The Perfect Nest

I've enjoyed planning around a book.  Done it in in the past but find it's easier to plan books around the themes when they are a week or two long.  But since each day of our K Readiness program is "seperate"...not connected to another...planning around a book has been pleasant.  Might be something you are interested in doing. So, today's book was The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend.  I initially had planned to start into blends with our moveable letters because the main child was flying through the short vowel sounds but when I mixed them up it was more difficult so we'll spend a bit of time mastering the vowel sounds before moving onto the new concept of blends.  Anyway...the nest in the title was going to be our jumping board...short e and a st blend at the end.  But that's fine...we just subtracted a letter and got "net".  :-)  One of our words from our CVC-short 3 set.  So for moveable letters we sorted /a/ and /e/ sound words.  I encouraged them to sort and glue first, then write the vowel in the center then figure out the beginning and ending sounds.  Went well.

To incorporate some movement, after sitting for a bit, we played Duck, Duck, Goose.  Not my favorite game but it did the trick.  The concept we incorporated was odd and even numbers.  I used a hula hoop for the "nest" (instead of having chicken soup) and used masking tape to divide the nest in half.  I also used the  masking tape to make x's for the children to sit on.  This gives them a visual of where to sit.  Before each child started into their "duck, duck, goosing" they chose an numbered egg and counted out that many craft sticks.  Then they put them in sets of two.  If there were no "odd ones out" it was an even number and they put the egg on the even side of the nest .  If it did have an odd one out then the number is "odd" and they put it on the odd side of the nest.  If a child was tagged before they got back to the other child's place then they sat on the eggs.  :-)

I don't have a picture of the "nest" that I can actually post but I'm sure you can imagine it. This picture shows how I encouraged them to organize their sticks so all the children could see what they were doing.

Our numeral formation activity incorporated seriation also.  

Ordering a set of ten will be very difficult for some preschoolers.  It all depends on how much experience they have with this type of activity.  You may wish to use a smaller set.  I glued the birds on already as we have minimal time to do the activities and the focus was numeral formation.  They ordered the nests, glued them on and then wrote the numerals.  I included the numeral words on the wings to slip is a bit more literacy and used a different color for each bird to review color recognition.  They work with color, shape and number words right from the beginning of the year in our Kindergarten.  

Our art today focused on pastel colors. 

Again, www.theartgarden.info is my inspiration for this summer's art.  We are in the process of creating a book.  I plan to do something similar this fall.  It'll go a lot quicker since I run a 4 day program during the school year.  We started with mixing primary colors to make secondary colors.  Today I provided white paint with a dot of all the primary and secondary colors.  They used q-tips to make the lighter color.  I encouraged them not to mix the colors on their paper as they did with the previous color mixing paintings.  Since I had that "suggestion" they were also allowed as many pieces of extra paper to explore with after their first work was done.  They all know that about me now and all of them asked for extra to explore with today.  It ended up as fingerpaint. Good thing the colors were so light!  :-)

Our letter formation activity...N- "long line down, leapfrog up, diagonal and back up".

We reinforced the letter formation by first writing with our finger on the paper (a few times for some children), then writing it with pencil, then tracing it with liquid glue (squeezing a liquid glue bottle is very beneficial for hand strengthening and control) and then they placed the lowercase n noodles on their N using the same formation-line down, leapfrog up, etc.  If you are doing this type of activity with young preschoolers, remember their fine motor control isn't that developed...nor is their attention span so you may only wish to suggest it but don't push the children to make sure the noodles look like n's or that they are placed one right after the other.  Actually, I would say that for any child.  :-)  My students here usually take my suggestions but in the long run "it's their work".  You can tell, in the picture above, which child has strong fine motor skills and a good attention span which one doesn't.  That's a-okay!  Every child develops at their own speed.  I believe in helping children take steps from where they are vs. trying to get them all to one level.  Manipulating these small noodles takes coordination and the use of those muscles in the hand.  If your child needs a hand work out...this type of activity will do it!

Scissors today was a net of -et words.  Most of the scissors activities relate to a word family.  Today's work came from Word Family Helpers by Mailbox. 

Another activity we did today was regarding sight words.  I don't expect the children to have these memorized before the end of summer.  My goal is to introduce them so that when the teacher begins to speak about them at school it'll all click into place relatively easy.  My goal is for them to have a strong foundation to build upon once they start into formal schooling.  I had birds sticky tacked around the livingroom with 12 sight words.  Hmmm, funny thing.  They all corresponded with the sight words on the word search that Caleb was doing.  :-P  Anyway...they took the birds off the wall and flew back to Caleb. I helped them with the words and they stuck it on the wall near Caleb who then found the word in his word search.  A quick, active activity that incorporated various levels of development. 

The bird patterns were from www.childcareland.com.

