Bridges

Most recently Curly asked to learn about bridges...her Dad and Grandparents actually did most of the preschool time with her.  She must have learned something though, because everytime we drive over a bridge she says, "this is a car bridge."   Also, while at the beach a week later, every sandcastle we built had to have a drawbridge.

We all enjoyed these two fabulous books:
1.  Bridges are to Cross by Philemon Sturges Illustrated by Giles Laroche.
This book shows many famous bridges and explains how bridges purposes have varied throughout time--carrying water like the Acquedut of Segovia, keeping out invaders, or helping llamas and people over a steep mountain pass.

and
2.  The Bridge Book by Polly Carter Illustrated by Roy Doty
This book is cartoony in style but explains accurately for ages 4-8 the how and why of bridges.  It also highlights the different types of bridges like suspension, truss, girder, arch, cable-stayed, covered, cantilever, and drawbridge.

Butterfly Unit

I suspected Curly would probably ask to learn about butterflies...but when she started making book suggestions too I knew I needed to take her seriously. She suggested,

and 

Both are excellent books, the later being less fictional.  We also found some great informational books like Moths and Butterflies and spent a whole day learning about the differences between the two.  Did you know that butterflies usually land on a flower with their wings closed and moth with their wings open?  Another day we learned about the life cycle of a butterfly, metamorphisis, the body parts of a butterfly, and other fun facts.  Did you know a butterfly tastes with its hind legs?  Curly had a great idea to play with a leftover party blower from her birthday to imitate a proboscis uncurling to take a drink of nectar.  Most recently we spent a day learning all about Monarch Butteflies and their miraculous migration.  We found three excellent library books specifically about Monarchs.  This is a great informational picture book that is not too cumbersome but still very informative for preschoolers:


We also really enjoyed this fictional book about a caterpillar who's "Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go to Mexico."

And then lastly this book weaves many facts about Monarchs into a great storyline about a third child feeling a bit neglected and overshadowed by her older sisters.  This website also has some great links and teaching ideas specifically related to this book.


A few other favorites:
Wings of Light which is techinically an informational picture book but it reads like a fictional book and the beautiful illustrations definitely feel that way too.
Clara the Caterpillar
The Caterpillar and the Pollywog - a classic.  I especially like the movie version found on the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Movie.

We did a few fun hands-on activities related to butterflies as well.  Including a craft project or two.  But our main project was ordering a butterfly garden...unfortunately we're still waiting on that package.  But I hope to renew our favorite books we found from the library and revisit them as teaching opportunities arise.

Eiffel Tower Building Unit

Grace and I have enjoyed learning about buildings and monuments this week.  Mostly we checked out some great books at the library, and built with various implements this week--blocks, nesting blocks, toothpicks, peg boards, Duplos, etc.  But I did come across some great children's books.  I also realized that this unit could easily go several directions:

1.  Monuments--famous structures around the world (geographic location, destinct features, history, and significance).    Our favorite fiction book about monuments was hand's down: Ben's Dream by Christ Van Allsburg.   The main character is studying for a geography test and falls asleep...while dreaming his home floats around the world passing by the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, and the Taj Mahal, to name a few. I had fun creating a PowerPoint with pictures of famous monument with a inset little map as a reference as to where that monument is in the world.  I also tried to include something else familiar she could relate to that monument or area--i.e. a picture of her cousin who lives by the Statue of Liberty or the character Madeline by the Eiffel Tower.

2.  Construction--the how of building, from the foundation, to the back hoes, to the scaffolding, maerials, etc.  Curly seemed interested in two main types of construction:  homes, and BIG buildings.  Regarding homes we found several fun books about different types of homes around the world.  We also incorporated the story of the Three Little Pigs discussing why you'd want your home to be strong.  She also is fascinated by sky scrapers. David Macaulay's has an excellent book, Building Big.  It is so popular it actually became a whole series on PBS.

3.  Architecture--various types throughout history and as a profession.
We enjoyed this visual book.  I loved how perceptive she was a noticing nuances like the differences between the capitols of columns or types of arches.  Preschoolers really can be observant of intricate details if we give them the right outlets!  Since she's often talked about being an artist when she grows up we also talked about the profession of architects...whose job is to design/draw the building.

Summer Mommy & Me Preschool Time

Curly and I are really enjoying Mommy & Me preschool time (about 30 minutes everyday during Little Red's nap).  I think we're going to do a theme study every week on a different topic she's interested in--combining some library books with activities.  Next week we've already decided to teach her about buildings and famous monuments, specifically the Eiffel Tower.  She's been peppering me with questions about the Eiffel Tower and comparing everything's size to the Eiffel Tower.  Often overheard saying things like, "It's almost as big as the Eiffel tower!"  I also want to incorporate daily fine motor activities and/or a little handwriting practice--because she seems so eager to be able to write her letters well but struggles a bit with the motor skills.  I've liked this website's approach.  I'm not really sitting down and giving her worksheet after worksheet--we make it fun.  But the groupings on the website helped me break it down for Curly a bit more.  We've also enjoyed the games and activities from this summer packet--it has a nice balance of literacy and math activities.  Curly has especially enjoyed the Summer Book Bingo.  This week at the library she choose Laura Numeroff as an author and we had fun checking out ALL the books by her and reading and comparing them.

Mother's Day Ideas...

A Hug you can mail

What You Need:

• Construction Paper
• Yarn
• Glue

Trace and cut out, from construction paper, the hands of the child. Measue the distance from finger tip to finger tip of outstretched arms with yarn, cut. Attach a handprint to each end of the yarn. Place inside a card with the following poem: A Mother's Day Hug to You [Grandma] Wrap these hands around you whenever I'm away so you can have a hug from me anytime of day!

A card variation on this idea can be found here.


Some other ideas that would work better NOT mailed.
A handprint flower...complete with clothes pin and magnet making it a great accessory for any fridge to hold the child's artwork!



http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/05/06/a-sweet-little-mothers-day-gift/


A basket with flowers (but change it to say Happy Mother's Day).

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/04/30/may-day-basket-tutoria/

Graphing with Preschoolers

Graphing can easily be adapted to fit any theme.  I often like to work it in during snack time...i.e. Do you like green apples or red apples better?  This website explains it well:  http://notjustcute.com/2010/03/22/graphing-with-preschoolers-doesnt-get-much-easier-than-this/

Letter W

The gathering activity was playing a "w" matching game.

Then we did our usual welcome song, calendar, and introduced the letter of the day.  I sang, "Oh where or where has the "W" gone or where or where could it be?"  The kids then looked all over and finally I gave them a clue by singing "Is it by a window or on the floor?"  They finally found it by the window.  We then practiced making the "w" sound.  We then did show and tell.  After that we talked about the weather and wind.   I like to then let them get a few wiggles out from sitting on their carpet square during circle time.  Some fun wiggle activities I had planned include, singing "The Wheels on the Bus" and the song "Walking, walking."  But we didn't end up doing the songs today because I forgot.  But we did do a fun creative dance where we were moving like the wind, blowing around whoosing, spinning, high and low, fast and slow, etc.

We then practiced writing on white boards.  First we just drew zigzags and then tried w's.  Apparently developmentally writing actual letters may be too much for most 3-4 year olds.  But drawing lines, circles, and zigzags is more appropriate (and fun!)

Then we headed upstairs for a fun restaurant role playing game, "Waitress, waitress" (or "Waiter, Waiter.") where the kids ordered various foods like waffles, watermelon, and water.  I had menus prepared and an apron for the kid playing the waiter/waitress to wear.  I was in the "kitchen" and would put the play food they ordered on the tray.  Then the waiter/waitress would come and get it and serve it to them.  But that made them hungry so we segued immediately into snacktime and now I was the pretend waitress.  I had different menus ready of their choices for snacktime.  It actually made snacktime easier letting each tell me exactly what they wanted upfront and then I quickly prepared each of their plates and passed them out.  They could choose from watermelon, strawberry wafers, Wheatables, and water.

After that we looked at books.  They quickly were able to find all the W's in print!

We read Whistle for Willie and then had free play time.  They came up with a fun group game of "Oh where or where has my watch dog gone" all on their own.  It involved the owner  trying to find his naughty puppies that kept running away.  They were really into it.  And even better they didn't make hardly any mess at all.  So I told them since we could skip clean up time, they could help me clean my windows!  They each divided into teams and washed windows (with water NOT actual Windex).  They took turns squirting and wiping.  While they wiped they said the w sound, "wah, wah, wah, wah, wah."

Then we read a book Waiting for Winter about a squirrel who's trying to figure out what snow is.  So we then got to play in our own white stuff.  I let them play and practice writing in white shaving cream.  It actually was a bit messier then anticipated, but quite fun.  Everyone definitely had to wash hands in warm water afterwards and some changed clothes as well.

We then had circle time again and review the sound the letter "w" makes and each kid remembered something starting with the letter "w."  I then reminded them of one more "w" word, wolf.  We did various big bad wolf activities including some dramatic play with finger puppets for Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs.

Later when we were outside, we played our favorite game--colored eggs which also involves a big bad wolf.    We also practiced writing zigzags and letter W's again this time with sidewalk chalk.

Other W ideas include:
More water play--pouring, sensory table, etc.
Where the Wild Things Are --reading the story, making masks, etc.
Worms--wiggling like worms, digging for worms, studying worms, etc.
Wagon rides
Nursery rhyme: Wee Willie Winkie
Song: Whistle While You Work

X

with permission from my friend's blog...they also do a letter-of-the-week co-op preschool.  Names have been changed to protect the innocent!  :o)

X Makes 3 Sounds

/ks/ like in the end of "box",

/ex/ like in x-ray, 


The kids came to the "doctor's office" and told me a tale of how they broke some part of their body. I had them lie down with their head on a pillow and wounded body part on top of a carpet square. Then all my little X-ray techs would stand up and make their bodies into an X-shape - feet apart, arms up and out, while chanting, "X-ray! X-ray! X-ray! Beeep!"

Then I'd hand them an x-ray (black construction paper on which they glued the white bones like a puzzle and I filled in the patient name).

Neee-xt!

& /z/ like in xylophone

Of course, I couldn't resist making our water xylophone a rainbow xylophone. The kids were all very focused during their turn to play it.


Of course, it turns out that Taylor was home for Spring Break when it was my turn to teach. One in seven weeks. The last time he was home during my class because of the snow storms. That made ten kids (mercifully Anna napped three-quarters of the class).

Luckily, Taylor's friend Lauren came over along with her brother Sam. A good girl always helps a boy stay in line.

They all LOVED giant Tic-Tac-Toe with O bowls and wooden spoon X's. Gotta remember that one.

Spring Nest Activity

A fun craft project from this website to help kids learn more about nests!

For most birds, nest-building supplies consist of whatever nature has lying around — wood, grass, twigs, feathers, and fur. You can provide the birds in your neighborhood with easy-to-obtain nest fodder by stuffng a mesh onion bag with materials such as pet fur, strands of cloth, bits of stuffing, hay, yarn cut into short lengths, hair from your brush, or feathers from an old down pillow. (Avoid anything synthetic or sharp.) Snip a few large holes in the sack so birds can poke around, then hang it in a tree, ideally near a feeder so it will get noticed.

In the coming weeks, be on the lookout for birds visiting the sack, then watch what trees they return to — from the right viewpoint, you might even get to see your building materials being incorporated into the birds' nests.

A great book to jump start your children's enthusiasm for this nest quest is No Roses for Harry!, a story of a dog who never expected his discarded sweater to end up in a bird's nest.

Letter G

9:00 Puzzles? BOOK- Gregory the Terrible Eater (about a picky eater Goat)

9:10 Circle time, carpet squares….
"Welcome Song (Here We Are Together), Calendar, Weather, etc.
Introduce letter of the day…G is hiding. We have to find the letter G! (go find it upstairs)
9:20 G handwriting page and Glue Gold Glitter on Green G's
9:30 BOOK--The Three Billy Goats Gruff

9:35 Role Play--take turns acting out the story with popsicle stick masks
9:50 Snack Time
10:00 Playtime
10:25 Clean up BOOK-Go Dog Go!
10:30 Red Light/ Green Light…stop and Go in the GARAGE
10:45 BOOK--Fran's Flower  and SCIENCE...talk about what you need (water and sun) to help things grow.  (Just for fun we changed the title of the book by putting post-it notes over "Fran's Flower" and made it "Grace's Grass" since we were going to grow grass for our science experiment).


10:50 Help make Grass buddies .  I had the kids help me sprinkle on the seeds and then I knotted the tops.  They also decorated them adding faces with permanent markers and googly eyes.
11:10 Wrap up circle time (review what we've learned) and show & tell.
11:20 Coats/backpacks/shoes…sit on stairs and read BOOK--Green Eggs and Ham (notice a little bit of a didatic theme about picky eaters...)   Another picky eater "G" title option would have been Good Enough to Eat.

Extra Ideas & Songs:
Give Said the Little Stream
...And the green grass grows all around all around...
Hopscotch
Playdough
Goldilocks
Goliath
Zinnia's Flower Garden

Letter R

9:00 Puzzles and Noah's Ark Activities (books, Little People Ark, and file folder game)

9:10 Circle time, carpet squares….

• Welcome Song (Here We Are Together)
• Today's letter is R.  Make the "R" sound together.  I also like to do some sensory tracing of the letter either on their carpet squares or on the bumpy foam letters.

• Calendar: Today is … Wednesday, March 10th…let's count to 10 and now let's count backwards (BLASTOFF!!!)  Pretend like we are Rockets!  We counted backwards several times from the a crouched position.  We'd say all together10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BLASTOFF and jump as high as we could.  The kids LOVE this! 
• R is for ...Grab bag.  I put a bunch of familiar objects and have each child pull something out of the back and then we all say the R sound and the r-word (rabbit, red marker, rock, rose, rice, raisins)

9:20 Show & Tell

9:30 Move to the kitchen to make the rolls!  I had made the quick-rise dough ahead of time, it was just ready to be punched down.  The kids took a vote and chose cinnamon rolls over regular round rolls.  So they all watched/helped me Roll out the dough, spread the butter, sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar, and then Roll up the dough before slicing it and popping it in the oven.

9:45 Handwriting page at the table.  To change things up a bit I covered the table with butcher paper and let the kids draw write on the tablecloth using crayons (ala Macaroni Grill Restaurant style).  They practiced writing a letter R or drawing a picture or whatever.

9:50 Move to family room for singing time: Ring Around the Rosies, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and The Wise Man Built His House Upon a Rock

10:00 Paint rocks

10:10 Snack--Ritz crackers, raisins, and cinnamon rolls!

10:20 look at books, find the letter R's

10:30 FREE PLAY TIME  (during free play time, I gather up the carpet squares, back packs and their craft projects getting them ready for a quick exit when preschool is over.  I also put felt squares of the rainbow colors on the floor upstairs, away from the playroom, for the last inside activity).

10:55 Clean up

11:00 Everyone find a color and sit on it.  Then place it in your lap.  We then read What Makes a Rainbow.  As we came to each color in the book the child with that color felt shape would bring it up.  We put the colors in rainbow order and talked briefly about what makes a rainbow--rain & sunshine.  Then we sang the song, "All the Colors of the Rainbow" which reinforces the rainbow order.

11:10  Coats and shoes on
 
11:15  Running and Races!  We had races around cones in the front yard.  Then we played "Run Rabbits Run."  It basically was like freeze tag, but I change the name a bit for the letter R's sake.  One child was the wolf, and the others were rabbits.  When they got tagged, they had to freeze.  But it was taking awhile sometimes for the hunter to get everyone, so I added a fun twist they loved.  I was the hunter.  So I could also catch/tag the rabbits but I could also tag the wolf!  And lastly we played Colored Eggs (see below) reinforcing our rainbow colors--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

Other Extensions we didn't have time for:
Rain and Rainbow science!
Rain by Peter Spier
Make rain on the stove
Talk about the rain cycle (use the marker board to draw it or read The Drop Goes Plop)
Sorting fruit loops in rainbow colors and gluing them on to a paper making a fruity rainbow
Rainbow finger painting

Rockets
Rhinocerous
Red
Rectangle

Colored Eggs

This is one of the BEST games to play with a group of children.  Great to initiate if things aren't going well at a park playgroup.  You need at least 3-4 people to play the game. More then 10 kids can get confusing and/or boring with too much wait time.

