One Duck Stuck

I think I'll just give my K Readiness program schedule again as it was something that was asked recently. Please keep in mind that all students are 5+ in this summer program.  My preschool routine, during the school year, is different.  You have to explore with schedules to see what's going to work with you and your child(ren).  Each year I usually have a different schedule as my students vary from one year to the next.


Our K Readiness Summer program runs 8:30A-12:00P.  We added a bit of time to add lunch in, for various reasons.
Upon arrival children do
*  calendar
*  high-frequency word booklet.  I would like that the books are read frequently at home but I'm going to guess that they are being read to their family once.  I'm not too concerned.  The main point of the booklets were to get the basic of how to read down...left to right, top to bottom, front to last page, pointing to the words, noticing the first letter and sounding out the simple words and using the picture as a clue to what the words say and an introduction to sight words, which often do not "follow the rules".  Just building the foundation for when they are truly reading the books in Kindergarten.
*  journal-related to the book we'll be reading


Then we move onto moveable letters.  This is where we are moving letter manipulatives to create CVC words that use short vowel sounds.   During this time we review 1) listening for beginning, middle, ending sounds 2) short vowel sounds 3) sounding out and saying fast a word.  Talking about real and nonsense words. 


We read our focus book and sometimes we slip in our phonological awareness activity in here.  Otherwise we do it toward the end of the morning.


By this time we are sitting for quite awhile and so we do some movement that usually incorporates another concept.


We move onto our numeral formation activity that often incorporates other math concepts.


Art is next.  We've been inspired by http://www.theartgarden.info/ this summer focusing on artists or an illustrator.


We then finish up with doing a listen and do activity, a letter formation activity (not usually theme related, I use the HWT alphabet order and the activity usually allows for repeated formation of the capital letter), and a scissors activity that typically focuses on word families.

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Very enjoyable book, repetitive text, rhyming galore, great pictures, and the animals aren't really "typical".  I love that!  You could sure use this book as a jumping board into the habitat and characteristics of the animals.  And a great word to introduce/review is onomatopoeia.  Splish, sploosh, plop and so on.

Well, I really didn't have a good picture at all for these activities but this one shows the alphabet mats in the background.  I do enjoy these mats.  Can be used for so many different activities and when they play with it on their own they are naturally reinforcing letter knowledge.

For our moveable letters today we used our alphabet mats to find the vowels, and we all made a CVC word and told each other what it was, sounding it out/saying it fast.   The older children were encouraged to make real words but the younger ones made any words and we talked about whether they were real or nonsense words.  It was so neat to see and hear the expression from one child when she made a real word "on accident".   We passed our vowel to the person on our left and reviewed the short vowel sounds each time.  The picture shows C. with rhythm sticks.  We used rhythm sticks to chunk out words (starting out with the animals) that were in the book, after we read it. 

For our gross motor activity, we all got in a line and passed a tactile ball, over our heads, to the left/right, under our legs, etc.  The first child made a pattern out of quacks and the second person copied that pattern, etc.  Then to end it we all made a tunnel with our legs and the first person in line tried to roll a small kickball to the end of the tunnel.  Easier said then done, they found out! 

We incorporated our new discovery box today for math. 

I had A. place a set of numbers from 0-9 in both sides.  We used the wooden numbers that came with the box as well as our tactile numbers.  Then the children were given each a rubber duck (oriental trading) and they reached in and chose a number, feeling it and then quacked as many times as they thought the number was.  I helped the others count by holding my fingers up as they quacked.  This was great for talking about the different shapes of the numbers as 2 and 5 got mixed up by multiple of the children because if they feel a 2 upside down it feels like there is a hat on it.  In the end, the two younger students put their numbers in order from 1-9.  The older students checked their work.  Then I gave them the challenge for later (another easier said then done activity) to reach their hand into both sides and find the same number.  I can see that our new discovery box is going to get a lot of use this fall!  You can make one of your own with a shoebox and a tube sock.  Or you can do what I've done in the past and just put things in the bottom of a tube sock.  I've also put a large plastic cup in the bottom of a tube sock for smaller items.

What?!?!  I just purchased this from http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/. I went on to get the picture and it's now in the clearance section for $4.99!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So I went on and ordered a few more for birthday gifts.  A 5 star review and I agree.  It's made lovely and the wooden shapes, letters and numbers are a lovely addition.  I'll be sharing the different ways I use this box throughout the school year. 

Art today was an activity to go along with the book. 

A. had painted us some green paper adding texture by using various tools when the paint was wet.  This will help me lead into Wed.'s art lesson as the focus book/lesson is with regards to an Eric Carle book.  Though the lesson from http://www.theartgarden.info/ does not focus on the paper collage technique I always bring the children's attention to it.  For this particular activity I provided brown fingerpaint for the muck, a duck, and the green textured paper to use as the weeks around the marsh, like in the book.  They were welcome to use scissors or just rip their paper.

Our scissors activity went along with the -uck word family. 

The actual idea was a pond made with blue paper but since we were doing One Duck Stuck we decided to use brown paper for muck.  :-)  If your child(ren) would benefit from word family exploration, this Mailbox publication Word Family Helpers is recommended by me.  The children have enjoyed these little projects and so have I!  I plan on using C.'s for during the school year with my preschool students. 

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.

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!