This is right up there with, "Whose socks are on the chandelier." I went to grab something from the freezer the other day and had to do a double take.
"Why is there a man in the freezer??"
Something about playing house and needing a drink and ice cubes and forgetting…. <g> Ah well. They keep you on your toes! The Funschool flickr has been updated with more letter activity images btw. Have a wonderful day!
Jen sent me links to Mr Nussbaums interaction sites this morning. What a find!
We got some better shots of the antelope when they came up to the fence by the backyard this week:
Brendan was transfixed until they ran off.
You hear about it everyday don’t you? Road rage, bottlenecks, traffic coming to a standstill. We are not immune. No sirree-bob. When you least expect it you might turn around a mountain bend and find trouble….
thugs even…
always a ringleader or two …
passing on the left…
hard tellin’ where it might all end. I would suspect a corral however. : )
Oh bliss! Oh tumultuous joy! Oh everlasting happy! Ok perhaps I overstate that but man, oh man, the printer is BACK!
Hello Teacherfilebox.com! Hello labels! Hello scrapbook titles! Hello loooong sweet narrations dictated by little people!
Hello exclamation marks…. ; D
Whew – coming up for a breather here. We finally have everyone’s bedrooms moved to best fit the number and ages of children at home. This monumental job has unearthed a tremendous volume of worn out and outgrown clothing, wrappers, papers, games with missing pieces and general junk. My own closet was just as bad and when it was all said and done FIVE garbage bags of old clothes were trucking on down to Goodwill. I didnt actually wear all those clothes but I do feel guilty tossing freebies. Still, most of it didn’t fit well nor look good and I feel much more than 5 bags ‘lighter’ with the newfound space. I don’t know why I felt the need to hold onto this so long.
Mrs. Catherine has a blogpost today that made me think about all the ways we weigh ourselves down. We have talked many times, friends and I, about burdens. Lots of things bear down upon us even when we think we are being very careful. Like with our closets it is hard to know what is worth keeping and what should go. She suggests using your heart as your guide. If your heart is truly not in it, don’t do it:
I have found
> that when I have had to "force" something it never
> turns out good and that there are reasons for my
> feeling that way. Quite simply…it means that I
> should not be doing it!
Nope. Never.
While she felt good about the initial decisions she mentions the fear that goes along with them, namely, what will people think? Because they do you know. Think, that is. We all think far too much about what everyone else is doing when it really has so little bearing on our own lives. It is hard enough to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit guiding us towards the things that ‘we’ should be doing. I am sure we cannot hear what He is saying to anyone else.
I hope she finds the peace she seeks. I hope to see my studio/schoolroom boxed and labeled. : ) I hope to have a loooong bubble bath this weekend and think happy thoughts.
If you printed Funschool plans already please note this addition:
Golf tees! Buy some this week from your sporting goods section. We will have another manipulative using them next week. We made a great game with a remnant of pegboard leftover from a garage organization project. Put some large wooden beads or scrap 1by 2 wood on the bottoms so it is elevated a few inches when it sits on the table or floor. The children make pictures, letters, patterns with colored golf tees dropped into the holes. HOURS of fun. Like the geoboards I found the kids go back to this game over and over over and……. I will get pics uploaded this weekend.
Words escape me. Not that I won’t pursue them relentlessly. ; ) The big brown truck brought me Stacy Julian’s The Big Picture this week and I think I have read every word on every scrapbook page shown. I think my son has read every one too. It is addictive. It makes you think. It makes you think about writing and photography and your life. This is without a doubt THE best book on the scrapbooking I have. If you buy only one, buy this one, even if you don’t think you are a scrapbooker.
Each section of the book begins with an envelope containing a handwritten (ok, its handwritten and then printed 5 million times obviously) note with random thoughts about things like personal style (she thinks its over-rated) photos (its not about the photos) and simplicity. She makes the point that you could conceivably scrap all your photos and never tell your story. That is something to think about. Its not about the pictures.
The message is to take fewer photos of ‘events" and more photos of everyday moments, things like perfect pancakes, sleeping children, your stack of library books, your grocery cart, the toy box. These are the "nothing-special-here kind that in just a few years become so real, so nostalgic." This is your life. Are you taking note? It goes so darn fast. Don’t miss a thing. : )
G is for Goats (you didn’t think I could pass this up did you?)
G template covered in gold glitter glue.
Color: gold
Craft: This glitter bracelet is nothing more than masking tape and glitter.
DLTK has a number of goat themed printables . They suggest printing 3 of the goats and the troll on heavy paper and adhering to popsicle sticks to reenact the Three Billy Goats Gruff story they will hear this week. It would be fun to have a little "bridge" to set up with a board on some cinder blocks for them to tramp over. Games like this do double duty as dramatization and phys ed (balance).
