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.