My Little Pony Unit

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Some weeks, planning learning time activities is fun and even easy.  Other weeks it feels like a never ending task that takes hours.  Then there are weeks with unexpected adventures and bumps along the road.  This week I had all of these fabulous ideas for learning time, only to discover my daughter didn't have all the ponies to pull them off.  My husband and I went to every store in town looking for the three ponies I needed.  No luck.  So, I moved on to plan two.  Only problem was my printer ran out of ink.  There are three days left in the month.  Our bank account is depleted.  Until my husband starts the new job he was hired for, we only have enough in our budget for one package of ink each month.  So... plan three?  Yeah.  I didn't have one.  I had to be extremely creative.  Thankfully I had enough ink to print half of the activities I planned, so all was not lost, but this unit did not turn out the way I had planned.  Still I think Princess will be happy, as it's for her, since this week is her birthday.

English/Language Arts:

My Little Pony Nomenclature Cards

Princess will love learning the names for all of the ponies, as well as studying their colors etc.  My Little Pony is a very new interest for her, yet she chose it as her birthday theme.  She's learning all of her information from books, as I found the TV show to be a little bit above her.  The ponies seemed really mean to each other.

Source:  I found these free cards as part of a packet at 1+1+1=1.  Words can not express how grateful I am to the designer of these cards, as I didn't have to make my own.

Tracing Shapes with My Little Pony

Since My Little Pony characters each have different shapes and designs on them, I felt it wasn't too far of a stretch to work on shapes this week.

 Source:  This exercise is also part of the free packet at 1+1+1=1.

Bob Book Set 1 Book 2 Build the Words

Princess and Bulldozer have been working hard to read their Bob Books.  I'm hoping this activity will help Bulldozer with his words.  He struggles with reading much more than my other kiddos.

Source:  This exercise came as part of a free packet from Walking By the Way.

Twilight Sparkle's Homework: How to Be a Friend

Originally I was making a set of Yes/No cards about the do's and don'ts of being a friend. But without the ink, I couldn't use them.  Instead we'll be reading the book  How to Be A Friend: A Guide to Making Friends and Keeping Them, by Laurie Krasney Brown and  Marc Brown, role playing, and discussing all of it's contents.  I'm hoping the kiddos will understand it.  I LOVE the book.  Perhaps another time I'll be able to use the cards.

Math:

Fluttershy's Squirrel Grid Game

I've learned through reading, that Fluttershy lives near the forest and is very kind to the animals there.  In honor of her, I've pulled out this squirrel grid game. The kids are far more advanced than this, but it will work.  Originally I was going to make forest nomenclature cards to match up with Dinomite's forest animals. Again, the ink was my main problem there.  Oh well.

Source:  I found this free printable from Prekinders.

My Little Pony Roll & Chart

I've never tried one of these activities with the kiddos before.  To be completely honest, trying to put together the cube without any tape or adhesive exposed was quite the task.  (We've gotta keep Bulldozer safe!)  Hopefully they will enjoy it.

 Source: This printable is part of the packet at 1+1+1=1.

Spike's Gem Stone Eating Subtraction

 In one of the books we have, it explains that Spike enjoys eating stones.  My husband came up with the idea of subtracting stones that Spike has eaten.  I put this together, hoping it will work.  The kiddos will roll both dice, determine the larger number versus the smaller number and subtract them as such.  They'll record the problems and answers on the white board, using jewels to help them figure it out.  I'm guessing I'll have the kids do as many problems as they are years old. Dinomite is 6 so he'll do 6 problems.  I made sure to use the largest jewels we have so they'll be easy to pick up and count with.

Rainbow Polygons

Princess has expressed that her favorite My Little Pony is Rainbow Dash, so I've tried to include several rainbow activities.  This activity also incorporates the shape theme we're focusing on this week.  The kiddos will use the Popsicle sticks to make the shapes in the chart.  The triangle will be made out of red Popsicle sticks, the square from blue, etc.

Source:  I found this idea on Counting Coconuts. The chart I printed out from the Internet.

Science:

Applejack Teaches the Life Cycle of an Apple

I could have chosen several different apple activities, but I really liked this one to match up with Applejack.  This activity was part of my original plan. :)

 Source: I found this free printable at Montessori For Everyone.

