Letter Y is for You

Day 1   Y is for You     Numbers Review    Money Review
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Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Introduce letter Y and review letters A-X.  Read "My Y Book."  Review #’s 1-20.    Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants vowels.  Review money. Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders,"  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.  Teach "Jesus Loves Me," which every child should eventually know.  I still sing it to myself occasionally-it's just a pretty and encouraging song! Teach songs/poems for Mother's Day Tea Party!  Read : "I Like Me!" by Nancy Carkson. This is a timely lesson for two of my students.  They both teared up due to embarrassment on Friday, so we had a long talk about it being okay to mess up, and it is good to be able to laugh at ourselves!  Hopefully this story will help because it discusses embarrassing moments and how to handle them with grace.  Good lesson for adults as well!

Snack: 
Bible: Bible Devotional
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Group Lesson:  All About Me booklets.  A few years ago, I picked up little booklets with this title.  I will choose the pages I like and put them together into a booklet for my students to fill out.  When we are done, I will read each child's booklet out loud so we can learn more about each of us and what makes us unique and special!
Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 
Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a little introduction to aerobics! 

Art/Fine Motor:  Cut out a large letter Y from cardstock--yellow cardstock if you have it.  Provide yellow yarn for the kids to line the letter Y with the yellow yarn.  Preschool-aged kids love cutting the yarn into pieces, so they can cut the yard into whatever size pieces they like and glue them onto the letter Y to make a pretty Y!  Yay!
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Review/Pack up/Dismissal

from:  http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2010/04/letter-of-the-week-8.html

Day 2   Y is for You     Numbers Review    Money Review

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Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Introduce letter Y and review letters A-X.  Read "My Y Book."  Review #’s 1-20.    Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants vowels.  Review money. Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders,"  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.  Teach "Jesus Loves Me," which every child should eventually know.  I still sing it to myself occasionally-it's just a pretty and encouraging song! Teach songs/poems for Mother's Day Tea Party!  Read a book about being yourself!

Snack: 

Bible: Bible story

Free Play

Group Lesson:  All About Me booklets. Yucky Foods Collage/Yummy Foods Collage

Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 

Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a little introduction to aerobics! 

Art/Fine Motor:  I will give each child a piece of paper, drawing tool, and watered down paint.  They will be asked to draw a picture of their face and then add watered down paint as their hair. While the paint is runny, they will take a straw, blow through it, and make their hair go in different directions by blowing the paint via the straw.
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Review/Pack up/Dismissal

Day 3   Y is for You     Numbers Review    Money Review

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Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Introduce letter Y and review letters A-X.  Read "My Y Book."  Review #’s 1-20.    Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants vowels.  Review money. Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders,"  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.  Teach "Jesus Loves Me," which every child should eventually know.  I still sing it to myself occasionally-it's just a pretty and encouraging song! Teach songs/poems for Mother's Day Tea Party!  Read a book about being yourself.

Snack: 

Bible: 

Free Play

Group Lesson:  All About Me booklets.   What's Missing?  Testing our memory.  I will show the children various items and ask them to look at the items carefully and try to remember what they see.  Then I will ask them to turn around, facing away from the items.  I will take one of the items away.  Then I will tell the children to turn around, look at the items again and tell me what is missing.  I will give them a chance to be the one to "steal" an item from the pile and have the rest of us guess which item has gone missing.  

Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 

Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a little introduction to aerobics! 

Art/Fine Motor:  Melted Crayons or Shrinky Dinks
Free Play
Review/Pack up/Dismissal

Additional Ideas:

Below:  From Preschool Express

OPPOSITES Here are a list of words, can your child tell you the opposite word that starts with Y?
	Old (Young)
	No (Yes)
	Whisper (Yell)
	Me (You)
	Today (Yesterday)
	YES/NO GAME Show your child hand signals for “yes” and “no”. Arms stretched up like a Y for “yes” and hands on hips for “no”. Ask him some questions and have him answer with these new hand signals.

Body Match Game

Play music and have the children work in pairs. Call out a body part that they need to match. If you say "Knees" the children need to make one or both of their knees touch the knees of their partner!

