As the first year of homeschooling (grade 1) dawned for my daughter I realized I really wanted something in place for my 3 year old son. I knew I didn’t want a full curriculum, after all, he’d be around for a lot of her learning but I wanted to do one intentional thing with him each day and that’s where this list was born!
Each week has a Bible story which is actually from the Ambleside Year 1 program, since I want both my kids together for the Bible story. What I plan on doing for Bible is to read the story each day of the week from a different Bible each day (when possible). My favorite children’s Bible is The Jesus Storybook Bible but we will also be using a variety of others.
I’ve tried to keep each activity to a time limit of 10 minutes for parental involvement, some days the parent needs to be involved in the whole activity and some days you can just show them how it works and they can continue on their own (while you work with your other children or get your own work done).
You can always switch activities around and if one doesn’t work for you, you can always substitute it with some of our family favorites like puzzles, Play Dough, wooden blocks, Lego, magnets or one of the previous activities that can be used over again.
Right now I only have the schedule out for the first month but I hope to have a couple more months up soon as well as optional holiday weeks, be sure to PIN this post and check back often! I’d love it if you use the hashtag #intentionalpreschooling on Instagram and tag me (@chantelklassen) so I can see what you are all up to!
P.S. I only ended up sharing a few weeks of our 3-year-old preschool here, I may come back and fill the rest in at a later date, in the meantime you can view our entire 4-year-old preschool curriculum here.
P.S. I am kind of tempted to write out our grade 1 curriculum in this way as well, if that would be helpful for you let me know!
BOOK LIST
Here’s a quick overview of the books we will be reading for weeks 1-8):
[mybooktable tag=”three-year-old-preschool”]
WEEK ONE
BIBLE
Creation & Adam & Eve (Genesis 1, 2:7, 20-25, 3:1-24)
MONDAY
Read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Optional activities:
TUESDAY
Materials Needed:
- small snack, such as Cheerios or fruit snacks
- snack math printables (free in link or you could draw your own)
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
Materials Needed:
- large tub
- water
- variety of cups
FRIDAY
Frog & Lilypad Uppercase and Lowercase Match (we will be taking it slow and only working on A, B, C, D & E this week)
WEEK TWO
BIBLE
The Flood (Genesis 6:5-8, 13-22, 7:13-18, 8:13-22)
MONDAY
Read Green Eggs and Ham
Optional Activities:
- Put the Eggs in Order
- Make green eggs (and ham if you are feeling adventurous)
TUESDAY
Materials Needed:
- 10-20 Matchbox cars (up to the number you want them to learn)
- small pieces of paper
- tape
- cardboard box (or an empty cereal box opened up)
- black marker
WEDNESDAY
Nursery Rhymes: Humpty Dumpty, Hey Diddle Diddle & Old Mother Hubbard
THURSDAY
Counting Beads on Pipe Cleaners
Materials Needed:
- pipe cleaners
- paper
- pen
- glue
- beads
FRIDAY
Play Hi-Ho Cherry-O!
WEEK THREE
BIBLE
Abraham & Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19)
MONDAY
Read Little Blue Truck
Optional Activities:
- Alphabet Match (the site says to laminate paper and place velcro dots on, we are just going to slip the paper into a page protector, use contact paper to “laminate” the letters and then use sticky tack to match them up)
- Farm Animal Bowling
TUESDAY
Materials Needed:
- ice cube tray
- objects in 2 colors (2 sets of buttons, lego pieces, whatever you can find!)
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
Spell Name Activity (feel free to adjust to your child, we probably won’t be gluing our papers down)
FRIDAY
Frog & Lilypad Uppercase and Lowercase Match (we will be adding in F, G, H, I & J this week)
WEEK FOUR
BIBLE
Sale of Birthright (Genesis 25:27-34)
MONDAY
Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Optional Activities:
- Counting Caterpillars (we will probably make our caterpillar at least up to 10)
- Eating Through the Fruit – fine motor hole punching activity
TUESDAY
Materials Needed:
- washable paint
- printables (free in link)
WEDNESDAY
Name Writing Practice with Highlighter Letters
THURSDAY
Materials Needed:
- toilet paper roll
- string/twine
- popsicle sticks
- peanut butter
- bird seed
FRIDAY
Materials Needed:
- Medium sized tub
- Fruit Loops or other colorful cereal
- Small Cups
WEEK FIVE
BIBLE
The Ladder that Reached to Heaven (Gen. 28:10-22)
MONDAY
Read: Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site
Optional Activities:
TUESDAY
Materials Needed:
- different coins
- 1 larger container
- smaller containers – 1 for each type of coin
WEDNESDAY
Memory using a deck of cards (if it is their first time playing start with just a couple pairs of cards and slowly add more in)
THURSDAY
Materials Needed:
- large plastic bin
- rocks (or pasta or beans)
- small construction vehicles
- optional: alphabet rocks
FRIDAY
WEEK SIX
BIBLE
The Coat of Many Colors (Gen. 37:1-4, 11, 28b)
MONDAY
Read: The Story of Ferdinand
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Simple Journal – stickers over one letter (I’m choosing to do the first letter in his name)
THURSDAY
Scissor Cutting Practice – either draw your own shapes and lines or use the printables via the link
FRIDAY
Melting Ice Activity – pick one from the link or create your own, it will be a little messy but it’s just water and going to be a lot of fun
WEEK SEVEN
BIBLE
The Dreams of a King (Gen. 41:15-49, 53-57)
MONDAY
Read: The Tale of Peter Rabbit
TUESDAY
Sorting, Graphing and Counting Cars
WEDNESDAY
Stamping – can also add this to their preschool journal
Materials Needed:
- stamps
- stamp pad
- paper or journal (aka composition notebook)
THURSDAY
Materials Needed:
- letter cards (just DIY your own)
- items for bingo markers (such as Lego bricks)
FRIDAY
Materials Needed:
- painters tape
- paper (from the recycling bin!)
WEEK EIGHT
BIBLE
Moses: The Child Found in the River (Exod. 2:1-10)
MONDAY
Read: The Runaway Bunny
TUESDAY
Watermelon Math
WEDNESDAY
Stencil Tracing – can also add this to their preschool journal
Materials Needed:
- stencils
- pencil or markers
- paper or journal
THURSDAY
Materials Needed:
- pipe cleaner
- beads
- googly eyes
- hot glue gun
FRIDAY
Deck of Cards Matching (a deck of cards you are willing to cut up!)
WEEK NINE
COMING SOON!