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

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.

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. "][/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."][/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.



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. "][/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"][/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."][/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.

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.)"][/caption]

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

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

[caption id="attachment_130" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="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."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_134" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="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. "][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_136" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="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. "][/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. "][/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. "][/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."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_139" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="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."][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_127" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="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. "][/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. "][/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.

PreKin: More Sid and Spanish with the Potato Heads

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.


First, a new toy and a new interest. She has always had an interest in what is happening with her body. Why does my owie heal? Where is my blood? What happens to my food? I saw this puzzle and was just waiting for the right price. $19.99 on Amazon with free shipping and I jumped. This is the girl puzzle and a friend went in on the order with me and ordered the boy puzzle for her PK son. Kind of spendy, I suppose but I will sell it when she is done using it. (She looks tired using it here but really enjoyed it and has probably completed the 5 layers at least 20 times since I opened it a few days ago.)



To go along with it I ordered the Magic School Bus Human Body DVD based on good reviews. also on Amazon. She loves it and after watching it she goes to her puzzle and talks through what happened on the episodes. She has always been into "acting things out" and so this is a great way for her to take in the information.

And a couple months back she had requested to learn Spanish. I pulled out a Hooked on Phonics Spanish kit and she is enjoying it. She is in the middle of the second level on this 3 level basic program designed for 3-5 year olds. I thought it would be fun to take the Spanish names of the body parts she is learning and use them with the Potato Heads, so we created this game.

Here are the different pieces set out in categories with the Spanish word cards labeling each section. Setting it up gives us a good review.



Then I would turn the cards over into a pile and we would take turns turning over the top card to reveal the Spanish word for a body part. You get to pick the body part the card reveals on your turn. There is no big strategy to this. I keep the cards in order so that by the time you have gone through the pile twice you both have a complete Potato Head. She LOVES this.

Tot School week's review: April 27th-May 1st

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 4th.




A great week! I started it out feeling that we weren't do anything but I think it was a good week for me to just watch the kids. I'll just post some pics and comments.


Free play with unifix cubes. Once the 3y3m boy has his fill of play with these then I'll show him how to match them up with the number cards to promote one-to-one correspondence. If I do it now he won't want to focus on the activity but will want to experience the unifix cubes.



Free play with the counting bears. 3y3m old is working on color recognition.



Dress-up bears.



22m boy playing with farm animals. I like to put these in a low-rimmed tub for play with cornmeal or other sensory material and look forward to doing that for him in the future.



Books at the table while waiting for lunch. 22m.old just wants to know if lunch is ready. ;-)



More book time. 4y9m sister reads to 2y4m brother.



They can't get enough of Potato Heads! A very multi-age activity.



A new activity this week. Lentils and plastic eggs to fill and shake and dump.



The 2y3m loves the computer now. I can trust him to stay on the chair for 5 minutes at a time and operate the mouse. This is one of the Dr Seuss CD-Roms that brings the pages of the book to life and makes the characters interact with a click of the mouse. Perfect for this age. Just getting the hang of moving that mouse and clicking and getting a reaction on the screen.



Remember Lincoln Logs? The block area of our classroom hasn't been getting much action so I brought this out. It wasn't really a hit. I have to figure out what to do since this area of the room is ignored. Maybe I will move the area. Moving things sometimes generates interest.



3y3m and a lacing activity. This was popular with him and the 4y9m child this week and it was nice to see her revisit this activity with improved abilities.



The 22m old loves the dress-up area and decided to put on quite a variety this day! One interesting note here. When we are elsewhere in the house and he gets near a pair of unoccupied shoes he puts them on and parades around. I have a pair of large shoes in the dress-up area and he hasn't touched them! I want to put a few more things in that area to occupy him. He also loves the play kitchen area and the shopping cart.



3y3m old continues to practice cutting and is improving each time. I have small cutting board that is slightly cupped and has a handle (Dollar Tree!) and he cuts over this cutting board. He can easily take the cut pieces to the trash can and dump when he is done. He also learned how to use the handbroom/dustpan to clean up extra pieces this week, too.



