First Week of Preschool (Sept 10th & 12th)

This was the first week of preschool and the kids were so excited! Our book was The Napping House, by Audrey Wood. Most of the kids were familiar with the book, but that only added to the fun. I asked them to bring an animal or blanket that they sleep with. After reading the book the first time, we acted it out, with one child at a time representing the people or animals in the napping house. There was lots of giggling during this activity. 

 Sorry that my pictures are so blurry. Not sure what was going on. For math, we moved to the table and practiced sequencing/acting it out with paper dolls. I really wanted to reinforce the order, as this is important for both math and reading comprehension.

 The last page of the book has a bright, after-the-rain scene with everyone playing outside and a huge rainbow. We talked about rainbows and learned the color order, then painted them with watercolors. I was so proud of them for working hard to stay in the lines and put the colors in proper order. That takes patience and determination at this age.

I didn't get a picture, but they loved having Allergic Andy come to visit during the phonics lesson. He was a puppet (at turtle who remarkably resembles Crush) who sneezed with a big Aaaaaaacho any time we said the sound of a (as in Andy, apples, aunt, ants, etc.) I can't remember any more because I am writing this over a month later, like a very naughty teacher.

 On Thursday, Logan and Margaret built a Lego tower taller than themselves during free play.

After the book, our activity was rhyming. I rolled a ball to them (we sat in a circle) and said a word and they tried to rhyme it. Most of them had a VERY hard time with this, so we adjusted it. They said a word and rolled ME the ball and I rhymed with their word. A couple of them caught on, but it was really a challenge. We need to do this more, as learning to rhyme is important in their reading and spelling acquisition. They had fun with the activity.

For math, we worked on one-to-one correspondence, sorting, and order using the counting bears. Each child had 6 bears of various colors. We counted them one at a time, sorted them by color, then by size, then lined them up with the red first, blue second, green last (you get the idea).

For our art activity, we did another rainbow, this time with glue and torn paper. No one was bored by repeating the rainbow, and I really wanted to reinforce the colors and the fact that in some art projects we use specific colors in specific places. I thought they were beautiful!