Letter X, Easter, Earth Day

I am actually already through teaching letter X but did not get a chance to blog on here due to Easter busyness, but I thought I'd write a quick synopsis of what we did.
Letter X Art and Letter Recognition and Fine Motor Practice.  From:  enchantedmommy.com

I gave each child a sheet of white paper on which I had used Washi tape to mark out a letter X.  I instructed them to use various colors of paint (tempura with a little water added to make it runnier) to paint all around the letter X.  I gave them the option of using a paintbrush or a medicine dropper.  They did both.  They liked "sucking up" the paint in the dropper and dropping it on their papers.  Then they took their brushes and spread the paint around the paper.  Once this is dry, you instruct the kids to take off the washi tape, revealing the letter X in white!

Earth Day:  Earth Day took place during the week of teaching Letter X.  We talked a lot about recycling, reusing and repurposing.  The students always seem to be quite interested in this subject each year when I teach it.  They love to hear of the various ways we can help keep God's earth beautiful and clean.

Bible:  I taught about Jesus being the Light of the world and how we are to be lights to others for Jesus.  We made a little tealight holder out of small glass cups I purchased at the thrift store.  We put glue on the outside of the glasses and then simply sprinkled glitter over the glue.  We then tied a ribbon around the top of the glasses and added a tea light.

Madison, one of my students, shared with us an X-ray of her collar bone.  She broke it when she was younger.  We talked about the sound letter X makes.

Mother's Day:  We are continuing working on our Mother's Day gifts, which I won't talk about yet, because my moms might be watching this blog, and it's a secret, so shhhhhh!

The weather has been turning nice, so we are spending lots more time outdoors.  I purchased some items from the thrift store for the kids club house (under my rhododendron bush)--pots, pans, tray, towels, rugs, utensils, play food.  They loved this!  I love all the imagination and discussions that went on.  They work really well together; sometimes I wonder why we adults can do better about working together and collaborating on our ideas!  We need to learn a lesson from children.

We have been doing some worksheets on beginning sounds.  The children are doing really well picking out what letter a word begins with:  violin begins with V, etc.  The older kids are able to sound out some words on their own at this point, which is really amazing to watch!  We are also working on our math skills and doing some math games and worksheets.  For Easter, I took 15 plastic eggs, and on the larger half of an egg I put a particular number of dots; then on the smaller half of the egg, I put a number.  The children then had to match up the numbered eggs with the dotted eggs.  I made sure to not match the eggs up by color, so the kids had to count, not match by color.
http://room-mom101.blogspot.com/2010/03/easter-egg-matching-activity.html?m=1

For my student's Easter egg hunt, I put triangle shapes on 20 eggs, rectangle shapes on 20 eggs, and square shapes on 20 eggs (with Sharpie).  I also put my student's names on approx. 10 eggs--10 per student.  Madison hunted all the eggs with the rectangles, Jake hunted all the eggs with the squares, and Casey hunted all the eggs with the triangles, and then they each hunted with the eggs with their names on them.  Favorite item in each egg was multicolored coin chocolates, found at a shop in Maryland.  We ate pizza and ham, carrots, and lots of different fruits for our Easter celebration lunch.  Lots of fun!

Another Easter art project was an Easter egg wreath.  I gave each student egg-shaped pieces of paper (about 14 each) and allowed them to paint them in any design or color they liked.  Once they dried, I glued them around the edge of a blue, green or pink paper plate.  I did not cut the center of the plate out, but left it and had the kids write "Happy Easter" on the middle of the plate.  Cute!  Found on jennwa.blogspot.com

We also made Resurrection Cookies:  Found on motherhoodonadime.com--Great way to explain the Easter story!

Another teaching game we did, and the kids loved it and stayed with it for a long time:  http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2014/04/color-number-easter-eggs.html.  Simply prepare the markers with numbers, have the children take turns selecting a number from a pile of number cards, and then they choose the marker that corresponds with the number on their card.  They keep choosing cards until they have a variety of colors on their eggs.  My students found that rubbing the color with a paper towel made a cool marbled effect, and it was very pretty!  Don't eat!!!!

