I’m so excited about this month’s Morning Basket. Ok, I say that every month. It’s true though. I get so excited about changing the Morning Basket each month! Lilly Belle gets so excited the night before a new basket. Last night she acted as if this morning were a holiday – in a way it is. There are new books, new things to learn, and sometimes new toys or games. It’s so much fun!
She sat this morning and did every single thing in the basket! We did Morning Basket for over an hour today (that rarely happens).
As always, I added in things that start our day with goodness, learning and fun. We always start with Bible, Poetry and Fairytales. From there I like to add in a life skill and other academic things she is working on. This month Lilly Belle really wanted to learn how to tie and has really been asking to learn how to speak Spanish.
Here are all of our March Morning Basket resources!
My First Bible and Prayers : I found this last night (night before our first day with the new basket) at Target, and had to get it for the girls! This might be what I am most excited about. No…there are too many other things that are equally as amazing this month, I can’t choose. BUT, this Bible is amazing. The girls loved it this morning! The stories are a bit longer, but could easily be broken up and read multiple days. In the back of the book is an entire (large) section of prayers which are actually more like poems and they’re so beautiful! The illustrations are amazing. It’s perfect. I am going to have Lilly Belle learn to recite some of the prayers this month.
A Child’s Garden of Verses : This book is beautiful! We’ve only just read a few of the poems so far and I’m in love. We will use this book for years and years to come. I love this Golden Book version. I love when the illustrations are also beautiful.
Usborne Illustrated Stories from Aesop : We love the Usborne Illustrated Stories. All of these books are perfect for story time. We also love to read these to the girls while they are taking a bath at night. The stories are the perfect length in this book. Just long enough to keep the girl’s attention. They are stories I can read to the girls and know they are getting so much goodness put into their hearts. I love it!
Wooden Board (Numbers 11-20) : This Number Board has been so loved in our home. Lucy likes to play with it too. She can’t trace it correctly yet, but she likes to touch it. Lilly Belle loves to write and she got so excited when she saw I added this to Morning Basket this month. One side has the numbers 11-20 to trace with a wooden stick and one side has little cut out dots so that the child can place objects in each dot to count to each number. It’s a wonderful math resource for preschool and kindergarten!
Squilt Meet the Instruments Study : We did these a few months ago and Lilly Belle was all about it so I added it again this month. We are using these this month as something the girls can do at the end of Morning Basket when I go to shower and get ready for the day. They look at the flashcards and watch YouTube videos given to us that are all about the orchestra. The videos are so educational and it’s been really fun for them to learn about.
Phonemic Awareness Bundle (Syllable Cards) : This is a pre-reading skill that Lilly Belle is still working on. I show her a card and she claps the number of syllables and then has to tell me how many are in each word. We purchased the Moffatt Girl’s Phonemic Awareness bundle last summer and it has helped her so much with her reading. Lilly Belle has now completed the Rhyming Cards and the Beginning Sound Cards and so now we are continuing to focus on the Syllable Cards this month. Here is what the complete set includes: Beginning Sounds Pocket Chart Cards, Beginning Sounds (Cut and Paste), Middle Sounds (Cut and Paste), Ending Sounds (Cut and Paste), Time to Rhyme (Cut and Paste), Counting Syllables (Sort & Clip Cards), Segmenting and Blending Cards (Push and Blend), Rhyming Strips (Odd One Out). It has helped so so much! I highly recommend it! I am going to be doing a YouTube video on it today as well.
CVC Flashcards : Lilly Belle is now reading CVC words so I was so excited when Carrie from Kindergarten Toolkit sent us a pack of her new flashcards. These cards are coming to her shop very soon! This month I have Lilly Belle using 3 rainbow mini erasers and she places each eraser below a letter as she says the sound. Then she blends the sounds together to form the word and then says the word at regular speed. She had a lot of fun with this today.
Alphabet Flashcards : These are in our basket for Lucy! I am going to be teaching her the letter names and sounds. She isn’t talking much yet so for now I am just going to flip through while I sing the ABC’s and then flip through again while I say each letter sound. She felt like such a big girl today when I did this with her. She will be 16 months old tomorrow.
Spanish Flashcards : This is another resource in our Morning Basket that we are so excited about this month! Lilly Belle really wants to learn how to speak Spanish so this morning we started by counting to 10 in Spanish while I showed her each number flashcard. As I held up each number I would say the number in english and then in Spanish and then she would repeat me. She loved it! This is another item that is coming soon to the Kindergarten Toolkit shop!
Learn to Tie Wooden Shoe : I think this is what Lilly Belle was most excited for this morning! I found this on Amazon and grabbed it right away for our March Morning Basket. We started today by just teaching her the first 2 steps of crossing the laces and then pulling it through to tighten the first time. We will keep doing that step all week before moving on to the rest. This shoe is just around $8.00!
Go Fish! : Lilly Belle is super into playing games lately and I thought Go Fish would be the perfect addition this month because she still confuses 6 and 9. Matt played with us this morning and she was so happy! This particular set is adorable and I love the illustrations! I like to add a little game into our basket each month as something I can do with her when I know she is feeling done. This set also comes in a really nice drawstring bag. We also got her a playing cards holder and that helped her a ton!
That is our March Morning Basket! We have a busy month ahead so I packed our Morning Basket pretty full knowing that there are going to be many days this month where Morning Basket may be the only “school” we get to. Another reason I love Morning Basket so much! She learns a lot of information in a short amount of time and it starts our day off with so much goodness!