Preschool lesson 11/11- Rain/Weather

We had another fun day at preschool. We stared out singing songs, reading the book, and talking about the seasons. I asked them what there favorite season was and then asked them what had happened on Sunday after church. Finn was so excited and knew exactly what had happened. RAIN!!!
We went into the kitchen and I put some water in a pot. As the water was heating up I asked them why it rains. This is what they said:
Alyssa- Because it's winter
Israel- So we can jump in puddles
Jade- So we can use an umbrella and use a coat
Finn- We need to have fun outside and play

I explained why it rains and then demonstrated it by holding a pan full of ice over the pot of water on the stove (about 5 inches above) As the steam goes up to the pan it forms condensation on the pan and then it starts to drip. They were fascinated by this!!!

We made the sound of a rain storm

• sit on the floor and started by rubbing your hands together like it was starting to drizzle.
  
• Then snapping like the rain falling down.
  
• Pounding our hands on our laps like it was getting harder.
  
• Stomping our feet on the floor at the same time as pounding our hands in our laps
• I also clapped while the kids were doing this to make lightning
• Then stop doing this in reverse until you get back to the end of the storm with just a small drizzle again.

The kids also really liked this so we did it a few times. We did a #6 worksheet and then played for a few min until the mom's came.

Preschool Lesson Plan (10/23)

Last Thursday we learned about RECYCLING and Reviewed NUMBERS 0-5.

QUESTION OF THE DAY---(to practice raising hands)
**What do you like to do with your mommy?
Alyssa-- paint
Israel-- "hmmmmmmmm" (I will come back to you)
Jade-- dress up, paint, and cook
Finn-- set up my trains
London-- paint and sing songs
Israel-- (still thinking)-- play

RECYCLING
We talked about what recycling means (reusing something, making new paper out of old paper, turning off lights, etc.) We dumped out a huge bag of garbage (don't worry it was clean recycleable materials) and decided if they were paper or plastic and put them into the appropriate box. We also talked about other things being recycleable (glass, metal, etc.). The kids caught onto this really quickly and were excited to pull out different things from the pile. This also worked well for "sorting" skills which we learned earlier this month.

We then made paper bag pumpkins and recycled some materials we already had around the house (ie brown paper bag and old newspaper for the inside!) Everyone got to pick their own shapes for eyes, nose, and mouth.

NUMBERS
We are reviewing the numbers 0-5 for a couple of weeks just to get number recognition down pat. We played number balloons. There were six ballons with dots (zero dots, one dot, etc.). When I played the music the kids got to hit the balloons everywhere, when the music stopped they had to pick up one balloon and come over to me. I then pulled out a number flashcard and we got to see who had the balloon with that many dots. The kids were very good at this game (we could have played for 30 minutes but we moved on!).

Next, we played number walk. We had the numbers 0-5 on foam sheets spread out in a circle. When the music played they walked around in a circle and when it stopped they stopped on a number. We went around the circle and each child told me what number they were standing on. At this point I was really impressed because everyones number recognition was way better than a few weeks ago. They did great.

We finished up with a number worksheet with numbers 1-5.

KNIGHTS AT DAWN
We finished our book by reading three chapters. I got the book on cd from the library and let the kids listen to it instead of me reading it. They really seemed to be interested in it this way. We acted out some things as we listened (pulling out a flashlight, swimming, looking for tree house etc.)

We also had snack and play time as usual! I did get some pictures of the kids but they will have to come later!

Preschool (10/9)

WOW!! The kids are doing so well! I am really impressed with how well the kids are doing andactually learning and retaining--way to go mommies!

Here is the rundown for preschool last Thursday!

Circle Time 9:45-9:55am (10 min)
Question of the Day—What do you like to do with your daddy? (practice raising hands)
Calendar—This month is October. Today is Thursday.
Song—Seven Days in a Week (Thank you Nicolle for the great CD)

Numbers~5 9:55-10:20 am (25 min)
Flashcards— Count 1-10, lay out cards, children count objects and check the number on back(got these awesome flashcards at Walmart for 97 cents FYI)

Whiteboard—Practice writing the number 5 and drawing 5 objects
Tactile Numbers—color and decorate the number 5 with 5 stickers

Reading Time 10:20-10:30am (10 min)
The Knight Before Dawn (we read chapter 3)

