'C' Soup and Butterflies

Yesterday we started off our morning with a fun painting craft that came with our Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Vada enjoys doing projects like this, so I felt like it was a good way to get our lessons started.

Next, we worked on the "C is for Caterpillar" page. I gave Vada glass beads to start with. I like to let her use different objects for the same tasks so that she becomes aware that there are other options for available when doing certain things.

"C is for Caterpillar" worksheets are from the "Letter of the Week" curriculum that was purchased through Confessions of a Homeschooler.

She also had time to use the Pom Pom magnets that her sister made for her.

Next we got out our Letter 'C' can of Alphabet Soup from Learning Resources. 

Then we read Ten Little Caterpillars, a book by Bill Martin Jr but one that is also illustrated by Lois Ehlert who happens to be one of my favorite children authors because of her unique artwork. 

This book went right along with the caterpillar theme but I thought that it would also help us to transition into some math activities.

Vada, doing her version of the ASL sign for butterfly.

Our first Math activity just consisted of me counting the caterpillars on each card out loud while using Vada's pointer finger to point each one out and then counting out the same amount of glass beads for Vada to place onto the cards on her own while I counted them out loud as she put each one onto the cards. Basically, we just did a ton of counting out loud but every time we do this activity (no matter what we are counting) she gets better and better at pointing, at singling out each item, at sliding each counter onto the mats and so forth. She is getting it and that's what counts! Plus, she is making sounds as she points, as if she is trying to count which I like even more. 

 And of course, her very own hungry caterpillar was here to make sure we did everything correctly.

We read the Very Hungry Caterpillar next and while we were reading how the caterpillar in the book ate and ate and ate, Vada decided to also feed her caterpillar! She's so smart!

Vada signing butterfly again. She loves this sign!

 We went through the vocabulary words from the book again today and probably will do it every day this week because I think repetition is very important and in everything that I have been taught and have read about teaching reading to children with Down syndrome is that repetition of sight words is important.

We worked on shapes, colors and fine motor skills with these Shape Butterflies from Learning Resources.

Check out Vada's "personality face". It's total a-t-t-itude but her grandpa says "Nope, it's personality.", so we call it "personality".

Another math activity that we worked on was the paper clips counting. Someday, Vada will get this fine motor skill down and she will be able to use the clips on her own, for now however, I put the clips on and she pulls them off as I count them. 

I downloaded these for free from 1+1+1=1.

Our first step in this activity is me reading the top "sentence" out loud. "One butterfly."

Then I count the actual butterflies on the card, again out loud and as I point to each one. 

Next, I point to the numeral at the bottom of the card and say it out loud, "ten" and then I have Vada begin taking the clips off while I count each one out loud for her to hear. I also have a small bowl close to her for her to put the clips into. It's just an extra step to make her think and get her to get into the practice of doing multiple step tasks.

We had a busy day yesterday but it was another great one because we were together! I love being a homeschooling mom and I love this little girl! 

No, its not all easy and the gratification is not instant. In fact I am still kind of waiting to see if anything that I am doing is working! But. It. Is ALL worth it!

Catching Up With Letter 'B'

Today we spent the morning catching up on several different 'B' activities. Last week, Vada and I hadn't got around to doing all of the 'B' activities and I didn't want to skip over any before moving onto our next letter.

I started Vada off with her dreaded lacing activity, which she is getting much better at (getting her tongue out there really does help with the process!).

We did some butterfly counting with matching numerals.

One of the many things that has really impressed me above and beyond Vada's actual work is how well she is listening and following directions. This is a side story but early we were playing with Play Doh and when we were done I helped her pick it up but I said that I wanted her to put it where it belonged and then I said "Can you do that for me? Can you put the Play-Doh back where it belongs?" and she actually replied with a "Yeh." and she hoped off of the chair she was sitting on and put the Play Doh back into the cabinet from which it came! I thanked her and told her she did a really good job but inside I was really, really impressed. Im seeing these moments of Vada becoming "Miss Independent"
  or a "Big Girl" and I am just really proud of her and to see it in her school work is extra exciting.

