Week 5: A boatload of shaving cream

Phew, I'm beat. Our planned rotation gave us three weeks off between teaching duties (four moms, one teaching week per month) but a nasty round of illness bumped things around a bit and I had just one week off between. I think my fatigue may have shown as I watched with glazed-over eyes as seven toddlers ran around covered in shaving cream and silly string this morning. My house smells like a freshly shaven man and I'm taking a nap right after this post!

This morning we read On Noah's Ark by Jan Brett. The pictures are beautiful and it hits all the important highlights of the story of Noah's ark.

After we played out the flood portion of the story on the felt board, I let the kids pretend they were boarding Noah's ark. We spread stuffed animals around the room and asked the kids to carefully gather them into the ark. Then it was their turn to board.

Once the kids were inside the box we made our own rainstorm...first rubbing our fingers and hands together to make wind, then snapping and clapping to make rain, then hitting our thighs to make thunder. At the end of the rainstorm, the sun came out and a rainbow appeared. We talked about how cramped and crowded the boat felt and even rocked the boat back and forth to experience how it might feel to be caught in a storm in a boat. 

Once again, an empty box proves to be the king of all kids toys.

Dayna performed an awesome rendition of "Arky, Arky" for us. The kids watched and sang along from the boat. 

After an appropriate snack of rainbow Goldfish crackers we headed outside for some messy play. 

One Dollar Store tablecloth + two cans of shaving cream + two cans of silly string = me wondering why I thought this would be a good idea a good time.

While we were outside making a mess we worked on our secret project (a present for grands). We can't reveal too much, but here's a sneak peak at the process.

As all good days should, this one ended with a good hosing off in the driveway! 

Happy week 5 everyone! We're headed to the Nevada State Museum tomorrow for a Friday Field Trip. Should be fun! 

Week 5: Noah Tastes the Rainbow

I can't believe its been a month! Our experiment in co-op preschool continues into week 5 where we are learning about the story of Noah's ark, the letter "b" and the number 3.

The story of Noah's ark is a great one for this age group (3-4). Plus, we have our very own Noah in the group, which makes it even more awesome. We read the story and then played it out on the felt board.

Addison adding Noah's neighbors. All of whom drown.
I decided not to dwell on that aspect of the story :)

The ark in the sky.

After calendar time we read Jane Belk Moncure's "My "b" Book" and "My Three Book," both of which captured the kids attention. The Moncure number books are especially wonderful. 

Hoping three hops from "My Three Book"

My "b" Book

Using the rainbow template from our workbooks we played with the colors of the rainbow, i.e. Fruit Loops. The kids glued the correct color Fruit Loop into the corresponding arc (we drew in a line of the correct color to help guide them). The girls were awesome at this. The boys were more interested in eating the cereal. They still turned out pretty cute.

Noah tasting the rainbow

In keeping with the Noah's ark theme we had animal cookies for snack. The kids practiced serving themselves, scooping cookies into their cups.

Next we headed outside to practice painting rainbows with fizzy paint, which is baking soda-based outdoor paint that fizzes when you spray it with vinegar. It's lots of fun. Until someone gets squirted in the eye with vinegar.

Fizzy Paint Ingredients (per color):
1/4 C cornstarch
1/2 box baking soda
10 drops food coloring
3 T water

Add in the water until its a little soupier than you might prefer - the paint thickens up as it sits. 

Then, the most amazing thing happened: A GARBAGE TRUCK CAME AND PICKED UP OUR GARBAGE. For the three year old set, garbage trucks are like the Beatles, New Kids on the Block and Justin Bieber wrapped up in a big, stinky box. Heaven.

I love you little garbage pail kids!

It's been a month! Week 5 starts...now!

Thursday Week 4 Review

We had a few kids absent today.  Unfortunately, we have been passing around sickness. We still had a good time reviewing.

I decided to read "Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes" again.  It was such a hit on Monday! It's a great way to review colors.

We did white board writing with our numbers and letters.  I think the kids liked writing them using something other than pencil and paper.  Doc decided he wanted to erase the board with his socks! You are such a good helper, Doc!

We also started a project, but we can't give details yet! The completed project will be surprises for our grandparents! 