Parts of a Horse

Originally I wanted to do a sorting activity using ponies, Pegasuses, and unicorns.  However, without ink and very specific ponies, I couldn't pull it off. Thankfully I had this printed out and made from a previous unit that I never ended up using.  Perhaps we'll study mystical creatures in another unit and I can use my original idea then.

Source:  I found this free printable at Montessori N' Such.

Rainbow Dash's Weather & What to Wear Cards

Originally I had wanted to design an activity around different types of weather, especially different types of storms for Bulldozer, as he's obsessed with that stuff right now. However, without ink, I couldn't.  Instead I dug up old calendar cards we used last year and the year before to teach the kids what to wear during certain weather conditions.  The kiddos will pair up outfits with weather cards.

Source: I made these cards a VERY long time ago for our calendar time.  

 Geography:

Earth's Continents & Oceans

Originally I had wanted to make a map of Ponyville, and introduce maps to the kiddos this way.  Once again no ink cancelled that.  Instead I pulled out this activity I had to help the kiddos review their Continents and Oceans.

Source:  I found this free printable set at Our World Wide Classroom.

Music:  We'll be doing a review this week of all the different learning songs we've learned this year and last year.  I'm also introducing this new song to help the kiddos with their shapes. It's called "Nonagon" from They Might Be Giants.

Pinkie Pie's Corner Bakery Sugar Cookies

Picture is missing sugar cookies & pink frosting in the cup & bag.

 I'm pretty excited about this activity with the kids.  Not only will they practice frosting sugar cookies with a frosting knife, but they'll use the frosting bags and tips for the first time.  This activity will help develop hand strength etc.  I have three tips they can interchange to try different looks.  After frosting comes sprinkles. Who doesn't like that?

Let's Make a Rainbow with Rainbow Dash

 As you can see in this picture, my ink was gone and I had to draw my own rainbow.  Pathetic I know.  The kiddos will organize the colors in order of the rainbow and then from dark to light.  Hopefully this will be a great sequencing activity for Bulldozer. I put it on the work shelves, just because I know he won't touch it otherwise.

Fluttershy's Forest Leaf Prints

Once again, I had big plans for forest activities and Fluttershy, but they didn't work out. In this activity the kiddos will use leaves from the "forest" to make beautiful rubbings.

Practical Life/Sensorial:

Straining Rainbows

I saw this idea on another blog last week, where someone had used dried beans and had their kiddos strain them and transfer them to another bowl.  I decided to use rainbow colored pony beads in honor of Rainbow Dash.  Bulldozer is already drooling as he sees this on the shelves in our learning time room. Anything to do with colors and water is right up his alley.

Source:  The idea came from an activity I saw at Wild Flower Ramblings.

My Little Pony Sensory Bin

It's been a long time since I've made a sensory bin. This isn't exactly what I had in mind, but it will do. I selected Princess' favorite colors: pink and purple to use, however I ended up having to throw in some clear beads too, as I didn't have enough pink and purple items.  The other colors are My Little Pony figures.

Decorate a Butterfly with Rarity

I had HUGE plans for Rarity. I wanted to make money cards will all different fashion items on them, to help review coins etc.  Again, with no ink, I couldn't pull it off.  So instead I reverted back to some pretty things I had in the classroom I knew Princess enjoyed.  Kiddos will use the purple colored water to decorate the butterfly with the dropper.

Pinkie Pie's Party Balloons

My kiddos are obsessed with trying to blow up balloons.  I'm not sure if they've ever been successful yet, but I figured we'd give it a try.  I purchased balloons of the best quality and ones that were fairly large, so they would be easier to stretch and blow.  Using permanent marker, I wrote their initials on individual balloons, so I wouldn't go through as many, and they knew which one was theirs each day.

Rarity's Carousel Boutique for Little Girls

I had thought about pulling out the dress up clothes, but the kiddos REALLY struggle with dressing and undressing themselves, especially with dress up clothes. Instead I pulled out one of Princess' snap and clip dolls along with two different outfits they can dress her with. This is a very popular activity in our house, so I'm sure they'll be delighted it's on the fun shelves.

Spanish:

This week the kiddos will learn a Spanish song about shapes.

All in all, despite so many changes in my original plans, I do think the kiddos will enjoy learning time this week.  Princess will be thrilled with the My Little Pony gifts we did find for her, and will hopefully have a great birthday. She's funny in that she doesn't like any ponies with hair. She prefers the mini figures or the large stuffed animal figures.  That's my girl!