Monday, September 30, 2013

About Me: My Body

This next unit we will be titled All About Me. We will cover topics including I am unique, TakingUsing  of my body, and My family is special. 


Cynthia (nanny):

Today we reviewed the 5 senses we learned about previously. 

Then we bridged what we learned about senses to discuss different body parts we have and how we can move them. We named body parts that we knew and reinforced ones they weren't too sure about (thigh, ankle,) Those are a bit specific and could be included with leg and foot. 

Next, we played the Hokey Pokey game to reinforce body part names. 

During the day we moved about the house in ways other than walking to see what other ways our body allows us to move.



Arielle (mommy):  Today we talked about the parts of the body by making a "my body" poster.  

I glued the person onto the construction paper, left it on the table during snack time, and went to clean the kitchen.  When I walked back out Lil had taken her carrots and glued them to the poster as hair.  At first I wanted to laugh, then I was annoyed, then I thought it was pretty creative so I let it go.  Lil said she used carrots because she has red hair.  Then she told me "I need some more carrots because I have really long hair."  The poster would be easier to read without the carrots, but oh well.

After she finished making her person, I wrote the body part names on card and had her put them where there was a line pointing to that part.    As I asked her where each part was, O sat at the table and pointed to each part on his body.  





About Me: Self Portrait

Arielle (mommy):

Since we had some kids over to work onyour  today, and one activity we did was chalk drawing, I had Lil do a self portrait using chalk.  We talked about her hair and eye color as she selected colors to use. We also discussed the paas nd hrts of her face and body she should include in her picture to make it look more like herself.

Using the chalk was a fun new experience and made the picture more vibrant than past pictures she has created with crayons or pencils.



Cynthia(Nanny): 
Today we started our Journals with a self portrait. I read the book It's Ok To Be Different by Todd Parr to tie into our All About Me unit. 
We practiced drawing faces on dry erase boards and discussed features and shapes of our faces so we knew what to draw. Then, the girls drew their self portrait on the first page of their journal. I prompted drawing the circle, 2 eyes, mouth, and nose and they were able to add the other details. 


Another idea for a self portrait activity is to have your kids create a picture frame using popsicle sticks. 
I printed a picture of the girls and had them paint popsicle sticks to glue around the picture after I attached it to a tagboard backing.

We will attach a magnet strip to the back and hang it on the fridge. 


Letter R

Cynthia(Nanny): 

Today to learn about the letter Rr we talked about the letter r, it's sound, and created the next page in our ABC book. 

Then the girls traced the letter Rr with they're finger and saying things like "down. Up. Over. Line down." as they traced. After tracing the letters, they used dot painters to practice the letter r formation. I can tell their hand-eye coordination is getting so much better based on how they were able to stay on the lines and start at the top.


Arielle (mommy):

Introduction:  To introduce the letter R we looked at our letter and picture cards as usual, then I got out a dry erase letter workbook.  Lil had to circle the objects that begin with R and then practice writing the letter.


Writing practice: To learn the proper letter formations of R and r, I wrote the letters on a paper, then had Lil trace the letters with glue.  This was a great oportuinity for her not only to practice the letter formation, but also controlling the muscles in her hands to get the right amount of glue out.  As a bonus, I let her shake glitter over the finished letters.


Craft:  R dressed up like a rabbit.




Letter Animals

Some readers were asking where they could find all the letter animal crafts together and here they are!



A is for alligator


B is for bee


C is for caterpillar


D is for duck


E is for elephant


F is for fox


G is for goldfish


H is for horse


J is for jellyfish


K is for kangaroo


L is for lion


M is for monkey


N is for newt


O is for octopus


P is for parrot


Q is for quail

R is for rabbit


S is for seahorse


T is for turkey


U is for umbrella bird


V is for vulture


W is for walrus



X is for x-ray fish

Y is for yak

Z is for zebra













Friday, September 27, 2013

5 Senses Review: Day 5

Arielle (mommy):  To wrap up our final day of the 5 senses we watched a few youtube kids' music videos for 5 senses, there are several.

We made a smoothie with strawberries, bananas, and juice.  I gave each child a plastic lettuce knife used for lettuce cutting, and sat them at the tab,e so they could cut the fruits themselves.  Bananas are a great fruit for little ones to cut and they can even use a plastic butter knife.  This was a great activity.  It was very hands on, s they used their sense of touch, the blender is loud, so that took care do hearing, they needed to use their sense of sight so they could see what they were doing, and they enjoyed using their sense of taste and smell  when they ate the smoothies.  


Letter Q

Cynthia(Nanny): Today along with the letter Qq page, I used the girls' handprints to make a  queen craft. I painted their palm a flesh color and their four fingers a yellowish color for the crown.  I cut out a triangular dress shape and used the extra pieces for sleeves. The girls glued on the dress pieces and eyes, while I painted on the details. You can choose to have your kids do all the details, especially if they're older. This was an easy craft and its always fun when we get to paint their hands. Later on, Little sister was excited to get out her puzzles and said "Look! Queen! Q!" Love how their brains are soaking up everything we're learning. 


Arielle (mommy):

Introduction:

To introduce the letter Q we used the app Endless Alphabet. Which is a terrific free app that expands kids vocabularies while teaching them the alphabet.


Writing practice:
My mom sent Lil some rubber bendy hair rollers, and Lil decided she could bend them to make letters, so we made the letter Q with them.  You could use pipe cleaners as well.


Craft: 
We dressed up the letter Q as a quail.





Thursday, September 26, 2013

5 Senses Review: Day 4

Arielle (Mommy)
Activity #1:
Today for our senses review we read and discussed senses we found in an Abeka God's World (Kindergarten) workbook.  It has a page for each sense and talks about how our senses keep us safe. 







Activity #2:  Throughout the day we have been working on different activities and discussing the senses we are using for the activity and counting how many of the 5 we are using.  This morning we played with Legos and we figured out that we were using 3 senses; we used our sense of sight to see the colorful Legos, our sense of touch to feel the Legos, and our sense of hearing to hear the Legos clicking together.  O didn't put any in his mouth so nobody used their sense of taste, and they don't smell, so we didn't use that sense either.  


We made fruit and yogurt parfaits for snack (using granola, Greek honey strawberry yogurt, strawberries, coconut, and apples) and decided we were using all 5 senses as we ate.


Cynthia(Nanny)
Today we added a new poem to our 5 Senses Poetry Book. This one was also a rebus style poem with pictures to help the girls read and sing along with me. 
Then, using the memory game cards we used yesterday, I put them in a bag for a new game. I modeled how to draw out a card and formed a sentence to go along with the card. This was  a last minute idea I had which really let me assess the girls vocabulary, knowledge about senses, and sentence structure. 


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

5 Senses Review: Day 2


Arielle (mommy):
Today we made a book called "My Five Senses".  It included two pages for each sense; "I can smell with my nose.  I like to smell pie."  An so on.  Lil came up with an object that she liked to experience with each sense, then drew it.  For the writing part, we used a variety of strategies, for one page, I had her sound the word out by herself, (she wrote m for music).  For another page,I helped her sound out the word as she wrote, (she wrote blant for blanket).  On another page, I provided her with a word bank that she copied the word from (rainbow).  As we wrote the book, I had Lil tell me the next sense and the body part we use for it.  After the book was complete, we read it together, and I added it to her browsing box.



Cynthia (Nanny): 
Today we used our sense of touch, sight, and smell while we played with shaving cream. The girls really enjoyed this. It's so easy and costs you next to nothing to have your kids do this fun sensory activity. You can have them play on trays, directly on a table, or on foil like I did.