Emotions Part 2

This lesson is supposed to correlate with their Halloween Party and since I'm not ready to go into detail about Halloween we didn't do the witch art project or the party which was the bulk of the lesson.



We had a short lesson reviewing what different emotions we can have. Then I told a story about Josh's Feelings. The story was about all the different emotions that we went through before and during the Halloween Party at Joy School. Hailey love stories but these concepts of understand what she is feeling is above her.



Then we finished with a quick visit from a puppet to talk about how everyone has different feelings and it's okay to feel however they feel.



Tomorrow we are going into the feeling of anger and what to do about it. I'm interested in how Hailey will use this. The one thing I really like about Joy School is that these concepts are about of daily life and are easy to bring them up again throughout the day. So, for the rest of the day, I tried to point out to Hailey when she was acting frustrated or angry. I asked her how she was feeling and generally she answered "I don't know."

Preschool: J for Jellyfish

I was a little more prepared today then I was on Monday. We started with Jellyfish for J. I couldn't find any books I likes about jellyfish so I'm not sure if the kids know what I jellyfish is but they enjoyed this craft.

I folded a handful of coffee filters together and stapled them closed for the body. Then I stapled pieces of paper towel to act as the tentacles. Then with eye droppers and food colors they decorated their jellyfishes.

This had a really cool tie-dye effect to it and they would have gone on for a long time doing this but the filters could only get so wet.

While they dried, we read "My 'j' Sound Box" by Jane Belk Moncure. Hailey really likes these books. Then we did nursery rhymes; "Jack and Jill" and "Jack be Nimble".

I got some books that had jellybeans in it but didn't think the story line so we just jumped into the next craft. They glued jellybeans onto their letter J's.

Again, I knew Robert would only be interested in eating them so here's a cute picture to prove he was there.

After they glued their jellybeans, everyone got a handful to eat. Robert kept wanting more and more and was very cranky that I wouldn't get him any. I was very ready for his nap time.

Emotions, Honesty, and Pumpkins

Today we started Unit 3A: Joy of Realness, Honesty and Candor. This is also the time in the lessons where doing things ahead of schedule is tough. These lessons are supposed to be done around Halloween so there is Halloween activities integrated into them. I'm going to be skipping over unit 4 and put it at the end because it is all about Christmas.

So, this lesson starts with pictures of different facial expressions and scenarios to each one. We talked about what makes us angry, happy, scared, excited, and surprised. Then we sang "I've Got Joy". Hailey loves this song and one day I will record her singing it because it is so cute. Surprisingly this song also helps me relax more after I sing it. I think it has something to do with acting like your happy will eventually make you feel happy.

Then we talked about facial expressions with a pumpkin and learned a little song about how to make a jack-o-lantern. (In this lesson, they have them make real jack-o-lanterns from real pumpkins. I'm not sure if I'm even ready to let Luc do that on his own. When pumpkins do start showing up, we'll just paint them instead.)

After that, I read a story "Isabel's Little Lie." Luc is defiantly old enough to understand what a lie is but Hailey doesn't really get it. In the introduction package it talked about how we aren't teaching the children honesty but trying to preserve what they naturally do. It's from adults that they learn to lie mainly out of fear.

So, to finish off, I let them glue on faces to make paper jack-o-lanterns.
Luc wanted to cut out his all by himself. He did a great job. The best I've seen yet. It had big problems with his mouth but other then that he stayed in the lines.

Hailey did the gluing and pasting all by herself. (When we first started Joy School, Hailey wanted a lot of unnecessary help so I'm glad she's over that.)

Also, this is the best I've seen Hailey do by herself. The eyes, nose, and mouth are facing the correct way and are lined up nicely. This hardly happens. (I helped with the stem and pointed out which one was the nose, but that was it.) I'm very proud of both of them.

Preschool: I for Ice Cream

So I went to the library an hour before to get books about ice cream and couldn't find any. The computer said two were checked in but the early reader section is very unorganized and wasn't there. However, I did find "My 'i' Sound Box" by Jane Belk Moncure and a book about Iggy the Iguana wanting to ice skate. I couldn't believe how many "i" words they there able to work into their stories.

Then they were supposed to turn their letter i's into ice cream cones which is an idea from www.notimeforflashcards.com

Then we finished off preschool with bowls of ice cream. Neither Hannah nor Audrey really wanted their ice cream so Hailey ate their small portions in addition to hers.

Littering

In this lesson, we talked about taking care of the earth. We read a story about a Martian whose world was made out of purple plastic since they didn’t take care of their original world. I think this concept went over Hailey’s head.

Then we talked about littering. I previously mentioned this to them as we were on our nature walk. Luc was the one to point out trash on our walk, so we talked about how it doesn't belong and that it makes the earth look ugly.
We first painted pretty pictures of nature using water colors.

Then we put trash on it to show them the effects of littering.

