Slight Change to Format

One of the mothers had to leave due to scheduling, so we had to re-format a little on the order of our letters taught. We liked only having to teach once every four weeks, so decided to stick with Letter Week, Letter Week, Review Week, then made our fourth week a Field Trip Week and cancelling our normal Wednesday Field Trips. This way it frees up all the mom's schedules a little bit to have Wednesday off, and we try to plan 2 Field Trips for that week.

Christmas Party

Sorry, very few pictures. It was a bit of a crazy day, which is expected for almost any day this time of year!

SONGS

STORY

GAME - We had each kid bring a gift and did the Left/Right Story for Gift Exchange. The preschoolers caught on really quick learning Left and Right, the little kids just followed what everyone else did :) I love how little kids are happy with even the smallest things!


CRAFT - We made our own gift tags! I had three designs and we rotated them around the table so the kids got to make one of each-
Thumbprint Reindeer  - brown thumb, draw antlers, eyes, and a nose

Christmas Light Strand - draw a squiggly line and stick your finger in different colors making colored dots along the line to look like Christmas lights

Christmas Tree - Stamp up your finger in green and make a Christmas tree. I also had little ornament stampers they got to decorate their tree with

My little boys loved choosing which gift tag to put on their presents to their cousins, etc

TREAT

 MOVIE

Fun Day - Caroling

Each Christmas Fun Day the moms were going to teach the kids at least one Christmas song. That way, when they went caroling, they had a few in their storage bank.

The mom reviewed/taught a few Christmas songs then they walked around the neighborhood visiting some elderly and caroled to them. The kids loved it. The neighbors loved it. It was all around a win!

Running to each of the houses!

PLUS, they headed back the house for hot cocoa afterward! :)

Fun Day - Nativity

This mother gave the kids all parts beforehand we were supposed to review their line with them and have them come dressed up. They rehearsed the Nativity then invited the parents to come for the last 15 minutes. It was very cute, and very well done with songs and dancing!

We then sent the kids downstairs to watch a movie while we did more planning. One of the mothers mentioned she would not be able to continue in the new year.

Basically for keepsake purposes, one of the moms recorded the play. It can be seen here -

Fun Day - Gingerbread

It was all about Gingerbread today!

We started with a little story rhyme -
I'm a little gingerbread boy - boys bow
I'm a little gingerbread girl - girls curtsy
I can jump (jump) And I can twirl (twirl)
I have raisins for my eyes (point to eyes)
And bright red buttons just this size (point to buttons down chest)
I have a mouth, it looks like this (point to smiling mouth)
I can even blow a kiss (blow kiss)
I'm warm and tasty (rubbing belly)
But don't eat me (shake head and finger)
Hang me on your Christmas tree! (Put hand over head)

We then made our own gingerbread men to hang on our tree. I mixed up a dough
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup cinnamon
1/3 cup salt
1/3 cup water
The kids helped roll it out and used a gingerbread man/girl cookie cutter to put on the baking sheet. We baked them at 350 for about 25 minutes

Making the gingerbread men reminded us of the story of the Gingerbread Man. We told the story through song and the tune "Wheels on the Bus"

The gingerbread man ran through the town, through the town, through the town
The gingerbread man ran through the town singing "You'll never catch me!"

He ran away from a cow, from a cow, from a cow... (repeat) Singing "You'll never catch me"
He ran away from a sheep...
He ran away from a dog...

Then he came to a fox, to a fox, to a fox
The fox sat on a box and said "You can trust me"

Then he ate him yes-sir-ee, yes-sir-ee, yes-sir-ee... (repeat) singing "That was really yummy!"

The kids had fun recounting the story. But that fox that ate that cookie reminded us of the game "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar" and played that game practicing beats-

We finally concluded that nobody stole the cookies, but if there was a fox here, he would steal them! And we talked about how it isn't good to steal (or lie, if you do steal cookies you should tell your mom). This led into how we should act, be nice and giving. That reminded me of the story "George the Giving Gingerbread Man" This is a story my mom told when we were kids and it's your basic story, but everyone he comes across he helps (a little girl crying who had fallen down, he hides in a  house and sees someone left their shoes out so puts them away, cleans the dishes that are sitting out, etc.) He always leaves singing "Run Run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm George the Giving Gingerbread Man!" The kids thought it was so fun.

We made our way into the kitchen to decorate our George the Giving Gingerbread Men. I had pictures of eyes, nose, mouth, buttons, etc and when they found a match, they got to draw that on their picture. They were encouraged to take George home and do nice things for their family, and leave George so they could know he was there and then do something nice for someone else.

