Our first week of school was a success! Everyone had lots of fun! I just uploaded 40 pictures from our three days of class... Yikes! Rather than splitting them up day by day, I'll split them by the type of activity. Our very first morning circle was mostly spent learning about each other. The kids loved talking about themselves and learning their similarities and differences.
The days of the week song has quickly become the favorite, although we also sing other songs on a regular basis. I think they like to be the helper and tell everyone what day it is. Who doesn't love to hold a pointer? Jeff was the first helper, he already understands the quietly raise your hand idea.
We used these caterpillar toys to build patterns. Each student had a turn to show his friends. We also tried to find patterns that naturally occurred. Brown hair, blond hair, brown hair, blond hair was discovered around the snack table and made everyone giggle.
Logan painted a pattern with our outside chalk paint. I was happy to see the cross over from our circle time a few hours earlier! Understanding what we were doing and applying it in a different setting is really good to see, smarty pants! Pink, blue, pink, blue... Here he is showing me.
I like to give the kids time to fill sensory needs. Play-doh is an easy way to get some sensory time in, as well as practicing their fine motor skills (cutting with scissors, using plastic knives, and rolling with rolling pins), and some academic work thrown in there too (stamping letters - phonological awareness and letter recognition). Good stuff! They stayed with this table time activity for 45 minutes.
Another sensory activity started as a science experiment. We grew water beads! At the end of the day on Thursday, we poured tiny water beads (smaller than Nerds candy - just for a size reference) into an empty bucket. We added LOTS of water and waited.
After an hour, they were already starting to grow! The kids were so excited!
Then Friday morning after morning circle, we checked on our water beads, and they grew HUGE! They are about as big as marbles now and soaked up all the water. The kids spent lots of time today squeezing them and comparing sizes and seeing who could pick up the most at a time. It was a great sensory activity and very calming for the kids. They seemed to really enjoy them.
Although we play, a lot, there is also lots of time for structured academic/cognitive work. Using one of the LeapFrog Tag pens, students are able to read back through the books we have read all on their own. Certain sight words that are common in stories, like "a" and "the" are emerging in the kids. The pen allows them to hear any word they touch on the page, for more reinforcement. They have even been choosing books during free play time... What smart kiddies they are!
Each student has a set of several workbooks that we will be using this year. Although they know all of their letters (with very few exceptions on tricky lower case letters like "p" "b" "d" and "q"), the workbooks also allow them to practice the "school way" of writing their letters. Upper and lower case practice, and also following directions. Each page has a two or three step instruction for the students to finish their work. If they complete the page they get a sticker on top. They have all loved small group work time like this.
Ryan was practicing upper case letters, then he found the letters to his name and was really proud of himself. I was happy I got this impromptu proud face! He's so excited! Academic activities masked as games, yes please!
Magnetic alphabet letters fishing. Once they caught a letter, they said what it was and either threw it back into the "water" or pretended to eat it. So funny!
Lower case alphabet puzzle. Several kids tried this puzzle and they all sang along as they searched for the right piece "a b c d e f g h i j k l.... where's the l?!"
Free Choice play time has been fun to watch. Seeing the common interests and the more particular tastes come to light. These friends are really good at turn taking and sharing. I am very impressed. Blocks and buildings and garages for cars, so fun!
Some of the kids made potato head families. Hawk is the one on the far left. "The most handsome potato in my whole family!"
Logan is pointing to himself as a potato. He traded out Mom's eyes four times until he found these fancy purple ones. Perfect.
Jeff's potato head family took the longest to make. He was very particular about the accessories, purse for mom, hat for dad, smile with a missing tooth for sister.
More Rescue Bots. These have been well loved these past three days.
Puzzles galore. Thank goodness I have so many. We rotated through lots of them both yesterday and today.
Outdoor play. It's still pretty hot, and the intermittent rain has forced us to adjust our outside time each day, but the kids LOVE to be outside! We made chalk paint (corn starch + water + food coloring) and the kids stuck with that activity for a while, on two different days.
Fine motor skills are easy to do as long as the kids still think they are playing. Snaps, velcro, and buttons were the name of the game on Wednesday. Some required more concentration than others, but all the students tried.
Watercolor painting to decorate our classroom, and to make some pictures for Mom and Dad. They were loving mixing the colors and figuring out how to make colors darker or brighter.
