Preschool: c is for comet

Since preschool on Tuesday was a little crazy, we did the lowercase c on another day. We read the book "When Halley came to Jackson". It's about Halley's Comet. Then we made our own comets. First we colored the comet's tail using yellow food color mixed with a little bit of water and dyed paper towels with eye droppers.
Then we traced the lowercase c with gold glitter.

We glued it on a black piece of paper and added glow is the dark form star stickers.

Here's how mine turned out.

Preschool: C is for Cat

We started a new nursery rhyme this week: Little Jack Horner.

Today, I had Kira and Gabe over again. When we started preschool only Robert and Kira wanted to join me. I was very excited that Robert wanted to do preschool.

So we went over the nursery rhyme and then read CopyCats out of the AlphaTales book. Instead of trying to turn the letter C into a Cat, we just make cats with paper plates and paint. I got the idea off of notimeforflashcards. When I started pulling out the paints, Gabe and Hailey decided to join us.
The finished product.

Hailey's is top left with Kira's next to hers. Gabe is bottom left with Robert next to his.

Preschool: B is for Bubble Bear

I watch Gabe and Kira on Tuesdays for almost two hours. We had preschool during their time here. But first, they wanted snacks.
Then we went over Humpty Dumpty. Kira and Gabe haven't done Humpty Dumpty before, so it was fun going over it. The main reason why my kids are familiar with nursery rhymes is because of story time at the library.

Then we read Bubble Bear out of the AlphaTales book. After that I wanted them to turn their capital B's into bears. Kira really wanted a bunny instead.

It ended up just having fun with glue.

Then to get everyone familiar with the lowercase b we turned them into boats.

Gabe loved gluing but the bottle was running out and he had a hard time with that. I love his facial expression.

Robert went crazy over gluing! It must be a boy thing.

So here is my example.

While we were doing this, I thought of another way to make a lowercase b with a baseball theme. I tried my hardest to get the ball to touch the bat to look like a b but it was too difficult. Anyways you get the idea.

Preschool: Big A, Little a

This is the first time doing a lesson with just Robert, so I'm still trying to figure out what he is ready and interested in. First, we did a nursery rhyme. His favorite is Humpty Dumpty which he acts out a lot in Hailey's bed by falling off the railing.

Robert says Humpty Humpty, which is so cute!

Then we read Abby Alligator in our big AlphaTales Book. Robert already knows all his letters and can recognize both uppercase and lowercase most of the time. After our book, we turned the Uppercase A into an awesome alligator.

Here's my example.

Then using an idea from notimeforflashcards.com, we turned the lowercase a into an apple.

My example.

Finally, I wanted to see how much he could do so I gave him two worksheets.

This one is from Winnie-the-Pooh to trace and write the letters. He is not ready for that but it is still good to go through the motions and give him practice with a pencil.

The astronaut came from "My Kindergarten Learning Book" by Bright Start: Learn & Grow (got it at Costco). It has little a's and Big A's to find and count. Robert wasn't into that today.

Our lesson lasted 30 minutes and it was nice having time with just him. Hailey was very jealous but a good sport and stayed in the front room.

Preschool: Abby Alligator

I have done "preschool" twice so far with the alphabet. (The first time was the beginning of Hailey School and the second time was with Josie's girl Audrey). One of the hardest things is getting good books for a certain letter. I got "Izzy Iguana" (which is about of the AlphaTales series) once and loved all the words they used with the letter I. Last year I saw that in the school's book orders there were selling AlphaTales books for $45. I loved on Amazon and was able to get all the books into one big book for less than $10 including shipping.

I've been wanting to do more activities with Robert was finally the house was calm enough that I could do this mini preschool lesson. First we read "Abby Alligator".

Then they colored their letter A's with markers.

After that, I cut out the letters and they could glue triangles for teeth to the A to look like an alligator's mouth. I thought it was a cute idea and Robert loves glue!!!

So here's there final product of turning the letter A into an alligator.

Preschool: T is for Turtle

Hailey had fun at preschool at Audrey's house. They went on a treasure hunt and made a turtle.
They also had a teeth and a toothbrush to make the letter T.

Preschool: S is for Spiders

For Preschool, the kids were at Audrey's house. I know they talked about spiders and made this cool craft. Also, Josie wanted to see if they knew how to spell their name. So, she had the foam letters and they were supposed to put them in order. Hailey can almost do it by herself but still needs help.

Preschool: R is for Rainbows

The downside of living in an apartment complex is that sickness spreads quickly here. So I helped a neighbor and watched her kids for two hours while her regular babysitter is sick with the flu. However, this meant I had 6 kids for preschool which was interesting but manageable.
After our welcoming song and our ABC songs, I read Minnie's Rainbow. I lost Robert's and Wyatt's attention before the story started and could tell Wesley was getting bored. At the end of this book it gives instructions about how to make a rainbow on your wall with a mirror (which the provided), a jar, a flashlight, and a dark room. So, after the story, everyone went up stairs to see a rainbow. The rainbow was hard to see because it was a small sliver on the wall but was still there and the kids pretended to see it at least. Then they each wanted a turn using the flashlight.

After everyone got a turn, we went down stairs and I blew bubbles since they also have a rainbow effect it to. They kids loved popping the bubbles.

