatmeal raisin cookies
• Create an octopus (with 8 legs, 36 stickers, and a smiley face)
• Create an ocean in an old soap container.  It included salt water, sand, rocks, seaweed (yarn), a shark, lots of little fish, an octopus, 2 shells, some starfish, a jellyfish, and 2 crabs.  Since we cut all the fish out of fun foam, they all float.  I guess we created a polluted ocean that killed all the fish off.  Caleb also took the opportunity to taste salt water.  A fun activity to do together and talk about even if it doesn’t look very pretty. 

This week also included our second bike ride to the park.  I love listening to Caleb’s chatter as he and Sophia ride in the bike trailer.  Sophia’s not a fan of her helmet yet, but Caleb tries to convince her that it’s ok.  We’ll go to the park a few more times, and then I bet she’ll realize that the helmet is worth the reward. 

Letter N

Attribute of God: God never changes.

Bible story: Noah, Namaan, Nathan

Song: Nothing new this week, but Caleb did create a “song” that involves the words “I love you” over and over and over.  Pretty sweet.  I’m also hearing an interesting medley that includes Awesome God, The B-I-B-L-E, and The Alphabet Song.

Common vocabulary: neighbors, net, nest, nap, no, noodles, nine, numbers

People we know: Noah

Activities: Pied Piper Brass Quintet concert.  It has nothing to do with the letter N, but Caleb loves these trips to the mall.  We listen to the concert, eat lunch there, and usually do some fun kid stuff like riding the escalator multiple times. 

Letter M

Attribute of God: “My” 
Not really an attribute of God this week, but more as in “O God, you are my God.”  (Psalm 63) Somewhat like asking someone in the middle of March Madness, “Who’s your team?”  Answering that question doesn’t mean you have any control over their performance, but that you place yourself on their side, declare loyalty, and claim the right to belong to their fan club.  Who’s your God?

I could have gone with mighty, majestic, magnificent, marvelous. the maker…

Bible Story: Ruth 1
For Ruth’s declaration: “Your people will be my people and your God my God.” 

Song: Step by Step
“O God you are my God and I will ever praise you….”  Yet another classic by Rich Mullins chosen because Caleb likes watching 80s videos on youtube. 

Give: M and M’s for the mailman; mints for Grandpa Mark; card for Great-Grandma Marjory after her surgery

Common Vocabulary: motorcycle, monkey, moon, mountain, muffins, mailman, magnet, medal, measure, music, moth, mouth, mushroom, muscles, mouse

People we know: Grandpa Mark, Great-Grandma Marjory, Miriam

Food: monkey bread, meatballs, marshmallows, magic muffins made by Grandma!

Activities: Magnets, marbles

Grandma also went above and beyond while watching the kids and introduced M&Ms, made magic muffins, played marbles, read about Moses, and more!

Letter L

Overdue post!

Attribute of God: Love

Bible Story: Psalm 36:5-7; John 3:16; Deuteronomy 6:5;
We tried measuring God’s love with my sewing measuring tape and the measuring tape from the tool box, but neither were long enough.  We didn’t have enough money to pay for it.  We couldn’t reach the skies.  God loves us so much he gave us his Son so that we could live! 

Song: I Love You, Lord; How Deep the Father’s Love

Food: Lemons, Limes, and Limas!

Activities: Making lemon bread and lime sugar cookies, drinking fancy lemon water, cutting hearts out of paper

People we know: Laura

Common Vocabulary: lips, lion, line, love, lizard, lady licking lollipop, lima bean, listen, leg, lime, lemon, look

I know Caleb has mastered starfall.com when the first words he thinks of that start with “L” are the same words that starfall uses. 

Letter K

Attribute of God: King of Kings

Bible Story: Heaven
Once again, I used the Jesus Storybook Bible.  I really wanted to come up with something creative, but everything I came up with seemed too cheesy.  It wouldn’t have done heaven justice.  So we kept it simple.  This is what I know Caleb knows about heaven: It’s where Jesus lives.  Jesus is the king of heaven. There won’t be any tears or sadness in heaven; Jesus will take them away.  (I can hardly wait for the day…  )

Song: King of Kings; Hallelujah, Salvation and Glory

Common vocab: kittens, kite, kangaroo, kids, key, kick, kitchen, kind

Food: Kiss cookies

Video: BBC nature videos of kangaroos (like this one)

People we know: Katie H., Katie L.

Activities: Make paper kite, fly a real kite
The expression on Caleb’s face when Luke first got the kite in the air is something I hope I don’t forget for a long time.  Caleb had a lot of fun flying the kite by himself (just like Curious George).  Thankfully, he didn’t fly off like Curious George does in the story. 

And one last activity: Kickboxing.  Literally.

Letter J

Remember Caleb’s imagination? Ever since attending the Pied Piper Woodwind concert (put on by our local symphony), the vacuum extension tubes have turned into a bassoon, and the hammer has turned into a flute.

On another note, Sophia decided she wanted her cheeks to match.

