August Day 10 - Wagon

We started our day with the Rebus Reader.  A story titled My Wagon which instead of some of the words there were pictures.  So as you read the story you could pause and point to the picture.  The kids could finish the sentence.  This is great for kids who can't read quite yet to feel like they are reading.  We read through the story several times at the children's request.

Next we worked on making a Big Wagon Wheel.  I got out strips of paper and tape.  I thought Colton would be hooked right away, he loves tape.  But it took him a while to get interested.  It was Riley and I mostly working on the project at first.  The idea was to tape the paper strips together to make a really long strip then make it into a circle to see how big around it is.  A wagon wheel was usually 5 to 6 feet tall.  So we made what seemed like a super big strip and then when we made it into a circle it was only 1 and a half feet tall.  Darn it, we had to keep going.  Eventually Colton joined in, we taped and we taped, then Lachlan joined in.  We made a circle a couple more times, 3 feet, then again it was just over 5 feet tall.  Perfect, the size of a wagon wheel.  Mother Goose Time gave us the idea of having the children lay down in the middle to see just how tall it is.  Colton laid down and it was bigger than him. 

Next we got out the Wagon Shapes Shape Mat.  There were foam shapes provided in one of the day bags at the beginning of the month.  I set it down with all the shapes and all the kids wanted to jump in.  They were all working on putting the shapes in place.  The only problem was we didn't have enough shapes to fill in all the spaces at once.  I think we have been slowly losing them each time we pull them out. 

We conducted the Rolling Experiment next.  I first asked the kids if the cars would roll better over the kitchen floor or the carpet.  They all exclaimed kitchen!  Then I asked will this car or this car roll further?  That's all I had to ask to start a frenzy of car rolling in the kitchen.  Always a favorite activity.

Lastly we built our wagons.  All the supplies came in the day bag.  We were having so much fun building that I didn't pick up the camera until the end.  But you can see the very awesome finished product.

Straws were the axles and they provided foam wheels for our wagons.  A tongue depressor for the handle.  Colton decided he wanted to make a lid for his wagon and then the others wanted to as well.  He really has an engineers mind.  Peter exclaimed one day when Colton was here, "I want a plane!"  Sorry bud we don't have a plane.  I responded.  Colton gets all excited and you can see him start to light up, "but we can make one.  We just need a box and some tape and . . ." As he starts the design in his head.  Again, a big let down, when I tell him Jeff just took out all the recycling and we don't have any boxes.  Oh man!

August Day 7 - Flashlight

When would you use a flashlight?  In a cave, says Lachlan.  We started our day with making these super cool flashlights.  Everything provided by Mother Goose Time of course.  First they decorated their tubes and put the on off switch on.  These were stickers, provided in the bag.  Next we had to color our souffle cups yellow to tape on the end of the tube as the light.  Lastly, we went outside to find "batteries" for the flashlight.  I think everyone picked out rocks and some sticks.  We put the batteries in the tube and finished it off with a cap.  They felt like real flashlights in your hand. 

Next we played What's Missing.  Peter was the first one interested.  This is so simple, you could play this game while waiting somewhere by just pulling things out of your purse.  MGT had us put out 3 things, have them close their eyes, take one away, and have them tell you which one is missing.  3 seemed to be way too easy for Peter, so I added 3 more items.  Everyone did really well at this.  Riley would even answer with her "eyes closed" it was spectacular. ;) Peter kept on answering for everyone else, before they could get an answer out.  He is really good at memory games. 

Here are the random things I grabbed.  Set them on the seat of our 1970s chair.  Snazzy huh?

We learned about the Life Cycle of a Firefly along with the flashlight lessons.  Pretty clever, I thought.  MGT made this awesome little wheel with a window on the front.  As you turned the back wheel it showed the different stages of their life cycle through the little window.  We also had matching cards.  First we went through the four stages and had the kids act that stage out. Egg: Pretend you are an egg by curling up into a small ball.

Larva: Crawl around the floor.  (Larvae are often called glow worms at this stage.)

Pupa: Pretend to dig a hole in the ground.  Explain that this stage often happens underground and is when the larva turns into an adult.

Firefly: Pretend you are a firefly and flash your light.

Lucy's firefly, she kind of freezes when I get the camera out.

Next I spun the Firefly Wheel and the kids took turns finding the matching card.  Here is Peter with his matching Firefly card.

Not only did we get this awesome Firefly Wheel but we also got a board game.  The Inventor's Challenge.  You can have up to four players.  Each player has their own track across the board.  They rolled the dice (also in the bag) and moved that many spaces.  Some of the spaces had things like, forgot your screw driver, go back to start (which was a toolbox).  Riley played twice and never landed on one of the spaces that made you go back so she just sailed right through and won.  Lucky girl.  But the others ended up going back and forth and had a little more fun with it.  I laminated the game pieces and still have it on the counter to play again sometime soon.  I need to start a box of these MGT games to keep.  That way if we are in the mood for a family game we can dig through and pick one.  More to choose from than just Candyland. 

The very last activity of the day I did with just my boys as we were sitting down to dinner.  The other children had gone for the day.  The instructions from MGT were to write letters on pieces of paper, fold them up and put them in a bag.  Instead I grabbed some letters from our flashcards and put them in a bag.  This made it a little harder for them to grab easily but it saved me some time and paper.  After they pull out the letter, they put it down on the table, take their flashlight and shine the light on it and tell me what the letter is.  I grabbed some of the more well known letters and a few more challenging ones.  Lachlan drew out L, T and S.  He got all of them right.  Peter wanted his turn, again I underestimated him.  He just keeps surprising me.  He drew O and P.  Both of those he got no problem.  Next he drew M which he needed a little help with but it was fun to sound it out with them both and try to find words that started with M.  Mom was one I pointed out right away. 

August Day 4 - Hold It Together

Day 4's activities fell on a Wednesday when Colton and Riley are here.  We were learning about things that hold stuff together.  Like paperclips, staples, even band-aids. 

Peter was the only one interested in the Sticky Bandage guy.  I had him climb up at the counter and worked with him on coloring the little man cut out.  I read the little poem on the cut out.  It said:

I was twirling in a circle,

(Roll hands and twist)

Then I fell and scraped my knee

(Hold knee with a sad face.)

My Dad gave me a bandage,

(Pretend to put on bandage and smile.)

Then kissed away my owie!

(Blow kiss.)

As I read, I acted it out as it describes.  Peter then put the bandage on the little cut outs knee.  I have to say, he thought it was pretty cool to use a bandage in a project.  Both boys love them and go to get them anytime someone is hurt.  Even if Mommy says "ouch" they run off to get one.  They can, as you know, make all things better.  I explained to Lachlan and Peter that band-aids hold our owies together until they get better.

What Begins with B?  Instead of getting out a piece of paper and writing the letter B on it I just grabbed a B flashcard.  I held it up and made the sound /b/ band-aid, /b/b/ blocks.  Then we explored for a little while other words that begin with the /b/ sound.  The flashcard had a picture of a bee on it, so that was one more word.

The two littles were taking naps so I gathered the big kids at the counter.  I gave them each a piece of paper as instructed in the Staple the Letters activity.  First I instructed them to cut their piece of paper into smaller pieces, 3 or more.  Once that was completed I had them write the letter B on each piece.  Colton whizzed through this and Riley too.  She is great at writing.  Lachlan, has not been very willing to practice writing.  He especially doesn't like just free handing but enjoys tracing better.  All of it helps.  But for this exercise he had to free hand.  I was encouraging him to give it a try and so was sweet Riley, but it was just getting him more frustrated.  Finally he began to try on his own.  He did one of the round parts on the front of a B first and then the other and then the line.  I tried to show him to draw the line first and then the two bumps.  Again he got pretty mad.  He really likes to figure things out on his own.  However, it is much easier to write each letter in the correct order then to do it all backwards.  So I need to find a way for him to sit down on his own and work it out but a way that shows him the correct order.  I have a couple letter tracing apps but it's tracing.  I sure would love for him free hand.  I might just have to try to show him the ones that have the arrows and numbers showing him which way to start.  Or maybe this isn't that big of a deal at this point?  Any thoughts from all of you? 

Eventually he listened to my verbal instruction.  First the line, then one big belly, then the other big belly.  He got a couple B's just perfect. 

When all our B's were written we stacked the papers together and stapled them on the edge to make a B book.  They all loved the stapling part and all the books were quite sturdy for their size with many staples holding them together. 

The next project we did with the three big kids was the Paperclips and Shapes.  For this one we were to create paperclip chains.  Then take the chains to make different shapes.  This was right up Colton's alley.  He loved this project.  He wanted to make the longest chain, so did Riley and Lachlan of course.  So it quickly turned into a paperclip chain making competition.  But it is such a good fine motor task.  They spent forever working on this.  At the very end we connected all of our chains together to see just how long they were. 

Everyone getting to work.

Riley's chain so far.

Checking the length of his chain.

All of the chains paperclips put together.  They stretch all the way from the kitchen through the living room.

I told Colton he should play a prank on his Dad.  He should buy him a brand new box of paperclips and hook them all together.  Then put them back in the box and then wrap them up for his Dad to take to work.  Then when he goes to grab a paperclip he will get a lot more than he intended.  Colton liked the idea.  I don't think Travis reads my blog, so hopefully I'm not giving it away.

