Week 9 with the 4's: Review and Some Haloween Fun

Due to more illness, I only had the 4's for one day this week (the sick one this time was ME!) But we did lots of fun activities as part of our review week. We started with calendar time and we spent a lot of time focusing on the numbers in the 20's...counting, and identifying numbers that high is still a bit challenging. We also read the story of the Generous Widow (Mark 12:41-44) since this is a story we didn't get to in earlier weeks. We talked a lot about what it means to be generous. And the kids were able to retell the story to the other moms later, which was great to see.

We read The Day Jimmy Boa Ate the Wash, and Charming Opal. And we enjoyed some Halloween-y snacks.

 

We also did a letter hunt. I placed some note cards with all the letters we've talked about so far this year on them. Then I gave the kids scissors and magazines and they had to find the letters in the magazines, cut them out and glue them to the cards.

 

Next we did some name-writing practice. They wrote their first and last names.

 

Nice work, Jack!

To get us in the mood for Halloween, we used candy corns to practice sorting into number groups. I gave the kids sticky notes with the numbers 1-5 written on them. They had to use tweezers to put the candy into piles of the correct number...and they couldn't use their fingers at all! This was a good workout for those little hand muscles.

 

Then we used pattern blocks to work on visual perception skills. I made a shape out of a few blocks, and asked the kids to copy me and make the same shape with their blocks. Noah was GREAT at this. He got it right away and was able to help the others.

We also had some free time making pictures out of these blocks. I have some picture cards that we will use with this set soon...Addison loves these blocks so much, she asks to "do puzzles" often.

 

We worked on balance by walking on the garden hose...

 

And for the grand finale of review week, we played with catapults! I made these out of sticks, plastic spoons, and rubber bands I found the basic instructions here. We launched candy corns, candy pumpkins, and pom-poms. We had contests to see who could shoot the farthest, and which projectile flew the best. We all agreed the pom-poms were best!

Look at the anticipation!

 

Great work kiddos!

 

Week 8 with the 4s: Forgiveness and flossing

KELDA:
Our four-year-olds had a great week with the story of Joseph and his brothers (...and his Technicolor dream coat)serving as the basis for our lessons. 

We talked about forgiveness, something that all the kids are forced to practice nearly every day, but a character trait most of us had not sat down and discussed. During circle time we talked about things we had done that weren't nice, things that we would hope to be forgiven for. Its a somewhat abstract concept, but through a series of activities and lots of discussion, it was a good way to introduce forgiveness to the kids. 

We watched a short movie on Joseph and his brothers which was helpful to the kids, as even the kid version of this story is a bit long-winded

During snacks, we read "Charming Opal," about a little pig that loses her tooth

Apple slices, mini marshmallows and peanut-butter teeth

After snack, we "painted" with a tooth brush

Then we built mouths using pink Play-Doh and garbanzo beans (ten on top, ten on the bottom

The kids loved this obstacle course, which required them to finish a series of challenges, including bringing me specific items and flashcards, with no clues or reminders along the way. I gave them the cues at the beginning of the course, and they had to remember as they went through.

On day two, the kids acted out the story of Joseph and his brothers. Here Noah is "dad," and Addison is Joseph.

Sweet coat, Joseph

Jack is the brothers, taking away the coat...

...and putting Joseph in a hole. 

Bravo!

Next, we talked about good dental habits, and sorted out food into "good for teeth" and "bad for teeth" categories.

I didn't capture this in action, but the kids had fun stamping our their last names with cookie cutters. Still working on putting the letters in the correct order on their own.

Doing both letter and number connect-a-dots 

Back to the forgiveness theme, we had the kids draw a time they did something unkind that they wished to be forgiven for. Jack drew a picture of him shoving Gus. 

Noah drew a picture of him hitting Jules.

Addison drew a picture of her taking something from Doc. 

Then we washed our hands with the soap, discussing how forgiving and being forgiven helps wash away the unkind things we have done.

As always, it was a great, productive week with the 4s. I loved this lesson in forgiveness, and love that this curriculum helps us talk to our kids about these important values in such a kid-friendly way.