This month is the month of F-words. We’re exploring things that begin with the letter F!

Homelearning: Tracing F and making Faces

We did our usual tracers from our Hands On Homeschooling curriculum, and traced the uppercase and lowercase F with our fingers and pencil. I used the pictures for words beginning with the letter F from Homeschool Creations.

We made faces and learned what’s on our face – the eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth. The printables for our cutting and pasting were from one of the pages from the Gymnademics Big Day Out activity booklet. We mixed and matched and glued the different parts of the face to make four really ugly looking faces. Ben and Becks conveniently used these faces as targets for  their ball throws. Hur hur hur.

F for Fruits and Food

To learn the names of fruits we love to eat, we matched the names of fruits in a flashcard game. I laid out the pictures and had Ben match the words to each type of fruit. He guessed the words by the beginning sounds of each word mostly. For Becks, she read out what Ben matched after he completed his task. For Nat, we did a gallery walk of sorts and I read each card to him while walking down the row, something we also do at Gymnademics.

I repeated this game for the types of food using flashcards (I bought the Beginner Series flashcards from Wink to Learn). The kids enjoyed the game thoroughly. We also did a food matching exercise with this activity sheet.

The F words in Science

For our science lessons, we explored fruits with one seed and fruits with many seeds; why food is important for our body; the parts of a fish and the different types of fish that we can eat. I got the materials from Hooray Science for Preschoolers published by Pelangi Books from the bookstore for $3.15 per book (there are four in the series). I colour-copied and laminated them to use as big flashcards.

We also learned the parts of a flower from this activity sheet in our Hands On Homeschooling curriculum. I learned something new, for one – that a flower that’s not yet in bloom is called a blossom. Looks like I’m also home teaching myself!

I Feel…

This month, we also learned a big f-word. FEELINGS. Feelings are so important to introduce to children. It’s crucial that they understand how they feel and describe it. I made these feelings flashcards from Kids’ Pages for Small Ages and taught Ben and Becks important feeling words like angry, hungry, tired, worried, sad and happy. Becks was also in drama mood that day we had this lesson, so she provided us with some good entertainment with her acting.

Outdoor learning: F is for freshness everywhere!

For outdoor learning, we headed down to the Farmer’s Market at PasarBella to check out fresh produce and good food.

We even saw a freak there! The kids were very disturbed by the chalked man. They couldn’t stop asking why he wasn’t moving. Guess they were freaked out by the freak!

We also went to The Cajun Kings for the freshest dungeness crab, Manila clams and red prawns we’ve ever tasted. The deliciousness of fresh seafood boil eaten with bare hands and fingers, cavemen style. Ooh la la, finger licking good! Very gratifying!

A very ffff-fulfilling month indeed, learning all about the letter F. Farewell, letter F! We’re moving on to the letter M next month. Why are we skipping letters? More on it the next time!

We had more learning fun this April with the letters D and E.

Homelearning

We did the usual tracers from our homeschool package and printables from Kids Learning Station. Ben also started a letter book this month. It’s like a scrapbook with pictures from magazines that is categorised alphabetically. I had him recap the things beginning with the letters A, B, C, and also got him to look for pictures of things beginning with the letter D. He managed to find some dinosaurs, deer, dog and dolphins from a few of my old Nat Geo magazines.

For the notice board, I printed the pictures of things beginning with the letter D and E from this wonderful website called Homeschool Creations, which has an immensely rich resource bank of printables and activity sheets. I also introduced the sight words “eat” and “egg” from my Level A Sight Words Pocket Flashcards to them because that’s what they love to eat for breakfast!

What was hilarious was when I was going through things beginning with the letter E, Ben pointed to the picture of the envelope, asked me what that was and corrected me, saying, “Mama, this is not envelope lah, it’s EMAIL!” This is the world our children are growing up in. They don’t see envelopes much these days, but they certainly do see their mums and dads clicking on the envelope icon a lot, checking their emails!

Outdoor learning

We were invited to Breeze Singapore’s Today I Am roadshow earlier this month, and the kids got acquainted with the letter D again. They got a chance to play Dress Up. My favourite is the doctor and chef combo, hurhurhur. Please choose either of these professions when you grow up, guys!

They then went on to make some play-Dough.

And also got Dirty playing with paint pingpong and eating chocolate fondue.

D is for Dental health, at HealthZone

I read about HealthZone from one of my favourite blogreads, The Gingerbread Mum, and carted the kids there one rainy weekday. The kids got to skip kindy that day and learned about the importance of dental hygiene, eating right and maintaining a healthy lifestyle at this exhibition located inside Health Promotion Board at Singapore General Hospital. It costs $3 for an adult and $1.50 for kids aged 3 to 18, and is open Mondays (1 – 5 pm), Tuesdays to Saturdays (9 am – 5 pm).

The section on dental health has this giant mouth with a cushy tongue and a full set of adult teeth, with two black, decaying molars, and two missing front teeth. It was an awesome sight for the kids to behold. They were initially quite frightened, but soon warmed up to the set of teeth, and started touching the gums and sitting on the tongue.

The message was preached loud and clear by the videos they were showing at this section: brush your teeth twice a day with a good toothbrush and toothpaste, floss regularly, see the dentist twice a year.

The kids particularly enjoyed the activity station where they could press giant buttons with food inside them to find out if the food is good for their teeth. The good tooth and bad tooth would then light up correspondingly.

That day, I dramatised how eating sweets and chocolates, and drinking sodas would give them “teeth so black nobody wants to look at you”. I am secretly very pleased at myself for brainwashing them. Hurhurhur.

Dental Printables

To reinforce what we learned, I downloaded some activity sheets found in KidsSoup which has plenty of dental health activities, crafts, and other resources for children to learn how to keep their teeth healthy (thanks again, Gingerbread Mum!).

We helped EarTwiggle get to his toothbrush by identifying the food that’s good (and not good) for our teeth.

We also learned to brush a tooth! Using this printable of a tooth, I coloured two sheets with random spots representing food bits and plaque.

I then gave the kids some white poster colour, told them to brush away all the dirty bits using this “toothpaste” and had them painting away.

With this learning trip to HealthZone and the follow-up activities, whenever Ben and Becks hem and haw when it’s time to brush their teeth, I’d start reminding them of the gross black tooth and the tooth with food bits which they painted. It’s been working so far!

E is for Eating right and doing lots of Exercise, at HealthZone

Another section in HealthZone is called Exciting Eatery, which featured exhibits to educate us about healthy eating – the types of food to choose when we cook, eat out, and the types of food to avoid.

The kids got a chance to learn the different food groups and what they do for our bodies. Bread, rice and noodles give us energy. Pork, beef, chicken and fish make us strong and help us build muscles. And the veggies and fruits – Becks will tell you “You must eat them cos they make your poo poo soft!” Well said, my girl!

The kids also got to exercise at the fitness corner where there was a small indoor play structure, a rock climbing wall, exercise machines, balls and an interactive running game by Milo. I was really glad to have only paid $7.50 (for 2 adults and Ben; Becks and Nat went in free) for a few hours of learning fun and a good workout for the kids.

Anything for them to expend their energy!

The only thing I have yet to do with them to wrap up the letter E is to bring them for an elephant ride at the zoo. I hope to bring them sooner, cos we are moving on to other exciting letters next month!

Here’s a tip to teach kids to differentiate between lowercase letter b and d:

This month, I learned this tip from watching Word World with the kids. You can sing this song (to the tune of Happy Birthday, or any tune that fits) to drill it in, so the kids can sing it to themselves when they have trouble distinguishing! Here goes: