Casey came up with the idea of "nailing" a toothpick to the carpet. I explained which carpet they could use to do this, and then I offered him some paper so that he could "nail" the paper to the carpet. This kept the kids busy for about 15 minutes. The things they come up with! But I figured it was innovative and fun for them, and they practiced hitting the "nail" (toothpick) on the head with the hammers. The paper actually did stay attached to the carpet, too.
Silliness!
Madison asked me to help her dress this bear and then wanted me to take her picture. Casey joined in on the picture!
Letter F is for Friends and Feelings. In conjunction with this theme, we made a rainbow of hands coming together in Friendship! The kids got tired of me painting their hands, so to fill in the rest of the rainbow, I traced their hands and cut them out of construction paper.
This was one of those cheap Dollar Store purchases, and the kids really liked it. It comes with 10 worms that are numbered 1-10. I took turns giving each child a worm, asked them to identify which number they had, and then put the blindfold on them, turned them 3 times, and they attempted to attach their numbered worm to the white worm on the apple!
It rained today so we could not play outside. Can you tell?
My daughter's friend came for a visit and spent the day in preschool with us.
Julia, my daughter, reading to Casey.
Julia reading to Casey and Jake
Rest time! I think it's the little one who is supposed to fall asleep!
G is for goose as in Mother Goose! This week, we are learning some nursery rhymes. After we watched a video on Youtube about Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep, the children went searching for their lost sheep. I printed out on cardstock 21 sheep, 7 for each of my 3 students. I put their names on them. I explained to each child that they were to go hunt for 7 sheep with their names on them. This helps with name recognition and counting. Also on the sheep, I numbered their sheep from 1-7. Once they found their 7 sheep, they were to come to me and place them in numerical order.
There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe! This activity is pending. I will have the children look through magazines for pictures of children to place in the Old Woman's Shoe! We will read the rhyme and do the activity. I ususally try to give them paper that is their favorite color: Jake's is blue, Madison's is pink (like Mrs. M's favorite), and Casey's is yellow.
Sight words. With each change of letter, I put up a new sight learning word. I tell the kids to look at the first letter, repeat the sound it makes, then try to figure out the word. What I would like to do more of is, when I am reading a book to them and come to one of these sight words, see if they can recognize it and "read" the word!
Each time we introduce a new letter, we introduce a new number. I use this chart.
Letter G and our Gumdrop Tree. I let each student choose the branch they wanted to use (I picked these up from my yard). Then I spray painted them white. Each child then placed a gumdrop on a branch. I stuck the branches down in clay to hold them upright, but this did not prove strong enough. So I recycled peanut containers and placed the clay and branch through the lid of the peanut can, placed the lid on the can, and then decorated the outside of the can with scrapbooking paper. This seemed to work much better.