PE: Speaking of which, golf is a good game for this week. There are kiddy sets available. You can improvise with a coffee can set on its side.
G is for Peggy Kaye’s Games for Learning. The book series (Learning, Writing, and Math titles) target K-3rd graders but many games are well suited for preschooler, especially those familiar with letters and numbers. The Grasshopper Game and many others are online now.
Math: G is for Geoboard. If previous preschool co-op experience is any indicator kids LOVE geoboards. We had two and they were in constant use. We had the square board but I would very much like to add a circle geoboard to the mix. Here is a pattern if you would like to make one or make up your own patterns for the children to reproduce. There are so many possibilities. You can make shapes of various sizes. You can progress to simple outlines of objects. You can make half of a picture and they can do the other half. Mirror images. Older kids can figure area and perimeter of figures. There are books available to get you started but you can easily take off with this on your own. Here are some pics of geoboards in the classroom.
G is also for geometric solids. Honestly, we don’t get a whole whoppin’ lotta use out of these. They are a Montessori standby though so I have them and we refer to them. I made up command cards such as find the solid that has x number of faces or x number of points (corners) or looks like a can or whatnot. This site has printable cards to use with them. Preschool geometry is really very simple. A great game when sitting in waiting rooms is to find something shaped like a rectangle or count how many circles are in the room (ie doorknobs, buttons etc).
Number: 7 Introduce the seven days of the week with this song (sung to the tune of Clementine):
There are SEVen days, There are SEVen days, There are SEVen days in the week – Sunday MONday, Tuesday WEDnesday, Thursday FRIday, SATurday.
They WILL learn the names easily this way! If you hung up the wall calendar a few weeks ago you can make 7 bears (copy to a word document and size to fit your wall space; add eyes and mouth) labeled with each day/name on the belly and 3 moveable hats that say Today, Tomorrow, and Yesterday on them. Everyday when you review the song you can place the hats the correct day bears. Hands on Math has printables and directions for a calendar wall.
And G is for Graphs. This is an area that is easily overlooked at home but very easy to incorporate. PAge 4 of this document has a simple graphing game to print and play with dice. It is one of several ideas found in one of my favorite math programs – Mathematics Their Way which is a fortune on Amazon. Many similar ideas are found in her other books like the Workjobs linked at left which can be had for pennies.
G is also for Grace and Courtesy lessons. Montessori recommended going over things like how to blow one’s nose and introductions and such. We take for granted that everyone knows these things and get annoyed when children mess up. You can help prevent frustration by having reeeally brief little sessions about these things.
Other trays: cutting work – cut grass! make a scissor tray with strips of green construction paper for them to cut into fringe like grass. Bend some of the ‘grass’ and glue onto blue paper. (thank you Jean Warren!) Make a grating tray. We got a 6 sided grater at Walmart for less than $3. Add a bar of soap and they will keep busy discovering what happens when grating over each size opening. Discovery Bottle – Glitter Bottle
Golf tees! Buy some this week from your sporting goods section. We will have another manipulative using them next week. We made a great game with a remnant of pegboard leftover from a garage organization project. Put some large wooden beads or scrap 1by 2 wood on the bottoms so it is elevated a few inches when it sits on the table or floor. The children make pictures, letters, patterns with colored golf tees dropped into the holes. HOURS of fun. Like the geoboards I found the kids go back to this game over and over over and……. I will get pics uploaded this weekend.
Science: G is for growing. Growing grass is a very satisfying preschool room project. You can fill a shallow box with potting soil and sprinkle wheat or barley or regular grass seed over it, tapping the seed down lightly. Keep a mister nearby. Children will love spraying the box to keep the seeds moist. A spray bottle is a better bet than a watering can given their enthusiasm. ; )
Bible/saints: This is the month of the Holy Angels for Catholics. We will read through the Catholic Children’s Treasure Box set’s continuing story about a Guardian angel and make this simple Guardian angel craft with doilies and geometric shapes from our math work. We will learn or review the Angel of God prayer and add it to our binders. We will likely read about the angel Gabriel this week and add the picture of the Annunciation to our binders with their narrations. This site has some puzzles etc the big kids can work on.
Lit:
G is for Goat – Polacco (I love this ABC book!)
Aesop: The Goatherd and the Wild Goats
Snacks: graham crackers, grapes, gummi candy
And finally, G is for Giggle. Be sure to do some of that this week. : )
Note to self: turn around before grabbing a glass……
Starry Sky Journal 