To review the letter A, I wrote two words that begin with the letter A.  One word was written with a lowercase and the other was written with an uppercase.  The kids had to match their letters with the correct word.  I was pretty impressed with these kids! This activity involved some higher level thinking! Terrific job, kids!

Of course! Snack time is alway fun! We ate ants on a log to represent the letter A.

I think the kids are ready to tackle some new letters and numbers next week!

Monday Week 4 Review

I decided to stray a little from the curriculum this week.  With it being a review week we had more wiggle room to add our own ideas.

I loved playing my guitar! I felt like a rock star! I think the kids liked it too! Some favorite songs were ABCs and Wheels on the Bus.  You can see my little Elly doing the motions for "the baby on the bus".  

For the story, I chose "Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes".  This wasn't in the curriculum, but my mother-in-law showed this book to me and I fell in love with it! I may like it more than the kids.  If you go to www.harpercollinschildrens.com/petethecat you can listen to the stories.  

 To review the letter A, I put an upper and lower case A on the floor with red duct tape.  The kids droves cars along the tape.  I am pretty sure Noah had the best time with this activity! Good job, Noah! 

To review the numbers 0, 1, 2.  I put those numbers on the board and they were to identify how many stars were on their card and match it to the number.  I think they all did pretty well.  

Our craft was the colorful ice cream cone. The like to "do it themselves".  I need to remember that they may not do it perfect, but they need to do it independently.  

The younger kids had a great day too! Aren't they cute?
 
I loved being able to teach again.  I forgot how much fun preschoolers can be!

Week 4 Lesson Plan

Week 4 - September 17-21   DAY 1: Introduce DAY 2: Recognize DAY 3: Identify Song Concert with Dayna (Previous Weeks Songs) Concert with Dayna (Previous Weeks Songs) Kids sing without adults. Book of the Week Pete the Cat, I Love my White Shoes: listen to story at www.harpercollinschildrens.com/petethecat Pete the Cat, I Love my White Shoes: listen to story at www.harpercollinschildrens.com/petethecat Listen to story Craft Building with colors Icecream cone apple prints (optional) Hand/foot print calendar Number 0-2: identity game 0-2:Practice writing numbers on white board 0-2: Make number flash cards Color Review Colors Review Colors Review Previous Colors Snack Ants on a log popsicles painted cookies (paint cookies with egg yokes and food coloring) Letter Drive car along the letter A Letter Recognition game Practice wrting upper and lower case A Fine Motor Skills Puzzels Lacing Draw Pictures  Gross Motor Skills Jump on Trampoline Jump on Trampolin Play kickball

Good apples, bad apples and getting flicked: lessons from Adam and Eve

Week three, day two! I had so much fun this week with our kids.

On our second day we finished up our apple crafts, adding in the worms and gluing on the leaves.

 

We had a great circle time. The kids were attentive and interested. We've noticed this pattern over the last few weeks: the kids seem to be more focused on the second day of the week. I think on the first day the kids are easily distracted by new toys and materials ("BRIGHT SHINY THINGS!"). The take-away for me was to try back-loading the weekly curriculum so that we tackle the activities and readings that require more focus on the second day.

During circle time we read about Adam and Eve and talked about how moms and dads have to punish us when we disobey, the same way God punished Adam and Eve. 

Me: "What kinds of punishments do you get when you disobey your mom or dad?"

Kids: "WE GET TIME OUTS!" "WE GET NOSE ON THE WALL!" "WE GET FLICKED!" 

Out of the mouths of babes :)

The kids loved singing "Oh Be Careful" again. This one was stuck in my head ALL WEEK.

"O be careful little minds what you think..."

Of course we had to revisit "One, two buckle my shoe." We danced and sang, and Jack has been screaming this song all weekend!

The curriculum called for reading "Is Your Mama a Llama?" but I didn't feel like it fit with the themes of the week: apples, A and 2. So we switched it up and read "The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers." This is a great book for toddlers, and the book compares apples to strangers in a way kids can understand. It teaches that most strangers, like apples, are good, but you can't tell from the outside which are good and which are bad.

We finished up the day by playing a game where the kids jumped to the letter or number when called. I wanted to test their retention for the four numbers and letters covered to date: 0, 1, 2 and A. I hate to say it, but the girls DOMINATED this activity. Jack and Noah spent most of this game tickling each other. Boys, you need to step it up! :)

 After school we took a little dip in the pool. Only in Vegas!

