Week 5: Cain and Abel and learning about sacrifice

This week was odd - as Lindsay's post reflects, we were dealing with sickness and doctor's appointments which threw our week for a loop. In fact, the Rericha sickness is STILL throwing our household for a loop...day five of our first cold of the season. And it's a doozie. 

This week the 4s learned about the story of Cain and Abel, which is a somewhat difficult story to tell. Despite trying to focus on how the story teaches us to treat our siblings well and to be willing to make sacrifices the kids were FASCINATED with all the parts of the story I'd have rather glossed over.

Let's just hope they take some of the positives from the story as well. You know, as opposed to the killing your brother part. 

"X" was our letter of the week, so in addition to reading "My X, Y, Z" book we made "Xs" out of pie crust, adding butter, cinnamon and sugar. 

Too much sugar? Nah. 

Cheers! I have to admit, I ate most of the "X" treats myself...

We learned about emotions this week. The kids colored in their emotion faces worksheet, I cut them out and they helped me glue them to sticks. 

 After the emotion heads were dry I read "Harry the Dirty Dog" and asked the kids to show me the emotion corresponding with what the character was going through on each page.

Sad...

...Happy! 

After reading the book we headed outside to gather some "dirt" to make our Harry the Dirty dogs. Once back inside, we completed our clean and dirty dogs. 

Smearing in the mud.

 We had a little cutting practice. The kids got about half-way through the spiral snake cutting exercise before their hands got tired. This is one we'll need to continue working on throughout the school year. 

Lastly, we made "Giving Banks." I washed out empty jam and peanut butter jars, covered them with a strip of patterned contact paper and let the kids decorate with stickers. We talked about tithing and making sacrifices. Between now and Christmas, I would like to work with Jack to start earning and saving money that he can use to buy a gift or make a donation for someone in need.

By Day 2, my family was a snotty mess (oh hey, cold and flu season!) and several other folks were dealing with a stomach bug. So we cut our losses and held school at the park. We didn't get nearly as much accomplished, but the weather was perfect and the fresh air made it feel a little less like a petri dish of germ swapping. 

We played an amazing game called "Tooty Ta." I challenge you to do this without laughing. Here is video (unfortunately, not of our group: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x124uik_a-tooty-ta-tootey-ta-kids-dancing-music-by-eflashapps_music) 

We practiced copying shapes. This was a good exercise for the kids. It forced them to work right-to-left, a good practice as we start reading, and to challenge their drawing skills. 

After reading "Harry the Dirty Dog" again we played "find the scrubbing brush" using spatial clues. The kids had a good time with this one.

We ended the day with some parachute fun. 

XO, Kelda

Week 4 with the 2s: Review week

It is officially one month into our 2013/14 school year. Review week with the 2s was a little more challenging to program for - I think I need to spend some quality time on Pinterest to find some good bonus projects for the little guys. 

Regardless, the kids did great this week and we also had fun playing outside (not pictured :)) in the now-cool weather. 

XO, Kelda

Building with blocks

My Gus needs a haircut!

Enjoying some "pink ink" milk (strawberries and almond milk) and pretzels while we read "One Fish, Two Fish"

Painting red fish, blue fish

2's roll into week 3

2's roll into Week 3!

So I have decided that the 2 year olds are a bit of a challenge. But we had great success this week. Very little hitting or fighting! Woohoo! We always begin with a prayer, calendar time, and the Bible story. However, you won't see any pictures of those, because I was just trying to keep their attention. The Bible Story was about God creating the sun, moon, and stars on the 4th day of creation.

The book of the week is a classic, One Fish Two Fish, which they actually sat through most of, thanks to a delicious snack of chocolate and peanut butter! The color of the week is Yellow!

                                          

 Doc wanted more eyeballs!

Doc and Juliette took glue and painted their fishing plate, then added yellow tissue paper.

Juliette just wanted to paint the glue on her plate.




Puzzle time turned out great. Gus, Doc and Juliette did a great job on task. It helped to work with one child at a time, so that way they could stay focused and complete a puzzle. This activity really helped with their fine motor skills, being able to turn and adjust the puzzle piece to get it just right.

Doc did a great job matching up the animals.

This magnetic puzzle has so many possibilities. 

Doc did a great job helping Gus out. 

  

Jules didn't even want help from me, girls!

The next activity was a Melissa & Doug counting, stacking, color set. The kids really liked this one. They enjoyed placing the objects on the sticks and watching them fall. Doc built a huge tower, and really enjoyed knocking it down. I liked watching them grab a certain shape and try to figure out how it would fit. We worked on shapes and colors during this activity. It kept their attention for more than 5 minutes, yes we will probably be doing this one again! 

 

Look at Gus putting the different shapes and colors on! 

I love this picture. 

Jules is concentrating on matching up the pieces, 

while you can see Doc rolling around in the background. 

Awww, yes, the 2's are fun! 

 Play dough is always fun! This kept their attention for a while, until Gus started to eat it. Sorry Kelda, he may have pink poop! They did a great job making different shapes and using different tools. Another great fine motor skill, especially using the scissors to cut the play dough. Doc did a great job cutting different shapes out, but he especially loved smashing them!