And now on to our letter of the week activities:

Attribute of God: Just (Deuteronomy 32:4, 1 John 1:9)

Bible Story:  Jesus
I’ll admit I was rather lazy this week.  We read a few stories from Caleb’s story Bible and reviewed Joshua and Jericho just for kicks.  I was curious what Caleb thinks of when he hears “Jesus,” so I asked.  Caleb said, “Amen.” 

Song: I’ve Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy…; Joy to the World (nothing like Christmas in March)

Common vocabulary: jazz, jump, jet, Jello, jam, jellyfish, jelly beans, joy

Craft: Read books about jellyfish and then make one (Those are fish getting eaten by the jellyfish, by the way.)

Treat: Jelly Bellies (Caleb sorted and counted them before enjoying them.  Actually he’s been enjoying them for dessert all week.  It’s been a great motivator to finish his food. He’s also noticed the words on each jelly bean, except he shouts “Jingle Bells” instead of “Jelly Belly.” ) 

Give: Take a meal to baby James and his family (Caleb helped make the brownies and carry the gift.) If our friends keep up this trend of naming babies to match with our letter of the week activities, I won’t have to

People we know: Uncle Jon, Joel, Aunt Jenn, Uncle Jason, Joey, James

Letter I

Attribute of God: Immanuel.  God is with us.

Bible Story: Jericho…because of Joshua 1:9.  I reinforced the theme that the Israelites didn’t have to be afraid because God was with them.  Grandma and Grandpa (and even Great-Grandma!) got to participate in this one!  The slide turned into the city of Jericho, and the vacuum extensions turned into trumpets. We marched around the city, sounded our trumpets, yelled, and the walls fell down. 

Song: Emmanuel

Common vocab: ice cream, ice, icicle, igloo, iguana, ill, instruments, imagination, idea, icky

Give: Delivered art kit to the hospital foundation office.

Activity: Musical instruments. Nothing really new here, but we did a lot of drumming and trumpeting this week. 

Seems kind of slim this week, but oh well.  I considered helping Caleb make musical instruments, but I decided that he finds enough of those without my help. 

Letter H

Attribute of God: God is holy. 
In other words, he never makes mistakes.  In this case, I used a negative definition.  Holy is not yelling in anger.  Holy is not accidentally dropping a plate.  Holy is not…  Mommy, Daddy, Caleb, and Sophia make mistakes, but God never makes a mistake.  He is perfect.  He is holy!  (We also reviewed that God hears us even when we whisper, and we briefly talked about how God helps us obey.) 

Bible Story: The wise and foolish man build Houses.  (Matthew 7:24-27) A good story when we’re already working on listening and obeying. 

Song: Wise Man Built His House on the Rock. Holy Holy Holy.

Common vocabulary: house, help, hop, hug, hear, hospital, hurt, hello, hide, horse, hot, happy, heart, hat

Games: Hot and Cold; Hide and Seek

Give/Serve: Donate an art kit to kids in the hospital who are hurt.  (We’re still working on this one…)

People we know:  Instead of praying for our friends whose names start with H like we usually would, this week we prayed for our friends either selling houses or looking for housing. 

Letter G

Parks in November, puddle jumping in February.  Can’t complain about this winter weather!

Attribute of God: Good.

Bible Story: Not really a story per se. One morning at breakfast I paraphrased Psalm 136 and had Caleb shout, “God is good” every time “His love endures forever” is repeated in the psalm.  Then we talked about some of the ways God has been good to us and continued to repeat “God is good!”

Song: Village Church—God is Good (I’m not sure where I heard about this (possibly this blog post), but it’s a free download, so check it out.) The song spells out g-o-o-d, so I quickly drew the letters on paper and had Caleb jump/run over the letters as we listened/sang the song. 

Common vocabulary: grapes, grapefruit, granola bars, gorillas, giraffes, grass, grasshoppers, grin, giggle, girl

Art/craft: We made a Valentine for Daddy and attempted one for Grandpa and Grandma.  Grandpa and Grandma’s got cut to smithereens.  Let’s just say Caleb was more interested in the scissors than in expressing himself with hearts and glue. 

Books: We checked out several books about gorillas and giraffes from the library. 

Activity: Make granola bars.

People: Grandpa and Grandma, Griffin

Give: 1)A meal for baby Griffin where we also got to meet Gatsby the Great Dane! 2)Granola bars for our garbage pick-up people.  The look on the guy’s face when he picked up the gift bag on top of our garbage can was hilarious!

I’d like to do more in the giving/serving category each we as trek through the alphabet, but I’m having a hard time coming up with ideas that aren’t cheesy and that would actually encourage people.  Any requests?  Any ideas for H or beyond?

Letter F

The kids are coughing in stereo today, so hopefully they get some good naps. 

I doubt Caleb will remember any of these alphabet activities, yet we keep going.  If nothing else, it’s a way to remind myself to spend time with my kids.  Even if Caleb learns nothing, at least we’ve spent time together.