Finn dressed up like a Knight to get the kids excited and we drew a picture on the whiteboard to explain all of the new words we learned like moat, drawbridge, hawk house

Snack Time 10:30-10:35 am (5 min)

Play Time 10:35-10:55 am (20 min)

Sorting 10:55-11:20 (25 min)
Foam Shapes—sort foam shapes by color, and then by shape (the kids did really well with this--they were a little confused about the shapes since there are blue hearts, red hearts, etc. but they caught on really quick!)
Activity—sorting and gluing fruit loops onto their own paper

Today at Preschool (10/2)

Hooray!! We finished Dinosaurs in the Dark! It seems like the kids really enjoyed reading this longer book and I am very impressed with how much they retained. We reviewed the whole book briefly and somewhat reenacted the book with miniature toy dinosaurs. It was nice to have something that the kids could look at while we read the last two chapters. For our "general studies" we talked a lot about each kind of dinosuar-- the name, what they like to eat, and other things. We also made a "Dinosaur Notebook" just like Jack who takes notes on the different dinosaurs.

We did the October calendar and the kids spent A LOT of time talking about Halloween and what they were going to be. Then the conversation lead to Christmas coming soon and they all talked about what they wanted for Christmas and where they were going for Christmas. I didn't plan on spending so much time on this but it was really cute because the kids were so excited and they were doing a really good job of raising their hands to have their turn so I just went with it!

We spent a little bit of time with our number "4". We counted together up to 20 and then traced the number 4 in the air. We played with our number bucket (as posted from before) and tried really hard to find the "magic number 4". I was really impressed at how well the kids recognize their numbers. The kids were ready for play by then so I just sent the "writing number 4" worksheet home with them! The kids are doing great and I am excited at how well they are doing!

Lesson plan- Some things go together & number 3

This is what we did today-

• All of us sat on the special blanket and took turns telling everyone our favorite color to practice being in front of peers again
  

• We sang songs like head, shoulders, knees and toes and then I would mess up a song and have them correct me. Each of us took turns using our imagination making a song silly and we had to correct them. It was a lot of fun, but it got really silly!!!

• When we read the book today they all remembered what had happened in the last chapter and as we read, they all got so close to me and were gripped! We read 2 chapters today because they were so interested. After we were done they asked if I could read more. They really are loving it. Thanks again Maren!

• We talked about how some things go together. I held up a book and had them choose what things went together like a bee and a flower or a bee and an ice cream cone. They already understood every example that I gave them so I had them each take turns thinking of something that they like or use and then we would think of something that goes with the item. This is something that you can practice at home. They all loved it and were very creative in their answers.
  

• The #3 worksheet

• Lots of fun!!!
  

Lesson Plan~Sept. 11, Number 1 and Magnetism

I am back tracking a little but I thought that I would write down what we did last Thursday for preschool while it is fresh on my mind!! (On Thursdays we will be covering math and a general studies of sorts!) I like to plan and write out the details so I might as well share them with you all in case you want to reinforce or even steal this lesson the next time around!

Math
1) read through number flash cards together (number recognition 1-20)
2) talk about what a number 1 looks like (the number of the day)
3) write the number one in the air with fingers-- use this little poem "start at the top and down you run, I just wrote a number one!)
4) stand up , then lay down and be a number one
5) "The Number Bucket"-- I made a number bucket with a food storage metal can and magnetic plastic numbers 0-9 (2 of each, 88 cents at Walmart by the way). The outside of the bucket has the outlines of each number. Kids reach in to find a number, tell the other kids what number it is and then find where it goes on the outside of the can! The kids loved this one!
6) number 1 worksheet (with the number 1, the word "one", and a box to place "one" sticker in)

Magnetism
1) talk about a magnet and show the magnet wand (magnet strips hot glued onto a wooden food skewer)
2) explain that some things are magnetic and some are not magnetic
3) make small posters for each child with 2 sandwich bags stapled onto it and labeled "magnetic" and "NOT magnetic"-- the kids actually caught onto this really quick
4) lay out things on the table one at a time for each child and test to see if it is magnetic or not
** things used---crayon, straw, popsicle stick, magnet, 3-4 metal objects found in the garage, paper clips, safety pin, piece of paper

The kids were great and did a fabulous job raising hands etc. I will try and get some pictures of these things up soon as well!