Hope you all are having a good week so far!

Rabbit Stew and Short Vowel O

Well, that was quite a morning!  Very profitable in the sense of the activities and the work the older children did but the two youngest weren't "cooperating" and so though it was a profitable morning, Ms. Amber is a wee bit exhausted!  :-) 

So we started with our journal (younger student also doing the calendar and High Frequency Word Book): I stated the topic word "pot" and since we were using an actual pot for an activity I used it as a prop since I really didn't want Aaron (8 yrs) to be drawing a toilet.  LOL  So it was more of "what's in your pot?"  I got "cooked onions-see the smoke coming out the top.  You can't see the onions because it's in the pot" (which was on a stove, by the way).  And I also got meatballs.  Our third student came late and so missed journaling, and Aaron chose to make "alfebet" soup.  He printed his sentence as well as wrote it in cursive.  For a child who does not "know" cursive, I say he did a good job!

Our book today was Rabbit Stew by Donna Kosow.  You can branch off of this book in many different directions.  If you haven't read it before, check it out!  One of the children noticed my label in the inside.  "Amber Clarke-w/ Canton, MI address".  :-)  Oh my, guess I've had that book for awhile!  So that observation led into the conversation of how long a book will last when we take good care of them.   

Our moveable letters were the short vowel o.  We started by writing pot and dog on our board (connections to our book) and talking about the English language and how sometimes the vowels change their sound when they have a buddy-in this case "og".  We did some rhyming also at this point. Then we moved to our letter tiles.

For large motor today we played Pass the Pot.  Sorry, I did get a few snapshots but none that I can actually post.  You'll have to picture it in your head!  The children enjoyed this.  Children sat criss cross in a line, like a train.  The first person in the line had a pot with tactile numbers inside.  Children were encouraged to show good posture and then twist their upper bodies and pass the pot to the person behind them until it got to the last person in line.  That person reached in, eyes shut, and chose a number.  I encouraged them to feel the number and tell me what it was before looking.  Then that person chose and then we did that action as many times as the number represented.  Here's one: be like a lightbulb.  Hmmm.  That's imaginative.  So when somebody says something like this then you just ask. "and what would that action look like.  Show us!" This child started low at the ground and jumped op saying "on" and then crouched back down saying "off".  I was a bit out of breath when we got through those! 

Our numeral formation activity came right from the book Rabbit Stew.  This became more time consuming then I thought it was going to be but that's okay.  Go with the flow.  First of, we always create a number line with the tactile numbers, which if you remember were in the pot.  So I handed the pot to Aaron and asked him to create our number line.  Well, that turned into someone saying, "Let's go backwards. " And then that turned to someone saying, "Let me put one on!"  Which then made us decide to go forwards because it would be easier to find where the numbers go.  So the children took turns deciding if the number went in the beginning, middle or end of the number line and between what numbers.  It was quite funny when we came to the last number and Aaron took it upon himself to do a "Ms. Amber"  LOL  He had asked the child what number she needed to complete the line.  She told him 6.  So he reached into the pot and pulled out a 4 and handed it to her.  She squealed.  It was quite hilarious.  So it went on for a bit until he finally pulled out the 6.  My point being was that you can have so much fun with such a simple activity.  Kids love to joke or catch an adult or older child in a mistake.  And the more fun they are having the more they will retain.
Okay...back to the numeral formation activity. 

We had a "pot" (an envelope cut in half) and inside the pot were vegetables and rabbits that I had cut and placed in so that they would have enough to make sets 1-10.The children dumped them out onto their tray and sorted by type.  Then they graphed them onto the pot graph.  After they glued them all they wrote the number at the top.  Then we talked together as a group about their  vegetables and rabbits (more, less, equal).  This really worked their fine motor.  Those itty bitty pieces of papers.  FYI:  I would not do a graph this extensive or use such small pieces for anyone younger then 4.  If you want to simplify it and make larger pictures, then go for it.!  The pot was hand drawn (obviously) and the pictures all came from Print Shop.

Our color mixing activity was red and blue.  We didn't read the whole Mouse Paint book again but did skim through it.  We used circle sponge applicators and a skinny paint brush.

www.theartgarden.info was my inspiration.

Our Letter Formation activity had nothing to do with this theme as I had meant to do it on Monday and didn't get to it.  So we did it today.  B Butterflies.  :-)

We did our Listen and Do activity and scissors.  Again our scissors activity came from the Word Family Helpers, a Mailbox publication.  I had each child do the "dot/arrow" method of sounding out each word.  I had a post that included that concept in  

Our phonological awareness activity went VERY WELL and I will so do this again! I call it "Sentence Building".  Children, during their preschool years-at least here!, learn about letters, and that letters together make a word and that words together make a sentence.  We also talked a bit about punctuation marks.    It was a bit time consuming because I used paper and sticky tack but I think I will go searching for my pocket chart and use either word strips or index cards next time.  So, we started with the sentence "The dog made stew." (Connecting our Rabbit Stew book.)  Then we went around the table (did this at lunch since we ran out of time) with each child telling me a descriptive word to add to our sentence.  Here are the first and last pictures.