One person is the "wolf". The other people line up next to each other at the home base, with the wolf facing them. They are all the eggs.  They huddle together and quietly decide what color they are going to be.  They also choose a family color.

The wolf then initiates the following dialogue:
Wolf:  Knock-knock.
Eggs:  Who's there?
Wolf:  The Big Bad Wolf.
Eggs:  What do you want?
Wolf:  Colored eggs.
Eggs:  What color?

The wolf then says a color. Whoever had "picked" that color then runs around a selected area (to the far oak tree in the yard and back to the line, for example), with the wolf giving chase.  If the wolf names the family color then everyone runs.

If the wolf catches the "egg" before they make it back to the home base, then that person becomes the wolf with the game starting over. If not, and all eggs make it back to line successfully, the eggs huddle and pick new colors and  the wolf then calls out the next color, etc.

NOTES:  You can vary this according to kids ages.  The colors chosen should be kept secret from the wolf when playing with older children, not as critical with younger ones.  You can also define which colors are allowed so that a precocious 8-year doesn't pick chartreuse trying to stump her younger brother.

Letter O, long vowel sound (OLYMPICS!)

Last year our co-op taught the short vowel sounds and long vowel sounds on different days.  This is my lesson plan for the long O sound--perfect for the winter Olympics!  But in my humble opinion you should teach both sounds, but no need to spend a whole day on just one sound.

Opening Activity

puzzles and shape-O and dupl-Os

Circle time

Welcome Song (Here We Are Together):

Calendar: Today is …, Days of the week song

Find the letter of the day scavenger hunt.

Leap Frog fridge magnet introduce the letter of the day—O.  It’s a vowel so it makes TWO sounds. 

show & tell

          

Activities (10-15 minutes each)

Zingo or Hi Ho Cherry-O board games

singing time…Wheels on the Bus, BINGO, Quickly I Obey, ring around the rosies

Obey game….Mother May I?

Have the kids glue Cheerios on a big letter O.

Counting CheeriOs

Find Ovals game

           

Olympics--skipping, hopping on one foot, walk on a straight line, obstacle course, etc.  Have kids make Olympic flags first coloring each of the rings on a paper and taping it to a straw.  Then they can wave their flags to cheer each other on as they take turns competing.  When they finish give each kid a “gold medal” (a chocolate gold coin taped to a ribbon).  

                       

Snacktime

Oatmeal cookies and Jell-O jiggler cut out in O's

 Playtime

 Wrap-up and stories

Valentine's Day Ideas...

I'm not teaching our co-op preschool this week.  But if I was all the other kids would definitely be feeling the love with this great Valentine's Day math/graphing idea.  Curly loved sorting her candy hearts.

And then we'd make some of these hearts, because it's one of Curly's favorite crafts.  Something about peeling crayons and ironing them really makes her happy.

Fruit Loop Necklaces

This activity is always a hit...use it to teach patterns (red, blue, green, red, blue green; yellow, yellow, purple, yellow, yellow, purple).  Use it for the letter N (for necklaces) or for the letter O since they are O shaped.   Or be creative and adapt it to whatever you're teaching... maybe you could make fruit loop snakes for the letter S?  Or use Apple Jacks for the letter A?  All you need is a pair of scissors, yarn or string, tape, and Fruit Loops.  Just tape off the end of the strings to help make it easier for the kids to thread the cereal.  This takes a few minutes, so it's helpful to do this step ahead of time, but be prepared to re-tape the ends as needed.

Groundhog in his hole

Groundhog in his hole

Need: Brown paper or picture of a small groundhog, Styrofoam cup, straw, tape

Directions: Cut out the shape of a Groundhog on Brown paper or print one out Make sure the picture is small enough to fit in a paper cup. Let the children color the groundhog. Poke a small hole in the bottom of a cup. Tape the groundhog they colored onto a straw (a Popsicle stick or pipe cleaner also will work). Push the straw through the hole in the cup. Now when you move the straw up and down you have a groundhog puppet.

(or if you have way too much time on your hands, here's a tutorial for a similar but fancier and SUPER cute groundhog puppet.)

