Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Prekin: Dare I say that we did Sid the Science Kid again!

I spent some time this past week thinking about what I want to do with the next 12 weeks of mixed-aged children. At the end of August I will begin homeschool Kindergarten with her with K12 curriculum through our state virtual homeschool program. It will be plenty structured, so I questioned how structured I want to make the summer months.


However, I'm going to keep some structure going for a couple reasons. First, she hasn't been on too much of a structure for PreK. She pretty much teaches herself anything she wants to know so we haven't had structured lessons until recently with her new science interest.(She taught herself to read at 3.5 years. There was no working on teaching numbers, letters, colors with her in any official manner for the most part.) Sticking with a routine for the next 12 weeks will be a running start for the school year. Second, she is craving new information and experiences, and to be honest, her behavior is better when she gets my time and attention in this manner. I feel that it is almost a necessary food for her.


My concern with continuing any kind of structured approach is that she has not been spending as much time engaged in creative play during her 4th year of life. In a way, it is as if she dumped all of that when she took on a more academic interest in the world. But I think it is too early and I want to make sure I provide lots of opportunities for her to create. With a structured curriculum looming in the near future, I do fear that she needs more time for creative play.





So, with all these things on my mind, I decide to just set some objectives based on her new interests and see where that takes us.


1. Complete the Sid the Science Kid cycles since she enjoys them so much.


2. Complete a fun Geography series with a homeschool friend.


3. Complete the Spanish Hooked on Phonics series that she enjoys.


4. Provide plenty of activities that allow for creative play and expression (art shelves, dramatic play, empty boxes, blocks and more). Follow her lead on her creative activities.

5. Provide summer dance lessons again if she shows interest.







This past week she did insist we finish reading the First Human Body Encyclopedia. And then we did try making our fingerprints to determine our print pattern. We couldn't quite do that with the fingerprints but she enjoyed the activity and moved on to playing with some stamps.






She has enjoyed some art time in which she colors, cuts, tapes and paints without any direction from me.



And we completed the Sid the Science Kid investigation about germs upon her insistence.
You can see the directions for the investigation here.




First, she got her hands dirty out in the dirt pile.
This is such a little girl's dirty. My son would have been twice as dirty easily.
Examining the dirtiness under a magnifying glass.
Wiping with a paper towel but they don't really come clean.

Washing with soap and water and even scrubbing with a fingernail brush to clean them completely.

Writing about the results when she was done. She got the point that washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to get them clean. The need for a fingernail brush was a bonus lesson!


And speaking of the dirt, she helped daddy plant some vegetables in our very small garden plot. We plan to take pictures of the growth process and put together a little book or slide show presentation with it. I don't really care. I'm just hoping to get her to eat more vegetables as a result!
Next week she wants to do sink and float activity that I mentioned after she saw a Magic School Bus episode on the topic. She also reviewed her Spanish and I need to start the third level with her. And I'm sure she will want to do something else with the Sid Lessons.

Tot School week's review: May 11th-15th

Tot School


It has taken me too long to get a week's review posted. I was moving my blog from wordpress and irritated with the details that weren't falling into place. I was also writing out the Geography curriculum/approach I want to use with my PreK daughter. But, I think mainly because I have been spending time thinking about my philosophy and approach that I am using with this little group of children that I have in my care currently. I know what I want to do but I keep changing my mind about how to say it or how much to share. I don't even know exactly why. I think I'm just a bit moody. So, anyway. I'm just going to sum it up quickly and leave it there.

1. Given my training, experiences, and the situation in which I find myself with the mixed ages of children and my physical limitations, I have decided to spend the next 12 weeks doing a Creative Curriculum for preschoolers approach. I have a "classroom" and many of the materials and I feel the the developmental approach is the one that is best for me right now. (The back end of this statement is that I have been trying some Montessori, but even with my great training I just don't think it is working the way I want it to work and I just don't feel right watering it down much. I might revisit this when my stubborn 2y5m son is about 3 months older, though.)