For the final activity they were supposed to make a Rainbow R from notimeforflashcard. But with this many kids, it got simplified a lot. First I had them try to write an R on their paper. Audrey did very well. She drew a circle first, then the line straight down and finally the diagonal. I could tell it was an R. Then I gave everyone stripes of colored paper to make a rainbow.
Wesley, Hailey and Audrey glued all the stripes on. Hannah did most of the stripes while Robert and Wyatt made a mess and threw them on the floor. (Wyatt also colored his lips and the table.)

Hailey was the only one who did her Rainbow in the correct order. I was very impressed.

So, I survived preschool with six kids with very little difficulties but probably don't have enough energy to do that on a regular basis.

Preschool: P is for Pigs

This was done at Audrey's house. They painted the letter P with pasta (cooked spaghetti). Hailey must have enjoyed it because she generally doesn't paint that much. They also put pennies in a piggy bank. Then Josie had her own felt pieces for the "Three Little Pigs" story which turned out to be a big hit with the kids. They also colored their pig puppets.

I'm very impressed with how many P words Josie tied in together.

Preschool: O is for Octopus

Hailey is back to Audrey's house for preschool. For the letter "O" they made an octopus and painted an ocean scene. They also went fishing and put their fishes on the ocean.

Hailey was very excited about the fishes because that's the first thing she mentions when I asked her about preschool. When I ask her what letter they worked on she answers correctly. When I ask her what starts with an O, she answers octopus. She is definitely learning and loves to learn.

Later that day we were talking about shapes, which she knows them very well. However, when it came to the oval (it was supposed to be a circle but I can't draw a circle well) she kept calling it an "O". I guess if she makes that connection it will be easier for her to write her letters.

Preschool: N for Night and Numbers

So here is what I did for the continuation of the moon into night time. First I read "The Night is Like an Animal" by Candace Whitman. It has pretty illustrations done in water colors but I think the idea was a little to abstract for the kids. However, I don't know what's going on in their heads and do know they have good imaginations.

After the book, I had then put glow in the dark stars on their night sky that made their moons from last time. To stick the stars on, they need to pull off the back paper which is a fine motor skill that they did well on. I know last year Hailey was not able to do that.
They kept putting their stars on the moon instead of around that moon which I found intriguing.

Robert had fun poking at his puffy moon.

Next, we raced back to the couch for "Chick Chick 1, 2, 3" since numbers also starts with the letter N. Hailey can count 1-10 without any problems. She has most of the numbers for 1-20 except she can't pronounce 13 and generally skips 16 and 17.

Then I pulled all my old scrapbook alphabet stickers and cut the numbers stickers away from the letters so they can put it on their "N's".

In this picture above, Hailey is telling Hannah that she is counting wrong. Hannah is counting how many numbers she is putting down while Hailey recognizes which number it is and is trying to correct Hannah. Hailey got frustrated but the situation is cute and a little out of character for Hailey. It shows her assertive side.

Audrey did a nice job putting the numbers on her N and got the most done. Hailey was just too distracted by Hannah to put much on hers.

Preschool: M for Moon

I really wanted to do something with a Moon for M because I thought it would be cool and different but had a hard time finding activities to do.

So, after the kids arrived and we sang some songs, I read "The Moon might be Milk" by Lisa Shulman. I really like this book. It's about a little girl who asks different animals what they think the milk is made of and then they all go to her grandma to find out the real answer. Well, her smart grandma pulled from every one's guesses and made sugar cookies and cut them into a crescent moon shape. The really cool thing about the grandma is that she didn't tell anyone that they were right or wrong but just helped the little girl make up her own mind on what she thinks it is.

Then I found puffy paint at notimeforflashcards. The "paint" is made up of 1/2c of glue and 1 1/2 c. of shaving cream which makes a lot. I thought the kids would really get into it and use their hands to paint, which Hailey, Hannah and Robert did. Audrey does not like getting messy so she asked for a paint brush (which I had handy, I just wanted to see what she would do). And we had Briella over who did not touch hers at all.

So here is a picture of the two extremes; Briella's-not touched and Hailey's -thoroughly enjoyed.
After they dry I'll cut circles out for the moon.
Then I was afraid of not having enough time, which was the case. They immediately wanted down and to play with the toys after the moon painting. So, after quickly cleaning up hands and the table, I bribed them back to the table with marshmallows (which starts with M).

Then I had enough time to get the paint ready for them to color their moon rocks. I got this idea from DLTK which basically said since no one knows what a moon rock looks like, just give them different material and let the kids at it. Then sprinkle sand or glitter for moon dust.

So I gave them blue and white paint.

I didn't give Briella or Robert any brushes or paint to help a little bit with the craziness of kids painting.

I didn't have any glitter, so for the moon dust I gave them sugar and sprinkles.

So here are their moon rocks.

And this picture has their moons drying so we can use them for the night sky next time.

Preschool: L for Lacing

This was also done at Audrey's house but I was very impressed with how well Hailey did. Josie told me that she just put the L shaped card with the holes punched and the ribbon with tape on the ends and just had them go without showing them first. I have done a lot of sewing by hand recently and Hailey has sat by me to watch but I'm still surprised by what she did herself.

They also painted the ladybugs and put the dots and the face on. Josie comes up with the cutest ideas.

Preschool: K for Kite

Hailey had preschool at Audrey's house. Josie made kaleidoscopes for the kids out of a CD and a toilet paper roll. She said the kids didn't get it but I think it's really cool. I loved kaleidoscopes as a kid. Also they made kites and learned about knots.