Now we come to the magical time of the day. Two children were screaming while I am trying to paint Doc's hand for a sunburst. He was very cooperative, but needless to say, I was a "little yellow" to leave him like that. So only a few pictures were taken during this lovely time. I painted their hands and then had them place their hand down, moving the paper around each time, to make a sun. They also glued on the moon and stars for the 4th day of creation. 

2 out of 3 aint bad! And that's a wrap! 

 

Week 3 with the 4's

I cannot believe the difference in these kids from last year! I had so much fun doing school with them this week. It's like they turned into little PEOPLE over the summer. Last year was mostly about providing them with cool learning experiences amidst a great deal of crisis management. But this year, their attention spans are much longer, they are starting to think critically, and they can DO some really cool stuff without so much help or frustration. It's really exciting to see.

Day 1:

We started with the calendar. They all know the days of the week now (thanks to the nifty 7 Days song). We are still working on the months...

 

We read about Abraham and Sarah wanting a baby, and used the felt board to help tell the story...sorry I forgot to snap pics of that part.

 

 

Next we traced our tactile H and 4...

 

 

 

 

And we built 4's and H's out of sticks. This was HARD for them...we will have to keep this one in mind for later. The challenge is good for them!

 

 

 

Next we used our bodies to make an H and a 4. I had to laugh...the boys looked at me like I was nuts when I told them they had to figure our how to make an H on their own using their bodies. Addison (in her typical style) took charge and told them where to lay so they could make the letter. She is her mother's daughter :)

 

 

Next I got out the white boards and we practiced writing our names. This was more challenging than I expected it to be. The boys were pretty uninterested, and Addison practically melted down because hers wasn't PERFECT. She is such a perfectionist that she gets herself really worked up sometimes...we are working on it.

 

 

To work on our fine motor skills, I gave each child a piece of scratch-art paper. Addison LOVES this stuff so I figured it would be a good way to practice holding a pencil (stylus) and practice drawing shapes and letters.

A sun...

And a circle...

Noah made a lot of lines to see where the colors changed, and he wrote his name.

 

 

Then I got out our set of Cuisenaire Rods. I asked the kids to choose two colors and make a pattern.

 

Not sure why this picture won't flip...but Jack did a really good job with his pattern :)

 

 

 

 

Then we moved on to three colors. This was harder...

 

 

And then I asked to them to see what else they could make. Addison was working on an arrow...

 

 

Noah made a square.

 

Jack was kinda done with the blocks by this point :)

Then for some gross motor skills, I got out our EZ steppers. These were FUN! The kids did great stomping around the house, and taking turns. Addison needed a little reminder about what it means to be patient.

 

 

Day 2:

 

We started with our usual calendar and Bible story, and then I had the kids practice making H's and 4's using the sticks again, since it was so hard for them last time. It went much better today. Then we moved over to the coffee table where I had plates with all the letters in their names mixed up. I used a bit of that gummy tack stuff on the back of each plate, and the kids had to find the letters of their names, and put them in the right order on the wall. I modified the idea from something I say HERE on Pinterest...

Poor Addison's name is Looooong...

Next we got ready for snack. Only this time, the kids had to make snack themselves. It was a sorting/counting activity to make their own trail mix. Here's how I set it up...

Oh man...this one won't flip either...

Anyway, I wrote numbers 6-11 in the bottom of muffin tins. Then I put bowls of trail mix ingredients in the center of the table. The bowls were each labeled with a corresponding number. The kids had to find the bowl with a 6 and count 6 of that ingredient into their muffin tin with a 6 inside. They did a GREAT job concentrating and counting, but it was VERY apparent that they don't recognize numerals AT ALL. I think they have 1-5 down pretty well, but these numbers were a total mystery! At least we know what we need to work on!

 

 

Then I gave each child a zip-lock and they carefully put all their ingredients in the bag and gave it a good shake. They were VERY excited to eat this snack!

Just a side note: We have found that the kids LOVE having their snack during story time. So if you are having trouble getting your kids to sit through a story, this works great...even for our squirrely 2 year-olds!

After snack we worked our fine motor skills using wikki stix and some shape templates that I found HERE via Pinterest.

The kids had to use the Wikki Stix to outline the shapes on their paper. This was tricky for them...the boys lost interest pretty quickly, but I think it was good practice for them to figure out how to mold the sticks while trying to get it to stick to the paper. I will definitely use these for future lessons.

 

Finally, we did a little science experiment involving chromatography...that is the separation of colors. I found this experiment HERE via Pinterest...

To start, the kids drew a circle around the center of a coffee filter. The marker can't be washable or permanent...so it's got to be a plain old water based variety.

 

Next, we folded the filter in half twice to make a cone. Then we set the cone in a glass with a little water in the bottom. As the water travels through the marker line, the colors bleed and separate and you can see which individual colors were used to make the one we started with.

 

You can see Noah's black like turned into a variety of blues and purples. This was pretty cool!

 

The kids did a great job staying focused and following directions this week. Great job everyone!!