 George needed a house, so decorated Gingerbread houses (made from graham crackers)

The song we learned for Caroling Day was Up on the Housetop :)

And if you're ever wanting to do a bigger theme of gingerbread, these two websites have LOTS and LOTS of ideas-

http://www.littlegiraffes.com/gingerbread.html

http://stepbystepcc.com/gingerbread.html

Fun Day - Ornaments

For the month of December, because of Christmas Break and not wanting to teach letters, taking a long break and not being able to review them quickly, we decided to have a month of Fun Days. Each mother took one day to do something "Christmas"y of their choice.

MONDAY - Christmas Trees and Ornament Making

Review Day 2

My last day of review week I didn't really take many pictures, but we review quite a few things including all the alphabets the kids had learned up to this point and number writing practice, and various other things that went with those two things. My favorite part of the day was the kids yoga. I found a video of the cutest kids yoga and the kids really liked it. 

There was a lot of movement and the kids did really well and seemed to enjoy doing the yoga moves. 

I gotta say, Youtube is a great resource for the kids preschool. Yay, super talented people who share their talent with the world!

Review Day 1

We worked with the word tree "en" and we also reviewed why exercise is good for us.

There was very little sitting down and doing writing this time, a lot more hands on. The kids loved it.

The highlight of preschool was making gingerbread men. The kids loved decorating them and of course eating them.

D said that his was the most delicious.

SH

• sh is for shhhhhhhh! (finger over your mouth)
• shape song from same makers as the letter songs
• Read The Shape of Things and made our own page just like theirs. Talk about 2-d and 3-d.

 

• Centers

1-Pattern Block Numbers
2-race cars around the shapes - I made roads into several shapes and they drive the car around the shape
  I got this idea from Making Learning Fun
3-practice writing shapes and numbers
4-sorting 2-d and 3-d shapes
5- free build with blocks

We played with parachute and balls and notice how the parachute is 2-d and the balls are 3-d.

Snack:  We sorted our snack into the different shapes.  I found this activity here

I had some shape songs that we sang through out. They are all to the tune of Farmer in the Dell


Square:
A square has 4 sides
A square has 4 sides
All the sides are exactly the same.
A square has 4 sides.

Rectangle:
A rectangle has 4 sides
A rectangles has 4 sides
2 are long and 2 are short
A rectangle has 4 sides.

Triangle:
A triangle has 3 sides
A triangle has 3 sides
Up the mountain down and back
A triangle has 3 sides

Circle:
A circle is like an O
A circle is like an O
Round and Round it never stops
A circle's like an O

Field Trip - Animal Shelter

The animal shelter was a fun little place to go. The dogs were a bit loud at first, which scared some of the kids, but everyone calmed down after a minute. I thought it was just sad to see all those animals (there was one I wanted to take home so bad that looked the sweetest, but said it could jump like 8 feet walls or something crazy (it was chained down to the ground :( And... I don't think I can handle more than one dog. 

The kids stayed very interested though!

I think their favorite was the kitty room. Much more quiet and relaxing. But... I don't like cats. Sometimes they say they get snakes, birds, all sorts of other random animals I don't remember. Too bad none were in that day :)


This guy was the class favorite. And is basically the shelter's mascot. He said they have had this guy for... 10 years! (I think that's what he said anyway, haha)



Go adopt a pet! :)

V

• V is for vroom(pretend to be revving up a motorcycle)
• V song on You Tube found here
• Read the book 123 Va Va Vroom. I love this because they say Va-Va- Vroom.  ( also pointed out to them that V does not say Vah.  That if you looked at the front cover it needs an a to say Vah.  We practiced saying vvvvvvv).  This is also a counting book, sort of.  It counts the laps 1-10.  So we looked at each number and practiced drawing it in the air.

 

• Racing Game - match pictures with correct first sound. This is set up like a relay race I had pictures that started with e, h, and v.  The had to race and decide which one it started with and put it in the correct pocket.  I got  cute cars at Target  after Halloween clearance for a couple bucks - couldn't resist!
• Centers

