Spring, really ?

This weather is really aggravating me. I spent the whole weekend outside cleaning and planting flowers . It was 80 degrees and today it is 44 and is dipping to 31 tonight. I guess I will get back out there tonight and cover up my new pretty flower beds. Also, it is kind of hard to explain Spring to the kids when it is all mixed up like this.

G playing with a gyroscope. They love it .

We work with the boys all day on getting somewhere and settling. They love to run and chase and play dogs and guns. All the loud rough and tumble stuff, but... what 5 year old boy doesnt ? Hard to get on to them doing something that is crucial to their development. But today.. I walked in the room to find this. I knew it was a little quiet. I said " what are you guys doing?" Their reply was " taking turns reading to each other." Awww... My heart melted. They each even got in the treasure chest.

Girls imprompu chorus line - love it !

Who me change lesson plans just because it is freezing outside ? NOPE! We planted grass seeds in cups that were decorated as faces today. I told the kids we cant take them outside because it is too cold but we will as soon as it warms up a little . The idea is the grass grows and looks like hair on the face the child drew on the cup.

Today was Orrins Birthday. As tradition goes ( this year ) The birthday child picks out cupcakes or cookies . He or she also receives a book as a present from Randy and I .

Geneviette is my grand daughter . When I heard what her name would be I thought" She will NEVER learn to spell that . ( It is pronounced Shaun VEE- ette. ) Today she wrote her full name without help - First and last ! SO PROUD! There are a few letter that we need to work on a little but WOW she did a great job !

Baby It's Cold Outside

It is so cold outside. The cold wouldnt be so bad if the wind wasn't blowing. Layers work best in this kind of weather. Remember our quality standards state that we go outside unless there is an advisory or falling precipitation. We don't stay out for the long periods like for warmer weather , we break our hour into smaller segments and indoor gross motor play.

Sensory boxes - why do we use them ?

Tactile perception refers to the interpretation of informatio sent to the brain from the fingertips.

Improving a child's tactile perception will enhance her self-confidence when she performs tasks using her hands and fingers.


Stereognosis refers to the ability to recognise unseen objects using the sense of touch.

Activities to stimulate this will enable a child to experience her surroundings through her body and become familiar with them in more than one way.

I try to put one of these out for each unit. Last night I made a Christmas box. It has scented pinecones ( Glittered too !) , small ornaments, cut garland, squeeze balls, gems and all kinds of goodies in there for the children to find.

The kids are loving these magnetic builders I bought.

Some days, you just have to be a princess.

One of the boys was having a hard time not gripping his pencil today so I showed him how to put the marker cap in his palm to keep his grip the right way. He considered it a trick so he enjoyed it !

The manger scene was a big hit today!

Some of us played old maid today. As I explained the game I realized something that it took me 44 years to get. The idea is to get matches. There is only one old maid card, she has no match... get it ? Why did I never figure that our before....?

Bread

Today we continued our exploration into FOOD. I went upstairs to the resource room, which my son Addam is working to organize and found a few materials we can use. Like these potato heads. The kids LOVE this!

For small groups today we made Alphabet Soup. The kids stirred the " soup " and then closed their eyes and pulled out a letter and shared it with the rest of the group.

We even tried writing a few of the letters we found. This is an A. Rosanna had an A and I said " Rosanna, are you going to try to write your letter?" She said " I DID!" I thought this was MY writing and I had given her an example.

Emeri pulled out a letter and said " Look ! The letter in MY name !"

After playing with the soup I laid my notebook on the table and Daniel said " Look , they match" and laid his magnetic 5 on my 5 !

This is my new system for taking " observations" Through out the day sometimes I see things that are significant events in a child's development. I take notes on these and this helps me to assess them for further help or help in planning what I need to focus on for teaching. ( I know.. you thought I just threw things out and played all day.. right ? ) I was using a note book and then transferring the notes to a binder. I am all about minimizing the paperwork steps. So, now I have this posterboard. Randy and I keep post it notes handy. As I see something that needs to be recorded . I put the day on the note and then tag it under the child's name. This is my first day for this. I will either transcribe into the binder OR place the post it in the proper place inside the binder. Observations are very important. Sometimes I focus on specific skills. Sometimes the observations are " on the go" or random. Sometimes they are planned - for instance at the beginning of the year when we put them all in a line to see who could jump on one foot or skip.

I love Audrey's structure!

playdoh fun

After our small groups I put the " Alphabet Soup" on the table and several kids revisited it and played again.

Folder game ( matching )

Morning Message- The older children circled the first letter in their name.

We also read a book called "Wheat " and talked about how wheat grows and ends up being bread. We learned new words such as harvest and silo . One of the kids favorite songs this month is the old camp song called " McDonalds, Pizza Hut " . Do you remember this one ?

What a great day. Five years ago today I became a grandma . Can't think of a better job to have .

The Little Old Lady

One of the kids favorite books is called " The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything." It has lots of predictive text in it . Today we decided to add some props and actions to the story.

The pants go wiggle wiggle...

The shirt goes shake , shake...

The two white gloves go clap, clap

Two shoes go clomp , clomp...

The hat goes nod , nod...

And in the end ( not sure why there is no picture ) the very big, very orange pumpkin head goes BOO!

We made a picture of a house today with shapes. Drawing this is a nice little shapes review. I am not the best artist. When I did this activity with the second group and drew my circle for the tree and said.. " what shape is this ?" William busted me out and said " OVAL!" He was right...

One of our matching games today.

Cohen brought a HUGE praying mantis to school today.

Using letter tiles to make words.

Matching pumpkin faces

The book we read. This is a great book. Very simple but tells the story of how a house is built.

We did a tracing activity today so I would see first hand which children are still struggling with the right way to hold a marker for writing. The fist grip you see below is typical for a three year old. I did reinforce for the three year olds how to hold the marker and helped them but it is still difficult for many.

Below you can see we talked about rulers . We used them to measure and then we used them to draw a straight line .

Below you can see the perfect grip for writing.

We talked about non standard measure. Non standard measure is when we just something other than a ruler or tape to measure. How many times have you walked off the room to see how big it is ? That is non standard measure. We talked about which twer of blocks was taller and which was shorter. We talked about the terms most and least.

Cause we'll have fun fun fun....

Clara playing at the water table . Notice the water is now red.... no sense teaching colors with flashcards ! There is also a little duck with a santa hat on.

Playing with the leapfrog and watching the rain.

A game the girls made. Check out the names and the lines !

They would jump and then draw a line where they landed and write their name on it .

Sharae and Kynley dancing!

I love seeing happy faces.

And then.. you have other faces....

Sharae and Kynley have "hung out together " all day. Here they are again tuning those fine motor skills by peeling stickers. Stickers offer great fine motor practice !

Audrey will grow up to be a dancer - I am sure of it!

Pretty friends faces.

Danny working at the water table - in disguise.

Cute huh?

Old buddies.

New Buddies...

Remembering Little Jack Horner from yesterday. I am so proud!

Found this little fellow in my resource box. He has been watching the kids all day !

Another great Christmas fine motor activity is decorating a mini- tree !

See, I wrote my name !

Beautiful picture.

Math Mat.... there are ten of these. If it says 1 they put one ornament on the tree ( button ).

If there are two...... three.....

We had another fun day. I am so glad I took pictures so I can remember to tell you most of it. Some of it I wrote down during observations with every intention of telling you about and now I can't find my tablet. If I find it ... and I will.... I will tell you more about our day and the dictations I took today ! There were some wonderful positive interactions between the kids that I wanted to share with you!