2. I have set some goals and objectives for my 4y9m daughter and I'll discuss that on my PreKin post.


Okay. On to our week in review! I intended to post their chosen activities and then the guided activities that I prepared and completed with them. But, I guess I didn't do much of the guided activities last week! Oh, well.

CLASSROOM CHOICE ACTIVITIES:





Blocks for building and dumping.






Latches board.





Reading/relaxing corner.





Sensory tub.





Dramatic Play





Pattern blocks and boards.




Collage wheel from the art shelves. (Also lots of coloring, cutting, gluing and taping that takes place daily but I didn't picture here.)



Farm animals fridge toy on a cookie sheet tray.





And here is an activity that was a flop. I tried giving my 2 kids a sheet of bubble wrap on a tray but it was too difficult for them to pop. I might experiment with different sized bubbles.





More block play w/cardboard blocks.



Linking cubes are great for fine motor experiences.



Nice that I caught this. Rolling the crayon between his palms.





Puzzles. We have been working on number order.



Stamping (first with fingers and then stamps).



Sorting bears by color.





Working on puzzles/ABCs.




FIELDTRIP to the pet store, but my camera batteries went dead after only a couple pictures and this was the only decent one. Bleh!


PreKin activities posted here if that age interests you.

Or return to 1+1=1 blog here.


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

PreKin: Sid the Science Kid fascination continues

This is a repost of an old post originally published on my wordpress blog. The xml files would not transfer to blogger so I will c&p here.

Originally posted May 12th.


She still has a strong interest in Sid the Science Kid on PBS weekday mornings. After a recent episode about our lungs she wanted to try a couple of the investigations.
Here she is blowing bubbles in a bubble/water solution with a straw. This activity was a big hit trying to blow bubbles over the top of the little bowl.

[caption id="attachment_128" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Blowing bubbles to demonstrate how we blow air out of our lungs. "]Blowing bubbles to demonstrate how we blow air out of our lungs. [/caption]



Then she attempted to blow up a balloon. (They warn you not to do this in the investigation, but I wasn't worried about choking with her while I was supervising. Now, I wouldn't let my 2y4m old try it! There was a chance he would suck in instead of blowing out.) I had to help since even with stretching of the rubber, she couldn't quite get enough air power to blow it up herself. Quite a bit of excitement occurred when I showed her and little brother how to let go of a blown-up balloon and it zooms across the room! We also tied them off and batted them around dancing to music later in the day.

[caption id="attachment_129" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Trying to blow up a balloon."]Trying to blow up a balloon.[/caption]

We also had a discussion about foot size when I was ordering some new shoes for the kids and decided to use the ruler from her science tray to measure her foot length and the foot length of the other 3 children and compare sizes.

preschool activities 011

We ordered this book and received it this week and she LOVES it. She wants us to read pages to her a couple times per day . There are other great books about the human body for younger children, but I knew she was going to crave more information so I went for the encyclopedia format.

[caption id="attachment_163" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Our new book. "]Our new book. [/caption]

Some blog readers might wonder why I do so few reading/language activities with her. She is actually already quite a reader with quite flawless reading at the early second grade level. So, satisfying her right now seems to be providing some new books as needed at the appropriate reading level and also working on vocabulary. I don't do anything too formal with her on the vocabulary or sight words. She seems to have a natural drive toward the very things for which I would offer instruction so I haven't felt the need to get too formal with her. As far as vocabulary, she naturally picks up more words every day from just listening in her world. I would like to do more writing activities with her and have some ideas in my head about that. She only recently has expressed interest in writing and she tends to resist it, so writing activities that will be of high interest to her are a must.

So, in the area of Language Arts, I pulled out 4 new books for her.