July's Art Studio - Days 1 - 5

Don't let this months theme fool you!  It's not all about art, it's 1/3 art, 1/3 finance and 1/3 character building.  Yes really, finance for preschoolers!  The topics may not be split perfectly like that but they are the three main themes of the month.

The CEO of Mother Goose Time came to the company with a background in teaching financial literacy to kids.  She and her husband, who has a career in the financial world, started a program to teach children to not only be wise with money, but to use it as a tool for a greater purpose.  In her view, character building and financial literacy should go hand in hand.  I could not agree more.

Mother Goose Time incorporates little bits of financial wisdom in every months curriculum.  However, the summer curriculum really hones in on it.  So how do you combine art, character and money?  Brilliantly of course because the MGT team is on it!  

Day 1 we set up Falco's nest filled with his feathers.  We started the month by reading Falco's story.  Falco is a bird who finds a gold coin.  He is so in love with this gold coin that he can't get his mind off the idea of finding another one.  So he searches and searches and finds another, he thinks, just one more, I will find just one more.  He continues to search and as he searches his feathers get stuck in rocks and sticks, as he pulls his wing back the feather gets pulled out.  Friends come to play with Falco but he turns them away because he is busy looking for another gold coin.  Finally he has a pile of gold coins, but no friends to play with and no feathers, so he can't fly.  Pretty sad for Falco, but not to worry, we will help him find his feathers all month long. 

Each day starts with putting the calendar piece up and then placing one of the shapes on the Easel Poster.  Day 1 was an orange square.  Each kid has a paint brush they use to tap the orange square and say "orange square."  The Easel Poster has six outlines of shapes on it.  As we complete each "job" through out the day we put a shape up.  When all six shapes are up and all jobs are done each child gets paid for their days work.

This is from Day 5 when we started with placing the pink heart on the poster, then tapped it with our paint brushes while saying "pink heart".   I use the tacky poster stuff to stick things up.  I have just been leaving it on the poster so I can hand the shape to a child and have them go put it up as we complete our jobs.

Next we search for a certain color of feather.  Day one was an orange feather with the word Discipline on it.  I tell them first the definition of the word and then read the scenario on the back. Here is a picture of the back of one of the Discipline feathers.

At the end of every scenario is the question, did Falco lose it or use it?  As in did he use his discipline in this scenario or not?  There are 2 feathers for every color, one scenario he uses it and one he does not. 

The first 2 days were about self portraits.  On Day 2, once they had earned their first days pay, they were required to "buy" their art supplies to use on their self portraits.  At the end of Day 1 they received 5 Fly dollars.  They each have three envelopes, Save, Spend, Give.  Each envelope has a coordinating shape as well.  Save is a triangle, Spend is a circle and Give is a heart.  So even if they can't read, the difference between the three can be learned by this visual cue.  They put 2 Fly dollars in the spend envelope, 1 in the save and 1 in the give.  This left 1 left over for them to choose which envelope to put it in.  Lachlan refused to spread out his Fly dollars and put all 5 in the spend folder.  Since it was Day 1 and this is a process of learning I let him go ahead and do what he wanted.  I figured over time he would start to grasp these concepts.  I did reiterate to him that if he saved his money he could use it down the road to buy a big something instead of spending it all now to buy a little something. 

So on Day 2 they had to pay 1 Fly dollar for their art supplies.  I set out a tray with a variety of items on there. 

This is Lachlan's self portrait.  So cute!

These books that they drew their faces in on the front page had more characters on the inside for them to color.  Then there was a line they cut down the middle that divided their heads from their clothes so you could turn the pages different ways and mix up the heads with the bodies.

Peter was doing awesome at cutting.  He has always just done fringe cutting, one little cut and not really able to follow that cut and keep going.  But on this day he kept following the line all the way across almost perfectly.  I was so proud of him.

As we learn about different forms of art we are also learning about different countries.  So far we have learned about Italy, which is of course a hub of art.  We made this flag of Italy which Lachlan decided to draw a tree house down the middle of.  I love it!  I am sure there is a tree house somewhere in Italy.  We have also played a card game learning about Italy.  For instance, the fact that spaghetti and pizza both came from Italy.  A big hit for the kids. 

Each of these projects is considered a "job" and we put another shape up on the Easel Poster.  At the end of Day 2 they all got paid another 5 Fly dollars.  I am happy to say Lachlan happily divided his dollars correctly and chose to place his extra dollar in his Save envelope.  It's fun to count it out with the little ones as well.  I hand them all 5 dollars as I count them out.  Then I hold their Spend envelope and tell them to put 2 in there.  They count out the two and place it in the envelope, then we move on to the next one.  Good counting practice for the littles. 