W is for Weather and Number Review

Day 1    W is for Weather     Numbers Review    Money Review
I plan on spending 5 or 6 days on this subject and letter.  There is so much to learn about our weather, we are progressing through our letters sooner than expected, so I am slowing things down as far as teaching each letter.  Also, weather is getting nice outside, so I expect we will be spending more time outside playing (learning)!
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Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Introduce letter W and review letters A-V.  Read "My W Book."  Review #’s 1-20.    Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants vowels.  Review money. Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders,"  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.  Teach "Jesus Loves Me," which every child should eventually know.  I still sing it to myself occasionally-it's just a pretty and encouraging song! Teach songs/poems for Mother's Day Tea Party!  Read "Weather" by Rena Kirkpatrick.  This is a book I picked up at a Thrift Store, and it is very nice to teach with for Weather Week!

Snack: 
Bible: "Going Fishing!" from The Big Book of Bible Lessons for Crafty Kids:  "Come, follow Me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."  Matthew 4:19.  Getting Crafty Fishing Game page 130.  Play "Getting Active" game outdoors!  
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Group Lesson:    Clouds: (for teacher):  If weather is nice, we will go outdoors for this lesson and take a blanket with us.  When heat energy from the sun warms the earth's surface, the earth radiates this heat into the surrounding air.  As this WARM air rises into the atmosphere, it cools and the water vapor it contains begins to condense into tiny water droplets, forming clouds.  Clouds formed at the earth's surface are called fog.
For kids (http://www.ducksters.com/science/atmosphere.php):  The earth is surrounded by a layer of gases called the atmosphere. The atmosphere is very important to life on Earth and does many things to help protect life and help life to survive. 

A Big Blanket 

The atmosphere protects Earth like a big blanket of insulation. It absorbs the heat from the Sun and keeps the heat inside the atmosphere helping the Earth to stay warm, called the Greenhouse Effect. It also keeps the overall temperature of the Earth fairly steady, especially between night and day. So we don't get too cold at night and too hot during the day. There is also a portion of the atmosphere ofOzone. Ozone helps to protect the earth from the Sun's radiation. 

This big blanket also helps to form our weather patterns and climate. The weather keeps too much hot air from forming in one place and causes storms and rainfall. All of these things are important to life and the Earth's ecology. 

Air 

The atmosphere is the air that plants and animals breathe to survive. The atmosphere is made up of mostly nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). There are lots of other gases that are part of the atmosphere, but in much smaller amounts. These include argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium, hydrogen, and more. Oxygen is needed by animals to breathe and carbon dioxide is used by plant in photosynthesis.

Creating Water Vapor (From:  Exploring Weather - Teacher Created Materials, Inc.):  Place equal amounts of water into three cups (clear, plastic cups or jars).  Add food coloring to each to tint the water.  Mark the water level on each cup with permanent marker.  Place one cup in direct sunlight, one in shady spot, and one indoors.  Check the cups twice/d and note changes in water levels.  Intro and discuss EVAPORATION.  At which location did the water in the cup evaporate the quickest?  Why?  Conclude and explain that even though water vapor is a gaseous substance and cannot be seen, water is in the air around us.

Give each child a copy of Clouds booklet from edHelper.com, and discuss the various types of clouds that are formed:  cumulus (big, white, puffy clouds seen on sunny day--great for seeing shapes); cirrus ( thin, curly, made of ice, sun shines through them); stratus (low, gray, often bring rain or snow); nimbus (dark, low, straight, cover whole sky, bring rain--also can be tall, puffy and bring storms).  Each child will be given a booklet to color and take home at end of week.  

Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 
Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a little introduction to aerobics! 
Art/Fine Motor:  Make a large cloud by gluing cotton balls to cloud template.  Make large sun by coloring and cutting sun template/rays.  Say poem:  
Disappearing Act:
Sometimes,
On a sunny day,
The sun disappears...
It just goes away.
"Where did you go?
I wonder out loud,
And then it peeks out,
From behind a cloud. 
Discussion about sun and clouds from:  Page 5 of Exploring Weather - Teacher Created Materials, Inc.
Free Play
Review/Pack up/Dismissal


Day 2    W is for Weather     Numbers Review    Money Review
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Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Introduce letter W and review letters A-V.  Read "My W Book."  Review #’s 1-20.    Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants vowels.  Review money. Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders,"  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.  Teach "Jesus Loves Me," which every child should eventually know.  I still sing it to myself occasionally-it's just a pretty and encouraging song! Teach songs/poems for Mother's Day Tea Party!  Read "City Storm" by Rebel Williams.  Sing the words to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus."  See plans and discussions at end of book for further teaching material (safety in a storm; using instruments for storm sounds, etc.)This is a book I picked up at a Thrift Store, and it is very nice to teach with for Weather Week!