Letter N

Opening Activity: 

Puzzles and Mr. Potato Heads.  But I hid all the noses and waited to see if the kids figured it out.  They then had to use clues to find the noses (they were hiding by a letter “N”)  READ The Nose Book 

Circle Time:

Welcome Song (Here We Are Together), Calendar, Weather

Today’s letter is N, it makes the “na” sound

N is for …. N is for Nose, “Let's find some other N's on these books to see what else the letter N is for”.  We then looked at a bunch of books and put on pink highlighting tape or transparent contact paper on the Ns.  This is a great time to talk about words that start with the letter N or if the N is inside of the word. 

Lesson:

N handwriting page at table  

  

N is for Nuts…READ The Very Busy Squirrel.   Then send the kids on a number/nut scavenger hunt-to find the pictures of nuts around the house.  I hid 18 nuts and had each kid find three.  They then returned and my squirrel puppet (my husbands brown sock) ate the nuts in numeric order.  The kids had fun putting the numbers in order so the silly squirrel could eat them.  They wanted to play this again and again.  I had them take turns hiding and finding.

Snack:

SNACK TIME--nuts, oranges, crackers and string cheese…make the cheese three pieces and then form into N's before eating.  While they are eating start making the nests and have the kids shape the nests so they can set.  Talk about nests.

Quiet time…look at books.

Free Play:

N is for Numbers…read Chicka Chicka 123 

Stations:  Nut counting in muffin tins & Number toss game--NINE nuts.  I set up enough of these so each kid could work independently and then they would switch.

N is for NEST and NATURE...

READ  The Best Nest 

Finish nests at the table by counting (nine) and then adding the eggs.  Most of the kids chose to eat some of the eggs.  I had them put at least 3 in the nests to take home.

Wrap up, coats on

Closing Circle Time:

Stories on the stairs:  Naughty Monkeys, Night books, Fancy Nancy

EXTRA IDEAS (if needed)

Make necklaces with fruit loops.
N opposites:  Night and Day, Noisy and Quiet, Near and Far

Letter W

Circle Time:

·          Welcome song, calendar, days of the week song, show & tell, introduce letter of the day and its sound.

Lesson:

·          Songs—The Wheels on the Bus, and Walking, Walking

·          Writing on White Boards then wiping them clean, practiced writing zigzags and the letter W

·          Talked about the Windy Weather outside—creative movement/dance had the kids move like the wind

·          Role play game Waiter, Waiter—kids and I took turns acting out ordering water and watermelon from a waiter/waitress at a restaurant

·          Read the book Whistle for Willie

·          Water play, washing windows and wiping them clean

Snack:

·          Watermelon, string cheese, & pretzel sticks, the kids tried to arrange them like “Ws” before eating them

Free Play:

·          Kids played with toys, but previous activities were still available like the “Waiter Waiter” dress-up/role-play game, washing the windows, and “W” memory.

Closing Circle Time:

·          Review the letter of the day, its sound, and “W” words, and the fun activities

·          The three little pigs and the big bad wolf finger puppet story

Read Where the Wild Things Are     

Mommy & Me Preschool Outline

Opening Activity: 

·         Something to pull the kids into the theme of the day, help them quickly focus and get into the learning mode and while you wait for everyone to arrive (art projects, building things, puzzles, etc.)

Circle Time:  (sitting on carpet squares)

·         Sing Welcome Song (Here We Are Together)

·         Calendar: what day is it, date, month (Days of Week Song)

·         Weather

·         Introduction to the theme of the day which includes letter, number, concepts, shapes, etc.

Lesson:

·        Integrate the concepts of the lesson however you like in a variety of 10-15 minute activities

o       Read books

o       Do math activities or science experiments

o       Talk about professions or ways the theme is applied in daily life

o       Do art projects or small motor activity

o       Large motor activity related to lesson

o       Role play

Snack:      

·         Have fun eating food!

Free Play:

·         Free choice play 

Closing Circle Time:

·         Bring closure to the theme and activities of the day, show and tell projects, review concepts, sing songs

·         Read a story or stories emphasizing one or all of the things you talked about

·         Tie up loose ends

*These are just suggestions.  Use them to fit the needs of your lessons.