One of my other favorite projects was on Day 3 - Printmaking.  This was the type of art we were learning about.  We were given foam shapes to glue on these cardboard lids to create a print plate.  There were 5 kids here on this day, Lachlan, Peter, Lucy, Colton & Riley.  So I wasn't sure how I was going to pull this off.  I thought I would start out with one child and maybe do it one at a time.  However, once everyone saw what was going on they wanted to join.  So we all sat at the counter and took turns.  I decided to make one of my own and do a full presentation of what to do before I began with the others.  That way they could see the process before they began. 

Here is the finished product of my presentation.  Each rectangle painted and then the tag pressed to the printing plate rather than used like a stamp.

Gluing the shapes to the lids.

Riley painting her print plate.

Everybody waiting their turn.  They all did so well with being patient.

Lachlan's finished print.

The big kids went first and then it was the littles turns.  Peter didn't make the print plate but here he is painting it.  Really concentrating.  Every child loved this project and took great care in doing it right.

Pressing the tag to the plate.

Peter's finished tags.

We ended up having a couple tags left over, so Colton painted one and pressed the other to it.  This was all his idea.  I thought it was a great continuation of the concept.

 Now we are on to week 2.  More great adventures ahead.

Day 13 Opening Circle

This was a fun day because my niece and nephew were here.  We had a great Opening Circle.  Colton and Riley did the weather.  Lachlan put the calendar piece up.

Then we played the Circle Time song and sat down.  That wasn't good enough today though.  They wanted chairs.  So Lachlan, Colton and Riley went and got the little chairs from the table and brought them over.  I was sitting on the ground but it put the kids at eye level.

Colton, he just lost his first tooth.

Lachlan

Riley

We started with the tongue twisters.  I read the saying "Ned the newt never needed a nest."  Then I had them repeat after me.  I started with Lachlan and he halfway joined in.  When Colton showed interest, so did Lachlan.  Colton recited it, "That's like a tongue twister," he said.  Then we moved on to "Oscar the otter often ordered old oatmeal."  Eww, old oatmeal.  We repeated both of the tongue twisters quite a few times.  Towards the end they could recite them on their own with out queuing. 

Since we had just repeated the sounds over and over again in the tongue twisters I asked the Questions of the day.  What words do you recall that begin with the letter N and then asked about the letter O.  When I asked about N I kept making the sound /n/ /n/ /n/ Newt, /n/ /n/ /n/ Neil!  Whose Neil? "Grandpa!" /n/ /n/ /n/ . . . . long pause while continuing to sound it out.  We had a hard time thinking of more /n/ sounds.  But Colton said "bananas!"  I said you know, that starts with a /b/ sound but it has two /n/ /n/ sounds in the middle.  Ba/n/a/n/a I sounded out.

Next we moved on to O.  /o/ /o/ /o/, Otter! /o/ /o/ Oven.

I got out the pictures of the Newt and Otter and we really got into all the details about the pictures.  First we talked about the Newt.  Colton first pointed out the leaf in the background and then the wood.  I thought that was great, he honed in on the environment of the Newt.  I pointed out the moss on the wood and the fact that the Newt has to live in moist environments.  Then we talked about his color, his texture, his eyes and his toes.  He only has 4 on the front feet.  I asked, is his skin smooth or bumpy? Bumpy they all said.

Then we looked at the Otter picture.  Colton started telling me all about Otters.  That when they sleep they link hands so they don't float away from each other.  Then we talked about how they eat.  I asked about his fur and his ears.  Are his ears tiny or big?  They are tiny, look they are right there.  Then I asked about his eyes and nose.  Colton kept comparing his features to dogs.  His nose is like a dogs nose, his eyes are like a dogs eyes.  I joked that he looks like a dog named Frank.  Riley pipes in "we have a dog named Frank."  I know, don't you think he looks like him? No, they giggle.

Next, Riley went and got the new bells I just got at Goodwill.  She handed one to each of them and said if they have something to say, before they talk, they have to ring the bell.  I thought this was pretty funny and wasn't sure how well this would work out.  Turns out it didn't happen but they did start playing the bells together.  We sat in the circle for quite a while enjoying our conversation and making music.  It adds a whole new element when you have more kids.

 

 

Here is the whole group playing their bells.

Lucy joined us a little later in the day.  Here is the whole crew at lunch.  Peter was not going to stop to take a picture.

Had to share that last one just because they are all so cute.  What a fun group.

Can't wait until next Wednesday!