Weather All Around Us - Cloud

I kind of bounced all over the place on this day.  I had them sit down at the table before I had food ready.  We were out of milk so I was making Eggo waffles and they take a little while to toast.  So while they were waiting I got them started on the Cloud Sculpture. 

I split the bag of starch noodles in half and I gave them each a wet wash cloth.  When you get the starch noodles damp they stick together.  It's super fun.  If you get them too wet they smoosh down, so the wet washcloth is the best idea.

They were to think about what shapes they have seen in the clouds and make a sculpture of it. 

Lachlan made his to look somewhat like a typical poofy cloud shape.  Peter's is there on the table by his spot, I think he called it a cloud sword.

While we were still sitting at the table I asked them the discussion question for the C is for Cloud lesson.  What words do you know that start with the /c/ sound?  I had the phonics cards out so we started with cat and cloud.  But then Lachlan came up with some good ones, cactus, clap, cast. 

This little activity of coming up with words that start with the same sound has become a popular one around my house.  I love it!  The other day, Lachlan was playing with Peter in the backseat of the van.  What starts with a /f/f/ sound?  Foot!  This one was funny, what starts with an /ea/ea/ sound?  Ear! 

After we hopped down from the table I taped a letter C on the floor.  It wasn't a very big letter C as I ran out of tape.  But it worked.  I had them stand on both sides of the C and I yelled out words.  If the words started with the /c/ sound then they would jump onto the letter C, if it started with something else then they stayed put. 

You can see Lachlan got it right most of the time and Peter just enjoyed jumping onto the letter every time I said a word. 

This one doesn't really show anything pertinent to the day, but I just think they are super cute.

Next I held the phonics cards behind my back and had them pick an arm.  If they picked the cat they had to crawl along the C like a cat, if they picked the cloud they had to roll a cotton ball along the C.  Talk about Kinesthetic learning.

While we were playing with our big C we were still thinking of /c/ words when I realized camera starts with a C.  I asked Lachlan what other word starts with a C as I pointed my big camera at him.  /c/c/camera!

While we were still at the table I asked the discussion question for Clouds on the Cover which asked, what happens if clouds are on the ground?  I explained to them that it's called fog and asked if they remember a time when it was cloudy when we looked out our window.  It worked out great that the next morning when we woke up it was foggy.  Lachlan explained to his Dad that it was because the clouds were on the ground.  Jeff was impressed and said he was about to compliment Lachlan's teacher when I told him "we just learned that yesterday!"

I had them hop on over to their school spots and get started on their My Little Journals.  They were supposed to draw a picture of something they like to do outside.

Lachlan drew a slide and Peter drew a picture of himself fishing.  I remember the first time Lachlan actually drew a picture of something, somehow, Peter just started doing drawing and I am not sure when it happened.  I think this is actually one of his first drawings.  All his past drawings have been of "snakes" which are long scribbles.  I think he has tried to draw before but mostly shapes.  I remember, with my help he drew himself before with long arms, but it was amongst many scribbles.  All that to say, I am pretty proud of his little creation here.

Since I am using this curriculum for Kindergarten for Lachlan, I really want to focus on more reading and writing and math.  I have been getting these workbooks since we started using MGT and they are appropriately titled More Math and More Literacy.

Here Lachlan is counting how many suns or how many clouds and drawing a line to the corresponding number. 

Practicing his Cs and doing math with clouds.  1+1=2.  At the bottom he was able to cross off the numbers he used as he worked through the problems.  So first he crossed off 2, then 4 as he added 2+2.  This was a great page for him.

Later in the day I had these two tools sitting at his desk.  When I had a chance, Lachlan and I worked through them. 

The purple is from a Hooked on Phonic set for Kingergarteners.  I heard that they were great tools for reading from some of the other homeschool Moms at co-op.  So I found a cheap set through Ebay at a Goodwill in Florida, and they sent it my way.  First you work through the workbook, there are three lines, you can choose just one or do all three.  They are all at words.  The book, titled "Cat", is also filled with at words and Lachlan does well at reading it. 

The flash cards there are numbers 11 through 20.  Lachlan has the numbers 1 through 10 down really well, but the teens are confusing.  So I have just had this stack out for a week or so and I have had Lachlan simply lay them out in order.  I give them to him all mixed up and put out 11 for him as the place to start.  He got frustrated the first few days but now he is starting to grasp the idea.  I started covering up the 1 in front and asking him what number the single digit was.  Then when I lift my hand I tell him the one in front makes it a teen.  So he says five, teen.  Hmm, wait a second that doesn't sound right, fifteen he exclaims.  11 and 12 are their own ball game, why do you have to be so different 11 and 12, why?!?!