For the counting butterflies activity I started out by showing her the different butterflies. There are three different ones. We looked at what made each one different and then we put each one onto the laminated sheet. After we went through all three of the butterflies we counted them. Vada graciously let me use her pointer finger to count with, since she knows how much fun I have counting when I get to use her fingers instead of my own! After we counted the butterflies, I got the number three and I showed it to Vada. We counted the points of the number three has I teach Vada to do when we are working with Touch Math and then I asked her to put the number into its place.

Next we added a butterfly. After counting the butterflies on the sheet we used my fingers to count four.

And then I had Vada put the numeral four into its place and we again counted its points. We continued on until we had gone through all of the numbers.

We even did the number zero, which was Vada's first introduction to this number.

Letter of the Week (LOTW) was created by Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler, so the "themes" of the letter worksheets and activity pages that you see Vada and I using aren't actually my ideas (the books of the week BOTW are my own ideas, unless I am using BFIAF/FIAR). This weeks 'B' is for Butterfly theme is what came with the LOTW package. I personally love butterflies and this was a fun one for me, I actually had to hold back a little this week because next week is 'C' is for Caterpillar and I am going to have to use some of my butterfly stuff to cover that. Apparently, there is not a novelty market for caterpillars.

I like to link our theme of the week with books, so I decided to read Waiting for Wings by: Lois Ehlert. Waiting for wings is a beautiful book with vibrant colors and rhyming phases to keep children's attention. Plus it teaches about the metamorphosis of a butterfly and even a little about some familiar flowers.

I had Vada find the butterflies on each page.

We went on to the 'B' is for butterfly pom-pom magnet page.

And then we did what I call the "Big 'B', Little 'b' Game". It reminds me of Dr. Seuss' ABC book, which I LOVE, so before we played the game, we read the book! 

Vada knows how to play matching games. She knows that I put them together to show her that they do match and then that it is her job to mix them all up! She loves mixing them up, it's fun for her!

Since she is still in the process of learning how to match in general and then learning her colors, the way that we play this game is this:

I actually get the matches out of the pile for her. I say what color it is that I have found and I make sure to only pull one card out at a time so I can say "I found the big 'B' or the uppercase 'b'", and then I find its match and repeat the process with all of the cards. 

I do not put the matches together, however. I set them several inches apart and ask Vada to match them together and she does. As she is matching them I repeat the color with the sign and I may even repeat the phase from Dr. Seuss' book "Big B, Little B, What Begins with B? Barber, baby, bubbles and a bumblebee."

We worked on cutting and pasting with this butterfly craft. I didn't get any photo's of us cutting because it was a process of us working together to cut the butterfly out and I too much distraction to try to get photo's today. I ended up cutting out two of the wings (one of the large and small wings each) on my own, it was a lot of work for Vada to cut the whole body out and then the other two wings, or so I thought. 

We do have paint brushes and those can be used when doing crafts like this, with paste, (heck, use your fingers, I don't care!) but I like how easy the clean up is with the Qtips.

Vada is always so very proud of her craft work. After we have finished a project together I hand it to her and say, "Okay, let go hang it on your wall!" and she replies with, "Yeah!" 

She'll hop down from her chair and walk over to her "I Did That" wall and show me where to put her art, and that's where I put it!

Another craft that we did was the Do-A-Dot painting for letter 'B'. 

This is a good fine motor activity because Vada has to try to get the dotter into the circles. I'm not strict about it. When we change colors, I do the first dot in a circle ans specifically say "See, you want to put the color into the circle."

This activity is also great for learning colors. I always introduce all of the colors before we start and set them in a row in front of us. Then I ask Vada which on she wants to start with and let her grab at the first one. After she has finished using her first color, I grab two new colors and say, " Vada, You haven't used blue or green (or whatever colors), which one do you want to use now?" She then will grab a color from my hand and I will tell her the color that she choose, "You want to use green. That's Mommy's favorite color." or "You want to use blue. Blue starts with the letter 'b'." You get the idea.

This craft also went on her wall.