Most of our "work", as K. proudly call it, was a bit more on the kindergarten side vs. preschool. We did a lot with the short/long vowel u, a bit with all the vowels, numeral formation on Kindergarten lines, some science work about animals that we didn't get to last week, reading, word families, color mixing (http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/2010/01/printable-color-wheel-activity.html), and more. I imagine it's going to be like that on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays as K. is losing interest in the typical preschool routine/activities. One benefit of having such a small group is that I can truly individualize. It's also one reason why we plan on taking the homeschooling route next year...the ability to provide more hands-on learning at the speed/development of each child.
K.has just turned 5 and has taken an interest in skip counting and money. So when I came across the lovely money chant chart on Pinterest I immediately print it off and laminated it. We worked with it today as we handled and sorted coins and talked about their similarities and differences. Then we began learning the chant. It's up on our calendar wall now and we'll add it to our song list that we go through each morning. :-) One goal of a preschool teacher is to expand a child's attention span at group time. In kindergarten, there are quite a few whole group gatherings for teaching and we want the children to be able to be attentive and learn during these times. One way I do this is adding a bit more to our calendar/group time every month after January. Right now we are up to 15-20 minutes. Most days, easy for the 5 year old, not so easy for the 4 year old...so needless to say, we spend more time at the calendar on M/W/F's than we do on T/Th's.
I always try to have at least one thing related to what the older kids are doing, for T.-2.5 years. Of course, the older kids are welcome to work with T.'s activities after their own work is done. The activity pictured above is favorite! Simply putting coins into a "bank". I hear them counting, see them taking turns and a bit of problem solving. If it's out when my school-age boys get home, they'll even sit for a few minutes putting the pennies into the bank. My personal opinion is that the repetitiveness and sound of the coins dropping into the container is relaxing.
Since dimes are worth 10 cents and she just loves the 10, 20, 30 ,...100 song we used a dime to hop from circle to circle to reinforce what each of the numbers look like. A similar One Hundred Day Counting Mat floating around Pinterest not too long ago. The orginal source was http://ericabohrer.blogspot.com/2011/01/100th-day-of-school.html. I really didn't need the whole 100s Day set of printables she had for sale through TPT so I created our own. K. then created ten sets of ten beads for each circle. Great fine motor by the way, especially since she decided to put them on the edge of the circle instead of just dropping them inside the circle! Definitely was an activity she enjoyed and I loved hearing her sing the song as she was working with it. Feel free to download your copy here- 10s Mat. Black and white version available also. Very simple to create on your own with circles (or other shapes) on construction paper if you are wanting more color! You could do color sorting/recognition, shape sorting/recognition and so on. I find that with some preschoolers, the less color the less distraction. So, though color appeals to me I tend to stay simpler/plainer for the sake of the children.
Have a lovely week!
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