Call 9-1-1, week 11 with the 4s is a wrap!

Whoops! I'm majorly behind. These is actually a post of last week's activities with the four-year-olds. 

Last week we talked a little about different people and treating everyone with kindness, even if they aren't exactly like us. We read a book called Sergio Makes a Splash! about a penguin who doesn't swim. And we talked about people who look or act differently than we do. The simple truth is that our kids are blissfully unaware of disabilities and prejudices. It will be important to carefully expose them to these things down the road to foster compassion and understanding. 

But for now, we had Swedish fish and Goldfish crackers as we read about Sergio the penguin. 

The bible story this week was Ruth and Naomi, which is quite honestly an odd story. We focused on how Ruth took care of Naomi by following her and working to bring her food (vs. the fact that Naomi sort of created an arranged marriage to Boaz and then strangely stole her baby). 

Talking about the story and coloring puppets 

We practiced writing angled letters this week (e.g. Y).

We also played Twister, which is actually quite difficult when you are shorter than the game mat. 

Next, we made copied patterns with shapes on contact paper. The kids were good at this, and it was fun to play with sticky paper.

Day two we cut out our puppets and did some play to help re-tell the story of Ruth and Naomi. 

We completed a fun math activity with play-doh and stickers. I had the kids build a snow-man and Christmas tree with play-doh, and then they had to decorate with the correct number of ornaments. I then introduced + and = signs to show that the snowman + the tree decor = 10. To be honest, they loved decorating, but weren't too hot on hearing about the math.

While the math activity wasn't a huge hit, THIS WAS. Building with gun drops and toothpicks is super fun for a four-year-old. Who knew.

Last, we used this great app called "Teach 911" to let the kids practice calling 911, including reciting their addresses (which we also reviewed this week by cutting out the numbers and having them put them in the correct order). This is a fun, effective tool that Jack is still asking to play with. 

XO, Kelda

Week 12 with the 4's: Thankfulness...

 

This week the 4's spent a LOT of time talking about what they are thankful for. We read the story of Jesus healing 10 lepers, but only one thanked Jesus. The kids helped tell the story using the felt board.

 

Next we talked about the letter Y and said the poem to help us remember how to form the letters. Then we used out tactile letters to trace the shape while we said the poem...

 

And we made Y's with popsicle sticks.

 

To work on our numbers, we tried a dot-to-dot...there was MAJOR improvement here since the last time we tried one of these. Way to go kids!

 

 

 

For our math activity today, I gave each kid a set of math rods. First, I asked them to find the longest one...you can see the boys holding up the blue ones, and Addison with the orange...

 

She put hers in order first to figure out which was longest and which was shortest...

 

The boys soon followed suit, but it was a little tricky.

 

Then they had some time to play with the rods on their own.

 

Next we did a little art project. I've always loved the look of Tibetan prayer flags. And then I saw this post on how to make GRATITUDE prayer flags...so I decided to put my own twist on the idea for 4 year-olds and this is what happened...

 

Each student got a few squares of linen fabric (leftover from another project). And they chose some colors of acrylic paint and foam stamps or brushes. The room was SILENT as they worked...

 

I also gave them some cut apples to stamp...

The first day, all we did was decorate the flags...the second phase had to wait till the paint was dry.

 

To wrap up the day, we played letter bean-bag toss. I put some letters on the floor (I chose ones that I've noticed the kids have trouble recognizing...) and I called out letters and they had to throw the bean bag to the letter and say a word that starts with that sound. They struggled with a couple but overall it was pretty successful.

 

 

Day 2 we decided to revisit the 7 Days of the Week song...and everyone had a turn being the "conductor"...

 

And the kids told the Bible story on their own using the felt pieces.

 

Next, I gave each child some strips of paper and we went around the circle each saying one thing we are thankful for. I wrote their thoughts on the strips.

 

Then we turned the strips into a chain. This was some GOOD motor skill practice!

 

The kids took the chains home and are going to add a link each day until Thanksgiving. Then on Thanksgiving Day, they can read all the things they are thankful for.

 

Next we read our book of the week...

 

And headed outside to play with the diggers for a bit!

 

After our break, it was time to get back to work...

 

We practiced writing Y's...tricky business!

 

And we did some mazes in our wipe-clean books...

 

Lastly, we put the final touches on our gratitude flags. The kids chose a couple things they were thankful for to write on their flags, and then came the hard part...they sewed a piece of yarn through the top to attach them all together! This was HARD...but each kiddo managed to stitch one flag each. I finished the rest for them real quick and then tied them all together. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the work in progress...it was a little chaotic :)

 

The idea is to hang these outside somewhere so they will eventually break down and become part of nature :) I think it makes a lovely addition to our garden!