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.

Relationships Part 2

Today was a strange day since Chloe and Luc had no school and still needed to be watched. So, I had them from 8:30-5:30. However, neither wanted to do Joy School so today was the first day of just Hailey and I.

First we talked about the importance of having friends and how they make us happy. Then we did a figure play with elephants.

Then I had a flannel board story about how it would be if Hailey was the only person in the world. Following that, it talks about since she is not the only person that she needs to learn how to get along with others.

After that we were supposed to read "The Quarreling Book" by Charlotte Zolotow but my library doesn't carry it. I did find "The Rain Came Down" by David Shannon in book and tape form and am very glad I checked it out. The point that Joy School wanted to introduce is that feelings are contagious. In "The Quarreling Book" everything goes down hill because the husband forgets to kiss his wife goodbye and in "The Rain Came Down" it starts with the rain. It was a great, funny book with good illustrations.

To help illustrate what contagious means we talked about how a mirror copies everything that we do (we also learned a song about it). We also did an art project about reflection. We dipped yarn into a pile of paint then put it on one side of the piece of paper and smashed the paper together to get the reflected image on the other side.
Hailey thought it was very fun.

Hailey's finished project is the one on top, while mine is on bottom.

Then we finished with another book. The recommended book was "That's What a Friend Is" by P.K. Hallinan but since the library didn't have it we did "Rainbow Fish" by Leo Leonni.

This lesson had a lot of books which is what Hailey enjoys.

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.

Communicate and Friends Part 1

Unit three is split up in two parts. The first part was about Realness, Honesty and Candor and the second part which we are starting now is about Communication and Relationships.

So, we started with how dogs communicate and compare it to how we communicate. Then we learned a song "Talk, Talk, Talk" which is about how we don't have to fight because we can talk instead.

Then we had a flannel board story about a boy who couldn't talk and we discussed how we would feel if we couldn't talk.

After that, we moved to the relationship portion of the lesson. I did a flannel board story about how boring Joy School would be with only the teacher and one kid and that we are so thankful for friends at Joy School. This was kind of interesting to do because there is only two kids anyhow. Then I learned that Luc is switching to an all day kindergarten, so I only babysit him on Thursdays after 3. Now it will be just Hailey and I for Joy School. I'm still excited about it. Hailey talks more when it's just the two of us.

We finished the lesson by having them color two paper dolls to represents friends.

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.

Emotions Part 4

To start this lesson we continued with identifying feelings and how they look. They wanted the kids to draw facial expressions on the pictures provided. Since this is sometime I plan on doing until my last child is in Kindergarten, I laminated the pictures and they drew on it with wet erase markers. I thought that idea was so smart.
The kids enjoyed doing this. I'm not sure why Hailey is holding the marker funny. From the very beginning of her using writing instruments, she has held it correctly.

Then we talked about honesty again and sang a song. Hailey still doesn't get the concept and Luc couldn't figure out why we would talk about it again. Then I told them three fun things we were going to do and talked about how sad they would feel if I was being dishonest. So, we first made pigs in a blanket. They ate them while I did puppet shows and flannel board stories. To finish off the lesson, they made their own stick puppets.

Chloe was home by this time so she got the extra pigs in a blanket and made a puppet too.

Hailey did a great job drawing a circle for the face and putting on hair, a nose, and mouth.

Emotions Part 3

This lesson focused more on how do we handle being mad or sad.

First we acted out what we do when we feel a certain way, like crying when we are sad. Then we talked about what we can do to get the mad feelings out of us. Hailey stomps around and throws her hands around if they are empty. She acts like she's going to hit someone but half the time she doesn't.

Then we read "Where the Wild Things Are" by M. Sendak. The only copy of this at the library had a tape to it. So, they got to hear the story being read by someone different. I like having books with tapes because it's hard to be talking constantly.

After that, I did puppet shows to demonstrate good and bad ways to handle our feelings. The main point of the show was that we should talk about and through our feelings. This is very difficult for Hailey since she just doesn't understand yet what her feelings are. We have a little girl in nursery that when she doesn't get her way, yells "I'm MAD!" and puts herself in timeout. When I first saw this, I thought it was the strangest thing ever but I realize that being able to express this is very mature for her age. I don't think even most adults can do that.

Then we sang a song about being honest and true.

Finally, after all this talking, Hailey and Luc made faces. I had brads to put through the lips so we can turn the face around to be happy or sad. Then we sang "If you Chance to Meet a Frown".