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.

Preschool: Q is for Queen

Preschool was at my house with week. I did Q for Queen. We after we sang our typical songs, I read "My Q book" by Jane Moncure.

Then I had them glue on the different queen pieces onto a toilet paper roll. I got this idea off of DLTK. The one that Robert is playing with is the example that I did. This craft is supposed to be for age 3 and up was a little too difficult for the kids. While I was helping Hailey and Hannah, Audrey was glue the pieces to each other and not onto the toilet paper roll. They could glue on the head, hands, and cape but the body that wraps around, the skirt (which was tough for me) and the feet were too tough.
Then they could paint their Qs with royal purple paint and put glitter glue on their crowns while I cut and glued their Qs to the pink paper. I gave them markers to put a face in the middle of the Q. This idea came from notimeforflashcards.

Since there was still 5-10 minutes left, they could dress up as Queens.

Girls are very fun to have around. I'm not sure how I could have made this letter more gender neutral.

Order Part 3

This is the last lesson for the Unit. To rap up the goal section, I had Hailey make her bed last night.

This is a video that Nathan took of Hailey making her big girl bed.

So during the lesson, we ran upstairs, made my bed, and filled the last bar on her goal chart.

Then I decided that we should make another goal for her since she likes doing goals so much. I made a sticker chart to record her potty experience. Her goal (which she agreed to) was to keep her panties dry all day. She was very excited about this and whether it is a coincidence or not, Hailey has done much better and has pooped in the potty for a week straight. More about her progress is on our family blog since it doesn't deal much with Joy School.

Then we had a discussion about order again and sang our order song. We talked about how rainbows are pretty because they are always in the same order. Mickey Mouse had an episode about rainbows and taught a song that Hailey has remembered and sings all the time. The words are "Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue! Don't forget there is purple too. Rainbow colors for me and you." When I saw this Minnie's Rainbow book at Kmart for $4 I had to get it.

For the art activity, Hailey was supposed to put the colored circles in the correct order of a rainbow. She did very well and only miss placed the blue.

And that was what we had time for. The only thing we skipped was "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" by Virginia Burton.

Order Part 2

This lesson started out talking about clean rooms. (This lesson would have been at a different house from the last lesson, so they have a new room to investigate.) So we read "Roo's Messy Room" from my own collection. This book is great if you have a kid who doesn't see the point of keeping their room clean.

Then we sang "Order! Order!" and "Gunny Bag". This is the only unit that we continue to sing the songs from because the Joy School Song.

After that, I read "Upside Down Kristofer" by Pat Cox about a boy who couldn't go to the zoo because he couldn't find his shoes.

For the art activity, I just provide paper, scissors, and glue and Hailey can do whatever she wants. The point is to have Hailey make a mess with cutting and cleans up after herself.
She starts out cutting circles, then decides to draw circle which ended up being daddy on blue paper and mommy on pink.

She did a very good job drawing us and cutting us out without dismembering anything.

Following that, we talked about long-term goals and read "Last One in is a Rotten Egg" by Leonard Kessler. This is a long book and I can't image reading it for a large group (5-6 kids). It's about a boy learning to swim in deep water after being pushed in by big kids fooling around and breaking rules. The only thing Hailey got out of it was if your leg hurts (which was the little boys excuse to not go to the pool again) you should go swimming. So she pretending her leg was hurting her so she could go swimming.

Then there was a group activity to clean the kitchen. I turned it into a quick activity to clean the down stair's bathroom. She loved it.

She's wiping down the sink with Clorox wipes.

Hailey's favorite part was using the toilet brush.

Order Part 1

This lesson was a little tricky because I don't have "free play time" during Joy School. In a regular Joy School, they were supposed to talk about what order means and that they can have a group goal to keep their school in order. Then Gunny bag is introduced and they kids go play and make a mess during free play time. Once their 30minutes were up, they needed to clean up and put everything back in order or gunny bag would get it.

Well, I already cleaned the front room before school so the lesson plan didn't work for us. So, I first talked about what order means, then we read "The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room". I pointed out what was clean and what was messy or in order and tried to have Hailey see the difference. (We've read this book together several times before but still thought a messy room looked beautiful.) I think by the end of the book, she could tell me correctly what was messy and what was in order and which one was better. Then we learned the "Order! Order!" song and the "Gunny Bag" song.

**Side Note: I remember the Gunny Bag song from growing up so I was excited to share it with Hailey. I especially remember my dad singing it very loudly. However, my gunny bag is a blue pillow case. Growing up it was a trash bag and very imitating. My parents weren't kidding around about throwing our stuff away. Thankfully, I don't remember gunny bag coming out too many times (maybe only once or twice).

The second part of the lesson plan was about goals again. We talked about the different skills they have now from when they were a baby and how learning to walk, talk, eat, etc were actually goals they accomplished. Since we talked about how big she is now, we read "I can do it Myself" by Sesame Street. (I found it at DI for $1).

Then we talked about our rooms and have we can have a goal of keeping them in order. Since we couldn't go into Hailey's room, my room was supposed to be the example of a clean room. My room wasn't very clean (laundry and a messy bed for the most part), so Hailey worked on her goal to learn how to make a bed which helped my room look a little cleaner. Then we went downstairs and filled in her goal chart.

We finished with a flannel board story "Oh, Oh!" by Ruth Eyre. It's about a little boy who wants to put on his winter clothes by himself but keeps doing it in the wrong order. Finally, when he gets everything on, he realizes he needs to go potty and has to take everything off again. Luckily, the next time he puts everything back on, he does it quickly because he does it in order.
Hailey liked playing with him and dressing him up.

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.