Snack: 
Bible: Read:  "Heaven is for Real for little ones:  I picked this up at Ollie's for $2.29.    
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Group Lesson:    Rain!  1.  On a rainy day, show the children a measuring cup and explain that we are going to set the cup outside in the rain and see how much rain falls into the cup.  At the end of the day, collect the jar, read measurement, and record.  You could do this for every rainy day of the month and chart how much rain fell that month!  2.  Additionally:  bring the rain water inside and have the children observe the water through a magnifying glass.  Ask if water appears clean.  Tuck a coffee filter into the top of the jar.  Fold the edges over the lip of the jar.  Secure the filter to the jar with rubber band.  Pour the rainwater into a second clean jar.  Observe what collects on the filter.  Help the children conclude that particles of dirt from substances like vehicle fumes and smoke collect in the clouds and pollute the rain. 3.  Fill two oblong balloons with air and tie to close.  Go to darkened room.  Hold one balloon in each hand and rub the balloons back and forth over your clothing.  Hold the balloons so they almost touch.  Observe a small flash of light as (static) electricity jumps between balloons.  If very quiet, you will also hear a faint crackle.  Help students relate this flash to the lightning we experience during thunderstorms.  Lightning is caused by the discharge of electricity in the atmosphere.  If the balloons had been clouds, the flash would have been lightning.   From Exploring Weather - Teacher Created Materials, Inc.).  

Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 
Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a little introduction to aerobics! 
Art/Fine Motor:  Rain Shapes (from: Exploring Weather - Teacher Created Materials, Inc.)  Fill several spray bottles with water.  Use food coloring to tint the water in each bottle a different color.  Lauer a table with newspaper or place newspaper in bottom of large box.  Provide children with cardboard shapes or actual objects.  Have the children place a piece of white paper on the newspaper, lay an object or shape onto the white paper, and then use spray bottles to simulate rain over the objects and paper.  When the object is removed, the children should be able to recognize and name the object by looking at the shape it created on the paper. 

Free Play
Review/Pack up/Dismissal
Additional Activities with Rain:  Rainy Day Story; Rainy Day Rhyme; Flip and Count Game; Sizing Raindrops (seriation); Puddle Jumps Activity Game; Balancing Act Game. From:  Exploring Weather - Teacher Created Materials, Inc.


Day 3    W is for Weather     Numbers Review    Money Review
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Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Introduce letter W and review letters A-V.  Read "My W Book."  Review #’s 1-20.    Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants vowels.  Review money. Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders,"  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.  Teach "Jesus Loves Me," which every child should eventually know.  I still sing it to myself occasionally-it's just a pretty and encouraging song! Teach songs/poems for Mother's Day Tea Party!  Read "Snow" by Christopher Hernandez from Scholastic.  For Teachers:  When the temp falls to 32F, we experience frost, sleet, snow, ice.  Frost:  icy glaz on windows and grass caused by freezing of water vapor in the atmosphere; SLeet:  frozen raindrops; Snow:  frozen crystals of water; Ice:  frozen Mass of water.  

