Dinosaur Week

My son is really into Dinosaurs right now. He got some for Christmas so I thought it would be fun if we had a Dinosaur theme in January.

The kids are making Dinosaur Tracks in play-doh

 I had this oversized box from Christmas so we used it for our bear cave the week prior and then it became our Dinosaur cave. The kids gave up decorating it but had fun while it lasted. My children played in it all week until I finally decided to reclaim my living room. 

I found these awesome hats at a discount store and then later spotted them at the Dollar Store. The kids loved them.

We learned what Paleontologists do and got paint brushes to search for letter bones. The kids had to dust them off and then call out their letter before they could collect them. Once they were all found, we sat around in a circle and showed each other what letters we found. The kids all wanted to keep their bones to bring home. 

We had a little extra time so we made some tracks with paint. 

The kids each got to make a Dinosaur fossil. We imprinted on one and then they made a bone with their other one. I used a salt dough recipe. 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup water. It was the first time making it and I really loved it. I will definitely use that again. I put my oven on the lowest setting and cooked it for hours and flipped them and cooked it even longer. 

The next time they came they were able to paint them.

We learned a little about Volcanos and the kids helped form one throughout the day. 

I thought it would be fun if we had a little eruption. The kids loved it and wanted me to keep doing it. 

We finished off the day with the kids making their own Dinosaurs. I am bummed I wasn't able to get pictures of everyones. I severely ran out of time, which happens way too often and then I was out of room on my camera. 

Quinn's dinosaur is called Spinasaurus and is quite mean. He eats people but doesn't like to eat counters. 

We had one Dinosaur that was called Friendliasaurus who only liked being nice and didn't like when people were mean. 

Another dinosaur was called Waterasaurus and loved to eat watermelon and drink water.

 One Dinosaur was called Elsasaurus after Queen Elsa. She loved to dance. She was sporting an awesome Tutu and crown (which the child told me my crown I drew for her was ugly and she could draw a much prettier one).

I didn't realize how much my son would love this. It absolutely made his day

October Begins

October 1st!
We brought out our Easels today and all the kids took turns coloring with chalk and markers. We had out Instruments and did lacing as well. During play time I pulled aside our newest children and did assessments on them (Kept on file). We introduced patterns today and took turns making patterns with our ice cream flavors. The kids picked out 2 colors and made a pattern on their paper. They were also given the words: I like ice cream. and had to arrange them in order and then read the sentence. (Keep practicing at home so they learn the individual words or letters.) We got out playdoh and the kids tried rolling it to make worms. They each got a paper ruler and they measured how many inches their worm was. (I forgot to send those home so I will try and remember that on Thursday. Help them learn how to measure things at home. We measured utensils as well) We all enjoyed a little Ice Cream treat today (myself included).

September 26
On Thursday after pictures we had enough time to do our Circle Time and then learn a little about the letter H. We talked about the season changing to Fall on the 22nd and looked and touched leaves that had already started changing colors and fell off the trees. We did a hedgehog picture with the leaves. After seeing a picture, many children made their leaves stand up like the quills on the hedgehog. I let them just create so many of you probably didn't even see the hedgehog that was on the paper once they were finished : )


September 24
Letter G
Stations:
Large Block Play
Geodes and Gems (Petrified Wood, Formica, ect) with Magnifying Glasses and Flash lights
Cutting practice
Legos
Books

We read The Gingerbread Man and then went on a hunt. We introduced Graphing. The gingerbread man left buttons and we were to find which color he liked the most. We colored the buttons on a paper and then found out at the end that he liked the color pink the most. After the hunt the kids found our gingerbread cookies and got to eat them. 
After that we cut out story squares and then pasted them in the order of what happened in the story. (Story Sequencing) Boy, we were out of time by that point!

Pictures

Let me know if you want your children's pictures added.

 Bubble Wrap Painting

This was our Bubbles day. The kids had a lot fun blowing bubbles. 

I enjoyed it just as much as them.

Our Cereal sensory. 

All of the kids came over and played in them and loved lacing them the most. The enjoyed working together to fill the bottle. 

Q is enjoying book time

Fingerpainting

These eggs were soaked in grape juice overnight. We had our Dental Hygienist come over and after she left the kids got to practice brushing the junk off the eggs. We tried doing little circles like she taught us.

C is practicing with our mouth model

This was after the kids were finished brushing. 

Week 3

Tuesday:

Letter F

Fire Safety: Hot things burn, story song, activity 
This is the first lesson in my Fire Safety Program. We go through the house and talk about things that are hot and what we can touch and things that will hurt us. 

Feelings and Faces: We made faces and learned how to draw them and our different emotions we have. 

