Homeschool On A Dime: Tuesday’s Review and Ten Black Dots

Update: I have made an entire packet recently to go along with the book “Ten Black Dots” by Donald Crews Download it for free here:

https://homeschoolonadime.wordpress.com/2023/06/10/ten-black-dots-crews-free-printable-pack/

Blueberry Ball and I had fun today! We did a few of the regular activities for Tuesday and had plenty of time left over for review. And it all looked like fun and games to him.

We started off reading the Bible story of Gideon with his Compassionate Characters. We then read his new memory verse card together. I said it and had him copy me, then asked him to do it on his own.

Then we read Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews. I gave him Ten Frame Polka Dot Posters (free from TPT), some tongs, and his bucket of aquarium rocks (the same ones we used for the addition ramps).

Normally, I would lead the way a little and count and place manipulative with him, but occasionally (like this Tuesday) I will let him experiment on his own. He hasn’t tried tongs before. I tried showing him how to use them with only on hand, but it turned into a two handed coordination battle. He must have played with these for an hour and a half or so. A big success!

Then we did his cutting and handwriting worksheets. I couldn’t find any for free online so I made these myself. A Home School On A Dime original that you can find and print for free here.

I love the way they turned out:

We then added more feathers to his  “thankful turkey”. It’s getting a bit bushy already!

We then did Blue’s shape of the week which we didn’t have time for yesterday. He counted the sides and shapes in a Pentagonal Prism.

As you may have already gathered, I try to keep review weeks as much fun as possible so that I can log information quickly and accurately on my end without making it seem like a “test” on his end. As a result, our review weeks are usually filled with fun activities, relays and games.

The first game I had a game set up for Blue involved his Memory Verse Cards. The idea is a highly modified and adapted version of something I saw in week 12 of the ABC Jesus Loves Me Website. I called it “Memory Verse Laundry”. I tied a clothesline from one end of the dining room to the other end of the living room. I then attached the Memory Verse Cards to the line using clothespins. I gave him a basket and told him there was laundry to be done. Every time he walked to a new verse, he had to remove it from the clothesline and recite it before placing it in his basket. This week’s results were awesome! He only needed help with a couple of smaller things, but for the most part, he did them all on his own! I logged the progress by hand on the back of the Objective Pre/Post Checklist. I keep this assessment more broad (accuracy ratio rather than an individual verse checklist). I just want to see to what degree he’s retaining what is being taught.

We will do this activity more at a later date. We both had fun. It worked his focus and attention, fine motor skills, patience, and oh yeah, his memory verse recognition. =) I thought it would have been great to do in last week’s Good Night Moon activity box, too. Too bad I didn’t think of it then.

Then Blue played a relay game that he’s enjoyed since the first day of home school. I placed all of his tactile letters and numbers into a bucket and placed a second bucket at the other end of the room. I hold up a card and if he can name it and the sound it makes (for letters), then he can run it to his bucket as fast as he can and run back back for the next one. The game was especially fun because I still had the rope up from “Memory Verse Laundry”. I was on the opposite side of the string from his bucket which required him to go under or over the obstacle to meet his goals.

When we were done with these, I took the letters and numbers from my basket to my desk and sent Blue to go play. After he had left the room, I crossed out the ones he got wrong on the Objective Pre/Post Checklist.

Next, Blue told me what all of the colors and shapes were on the checklist. He doesn’t see this as a test because shapes and colors come too easily for him already. It just made him feel smart. 🙂 I hand drew a trapezoid, hexagon, and pentagon underneath the already existing shapes and he recalled them as well.

It was a light day filled with bonding and fun. I will leave some review items for Blue to explore freely the rest of the week:

(minus the memory verse cards not covered yet. They just looked good in the picture! )

This combined with his new lacing cards and a couple of spontaneous crafting moments should complete our review week quite nicely!