The dog made stew.

The brown and white dog made yummy smart rabbit, potato, onion and tomato stew in a pot.

Yes, the commas were the older children's idea.  I should mention that I put the first sentence word strips on the table, mixed up and they all guessed how it went.  Aaron (8) pointed out that he knew "The" was first because of the capital letter...which led to a conversation about capital and lower case letters. 

We ended with the book...

A fun phonics book using -og word family words.

bug/short vowel u

Monday our focus vowel was short u.  So, of course that leads right into the word bug and what child doesn't like to do things with bugs?  At least pretend ones anyway!  Some get a bit dramatic over real ones.  :-P  So, our journal was the simple one word topic of "bug".  (While the older ones were spending more time on their journal, the younger ones were doing calendar and a high-frequency word booklet).  Then we moved onto our story which was Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema.  We are having a real issue with this bug bugging us!  So it was a fitting story. If you haven't read it before it's an interesting book to read to the kiddos.  The ending is quite fitting.  :-)

www.amazon.com

We then transitioned into our /u/ cvc words, starting with b-u-g.  I've posted a picture of our moveable letter activity in the past.  We are still doing it the same way so I won't post another right now.  We'll be doing a review activity next week with the short vowel sounds.

Then of course it's time to move!  We got the parachute out again and put on some stretchy bugs.

Parachute is always a blast for the kids. You can purchase them in so many different sizes or you can simply use a light weight blanket.  So, they tried to keep the bugs on as long as they could.  These really went bouncing high...often on top of the piano and out into the kitchen and a time or two they hit the ceiling. There was a bit of squealing going on because of it but that just makes it more fun.  Then after they were all off the parachute, they kept their hands on and I showed a bug card which they named and then we shook the parachute while we said the name to find out how many syllables were in it.  Then the bugs were put back on and we continued on that way for a bit.

Then it's numeral formation time. 

They simply created a caterpillar and wrote the numbers backwards (their idea) from ten to 1 or 0. 

Then it was art time but I posted about that yesterday so won't say much about it now.

I also forgot about our letter formation B butterflies...and then we ran out of time so we'll do those tomorrow.  We did our Listen and Do activity (following verbal instructions) along with our scissors activity.

This activity was reproduced from Word Family Helpers a Mailbox publication.

And I decided that part of our fine motor component would be game playing.  I found that we just didn't have time for that during the school year and playing games is very beneficial as they are learning to work together to solve problems, follow rules, take turns, learn about good sportsmanship, (paying attention to whose turn it is so they didn't annoy those waiting), and it's good for fine motor skills, especially if there are cards involved.  Remember that flipping cards over is great for developing/strengthening muscles in the hand and wrist which is necessary for good penmanship.

Our game yesterday (and we played it again today :-))...

 

Need a gift for a preschool age child?  This is an excellent game.  It took longer to complete the game then I expected when I first saw it.  Today we averaged going through 3 stacks of the cards before completing a game but it's pretty fast moving. They played three games in a row!  "No reading necessary" though it does use words (good thing too!) it has symbols also to give the children clues.  My 8 year old still enjoyed playing the game with the younger ones and to be truthful...I kind of had fun too!  Some board games (like Candy Land) drive me bananas.  :-P This one didn't.  So it has that going for it!

For our phonological awareness activity we use a borrowed story set from our local Regional Resource Center.  All brand new since it's a new resource to our area.  They are beginning to provide infant-preschool materials for us to borrow.  It'll be interesting to see how it all works.  I've been wishing we had something like this in the area and so I'm a bit excited.  It's a good way to try something out before purchasing it yourself also.  So, one of the student's favorite book is There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly so we used the very nicely made set to work with sequencing and retelling a story.  I have some home made pictures for this story but the children loved (including Trent, now 2 years old) putting the animals inside of the woman. 

All made of thick felt and velcro.  Definitely something I'd consider purchasing.

All for now!  Tomorrow we are moving to the short o vowel and will do a bit with "pots".  :-P

Language/Literacy and a bit more.

Literacy has so many components.  As mentioned in the past, many of them can be reinforced informally.  However, I do like to plan activities specifically for the different components as well, to make sure that I'm covering a bit of everything. 