To finish up, we went outside to clean up the trash. The kids were very excited about this. We had a lot of trash to pick up from just our building. The amount of trash we have outside has been bothering me lately. I few days before this, I was outside picking up all the trash I could find in front of my building. I was surprised how much was there in just a short amount of time.

The worst part came when we threw away our trash bag in the dumpster. We found that area around the dumpster filled with trash. Luc and Hailey were appalled and wanted to clean up. Yeah, they got the point! However, since the dumpster is big, I had to do most of the picking up. After putting in two split garage bags, we stopped, and left the diapers and spilled food. It was gross. I made everyone wash the hands after that.

Now whenever we go outside, we make sure we personally do not leave any trash out.

Animals

Hailey made a cute hat and decorated the letter H with hearts for preschool at Audrey’s. She loves her hat.
For Joy School, the color of the day was White. *Side note: I think the color of the day is pointless because it doesn’t fit well with the rest of the lesson*

The real focus of the lesson was on animals since they are a part of nature. We did a riddle game with flannel board pictures to introduce animals. The last animal we had was a bird. From there we talked about how birds migrate and that it’s hard finding food in the winter. So, we made bird feeders out of pine cones to help them out. The kids enjoyed this.

They found their own pine cone and put peanut butter on it themselves (I helped after they tried). Then they rolled it in sunflower seeds. Hanging them up was a little tricky and messy. The yarn kept slipping off.

Here's Luc showing his off.

Chloe took our picture by our pine cones in the tree.

After that we talked about what animals give us and learned a silly song “Oh Cow, Oh Cow.” This song and activity used a lot of pictures. I doubt many kids from Hailey's generation will know what a flannel board is so here's a picture of ours.

Then we finished off the day with frosted animal crackers.

Seasons and Seeds

Again, I was off my game and didn’t have Joy School on Monday but will have it on Friday. This might end up being a permanent thing but I’m not sure. The main point is that I do it 4 times a week. Also, for this day I didn’t take any pictures. So here’s how the lesson went for us.

The color of the day is Orange, so we read a poem out of “Hailstones and Halibut Bones”. Then we learned the song called “The Earth is Amazing”. It talks about how magical things happen in nature that we don’t understand; like caterpillars turning into butterflies. Luc was being difficult and kept repeating that he knew everything and the answer was so easy. So we moved on quickly.

Then we talked about apple tree and how the change with the different seasons using flannel board pictures. Then we had homemade applesauce. The kids were supposed to help me mix it but that didn’t happen. After the apples are cooked, we’re supposed to be able to smash them with a potato masher (which I didn’t have) so I tried a hand mixer (which didn’t work). So I used the Magic Bullet which only took a few seconds, so the kids couldn’t help. Once it cooled down, Luc liked his but Hailey didn’t eat much of it.

Then we did the finger play “Way Up High in the Apple Tree.” I showed them the seeds from the apples and Luc wanted to plant an apple tree. So, we finished off the lesson with planting the apple seeds. Hailey liked that part. I filled up her cups first using the dirt from my pathetic potted plants and then she dumped it in the grass while I helped Luc fill his cup up. She was so proud of herself.

However, even though this lesson took the necessary time I set aside for it, there were problems with the lesson plan that didn’t work for me. First of all, it wanted us to make a seed collage which would have been fun but Wal-Mart doesn’t sell seeds in September. So, I need to get those in the summer. Then along with that, they did have an activity to plant some seeds but since there were no seeds I was going to skip this part. I really didn’t want them to plant a tree and this is the wrong season. We’ll see how long the seeds last in their little Dickie cups. So this lesson had a lot of things to it that we weren’t able to do.

Nature Walk

On Friday, we had Joy School. We sang a song "The Earth is Mine" and then read about the color Green from "Hailstones and Halibut Bones". Then we got to experience nature with our 4 senses (we didn't eat anything). There's a little trail leading to the road by our mailbox. This walk took us 20 minutes.

They had their nature viewers to focus on things. Also we had little bags to collect different plants and bring them back.

The kids ended up getting involved and pointing things out of their own. On the normal recommended schedule that Joy School sets up, this lesson would have been October 1st. By the times it is getting chilly for us and most of the wild flowers are dieing so I'm glad we did this early.

They collected sunflowers, leaves from different bushes, and many different colored flowers. Then they glued them on a paper for a collage.

Hailey really enjoyed this activity. It was a big hit.

Here is my collection so you can see the different plants we got.

What is Nature? 1

For Joy School we started a new Joy today: The Joy of the Earth. So, today is just an introduction to the concept of nature. Also, they are having us tie in the five senses from the last unit since that's what we use to experience nature.

I read a story and a poem about the color brown. Then I had flannel pictures of things in nature and a riddle for Luc and Hailey to guess what the picture is.

Finally, we made our nature viewers out of empty paper towel rolls.
The drew picture of nature (Hailey drew a sun and Luc drew a tree) and we wrapped the paper towel with it.