Snack: 
Bible: Read:  from "Growing With Jesus" devotional and do coloring sheet "I can be a friend to someone no one likes."  Discuss how KIND Jesus was and is, how powerful He was and is, and how much He loves you.  Make this a happy thinking day!
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Group Lesson:     1.  Making Frost from:  Exploring Weather - Teacher Created Materials, Inc.- Fill a drinking glass with ice, sprinkle ice with a little salt, and stir.  This combo of ice and salt pulls heat energy from the surrounding air.  Water from the air will slowlu collect on the inside of the glass, and in time will harden to frost.  If you scratch some of the frost away, does it reappear?  Help the students understand that the process taking place within the glass is the same process that takes place on the earth.  During the day, the earth absorbs heat from the sun.  At night, the earth radiates this heat.  When this warm vapor meets with colder air temps, frost forms.  2.  Expanding Water:  Have students place equal amounts of water in two plastic jars.  Mark the water level on outside of each jar.  Cover one jar and set aside; freeze the other overnight.  Help students conclude that ice occupies more space than water and water expands when it freezes.  3.  LIke a Rock:  Let children place small rock in cup of water to soak overnight.  Next day, have them remove the wet rock from the cup and place in a sealable plastic bag; place bag in freezer for several hours.  Remove bag from freezer and let rock defrost in bag till ice melts and rock is room temp.  Empty contents of bag onto a sheet of white paper.  Observe any change in the rock.  Are there fragments that have broken away from the rock.  Help students conclude that expanding and contracting that takes place when water freezes and then melts can shatter rocks and produce small fragments from which soil develops.  This is called FROST SHATTERING.

Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 
Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a little introduction to aerobics! 
Art/Fine Motor:  Rain Shapes (from: Exploring Weather - Teacher Created Materials, Inc.)  Snow Colors:  Warm a clear jar with hot water and then fill it with boiling water.  Add borax to the water (1 tbsp. at a time, and stir.  Keep adding and stirring until the powder no longer disappears into the water, about 3 tbsp per cup of water.  Stir in several drops of food coloring.  Bend a pipe cleaner into any shape desired and tie one end of a string to the middle of a pencil.  Holding the pencil, lower the pipe cleaner shape into the borax solution.  Set the pencil down over the top of the jar to hold the pipe cleaner shape suspended in the solution.  As the water cools and evaporates, the borax molecules will stick together on the pipe cleaner, creating crystals.  Leave the crystals in a warm area, and watch them grow every day.  Observe with a magnifying glass!
Free Play
Review/Pack up/Dismissal


Day 4    W is for Weather     Numbers Review    Money Review
Group Lesson:  Wind (From:   Exploring Weather - Teacher Created Materials, Inc) - For teachers:  wind is air in motion.  We cannot see the wind; we can see only the effects.  WInd is caused by the constant rise and fall of warm and cold air, warmer air being lighter and cold air heavier.  Most of our weather changes are caused by the wind as it spreads the sun's heat from warm areas to colder ones.  Talk with students about how wind power can be strong or gentle, helpful or harmful.  Read:  "Wind" by Christopher Hernandez from Scholastic.  
Art/Fine Motor:  Making Pinwheels

Letter V is for Vehicle and Review of Numbers

Day 1    V is for Vehicles     Numbers Review    Money Review
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Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Introduce letter V and review letters A-U.  Read "My V Book."  Review #’s 1-20.    Ask the child to tell you what numbers are on the cards.  Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants vowels.  Review money. Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders,"  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.  Teach "Jesus Loves Me," which every child should eventually know.  I still sing it to myself occasionally-it's just a pretty and encouraging song! Have children try to think of a vehicle that starts with each letter of the alphabet, i.e., a for airplane, b for bus, c for car, d for Duckie Tour, etc.  Picture from:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/103019910196204400/

Snack: 
Bible: "Humility!" from The Big Book of Bible Lessons for Crafty Kids:  "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves"  Phil. 2:3.  Humility:  To think of others before yourself, instead of being selfish.  Make a Verse Pouch out of craft foam.  Page. 122.
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Group Lesson:    Experiment: Ramps and Cars (science & math):  We test cars/trucks to see how well they roll on a ramp covered with various materials, i.e., foil, sandpaper, bubble wrap, corrugated paper.  Also, we will change the height of the ramp and test.  Allow children to try to determine outcomes before testing.  Also could graph their hypotheses and then see what actually occurred.
 Photo from:  http://buggyandbuddy.com/indoor-play-kids-snowy-toy-car-ramp/  

Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 
Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a little introduction to aerobics! Play Red Light/Green Light pretending to be various vehicles:  helicopter, train, etc. 
Art/Fine Motor:  Painting with Vehicles:  Provide large sheets of paper (like Freezer paper) for the children to paint on.  Purchase Dollar Store vehicles and allow the children to dip the vehicles' wheels in paint and see what kind of design they get.  Good time to discuss textures and colors.  See if they can paint a letter V on their papers.
Free Play
Review/Pack up/Dismissal