1-race to trace - played with a partner.  You roll the dice and then trace the number.  You try to be the first to trace all your numbers.
2-filler up - this game is actually called Kindergarten Yatzee, but I remade it to look like a fuel tank to keep with the car theme.  The kids rolled 2 dice and added them up. Then they colored in the square that matched what they got.  You try to be the first to fill up your gas tank. ( both these games were from the same website which has lots of simple math games!)
3-painting V's with cars- this was simple, you roll a car in paint and make V's on paper
4-Car racing game - I got this from Toy's R Us clearance.  It's like sorry or trouble.  You roll the dice and try to get all the way around the race track to the checkered flag in the middle.  If someone lands on the same square as you, you go back to start.
5-Ramp Investigation - I have a 3 drawer dresser.  The kids pulled each draw out one at a time, set up their ramp, then rolled the car down.  Then they marked how far their car went.  After they were done, they made conclusions like (the higher shelf made my car go farther, etc.)
Snack - Race Car out of celery

Thanksgiving Party

We took this week off, since it was Thanksgiving weekend and school was out Wednesday and Friday. We still met Monday and had a little Thanksgiving Party, following our usual format-

SONGS -


BOOK -


GAME-

Roll-a-turkey - This is a super cute, very simple game. You give each child a dice and there is a table, if you roll a "1" draw the face, etc and you end up drawing your own turkey!


CRAFT-

Pinecones, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. This is so simple it is a great thing to have kids do. They can bend the pipe cleaners and just stick them in, no gluing necessary. But you do need just a dab of glue for the eyes and beak :)

TREAT-

Basically our treat was a Thanksgiving 'Feast' - We had deli turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, and pumpkin pie! The kids LOVED it!

MOVIE-


Thanksgiving movies are a bit harder to come by. This one is good, and available on youtube. I actually enjoyed Holiday for Drumsticks, also found online :)

During our movies, we plan for the next holiday party or anything else that needs to be discussed. It works out great!

E

My camera is broken, so I couldn't take any pictures today, which really is too bad because the kids were adorable and had SO much fun!

E is for 'e e e..e e e e e - Exercise!" (we sang the 'e' sound in a sing song pattern doing exercise moves then shout out Exercise!)

• I love correlating lessons to books and I've actually done this one before and loved the way it worked so did it again with a few changes. The book I use is Sesame Street Happy Healthy Monsters. It is very interactive and the kids were giggling non-stop 

-It introduces the characters and what they like to do-try doing what they like
-You start with a warm-up: march in place with them... jump, etc
-Talks about how exercise is good for your bones and muscles and that your heart is a muscle. They can feel their heartbeat *my little boy has been running around jumping all day telling me to feel how fast his heart is beating! :)
-Exercises like swimming, running, dancing, playing ball, etc
-Teaches you need to give your body a break and eating a healthy snack can boost your energy; what foods are good for you, what are their favorite foods?
-Talks how you need to exercise your brain too and does imagination play

• We decided to practice everything we learned and started with a warm-up

-We did a few stretches-up high, touch toes; arm circles, neck, ankles, etc

• For exercise you can play some games - sports, races, clean-up relays. We watched a few segments from Barney and Friends movie- Hop To It and did the exercises and dances with them. It is about a girl who wants to be big and strong. Some of the best songs are Exercise Song; Move Your Body; Shape-up and Freeze.

• After all their exercise they decided they needed to give their bodies a little rest and we went to the kitchen to make a healthy snack. I just got a new toy from Pampered Chef- the simple slicer and microwave chip maker, so I wanted to use that. :) The kids were amazed by the apple slices and we microwaved some to make apple chips and tried some apples plain. While they ate their snack I read them another book - Mercer Mayer books are so fun and this one was Good for Me and You all about exercise.

• We tried doing sit ups and push-ups like in the book and made the 'e' sound during our repetitions instead of counting.

• Next we decided trying exercising our brains and did a little imagination song rhyme-I thought it was popular, but I couldn't find something online, so here is what it is. You can make your own actions. (We just pat our legs during the first part, look around, hands on hips while shaking head, shimmer hands up and out above head)

Going on a Treasure Hunt (me)
Going on a Treasure Hunt (them)
Going to Find some Treasure
Going to Find some Treasure
We're Not Scared
We're not Scared
It's a Beautiful Day
It's a Beautiful Day

OH NO! I see a big ugly swamp with crocodiles in it!
Can't go over it
Can't go over it
Can't go under it
Can't go under it
Have to go through it.
SWIM SWIM SWIM SWIM
WHEW! Made it! (Ask if everyone is okay, let's keep going)

(It just repeats and you come across long swishy grass with snakes (RUN)- icky sticky mud with mosquitos and bugs (SHLOP) -  and a cave with treasure in it (SPARKLE)

TREASURE!