[caption id="attachment_164" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="4 new reading books"]4 new reading books[/caption]

She also helped to make the Melody Maker described here for a music class assignment this week. The assignment was to make a bell of some kind at home. I felt this might qualify with its metal on metal timbre. This is quite enjoyable. If you want to make it yourself, I must warn you that the supplies cost us around $15 so be prepared for that. We will hang it out on in our musical garden (or banging wall).

[caption id="attachment_121" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Taking the Melody Maker to music class."]Taking the Melody Maker to music class.[/caption]

Next up: Planting seeds and I still want to do a charting activity with her. Also, writing of some kind.

Tot School week's review: May 4th-8th

This is a repost of an old post originally published on my wordpress blog. The xml files would not transfer to blogger so I will c&p here.

Originally posted May 9th.

Tot School


Our activities for the past week.




[caption id="attachment_123" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Painting with nature! (Sticks, pine branches, pine cones, dandelions, etc.)"]Painting with nature! (Sticks, pine branches, pine cones, dandelions, etc.)[/caption]






[caption id="attachment_125" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Collage art"]Collage art[/caption]




[caption id="attachment_126" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Collage wheel"]Collage wheel[/caption]




[caption id="attachment_130" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Colored noodle stringing"]Colored noodle stringing[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_132" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="We added googly eyes to one end and made "snakes". This particular snake was patterned blue-blue-red."]We added googly eyes to one end and made "snakes". This particular snake was patterned blue-blue-red.[/caption]





[caption id="attachment_134" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Shelf activity set up for future independent use."]Shelf activity set up for future independent use.[/caption]




[caption id="attachment_135" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Marble painting step 1: Shaving cream on a baking pan with a tempera rainbow. "]Marble painting step 1: Shaving cream on a baking pan with a tempera rainbow. [/caption]



[caption id="attachment_136" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="step 2: using chopsticks to stir"]step 2: using chopsticks to stir[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_149" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Step 3: We set some paper on top of the mixture and gently applied pressure then removed. I scraped the shaving cream off the top of the paper and this is the image we got. "]Step 3: We set some paper on top of the mixture and gently applied pressure then removed. I scraped the shaving cream off the top of the paper and this is the image we got.  [/caption]



[caption id="attachment_137" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Step 4: Kids used it for fingerpainting, too. This is our friend on the right who visited us today. "]Step 4: Kids used it for fingerpainting, too.  This is our friend on the right who visited us today. [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_141" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="We put together a banging wall. I would like to add the Musical Rod and another metal tool at the bottom. "]We put together a banging wall. I would like to add the Musical Rod and another metal tool at the bottom. [/caption]

Here is the musical rod we made per directions at Chasing Cheerios and Family Fun.

Other fun less-directed activities. I think I might be the Queen of Plastic Toys and I'm not proud of it since we are trying to clear more plastic out of our house. :-P

[caption id="attachment_140" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A favorite: Rice table play w/animals, trucks & cups. I need to change this one more time to a different sensory material and play items before it moves outside for warm weather sand/water play."]A favorite: Rice table play w/animals, trucks & cups.  I need to change this one more time to a different sensory material and play items before it moves outside for warm weather sand/water play.[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_139" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Counting bears free play & color ID w/2y4m & 3y3m"]Counting bears free play & color ID w/2y4m & 3y3m[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_133" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A couple of the kids love to load the dump truck and drive it around. This day it was animals from the farm."]A couple of the kids love to load the dump truck and drive it around. This day it was animals from the farm.[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_127" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="I changed the block shelf around and it saw more action this week!"]I changed the block shelf around and it saw more action this week![/caption]



[caption id="attachment_119" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Puzzle time. "]Puzzle time. [/caption]



[caption id="attachment_117" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Color Forms for the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. They love to retell the stories. "]Color Forms for the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. They love to retell the stories. [/caption]

And my 4y9m old completed some projects on her own, too. You can see those here if that age interests you.

Return to see other Tot School blogs by clicking here.