Day 2    V is for Vehicles     Numbers Review    Money Review
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Circle Time:  Morning learning songs. Letter V and review letters A-U.  Numbers review.   Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants with vowels.  Continue learning about money.  Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders," "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, "Jesus Loves Me."  Read a book about vehicles; graph everyone's favorite vehicle.  
Snack: 
Bible:  Bible devotional or story

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Group Lesson:    Volume Experiment: From:  A to Z Early Childhood Curriculum.  Provide a large container of water, a plastic jar, a pitcher and a cup,  How many cups of water does it take to fill the pitcher?  How many to fill the large container?  How many to fill the jar?  The children can answer these questions by actually filling the containers and discovering the correct answers.  Be sure to have the children predict an answer before they begin.  It is fun for them to see how close their guesses are to the correct answer.

Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 

Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a little introduction to aerobics! Play Red Light/Green Light pretending to be various vehicles:  helicopter, train, etc or take a walk and check out which vehicles the children can see on the walk.

Art/Fine Motor:  Making Volcanos:  From http://www.create-kids-crafts.com/playdough-volcano.html. Last year, my students wanted to do the baking soda/vinegar volcanos all the time, so I know the students this year will love it also.  
 Supplies Needed:

1.Tray or container(large tupperware/plastic container works well to catch lots of lava mixture after numerous eruptions)
2.Paper cup
3.Tin foil
4.Scissors
5.Playdough: I use playdough that has been mixed and mashed together from a variety of colors(As kids love to do!).  Instructions

1. Place a paper cup on your tray and wrap tin foil around it, folding the tin foil over the rim of the cup and shaping the remainder tin foil to resemble a mountain. You may need to use 2 or 3 pieces of tin foil for easier shaping.

Instructions continued

2.Roll out playdough with a rolling pin and place over tin foil. Fold playdough over rim of cup as well. You may need to use 2 or 3 sections of rolled out playdough for easier shaping.

3.Decorate your volcano with trees, animals and buildings if you wish.  

4.Make the lava mixture:

3 tsps Baking soda
1/2 to 1 cup white vinegar
Food coloring

After your volcano is built, put the baking soda into the volcano paper cup. Mix the food coloring with the vinegar in a separate cup. Pour the vinegar/food coloring mixture into the volcano and watch the eruption!

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Day 3    V is for Vehicles     Numbers Review    Money Review

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Free Play in Learning Centers
Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Letter V and review letters A-U.  Read "My V Book."  Review #’s 1-20.    Review the vowel song.   Begin blending consonants vowels.  Review money. Lately, I have been teaching the children some of the old-time songs and rhymes that I sung as a child.  Thus far, we have learned "This Old Man," "Where is Thumpkin?", and  "Hands On Shoulders,"  "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.  Teach "Jesus Loves Me," which every child should eventually know.  I still sing it to myself occasionally-it's just a pretty and encouraging song!  Read a vehicle book!  I have tons of them!
Snack: 
Bible: "Read from the Bible devotional or Bible story.
Free Play in Learning Centers
Group Lesson: Weekly Reader and Computer Activities from Scholastic Let's Find Out.
Lunch/Rest:  Read two books while children relax, listen and enjoy! 
Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  1.  Outdoor play if weather permits.   Aerobics inside:  I will put on some fun music and show the children some movements they can do for exercise:  kicks, jumping jacks, side to sides, knee raises, hamstring curls--this is a littl
e introduction to aerobics! Play Red Light/Green Light pretending to be various vehicles:  helicopter, train, etc. 
Art/Fine Motor:  Train Shapes and Names:  http://tippytoecrafts.blogspot.com/2011/10/name-trains.html. 
1.   Cut out squares from different colors of construction paper, enough squares for each child to write their first and last names, one letter per square.  2.   Have the kids draw a railroad track onto a large white sheet of paper. If the child's train cars are extending longer than the sheet of paper, just tape another sheet of paper to the first one.   3.   I also cut out a bunch of circles from black construction paper for the wheels. 4.  Have the children cut out a picture of a train engine and color it.  5.  Then have the children glue their engines and cars in the right order on the paper.  

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