On Friday, we are going to have a nature walk with our nature viewers for Joy School.

Side Note: It's been a crazy week with potty training Hailey and I'm watching two more kids in the morning so we are only doing Joy School twice this week.

Preschool: F for Fish

We didn't have Joy School Monday or Tuesday. So, here we are on Wednesday, having preschool again. At the beginning I really focused on the Alphabet. We sang the ABC song with www.starfall.com . Their version includes the letter's sound and a object that goes with it. Since Hailey was the only one familiar with it, she did the actions with me.

Then we went fishing for the letters. I don't have a strong enough magnet to use the fishing pole, so I had the kids go one by one and pick up a fish that has a letter on it.

Hailey and Audrey were able to identify most of the letters they picked up. Hannah and Robert also had a lot of fun but didn't get the concept.

Then I read "One Fish, Two Fish" by Dr. Suess (but only the first half, the rest of the book isn't about fish). Then we did two songs about fish.

After that, they glued fishies on their "Fs".

Hailey did a great job and had them lined up within the F.

Since I knew Robert would only eat them, I didn't give him the option to use glue.

Surprisingly, I still had 30 minutes left so we played with play dough.

Preschool: E for Egg

Hannah is Audrey's neighbor who is joining us now. This is the first time she came to my house. She's a very sweet girl who is generally happy.

Here is everyone sitting on the couch ready for Preschool. We read "An Extraordinary Egg" by Leo Lionni.
Then we dyed eggs. (I dyed the eggs and the kids picked the color) Audrey helped since she was the closest to the colors and she is the oldest.

Then since I had so much time left over, I quickly stencilled an E on each piece of paper.

Audrey wrote an E within the stencil which impressed me.

Robert and Hannah just randomly colored. Robert went crazy with the marker.

Here are their eggs. I put their first letter on the eggs before they were dipped.

Body Care 2

This lesson is a continuation of how to care for our bodies. We had a lot of discussion time which is hard for Luc and makes it a little less interesting for me also.

For their craft, they made cereal necklaces since cereal is a healthy choice for food.
They enjoyed this and took forever on it.

Eventually, I gave them their last handfuls and told them that's all they have to finish off their necklaces with.

Them to finish up this lesson, I drew a height chart with pencil on the wall to measure everyone. Chloe joined us by this time. Hailey is 35 1/2 inches tall.

Then we weighed everyone on the wii fit. Hailey only weighs 24lbs. I think for a later lesson, we are going back to the height chart to compare how they grow.

Body Care 1

First of all, I want to apologize for the pictures. My camera had something on the lens. I tried to clean it but it didn't work so I thought it might be scratched. After I picked out the new camera I wanted, Nathan tried cleaning it and it worked. So the pictures on the next couple of posts will be fuzzy but it's fixed now for future use.

Audrey had preschool with Audrey. They talked about the letter D and went on a treasure hunt. Hailey enjoyed this activity and talked about finding the items. They also made a cute duck out of the letter D.
For Joy School, we talked about how we can take care of our bodies. We used a lot of felt pictures. I had pictures of foods that Hailey and Luc could categorize into what are healthy foods and what are sometimes foods.

I also had them follow me around and do some exercising. So now whenever Hailey sees someone running outside we talk about how they are exercising and how it's good for their bodies.

At the end, I did a puppet show where the boy made unhealthy choices and the girl made healthy choices. I still feel very silly doing puppet shows but the kids enjoyed it. Luc went around later with the girl puppet saying something about how she takes good care of her body.

Here is the website for Joy School: http://www.valuesparenting.com/joyschool/ .

Five Senses 2

After lunch, while I'm making Jello for Joy School, Luc comes up to me and says "If we are talking about our bodies again in Joy School, I don't want to join." I told him that it was okay with me but I was still going to do it with Hailey. Luc looks at me and says "fine but I will still have Jello!" Ha! That's the catch, I explained, the jello is for Joy School. When Joy School started, Luc was definitely there and involved.

Tuesday was the second part of the senses discussion. I had flannel board cut outs of the senses and we played a game to guess what the missing sense was. Generally, Luc is more outspoken and quicker so Hailey surprised me a couple of times when she answered correctly before Luc.

We focused on our sense of touch. I had ice cold water in one cup, hot water in another, a piece of sandpaper, the prickly weed from outside, flannel, a rock, and glue that we supposed to be sticky.
Then they helped me make pudding and was able to paint with it.

Luc was mostly busy with eating it.

Then I had paper bags with different items for them to use their senses to guess what it was. Since Luc saw the jello early, he kept saying Jello for each bag. I got annoyed with that quickly.

Finally, to end the day, they got to cut out shapes in the jello and eat it with their hands while I read a book. Hailey wanted snowmen and Luc wanted stars.

It was a fun lesson and I had almost everything already expect for the second box of Jello of a single flavor.