Joy School: Wrap Up & KR7

This is the last lesson in the unit so it was mainly a review. The opening activity was to have a lot of little boxes to choose from which had junk in them and one box had a piece of candy. Then we were supposed to talk about how choices are connected to the way we feel. Then they open the present and feel disappointed about there decisions. Finally, since the object was taught, everyone got candy. However, there wasn't enough people to do this and Hailey can't handle teasing so we skipped that and went straight to the art activity.

We could fold the strips of paper anyway we want to make a sculptor.
I made a little person.

Hailey made a playground. She spent more time doing this activity then what she normally does.

Then we pledge (promise) to obey the Joy School Rules to keep our school special.

Then there was a story about a boy who found a magic guy in a box who could grant one wish if the little boy followed three rules. It never told what the boy wished for but Hailey's wish would be for a pony. (I was surprised by that answer, she has never talked about a pony before).

This is also the last Kindergarten Readiness lesson in the First Unit. Hailey traced all the letters.

She writes so softly and carefully.

Then we played Bingo with the first 4 letters with Smarties!

That was a big hit.

Joy School: Nature Laws & KR6

This lesson is new one (not a repeat from last year with a little variation). I didn't have the felt pictures ready and my color ink is out, so Hailey held the pictures up for me which she enjoyed. (I'll color them later)

We talked about how nature has rules to follow (the bees must make honey, bears must hibernate).
Then we were going to sing a new song but Hailey hated it and freaked out on me. I was almost going to stop today. But we both decided to finish the lesson quickly and do the art activity by making Obedience Charts.

We get a sticker for each rule/request that we obey. Hailey loved the part that mommy was doing it to and thought it entitled her to boss me around. I let it slide for a day.For the Kindergarten Readiness lesson, I made upper and lowercase A,B,C, and D out of sandpaper. It is supposed to help encourage kids to trace the letters with a unique texture.

Then Hailey matched the upper and lowercase letters. Lowercase b and d are really hard to tell apart, so she looks on the chart on the wall to double check which way it goes.

Joy School: Decisions & KR5

My camera's battery is dead for there was no pictures. However, there wasn't a whole lot to this lesson today so I wouldn't have taken a lot of pictures anyways.

The lesson was about making decisions and how there are good decisions and bad ones. The art activity was choosing between water colors or markers (we choose watercolors) and whether the paper we color on is circle or regular (Hailey had regular and I did a circle). I just painted a rainbow circle while Hailey painted a little then decided to cut a circle out too. Anytime Hailey wants to use scissors I try to encourage it. She doesn't like cutting much because she wants it perfect the first time.

Then we read "Shortcuts" and talked about how the kids aren't making good choices. I really like this book and need to get ourselves a copy of it. It has a train theme to it which the kids love.

The last activity was a story about Jessie's typical day and all the decisions she makes in one day.

For the Kindergarten Readiness, we traced/wrote our names again on lined paper. Then worked on recognizing upper and lowercase letters. We were supposed to used the first letter of each child's name to practice on. Since it was just Hailey and I we used H-Hailey, M-Mommy, A-Audrey, D-Diane, C-Clements. I had flashcards with the letters and played a match game.

Joy School: Rules and KR4

The Joy School lesson was very short since there was supposed to be a field trip involved. So we just talked about obedience and how the five little monkeys didn't obey the doctor.

We also talked and had a flannel board story about how are feelings are connected to the way we feel. If we make good choices we feel happy. We talk about how our choices makes us feel when Hailey goes to timeout.

For Kindergarten Readiness, Hailey wrote her name again and is doing really well. She just has a hard time with the lowercase a.
Then we played a matching game with 5 uppercase and lowercase letters.

Hailey liked the game and has a hard time with figuring out the difference between the lowercase a and d.

Joy School: Unit 1: Rule or Decision & KR3

We talked about obeying and the three magic words: Please and Yes, Mom! We used puppets to role play.

Then we put flannel board pictures in their correct spots on whether it is a rule or it is a decision.

After that, we read "Cheekey and the Laws". We made our own Cheekey (which is a monkey) out of play dough since I forgot to get potatoes.
Mine is the pink one and Hailey's is the blue one.

For the Kindergarten lesson, Hailey wrote her name with only a capital H and the rest lower case. Writing Wizard can help create handwriting pages. She liked following the dots but wouldn't try without them.

Joy School: Unit 1: Rules & KR2

We started the lesson by doing exercises. The activity's purpose is to give the students a good experience at following instructions. Hailey did great at all the exercises. When I said it's time to do a push-up, she put her legs on the couch and bopped her head up and down. I have no idea where she got that from but I that it was funny.
Since I took a picture of her doing a push up she wanted to take a picture of me doing a push up.

Then we talked about how school would be without rules and about different home rules and city laws. To give Hailey an opportunity to make her own rules, she set up the rules to our art activity like wearing an apron and sharing the paints.

Here's my lovely painting.

We used sponges as our paint brushes.

We ended the lesson talking about repenting. Hailey is using Tinkerbell and Belle to show how to make good choices and how to repent if someone won't share baby lambie.

We talked about how repenting is like erasing a line.

For Kindergarten Readiness today we focused on the first letter of our names. Horse for Hailey and Monies for Mommy. I showed her the monies for my name and she didn't get it and told me they were quarters. Sometimes she can be too smart.