Love you kiddos! Thanks for letting me live out my dreams of being a teacher with you!

Week 3: "A" is for apple

I feel like we have a ton to get through this week! Two bible stories, plus:

Letter: A
Number: 2
Colors: Orange, Red, Purple

Here's what we tackled on day one:

Circle Time
I think keeping circle time consistent from week-to-week and house-to-house has been important. While I'm not sure I've seen a huge amount of progress in terms of remembering the month or the days of the week, I know the kids enjoy taking turns adding things to the calendar. Here's a picture of the calendar we'll use at my house.

Year, month, date, letter of the week, season and weather.
The seven pockets at the bottom are for each day of the week.
Today we took turns putting the "today," "tomorrow" and
"yesterday" sticks in the appropriate pockets.

I was so tempted to address today's date in more detail with the kids. September 11 was such a tragic but important part of our history. I was living in New York 11 years ago and each year on September 11 I can go right back there in my memory. Ultimately, I decided it was too much to tackle with the kids at this age, but I'd be curious to hear from people who successfully found ways to talk about events like September 11 with their young children.

Moving on.

We did a full review of the creation story with the felt board today. The kids took turns applying all seven days. Here's the end result. Those bears are dangerously close to the children, if you ask me.

We're on to number two this week. After reading My Two Book we sang and acted out "One, two buckle my shoe." The kids LOVE this one so much I'm going to find a few more ways to incorporate it into the lesson this week. We also sang and signed "O Be Careful."

"O be careful little ears what you hear" 

Apple craft
We didn't get to the story of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit today (we'll tackle that Thursday) but we started our apple craft today anyway. This will be a two-day project that will look like this:

Notice how you can't see the worm from one side? Once we cover the story of Adam and Eve we'll discuss how we may only see an apple, but God sometimes sees more than our eyes can (the wormy side) and he knows what is best for us.

Materials:

• foam balls
• green construction paper
• large craft sticks
• red and green tempera paint
• pipe cleaners, cut in half
• google eyes

I cut the pipe cleaners in half and hot glued on the eyes in advance to expedite the process for the kids. Then I stuck the craft sticks through the bottom of the foam ball and stabbed a hole through one side for the worm (I used a kabob stick to create the hole). 

We painted and cut leaves today and we'll finish up on Thursday.

I stuck the sticks into balls of modeling clay to keep them in place while the kids painted.

Letter Stations
We introduced the first letter this week. Most of the kids know the letter "A" by sight, so I brought in some tactile stations to move beyond identification. We had three stations:

Tracing in salt

I attempted to help guide the tracing with the dots and lines (start at the green dot, follow the line and stop at the red dot).

Building the letter "A" 

Foam sticks with self-stick Velco tabs (I use these at home with the shape cards (pictured)).

Tracing

I got the printables online here and put them inside wipeable pouches I found in the Target dollar bins!

The dry erase pouches were by far the most popular and I was impressed by how well the kids did with this one, particularly Annabelle and Eisley.

I was interested in how differently the kids chose to build their letters. Eisley's "A," for example, wasn't how I demonstrated but was an "A" nonetheless. I think with a little more practice this exercise could be great at helping the kids learn letters, shapes and numbers.

The salt tracing went well, but I think if I were to do this again I'd make it in a larger box and include tracing tools. It could also be fun to dye the salt with food coloring.

Snack

I love that "snack" has become a core part of our curriculum. This week we had apple cake. This was the easiest thing I've ever made. Here's the directions:

1. Cut up two apples. Put them in a casserole dish. 
2. Pour some dry yellow cake mix on top.  
3. Slap some butter pads on top. 
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

For real. Here's the link to the source.

Apple cake with ice cream.

Overall, I think today went well. We tested out keeping school and play separate: "big" kids were in the kitchen to do school and the little kids stayed in the playroom. I think it made teaching a little easier, but it was a bit of a struggle keeping the big kids away from the toys. I'm not sure there's a great solution to managing our brood of mixed ages other than to lower expectations and let kids participate when and where they want to. 

We're still missing the Burden's. I'm hoping they're healthy enough on Thursday to join us!