 One activity we are doing first thing, during our summer program, is a journal.  This journal topic is only one word and is related to the story or book that will be used that morning.  Makes it a very easy way to transition to the next activity.  I use a one word topic to allow for a wide variety of responses.  Children are invited to share their journal but if they don't wish to, that is fine also.  There are many types of paper available on the Internet.  For fives and younger, I do recommend just blank paper with no lines at first.  After they are more confident with their writing, then move onto only one line at the bottom of the paper.  Our Kindergarten teacher also starts with blank or one line depending on the development of the child.  Then she moves onto lined penmanship paper.  http://www.printablepaper.net has SO many different types of paper templates, free to print.  That is where I printed off the penmanship paper with the lower line highlighted blue. 

I recommend a journal time that allows for the child to take as long as they want.  Unfortunately, it's not working that way this summer.  My older kids need more time but the younger one needs to move on as he's not quite as detailed as the other ones.  And though I have suggested they keep working, they prefer to do the activities with me so my kids end up finishing their's later.  But if you can, allow for them to work as long as they wish.  C. usually writes a sentence like I love the orange cat and the tiger and draws accordingly.  A. is eight and writes a paragraph and draws accordingly.  My youngest student draws a picture and is encouraged to write at least one word.  I provide an alphabet chart for them to refer to as they wish.  http://teachers.net/gazette/NOV02/printable.html (down the page a bit. pdf file called letterchart.)

So then we moved onto a story.  I wanted to do The Little Red Hen.  But my copy must have grew legs and walked off.  So the older kids all took turns reading Across the Stream.  This book's main character was a hen.  Oh, our journal topic was "farm".  So, of course, it led into the book about a hen and her chicks.  Watching and listening to older children reading a book is very beneficial to a younger child.  Then we sorted the capital letters of the alphabet by sticks and curves.  I really work on children noticing details in all things but it's especially helpful for them to notice how a letter is made.  In a previous post, I mentioned about sticks and curves.  In the past I have the children create the letter and then sort the letter into the correct column/basket.  But the children here have all experienced that and we wanted to move quickly through the activity as we were running a bit behind as a child arrived later then starting time so only used the sticks and curves with the ones they were unsure about. 

The hens get used for much more then what they were made for.  I have a whole set that I usually use for a number activity/display and I have smaller eggs that we place inside of the nest, the number of eggs corresponding with the number on the hen.  Anyway, they are laminated so I just drew sticks on the first nest, curves on the last nest, and both sticks and curves on the middle nest and we were set.  :-)  Thanks A. for writing all the letters for me!  He's 8 and has loved being a "teacher assistant" so far!

Then we move onto moveable letters.  The moveable letters is more for the child going into Kindergarten.  In this picture you can see I'm using letter tiles.  Over the next few weeks you'll see me change.  Actually, Monday I'll be doing something a little different since our focus short vowel is the same as it was in this picture...and he's already getting the idea so we'll challenge him!

The older two off to the left are writing the word on chalkboards. Then they'd all check each other's work.  A. is taking this time to learn to write in cursive. :-)  They haven't started yet but will in 3rd grade.  His cursive alphabet chart is from www.hwtears.com.

So after they have done their high frequency word booklet, calendar, story/activity and moveable letters, it is so time to get up and move!  So I plan an activity (typically math but it won't be that always) that involved some large motor.   The kids LOVED this very easy activity.  Hard to get a picture but here's one. :-)

The way our little house is we can open the doors from the living room to the master bedroom, and the master bath doors and it leads into the utility room, kitchen and back into the living room.  So we often use that "circle" for our large motor.  So for this activity, I had number/answer cards up on a door.  The four purple cards corresponded with the four types of farm animals available.  The child takes a purple card, reads the word (or looks inside for a clue) and all the children follow that child around the circle moving and sounding like that particular animal.  Then the child takes a subtraction card (upside down on a tray) and works the problem with the corresponding animal cards.  Does that make sense?  So if they chose cow, they moved and moo'd around the circle and then the child came back and chose a subtraction problem and worked it out with cows.  Then they told me the answer and we stuck it under the correct number on the door.  This leads into number families also.  I encouraged the older students to also work out the problem with the cards, even if they could do it in their head so that the younger students are able to see what is being done.  We did this for quite awhile.  Always read your child/group, if they are becoming disinterested, stop and do something else.

The other week we did the parachute, during large motor.  First we counted by ones, flapping the parachute, to 30.  Then I asked what other ways we could count to 30.  And we counted by 2s, 5s, and 10s, labeling it skip counting.  Then I placed 30 cats (labeled with a number and the number word) on the parachute and we tried to keep them on as long as possible.  When they were all out, they each were given a specific number of cats to pick up and we worked together to put them in order.  I created the cats to make a simple ABAB pattern as well.  This helps them self-correct a bit.

Sorry, didn't get a good picture but this gives you an idea about the cats.  This was the day we did Scat the Cat also, and was working with the short a sound.

Looking forward to Monday.  This is turning out to be a fun adventure!