A Little of This, a Little of That

I've decided I like review weeks. At first I was intimidated to plan two mornings full of activities that would keep the kids engaged without a lot of help from the curriculum. But it turns out these are great weeks to do more hands-on stuff than we normally have time for. And the kids seemed to really enjoy it.

We started today with the calendar (they all know it's October, finally!) and we read the story of Moses crossing the red sea again. Then we moved right on to an activity to practice counting. I found this idea on Pinterest, and it proved to be very challenging for our kids...I think this is definitely one to come back to periodically.

I put a bunch of Duplo Blocks in a container in the center of the table, and each student got a paper with a graph of sorts on it.

The kids were instructed to build "towers" to represent each number on the paper.

 

 

Look at that focus!

 

Nice work Jack!

 

 

After some serious coaxing (it was apparently more fun to make one giant tower than to make a bunch of small ones), they all got it.

 

Then we moved on to a science experiment. I put a giant tub of water in the middle of the table, and passed around a container full of random objects. The kids had to choose an object and decide if it would sink or float. As they made their predictions, they dropped the item in the water.

 

Jack picked the apple first. Everyone was surprised that it floated!

 

 

Annabelle tried to sink her pom-pom.

 

 

It was so funny to watch them carefully place their items in the water as if trying to will them to float...especially the spoon and the rock!

 

Next we read "Little Blue Truck Leads the Way" while we had our snack...I thought it kind of went along with Moses leading his people out of Egypt...ok, it's a bit of a stretch!

 

Next we made some handprint trees as part of our secret ongoing project :)

 

 

 

 

Even CJ got in on this one!

 

It's a masterpiece!

 

 

To wrap up the morning, we played a letter review game on the back patio. I drew giant letters (capital and lowercase A-E) in circles with chalk. I gave each kiddo a bean bag, and they had to throw the bean bags into the correct circle as I called out letters. It took them a minute to get warmed up, but they soon got competitive!

 

 

 

Everyone stayed for lunch today (I love days like that!) so the kids and the moms got to hang out and socialize a bit after school was done. What a great morning!

 

 

See you next week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Has It REALLY Been Nine Weeks??

Time is zipping by. It's hard to believe we have been at this preschool thing for nine weeks already. I feel so unbelievbaly blessed to have a group of mommies and kiddos to "do school" with. It has made this journey SO fun. And I think the kids are really getting a lot out of it. The moms stay motivated, and each week the lessons are full of great learning opportunities for the kids. We are LUCKY!

So week 9 is a review week. I offered to plan this week's lessons so I could try out some of the cool ideas I've found on Pinterest!

We started by reviewing the story of Moses crossing the Red Sea. I read the story out of The Jesus Storybook Bible...this is my absolute FAVORITE kids Bible. The three year-olds were riveted. And the stories are longer than the usual kids Bibles I've seen...anyway, I digress. Check it out if you can.

Then I told the story again using the felt board.

 

We also sang our memory verse from last week (Philippians 4:19 to the tune of London Bridge). I think the kids are gonna need some more work on that one :)

 

After Bible time we sat in a circle to play "Pass the Letters". It works kind of like "Hot Potato". I put the capital and lowercase tactile letters we've worked on so far in a bag, and we passed the bag while singing the following song:

 

Pass the Letters

Tune: The Muffin Man

 

Oh, look who has the letter bag,

the letter bag, the letter bag.

Oh, look who has the letter bag,

Now please take a letter!

 

Whoever has the bag when the song stops takes out a letter and tells the group what letter it is, and whether it's capital or lowercase.

 

 

 

They did great once they started to get the concept of actually PASSING the bag! We did discover that lowercase "b's" and "d's" are very tricky :)

 

Next we played a little game using some dominoes. I pulled out all the dominoes in our set that contained numbers 0-5 (I didn't want to confuse them with too many dots). Each child got 4 dominoes in a bag. I asked them to look at their dominoes and listen as I called out a number. If they had a domino with the correct number of dots on it, they were to hold it up in the air. It worked pretty well...they difinitely had to concentrate!

 

 

 

 

I decided to throw in a little science today too. I made up some "experiment bags" for the kids. Each bag contained magnetic, and non-magnetic items. Then I gave each child a magnet and they had to decide which items would stick, and which ones would not. It was a hit!

 

 

 

 

 

We wrapped up the morning with a quick game of Colorama. We love this game! It's great for the 3-year old crowd because they don't get too frustrated. It's fast moving, and it was great for reviewing colors and shapes.

 

 

See you all Thursday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go, Go Joe!

Today we spent an extra long time talking about the story of Joseph and his coat. The kids really enjoyed putting the felt pieces up to help me tell the story. And they were GETTING IT. They were able to answer my questions well, and they seemed to understand how the story tied in with our memory verse (Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - Romans 12:21). YAY!

 

 

 

 

Addison remembered to tell us that Joseph's brothers threw him in a "dark tunnel" (ok...close enough :)

 

 

Apparently all Doc needs to be content is a baby car seat. Excellent.

 

Today we also read "My C Book". It's a tricky concept that "c" has two different sounds. I think Noah was feeling it...

We also read The Three Billy Goats Gruff. The kiddos seemed to enjoy the story...I tried to do a good "troll" voice :) I think the trick to the longer books is to feed them snack while we read. Today we had sugar cookies with rainbow sprinkles in honor of Joseph's coat of many colors. They were egg-free so Eisley could have one too. Here's the recipe I used:

 

 

 

Egg-Free Sugar Cookies

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup flour

sprinkles or colored sugar

milk for brushing on top

 

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder.

Mix in flour.

It will be crumbly...that's ok.

Form into small balls and gently flatten out. Place on a cookie sheet.

Use a pastry brush and paint some milk on the top of each cookie.

Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles.

Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

 

 

 

Unfortunately we didn't get any action shots of the craft today. We made colorful coats like the one Joseph wore...ours were made of Trder Joe's bags. This is a two day project since we couldn't paint the back until the front dried.

 

Then the kiddos practiced matching the letters of their names. Eisley is a whiz!

 

 

 

Poor Addison has a LONG name!

 

To wrap up school time, we reviewed the letters and numbers we've learned to far by playing a modified version of "Four Corners". I hung bright signs all over the house with a letter or number on each one. As I called out a leetter or number the kids ran to stand by the right sign. This was a huge hit. I think I may leave the signs up for a bit...Addison has been asking to play again and again.

 

Have a great weekend!! See everyone Monday at Annabelle's house!