Kindergarten: Week 6

Not much happened at Kindergarten this week.

This is the activity that I did with the kids a while back. Hailey told us how this ball is magical and change change into anything. The red lines coming down is rain.

She wrote on this one "I spy my lost candy."

Wednesday Preschool: Leaves

I really struggled with figuring out what to do with this lesson, then the morning of it finally clicked. We read a book about Fall Colors (which half the kids lost interest in). Then they did a tracing worksheet to get the leaf into the pile.

Then they could color the leaves I traced on butcher paper and glue on pine cones, needles, and sticks.  I wanted them to have opportunities to work on a project together instead of constantly doing their own thing. 

We also had a fall sensory bin that the kids really enjoyed.  It had black beans, small glittery leaves, and bigger fake leaves.  After the emptied the bin, we restarted the activity 4 or 5 times.

When they finally got tried of that, I gave everyone baggies to take outside and fill up with leaves, sticks, berries, whatever "nature" thing they could find.  By that time the parents were coming to pick them up.  This is the first lesson that I've done that has actually filled up the whole hour.

Here are Robert's papers.

This is Hannah's paper. She's now getting into coloring.

Monday Preschool: Acorns

I first read "White Rabbit's Color Book" by Alan Baker to introduce the color brown to the kids. This little rabbit takes turns bathing in different color paint cans. So in each baggie, I started with white shaving cream (for the bunny) then added the color that she dips into. The kids helped me mix them up. We had fun and the brown bag at the end, exploded because it had too much air when we squeezed it.

Then we talked about what other animals are brown.  This was a little tricky for the kids but they can up with a few.  Outside the window, a squirrel was climbing the tree, which was perfect timing since I wanted to talk more about squirrels.  I taught them the song "Brown Squirrel", then we sang it while we played feed the squirrel.Robert didn't want to play. Jenna went first and her towel slipped so she was able to do it perfectly.

 Chelsie did great because she felt where Jenna's acorn was and just put hers on top.

 Here's Edmund.

 Hannah told me that she wanted to do it too by going up to the wall and spinning in a circle.  She didn't really like the towel.  I love how observant and smart she is.  I think we're going to be in trouble when she can actually talk and really tell us how things are.

After that, I gave them mini-books about the color brown for them to color.

 They also got their own squirrels.

 Here's our group squirrel.

Here is Robert's papers he colored.

Kindergarten: Week 5

Hailey had Thursday and Friday off, so they didn't bring home a lot of papers this week.  It was kind of strange having Hailey home in the morning again.  I have gotten used to her being gone but I think Robert enjoyed having his playmate home.

Hailey practice writing her numbers.

All of Hailey's numbers are written the correct way. It's nice to see the improvement in such a short time, thanks to her teacher since we haven't worked on numbers at home much.

Preschool Wednesday: Apple Day

Since Hailey was having an apple day, I decided to also have Apple Day for Preschool. Ironically, they were happening at the exact same time which is why I don't have any action shots of preschool since I gave the camera to Nathan.

First we read Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Suess.  Then I printed a picture of each kid with their name(street) sign. Then those who could (Edmund and Chelsie), cut out their apples to glue unto of their heads.. Jenna and Robert loved to play with the glue which went everywhere on their papers.  Also, Chelsie wrote her name by copying the letters on her sign. It seems like a big step to me compared to the first day of preschool.

I also had an A letter worksheet for them and then an apple book that they stamped on the apples to.

We finished our Apple Day with Carmel covered apples with mini chocolate chips on top. 

I think the kids enjoyed the lesson today (especially the treat part).

All print out came from http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/2011/10/a-is-for-apples-massive-packet.html

Grandparent's Apple Day (kindergarten)

We got a note tells us that Wednesday was Grandparent's Apple Tasting Day.  That sounded like a lot of fun, however, Hailey's closest grandparent is still four hours away.  It said that Hailey could bring a special relative instead and even though I love to do everything with her, I thought that if Nate was available this would be the best time for him to be involved too.

Luckily, he has a very flexible schedule this semester and was able to go.  First, they needed to work together to make an apple treat.  We are so lucky to have two apple trees in our backyard, so Nate and the kids picked apples together.

Hailey washed the apples while I peeled them and Nathan chopped them.

Cooking with daddy is a very rare thing so all the kids got in on the action.  They made an apple cake with carmel topping.

Nathan went to the school, and the first thing they did was have the kids sing two songs. Hailey is in front close to the lady with the purple shirt.

Then  they got to eat the yummy treats.

There are four K1 classes and each classroom had a craft for the kids and special guests to work on.

It was a great experience for them both of them.  Hailey was very happy to have daddy there.