Went on a Treasure Hunt
Went on a Treasure Hunt
We found some Treasure
We found some Treasure
We weren't scared
We weren't scared
It's a beautiful Day
It's a Beautiful Day

• Next we played a memory match game with the letters of the alphabet. They had to make the sound of the letter each time they picked a card

• We then did a worksheet (I'll have to upload a picture once I get my camera working)

-I had 4 letters down the center of the page - Red N Blue P Green H Orange E and 4 pictures on each side. They had to draw a red line to the words that started with N, blue line to the words that started with P, etc.

• We ran out of time but some other moms have worked on sorting so I wanted to incorporate a little of that and planned pictures of healthy foods, snack foods, and exercises with a board and the letter - "H"  "S" and "E" - H is for Healthy and Happy, S is for Sick and Sad and E is for exercise. They needed to decide if it was something that made you healthy and happy, or sick and sad (if you eat too much of it), or if it was an exercise.

If your library has these things, I highly recommend this lesson as it is good for the kids, they enjoy it, and requires very little effort or prep!

Field Trip- Jacob Hamblin Home

Jacob Hamblin's home is just up the street from us. It is Hamblin's Historic House - so we visited it for letter H. :)

The kids explored the cotton growing out front, and went on a little walk on a trail while waiting for everyone to arrive.

I don't feel like telling everything, but it's a great little tour about an amazing man! Each time they tell most of the same stories, yet it still seems I always leave thinking-I didn't know that!

the slope of the patio cover where they would lay things to dry

their kitchen table-chairs turned outward so they could kneel to pray before eating

looking at diagram of original fort that was ruined in flood, everywhere he traveled

checking out the rooms, bath, saddle, the buffalo skull they used as a mailbox

pictures, beds, saying-sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!

upstairs school room, workroom, feeling their soap

It was fun for the kids to hear about history-how things were different back then and some cool stories we know from people keeping journals. We sure are thankful for everything we have today! I'm so bummed I forgot to take a picture of all the kids in front of the house. But thanks to technology, I can google a picture, so here ya go! :)

Now just imagine cute little kids standing out front ;)

H

H is for 'h h h' breathing on your hands like its cold.
*Make sure they only make the 'h' sound and not 'huh'

I started by teaching them the word "History". And that it means things that happened a long time ago. It happened to be Veteran's Day yesterday and all the flags are out today. I asked if they knew why and briefly talked about how soldiers fight to keep us safe. There have been wars in history where lots of people have died. We remember their history and America's history.

They have their own personal histories too. And it is good to write down when we do things, so we can remember our history. The other mothers happen to have blogs, so we visited each child's family blog and looked at their histories. I had each child tell about something they did from pictures on their blog. The kids loved showing everyone their pictures and talking about what they did.

I have a history and we looked at some baby pictures of me and Christmas and Halloween pictures when I was their age. They liked looking at the pictures and guessing which one was me, and how me and Ezra look the same. I told them to go home and ask their parents about their history or their grandparents history. They can look at pictures or hear stories.
-------------

The next word I taught them was "Holiday". There are holidays every month we celebrate. We looked at my month board and talked about the holidays in different months.

Next week the Holiday we celebrate is Thanksgiving! I told them Thanksgiving has a History too and asked if they knew when the very first Thanksgiving was. We then watched the movie - This is America Charlie Brown, The Mayflower Voyagers. This is a great Charlie Brown movie that is very factual and teaches a lot, while still being interesting. You can watch it on YouTube - Part 1 and Part 2

After the movie, we reviewed what happened. I showed this video as a review that is a lot of fun for the kids to sing with-

We talked about how even though a lot of people died, they were still thankful for what they had- houses, food, the indians, and that they were free. I talked about how at Thanksgiving it is good to remember their history, to not complain, but be thankful for what we have and we did a Thankful worksheet. We talked about all the things we are thankful for, then I had them circle the words that began with the letter H.

Because we eat turkey at Thanksgiving I had a second worksheet with a Turkey. This turkey only liked "H" words. I asked what feeling starts with "H" and they decided happy. They had to draw a happy face on the turkey. They had to choose between a Hat and a crown to put on his head, Heart or star shirt. Did their turkey Hop or run to get around? And lastly, was their turkey Hungry or tired? They had fun dressing their turkey in all the H words.

They decided they were Hungry too and we had a little snack together.

 We ended by reviewing everything we talked about that day and talking about our field trip for Wednesday - visiting the Jacob Hamblin Home, which is a Historic House. We will learn about his History. Then with all the letters, as you may have noticed, they love these little videos. They sang and danced warming their hands when it sang the sound. H found here.