Preschool Monday: Seasons

With my due date at the end of this month, I decided that I would teach two weeks in a row and then be skipped in the next rotation.  Since we are not having preschool the week of Thanksgiving, I'm not going to teach again until December. This works out pretty well for me.

For day we talked about seasons.  I have these cool felt pictures (for Joy School) that the kids helped my categorize into the different seasons.  Then we talked about a tree's cycle through out the four seasons (again with Joy School felt pictures).

I had a T worksheet (maybe from DLTK) for the kids to color.

On Saturday we went to Ikea to get dining room chairs. While we were there they were giving out these trees to everyone and turning it into a craft for the kids. There were beads and buttons for the kids to put on wire.

 I thought this was a fun idea and gave beads to the kids to put on pipe cleaners. This would work on their fine motor skills.

 Hannah surprised me and worked very hard to string her own beads.

 The kids did great with this activity and everyone was excited about bringing a tree home.

Kindergarten: week 4

On Thursday, I was able to volunteer in Hailey's class.  I was pretty frustrated at home dealing with Hannah and Robert. It surprised me that just a change in routine turned my day around. I really enjoyed my time at Hailey's school.  I was able to be there from 8:30am-10:30am which is typically their reading center time.

This day was a little crazy because it was picture day for them.  They were finishing up taking pictures when I arrived. The kids who were done, were on the reading rug with books.  Hailey and a friend wanted me to read to them.  For September their value or attribute for the month was acceptance.  I thought that was a great one to start with especially since on that day, they had three children which different handicaps visit.  I'm not sure how often they visit but it's great for them to try to be in a real classroom but also wonderful for the students to be familiar with those who are different.  I also found out that they have a lost teeth chart and Mrs. Thomas likes to keep track of it and will give them a prize when they lose a tooth.

Mrs. Thomas read to the whole class a book about what we do with our hands and with other body parts.  Then the school counselor came in a taught a mini lesson on tattle-telling. I can see how that's an important thing to go over in kindergarten.  I don't run into that too much at home because my kids quickly jump to hitting and I need to be told when that happens.

For the remaining hour, the class broke into 4 groups. One was computers, one was a word/card game, one was Lego's and snacks, and the last one was an art project (mine).  On a yellow piece of paper, I wrote "With my hands, I can..." to go along with the book they heard.  Then the kids drew whatever they wanted to finish the sentence.  We had a couple of ride my bike, draw, and build a house. It was a lot of fun working with them and hearing their answers.

Here are the papers that Hailey brought home this week.

 A worksheet on the letter C.

 The title is can You see me? Hailey got a star for writing it well. I need to work with her on the difference between a lowercase y and an uppercase Y.

 Though you can't see it too well, Hailey traced her hand and numbered each of her fingers.  All her numbers are facing the correct way.

 Hailey also brought home leaf cards that they played a sorting game with.  Also note that she finally wrote her name with a lowercase a.

 Here are more math worksheets. Hailey drew the correct number of objects, then they just doodled on the back.

Here is Hailey's IRI test results. She got a 3 (out of a 3) which just says she's right on track.

airplane pictures

Here are airplane pictures that Laura took.

Wednesday Preschool: Airplanes

For preschool today, the kids pretended to pack, board, and fly an airplane. Laura (Chelsie's mom) had all the chairs set up in rows and labeled them.  They each had a ticket (Robert is going to Hawaii) and a seat assignment.  Laura was going to make them picture IDs but got the pictures printed too late. 

 Here's Robert's suitcase with cut out items that he would need.

They got to take turns being the pilot, but Laura said Robert just wanted to stay in HIS seat.

I'm so glad I have other mom's to do preschool with because I would have never thought about this idea (and it would be hard with just Robert and I).

Morning Devotional: Ears (part 2)

We were only able to do morning devotional once this week.  Most of the time was spent making these shakers that I filled with rice.  The shakers were a big hit, which was a little tough because I didn't have enough time to let the glue dry.  Thankfully they didn't fall apart! I also went over the Sunbeam's lesson again and Robert was a little more responsive.

Monday Preschool: Airplanes

Preschool was at Chelsie's house this week.  The topic was airplanes. So, they made this paper airplane and were flying them in the front yard, when I can to pick Robert up.  Robert had a lot of fun, it was hard to get him to leave.

Kindregarten: Week 3

The highlight of this week is that Hailey had snack and show-and-tell day. Hailey had a tough day at school on Tuesday. It was so bad that Mrs. Thomas came to me after school and said that Hailey was emotional about everything and suggested that Hailey needed more sleep.  (Hannah didn't sleep well and kept everyone up). However, she was wearing her show-and-tell sign and was so excited for the following day.

I suggested that Hailey should bring Lambie, but surprisingly she choose My Little Pony. Hailey wanted us to a "dress rehearsal" of her show-and-tell.  She told us we can ask one question each, then she would talk more about pony.  So we asked: what's her name? -rainbow hair pony, where did she get it?-Christmas (real answer is for her 4th birthday), who gave it to her? -Santa (real answer is her friend Emily (Trista's daughter). Then she told us a huge story about flying in clouds.

Hailey had a great show-and-tell day.  She brought granola bars, (I gave her 40 bars (2 boxes) even though they only asked for 30, expecting the extras to come back home, but they didn't.) the kids asked a lot of questions about pony, and she was even Mrs. Thomas' helper.

Here is Hailey's schoolwork that she brought home for the week.

The blue thing is a small cat, and the big picture is Hailey dressed up as a cat.  I think they talked about big and small this week.

 This picture is of Hailey and Audrey flying a kite next to a tall building.  The words are "We like to fly a kite."

 Here's the back side that she doodled on. It's of Hailey and Audrey holding hands under an umbrella. The small drawing in the left corner is a house, and the big blue/purple drawing is a volcano erupting. But don't worry, Hailey and Audrey didn't get hurt because they had the umbrella.

 They practiced writing the letter B. The circled letters are the ones she did really well on. She also struggles a little with lowercase b's and d's. 

 Hailey wrote see how people grow on little card stripes, cut them out, then pasted them on the paper. The picture around the words, has something to do with a long ladder, a booby trap, a treasure box, and a swing set.  It was a very involved story that Hailey described.

 I bet this picture was in correlation to a book they read.  Hailey wrote, When I was small (under a shorter person) now I am big (by the tall person). There is a rainbow between the two people.

She also had a writing practice that I'm guessing she didn't finish.  Hailey said they were supposed to write words that rhymed with Hat.