I am excited to be sharing the very first week of our preschool experiment with you today: Catholic Preschool Curriculum for the Letter A.
It should be no secret that this little blog serves lots of purposes in my life: journal, creative outlet, (hopeful) business, and countless other things.
It is also a way for me to hold myself accountable.
My oldest is soon to be 4 and I have been thinking I needed to do some sort of preschool with him for a while now…but not doing a whole lot more than thinking about it.
Well, last week that all changed.
I made a few materials and we jumped right into it–focusing all of our energy on the letter A.
It wasn’t perfect–he has some work ahead of him learning how to be a student, and I certainly have room to grow as a teacher, but we did it.
The plan is to continue on and do one letter a week, blogging about it and sharing my materials here–both for you to use and as a method of keeping myself on track.
Also, although we pull in all sorts of words at the beginning with our letter of the week I do plan on using this time to teach the Catholic faith as well.
Each week we will talk about the life of a saint whose name starts with the letter of the week, as well as color a coloring sheet of a church object/event/person.
Having said all of that, here is the 4-day preschool schedule we will be following:
After we introduce the letter we go around the house and find all of the words the begin with the letter.
Then we go over the letter shape worksheet where the preschooler can color the letter and then practice writing…
As I said, little Gus is not yet 4, so we have a little work to do here!
As with the other coloring sheet, this is something I made and you are welcome to download, print and use it yourself.
It is a PDF, ready to print. Just click on the link below.
DOWNLOAD LETTER SHAPE WORKSHEET HERE
After reviewing the letter, shape, and sound, we dove into our “A” craft–Watercolor Angels made from coffee filters!
Supplies needed for each angle:
As a first step, break out the box of washable markers and encourage the kids to decorate their coffee filters.
The more color and ink the better!
After that, mom might need to aid in the assembly of the angels.
First, fold one of the filters in half.
Cut a small hole in the top center and insert the sucker. You might want to apply a small amount of tape to keep the sucker in place.
Next, wrap the second filter around the top of the sucker.
Pull tight and secure with the yarn.
As a final step, dip the body of the angel into a bowl of clean water.
Don’t let the angel linger too long in the water as all of the ink will run out.
Lay flat and allow to dry completely.
Once dry, shape a pipe cleaner into a halo and use hot glue to attach.
This week we talked about St. Augustine–which was the logical choice for us since my son’s name is Augustine!
I made a little prayer card with one of his famous sayings, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you” to add to our school board. We also read about St. Augustine from this book.
I am also happy to share the PDF I made of the holy card–but be aware that I did not make this image.
To save paper it also includes the card for next week: St. Bernadette.
DOWNLOAD SAINT OF THE WEEK HOLY CARD HERE
This week the coloring page is of the altar.
As the kids colored we had a really nice conversation that covered everything from why would our priest shaved his beard to the Eucharist to coloring in the lines.
As I said, this is something I made and am happy to share with you.
The link to download the PDF is below.
DOWNLOAD ALTAR COLORING SHEET HERE
And there you have it! One week down…25 to go.
I hope this experience is fruitful for us–and for you, if you decide to use the materials.
And who knows, maybe it will even soften my heart to the idea of homeschooling. Maybe.
Thanks for being here!
And, if you end up using any of my materials all I ask is that you link back to me and my blog.
All the best,
This is great. My daughter is almost 4 and I want to teach her, but I don’t feel that I would do a good job. I too have researched ways and curriculum to help me in this endeavour, yet fail to implement them. You made it seem easy. Thank you! I’m glad I found you.
Thanks for the ideas and the effort to write it and share them. God is amazing, I was thinking and searching web sites for teaching our catholic faith to my daughter and I found this amazing blog of yours. Congratulations and keep writing! Blessings:)
You are so sweet! I’m glad you found me!
Nancy your an amazing mom. Keep up the great work. Love everything you do.
God bless you,
Vickie
Goodness. If you knew the morning I’ve had, well, you might not say that. But thank you. Such a blessing to find this comment.