I borrowed a basketball hoop set from a friend. The 2y4m old enjoys this the most. He plays with it about a half hour every day with daddy. LOVES to jump and throw balls so this was perfect for him.



And some balloon bouncing and ballet dancing to some classical music. I put Classical Baby video on the TV and they dance around the room giggling. This was just a brother/sister time but I do with all 4 kids when I'm babysitting sometimes.

I did fewer teacher/mother-directed activities this week and allowed more free choice and opted to observe them and spend some time thinking about how I want to approach this homeschool process. I like having a "classroom" because I'm a teacher who believes in setting up the environment for play and learning. I feel blessed that I have the space and the extra kids and can provide this experience for all of them. I'm doing some thinking about how structured I want to make things, though.

But I did take some time to set up a better art & crafts center!



I also did some fun projects specifically for the 4y9m prekindergartener and I'll post about those here.

Next week: Musical wall, pics of the Melody Maker that we put together and nature painting.

Enjoy more posts by moms participating in Tot School here.

PreKin: Science with Sid the Science Kid

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 4/28/2009

I'm not a fan of pushing children academically, But sometimes a child will push you to pursue some learning. This is the way it is with my 4y9m old daughter. She decides what she wants to learn next and takes off after it. I simply follow and facilitate. She makes it easy. She is a very verbal-linguistic child and also somewhat of a perfectionist. She takes in information but won't attempt something until she feels that she will be reasonably successful. I have now figured this out and I don't push her. But, she does push me. (She taught herself to read in spite of all my expertise in this area of education. Sigh.)
Recently she insisted that she should have a Science Journal as shown on Sid the Science Kid and the other science tools, too. So, I grabbed her a spiral-bound notebook and she asked me to turn on the Super Science Tools episode (recorded on the DVR) and she recorded all the science tools with drawings on her first journal page. We then set about collecting the tools and created her science tray.

[caption id="attachment_52" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Science Tools: magnifying glass, chart, ruler, estimation jar, journal"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_53" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Science Tray w/journal, estimation jar & plates for counting items, ruler and magnifying glasses."][/caption]

With the science tray in place, she immediately wanted me to put some items into the estimation jar so that she could estimate as the characters demonstrate on the Enough With the Seashells episode. She followed an estimation process modeled on that particular episode. Here is a description of that process. The first time she counted buttons from her art collage collection and this second time that I documented below she counted corks that I had collected.

[caption id="attachment_12" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Using her Estimation Jar w/corks that she saw modeled on Sid the Science Kid"][/caption]

She adores this estimation jar activity and I think it is absolutely marvelous for developing concepts of quantity and volume. And this is what I really hope to accomplish with her since she loves to count to 100 and I want to make sure she develops an understanding of quantity and not just a rote memorization of the numbers. So we will definitely be repeating it with new items at least weekly. Hmmmm...she was collecting small rocks in the backyard yesterday so that might be a good thing to put into the jar next.

This PBS show has a wonderful list of cycles and activities to carry out in addition to watching the shows or the clips provided on their site! She enjoys the songs in the episodes and often asks me to rewind and repeat them for her. She points out things she learned in real life. For quite awhile she was obsessed with decaying things thanks to the Mushy Banana episode and we actually did complete the Decaying Pumpkin activity last November. (Ick!) She still talks about that.

How nice to have my science lessons laid out for me and for this TV show to provide all the motivation needed for making these activities happen! Next up is using charts and given my daughter's obsession with the weather chart displayed on the morning news (see pic below), we will probably graph the weather. Creating and reading graphs is SUCH a valuable activity for this Prekindergarten age!

[caption id="attachment_14" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="4 y.o.'s obsession with weather reports, maps and graphs of all sorts. Thankful for DVR so we can pause and discuss them on her demand."][/caption]

Then we will move on to meaningful opportunties to use measurement and observation in this Tools & Measurement Cycle. And as I look over the available cycles in this program, I'm thinking that the Transformation & Change cycle looks like another good unit to pursue as we enter the warm summer months and prepare to plant some seeds. And the Backyard Science cycle would also be a good unit for our warmer months. The Health and Simple Machines units might be nice for our cooler months when we spend more time inside. Of course, I can plan but we will see what ideas she has in her head driving her forward!