Preschool: Fine Motor, Letters and Numbers

It is always my desire to keep our learning shelves fresh with inspiring work and creative ideas but in reality I get to them every 4 to 6 weeks.  So in today's post you will see a bit of both Winter and Easter but remember the content being taught by these materials, although having dated seasonal themes, are necessary skills to the early learner.  So while I get to the shelf refreshing  take a look at what B has been working on as we close out winter and welcome Spring.  (We live in snow country so spring comes very late if at all.)

Fine Motor

We finally go to some nuts and bolts activities.  I think these were a bit to small for B's skill level but he enjoyed working with real life objects instead of our toy version.

I saw this tree idea a few years back on My Montessori Journey.  I think she used it at Christmas time but our Easter version is a fun seasonal change up.  I got the eggs and tree at The Dollar Tree 2 Easters ago.  Here is a link to My Montessori Journey, not exactly matching up to the decorating activity but  a wonderful blog to visit for inspiration.

Using office supply stickers to fill in the mitten's circles.  I think the mitten pattern came from Making Learning Fun. I didn't find the exact match but these would be fun as well.

Connect Four--such a fun game at this age.  No, they don't get the concept of four in a row but B loves to practice taking turns with this game and it is so cute when he yells "blocked ya!" Connect four is also great to use when introducing the concept of patterning.  I am working on patterning with B but he is not yet following along.

Numbers

Number matching using snowman number cards and old tiles from a Rummy Kub game.

Heart counting

Matching the numbers and dots to make Easter Eggs.

It is always so great to do these review posts because it gives me a chance to step back and see what we have been doing.  I notice that in B's number work there is a lot of paper and not a lot of sensory offerings.  I think I need to pull out some numbers and the bead stair or just some numbers and interesting counters like cars or rocks.  You see these pictures here but B has not really taken to any of the counting work, so thanks for letting me review and brainstorm as you read.  If you have any other ideas let me know.

All of the above card materials are from two wonderful blogs:
Confessions of a Homeschooler
1+1+1=1

Letters

I know you have seen this activity before but I think it must be B's favorite work.  Every time we sit down together this is what he picks to work on.  I think I may add another basket.  This activity is called Magnet School by Parents

Simple letter matching.  B surprises me on this type of thing.  He can match letters so easily and quickly.  I just started having him watch the Leapfrog Letter Factory video.  If you have a preschooler, seriously think about investing in this video, it is how all of our children have learned their sounds.

Other Fun Work

Nesting Blocks are our substitution for the sensorial pink stair and broad stair. 

B sorting nest cards from the largest to the smallest.  I think these cards are from Confessions of a Homeschooler, see the link above.

Grandma came for a visit and brought B this Melissa and Doug puzzle.  It is four puzzles all in one little box.

Another once of B's favorite activities--Magnet Motor Match. I couldn't find a link to the Motor Match but here is a link to a Magnetic Dino Match.

Thanks for visiting and leave a comment so I know you were here--Thanks!

I'm linking up to the Preschool Corner.