All About Me: Part II

Today we had cloudy, rainy weather. The kids were much more relaxed and stayed on their mats most of circle time! We read the silly book The Mixed Up Chameleon. The kids thought the chameleon was sure silly, wanting to be every animal it met. The kids then presented their show and tell bags.

Isaac: ewok dressed in a yellow dress (Belle), his rapunzel hair, a St Louis jersey, and 2 Lego guys
Max: a hat, Book of Mormon, Where the Wild Things Are, sibling photo, and Ironman toy
Jared: a Thomas Train, a dinosaur, a lego car, and a fruit snack
RJ: a screw driver, blue shovel, oreos, and Megamind movie
Kaylee: a cat/dog calendar, a National Geographic magazine
Everett: monkey binky, a fruit snack, color green crayon, and a power ranger

The kids enjoyed using glue sticks to stick parts of a body back together, like a puzzle. Only one glue stick got ruined! That is awesome. Kaylee, Everett, and RJ glued their puzzles perfectly. Each child could name and find the different parts of a body.

We were so pleased to get to know our friends a little bit more! We had a delicious dolphin snack. The dolphins inspired us to get wet with our next activity. Each kid got a naked barbie to clean up. I would name a body part and the kids would clean that part with a tiny sponge or a toothbrush. Pretty soon we had a barbie bathing party going on. The hair was the most fun to clean. Kaylee wanted to wash her barbie for a long time. It was great fun.

We ended the day playing a Dr Seuss game called "I Can Do That!" It was a fun game! Each child picked 3 cards put them in order. Each card had a direction on it to follow. We felt awesome following the directions.

All About Me

Hip, hip hooray! Come with us to JOY SCHOOL today!! We are so excited to start a new year with six little balls of energy. Joining us this year are: RJ, Jared, Kaylee, Isaac, Everett, and Max.

We kicked off our year at Everett’s home. Our theme was “All About Me.” Circle time was a little rambunctious. We will work on learning how to sit on our mats for the next little while. We started off reciting the Pledge of Allegience. We read two books, “Molly Lou Melon” and “Just the Way You Are.” We played a game putting stickers on our different body parts and sang Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.

For snack we chomped on grape caterpillars. They were squirty and delicious. Since everyone has teeth and used them on snacks we learned how to brush our teeth. We used egg cartons cut into strips as our teeth. First we got our teeth dirty with markers. Then the kids brushed off the gross germs with toothpaste and a brush. It was a messy and fun activity.

After snack we worked on a book describing each child. The kids loved choosing markers to use and coloring the booklet pages. RJ is very particular and did a very neat job. That was our very first day of preschool!

Apple Countdown

 We started with a book about a class that went on a field trip to an apple orchard. They counted down their adventures from 20 to 1. The kids had fun remembering all the field trips they've been on.

 We tried to guess how much an apple weighs. I let them hold a 16 ounce bag of beans and they decided that the apple was less than the beans. They also guessed which weighed more, an apple or a pear. They were pretty close to the same.

 I cut the apple in half and had them draw what they saw. They all did a great job! Then we guessed how many seeds were inside. We found only 7 seeds.

 While I sliced the apple for eating, the kids worked on a dot-to-dot. Numbers 1 - 10 were easy but 13, 14, and 15 were a little tricky to recognize.

 Since Sunday will be Mother's Day, we had to make something for our wonderful moms!

More or Less

We continued learning about estimating and more or less by reading a few books by Anne Matzke.

 We learned how to read and spell the little word "and" which is so useful. The kids had fun practicing their cutting and gluing skills. 

I gave each of the kids a small package of mini M&Ms and asked them to guess how many were inside. We were amazed when we counted 58! Then we sorted and graphed our M&Ms to see which color had the most and which had the least. It was easy to guess how many would fit in our tummies - ALL OF THEM!

 It was a beautiful day so we went outside for some more practice with numbers. (Will was glad for the chance to really use his sunglasses.) The kids each drew a number card from the stack and then found the number that was one more on my number line. Then they each drew a card from the 2nd stack to see where to move. The cards said things like 2 more, 1 less, 0 more, etc.

We even had time for a little game of hopscotch. There was some discussion about how their moms had taught them all a little different version of the game. In the end it was just fun to see how far they could hop on one foot. Amelia didn't think she could go very far but Bryn showed her how easy it was. 

 

We were missing Stella. What a fun bunch of kids!

Estimation

 This week we learned about estimating and more or less. The kids were excited to learn another big word. (Estimation kind of sounds like transportation but means something very different.) They all agreed that estimating was easy.

We compared containers of blocks and guessed how many were in each. Then we guessed if the container would hold more or less cars. We tried it with marshmallows in a bowl as well. The kids were amazed that the small bowl held 42 little marshmallows. 

I gave them each a toy car and asked how many they had. They all knew that was one. Easy! Then we practiced giving Bryn one more car until she had all five. Next we practiced one less as she returned the cars. The kids were thrilled when I told them they were doing math!

We did a worksheet to identify which group had more. Lily announced that it was easy because if you didn't know you could just count. These kids are good counters!

We also estimated how many marshmallow shapes we could find in one cup of Lucky Charms. The kids wrote their guess for each shape on their chart. (Writing numbers is a little tricky.) Next, they dumped their cereal on the table and sorted all their shapes. Then they counted and wrote the actual number next to their guess. Some came pretty close. Others were hoping for a lot more marshmallows. We discovered that there aren't very many moon shapes but there are lots of shooting stars.

And then we guessed how many of those yummy marshmallows would fit into our tummies!

Party Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday morning Bryn and her family were still gone on vacation. Instead of learning at preschool we partied. Amelia and Ella had birthdays close together so we celebrated birthday style. The kids enjoyed playing with balloons hanging from Amelia's huge tree. We had some cake, ice cream, pink drink, and pizza rolls for lunch. Will won the game of stick the bow on Hello Kitty. He was gracious enough to let us use his camo bandanna. Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating with us.