Attribute of God: God is Faithful.  He keeps his promises.

Story: An overview of the covenants, focusing on how God keeps his promises.  Noah. Abraham. Moses. David. Jesus.

I think summing up Jesus was the most difficult.  How do you put the gospel in preschooler terms?  Since we’re sick here this week and have been watching the first 15 minutes of Toy Story 3 a lot, it came out something like this:  “Do you remember how Buzz saves the train so that no one on the train gets hurt or dies?  Jesus did that.  He saves people from sin.”  Let’s just say that I continue to pray for more opportunities to pour the gospel into my kids’ lives and that they have the ears and heart to understand it.  

Art/Craft: Punched holes in black paper to make stars as we talked about God’s promise to Abraham.  Made crowns as we talked about God’s promise to David. 

Song: Great is Thy Faithfulness (Caleb doesn’t sing this one, but he’s been more interested in drumming while I sing/play the piano anyway.)

Common vocabulary: food, flamingo, fish, flower, fire, fly, flower, flashlight, frog, freeze, flood, foot, four, friends

Books: Horton Hatches an Egg “I meant what I said and I said what I meant.  An elephant’s faithful one hundred per cent.” 

Games/Activities: What Floats?  (In other words, throw stuff in the bathtub and see if it floats or sinks.) We also tried a game of “freeze,” but that didn’t work so well.

Food: fajitas, french fries, and Frozen Blueberry Popsicles (healthy way to soothe a sore throat!)

People we know:  I couldn’t think of anyone, so if your name starts with an “F” and you’re actually reading this, let me know!

Sporting our crowns we made as we talked about God’s promise to David. 

Letter E

The creativity is low and the snow is high this week, so our letter E activities have been pretty skimpy. 

Attribute of God: God has Ears (in the figurative sense). He hears.   Psalm 4:3; 1 John 5:14

Sure we could have done eternal or Emmanuel, but ears seemed more manageable for someone whose concept of time consists of “Saturdays are days Daddy stays home” and “Bedtime is when we put PJs on.”  And we can wait for Emmanuel until the letter I and spell it “Immanuel.”

Story: Elijah (focused on when he built the alter and God heard his prayer)

Craft: Glue pieces of “fire” to Elijah’s alter to God, not to the alter built for Baal.  

I totally stole this idea from Caleb’s Sunday school class.  He’s already done this activity, but it’s been awhile so I figured it’d be good review since he’s not overly familiar with the story.  It also fit in well with the theme that “God hears us.”

Common vocab: elephant, egg, envelope, ear

People We Know: Great-Grandma Etcher, Erica

We also hard-boiled an egg so we could look at the different parts, but Caleb was not at all interested in eating it, so that was a flop.

If you have ideas to add, please do!

Why

Reasons I’m doing alphabet activities with Caleb:

• Boredom is a choice, and I’m not choosing it.
• Boredom spells trouble.
• It’s winter, and we’re stuck inside. When we do the crab walk, the stir crazies stay away longer. 
• It helps me think of fun things to do with Caleb.
• Caleb is enjoying it.
• It’s an opportunity to fill up our thoughts and time with good and true things instead of complaints or simple frivolity (although some of our alphabet activities are definitely frivolous). 
• Preschoolers understand more than I think they understand.  
• Translating attributes of God and Bible stories into a form that a preschooler can understand and retain challenges what I know and believe. 

I’m not doing alphabet activities because…

• I want Caleb to be the geekiest preschooler around.
• Caleb needs to learn how to read right now. He is the brightest, smartest kid around, you know.
• If we sing the B-I-B-L-E, Caleb and I will be more likely to get into heaven.

Letter D

Attribute of God: Daddy
I spent too long trying to figure out how to explain “defend” or “deliver” to Caleb, and then as I was sitting and talking with him, it hit me.  Caleb knows what a Daddy is.  Let’s do that! 

Story: David and Goliath
Originally this was meant to tie in with the theme of God as our Defender, but we did it anyway. 

Song: Only a Boy Named David (Instead of watching this video, we just played and sang at the piano.)

Food: Donuts (for Daddy’s birthday); Dumplings

Common vocabulary: donut, drum, drop, dinosaur, dog, duck, Daddy, door, down, dump truck

People We Know: Daddy, Deborah, Aunt Dawn, Danielle, Miss Doris

Art/Craft: Making Goliath

Video: Various Stomp and other drumming clips on youtube including Fanfare for the Common Man.

Activities:

• Dropping stuff (cotton ball, soccer ball, piece of paper) over the staircase.  The scientific observation of fast and slow was a bit beyond Caleb’s concentration level.  He was more interested in saying “ready, set, go” or just dropping things over the rail. 
• Dominoes
• Drums: Pied Piper Percussion Ensemble concert at the mall. The focus that Caleb lacked while dropping things over the staircase was made up for during this 30-minute concert.  Sophia also enjoyed this concert, making friends and trying to take a nearby preschooler’s lunchbox.