Then she practiced making the Uppercase H using the lines in the kindergarten paper.

Joy School: Unit 1: Intro to Rules &KR1

Before Joy School, I wanted to set up the "class room" (our dining area) a little more. Hailey's Joy School house is up. This time I added magnets so we can actually open and close the windows and they stay how we want them. Also was have the Weather Chart back. A little change is using a magnet calendar instead of a homemade paper one.
Then I found the two alphabet posters at the dollar store. I also found the map for $2 and still am looking for a cheap world map.

Now with our classroom set up we sang some songs and introduced Joy Boy who is a helper to add conversation some days. Hailey really wanted her two puppets Sally and Dick to join us.

*Side note: My mom sent Hailey two big books that had collections of Dick and Jane books. The younger sister's name is Sally. Despite being a little old fashion and very simple, Hailey love these books. They will be great as first reader books. Anyways, those books are where she got the names for the puppets.*

We went over the Joy school rules since this first unit is the Joy of Obedience and Decisions. Then we did a fun art activity of melting crayon shavings with an iron to show how objects have certain rules they must obey also.

My picture is the top right one.

Hailey choose blue, black and brown. I like how this picture turned out.

One thing that differs Year 1 of Joy School with Year 2 is the Kindergarten Readiness mini lessons. The first one is just to get the kids excited to learn letters and get used to the extra activity and rules.

The main activity was to observe the similarities and differences between people and then make a portrait of them. Hailey wanted to do Sally while I did Hailey.

Then she wanted to turn Sally into a dog and then a cat. She also got mad at me because I didn't make paper Hailey look like her paper Sally. Silly Hailey!

It was a good first day and took about an hour. Hailey then wanted me to repeat the preschool lesson I had with Robert so she could do the activities. However, after 4 lessons I was kind of ready for my down time.

Overall I think it was a great first day of morning devotional, preschool, and joy school. Especially since I blogged all about it in the same day. Go Super Mom!

Joy School: Unit 6: Rules and Decisions

This is the last lesson of the first half of unit 6. We did a lot of discussion about what are rules and what are decisions which small wiggly activities in between.

Then we learned a new song "Decisions" which is very long but had pictures for every phrase.

After a visit from Joy Boy and sang to him the Rule song, I read "Ira Sleeps Over" by Bernard Waber. This was a very long book and Hailey is not old enough to sleep over at some one's house so I don't know if she really understood what was happening. However, she loves books and loves Joy School and kept asking for more school.

We ended with an art activity which Chloe joined us. They are painting with Q-tips.

They enjoyed it and painted long then usual with normal paint brushes.

Joy School: Unit 6: Decisions

We opened Joy School today with Hailey choosing which finger plays to do (her options were flannel pictures). Then we did a flannel board story about "Mrs. Duck's New Hat" which Hailey also enjoyed and quickly decided which hat she liked best and stayed with her choice.

Then I did a Popsicle stick puppet (design was provided) show about good decisions, bad decisions and how they make us feel. We talk about good choices and bad choices all the time at home and she knows the right answer even if her actions doesn't show that. And of course, there was a song "Choices are Connected" to learn about our feelings.

We read "Shortcut" by Donald Crews which Hailey enjoyed. It's about a group of kids that decided to take the shortcut home by using the train tracks instead of the road and got surprised by a train coming. Hailey took this book to the bathroom and retold the story to herself.

We finished with the an art activity where she could make whatever shape she wanted with the stripes of paper. Then we stapled it together and she glued it onto a file folder to make a sculpture.

Joy School: Unit 6: Rule or Decision

We started by singing the Joy School Rule Song. After talking a little about rules, Joy Boy (a puppet) visits and introduces the concept of decisions.

We had flannel pictures to decide which picture is a rule or a decision. Hailey doesn't really get the difference. She did liked to pick which balloon she wanted or anything else that shown options on the picture. So she understands choosing a little until it's time to label it as a rule or decision.

Then I read about "Cheekey and the Laws" which was about a monkey and has a song about it too. Hailey likes monkey and picked up very quickly that loins can eat monkeys. The funny things that kids pull out of conversations.

The art activity with chooses was to make a snowman. She could pick which hat and details to draw on it to. She wanted to make more and more snowmen.
We ended with singing "Once there was a Snowman" which she did with her paper snowman.

Oh no! He's melting!

Joy School: Unit 6a: Rules

We started a new Unit with week. Unit six is split in two: "The Joy of Obedience and Decisions" and "The Joy of Interest and Curiosity". The first half is a 4 lesson unit so it'll take this week only.

I introduced the concept of rules with a provided flannel board story about a school that didn't have rules. I think sometimes counter examples just confuse Hailey but I'm not sure.

Then we sang the rule song that we learned on day 1 (and haven't sung since that day). Hailey seemed to recognized it still which was great.

After that we talked about home rules and laws of the land. There was a picture about stopping at a stop sign. Hailey definitely recognized this and talks about it all the time. Now she associates laws with that one law. She told me without any prompting that we could crash if we don't stop at stop signs.

The recommended book to read was "Franklin is Lost" by Paulette Bourglois which I couldn't find at the library. So I read "The Pokey Little Puppy" which was on the alternative list and which I own. ($0.25 from DI)

I finished by talking a little bit about how repenting and saying you're sorry. We were cut off a little early today but was practically done.