Finger Painting (sorry for the green hands)

Snacks: Fruit (Grapes)

Word: for
Sentence: This is for me.

Thursday:

Letter D

Stations:
Dress up
Cars
Manipulative: Stackers
Puzzles

Dental Health: We had a Dental Hygienist come and talk to the kids today about their teeth and how to care for them. It was great and all the kids had fun as we saw pictures and practiced how to brush and floss. She brought a picture for the kids to color. 

Brush Egg's with Toothbrushes: I hard boiled eggs and soaked them in Grape Juice over night. The kids got to practice what we learned by brushing in small circles.

Snacks: I just cut up a few pears. We ran out of time for our other plans.

Week Two

Week Two

Letter C

Stations:
Cars
Sensory: Cereal, bottles, yarn for lacing, cups (All of the kids huddled around lacing their cheerios)
Pretend Play: Dress up
Castle Play
Tools

Circle Time: The kids love their jobs for the week.

Science: Bake Cookies, Why do things change? Heat.

Art: Cookie Art: Circles, Cutting, Gluing on Cereal (Shape of a circle) Make "Cookies" with brown paper. I really wanted to get the kids started on using scissors so this was a great activity for that.

Math: Puzzles

Snacks: Carrots and Ranch for dipping

Book Mmmm Cookies, the kids got to bring home their cookie they made. 


Letter E

Stations:
Sensory: Dirt
Play Outside for Gross Motor 
Inside: Books, Puzzles, Mega Blocks (No one played inside)

Circle Time-
Elephants, video, picture, facts (Did you know that Elephants have large ears but can't hear very well?)
Earth, 2 meanings(Soil, and Planet)
Language: Word: Eat Sentence: I can eat.
We are starting a new thing. Learning the letter, a word, and a sentence. I was going to wait on this but decided to just try it out. I don't think they are quite ready but they can learn the difference between the 3 things.

Elephant Game- Kids color the Elephant (learn about the color Gray), then cut and glue on the paper bag. For the game: The kids feed the Elephant the correct Peanut as directed.

Letter E Art- Each child writes the Upper and Lower case E. Glue on the letters and kids sprinkle earth (dirt) on top (Outside). We also jumped on the Earth and Ran on the Earth.

Snacks: We had Pluots (Cross between a Plum and an Apricot)

End: Elephant Game and the book "Be Brown"

Our First Week

This is kind of a rough overview of our week. This just gives you an idea of the things we cover so you know and also so you can ask your child more in depth questions about their day. For the assessments I asked if they knew Capital Letters, numbers 1-10 by recognition, shapes, colors, how high they could count, how they colored and how they cut. I will keep them on file till the end of the year. If you would like to see them, just let me know. This gives me an idea of what I need to focus on and who needs help.

Tuesday, September 3rd

September 3rd
For stations we had 
Sensory: bubbles and Utensils to play in
Block Play: Cardboard Blocks
Bristle Blocks
Fine Motor: Potato Heads
Literacy: Books
Cars

During Free Choice Play I pulled children aside for assessments. I will keep these on file until the end of the year. If you would like to see them, let me know. 

Circle Time consists of The Calendar, Pledge, Weather, Counting, Practicing our Letters, Songs or Rhymes, and any instruction we have that day. Each child has a job for the week. For instance we have a "Librarian" and they pass out the books and collect them when we practice our letters. We do them in Composition notebooks that we keep here.

We did a "First Day of Preschool" page that I am keeping for their binder.
Snacks: Apples
We learned about seasons a little and focused on Autumn. We made Leaf People and the kids followed directions on how to draw a person. (If they didn't know)
Goodbye Stories

We ran out of time to do more but with it being our first day we were learning the rules and figuring things out.

Thursday, September 5th

September 5th
Stations:
Sensory: Bubble Wrap on the counter and floor with large cars to roll on
Fine Motor/Pretend Play: Buildings (with people and animals)
Literacy: Books
Gross Motor: Balls to throw into Basket and Box

During Play time I finished assessments with the kids

Circle Time: See above
Song for this week: Here we are Together

Art: Bubble Wrap Painting. The kids each got a piece of Bubble Wrap that they painted with Orange Paint and when they were finished we laid their paper on top to transfer over.

Snacks: Blowing Bubbles with their milk and Bread

Science: Make homemade Bubbles (6C water, 1C dish soap, 1/2C corn syrup). The kids made their wands out of pipe cleaners.
Goodbye story and went outside to blow their bubbles.

Pictures

 Egg Experiment

Egg Experiment

 Comb Painting

Detective for the Day

Field Trip to the Police Station

Sorting

Making the letter R with Popcorn

Spaghetti Painting

Pinto Bean Sensory

Water Xylophone

X's with Pretzels