All of the themes I used (except fish) came from Preschool Alphabet.
Fingers and Feel:
- We read Piggies by Audrey and Don Wood.
- Preschool Alphabet suggested painting a handprint but apartment life has been a little too chaotic for that (I'll spare you the details). Instead, I traced Ellie's hands and let her add pink fingerprints to the tip of each finger to look like the piggies from the story. Then, she used a pink crayon to draw faces and ears on all the pigs.
- Instead of making a touch and feel book, we just made a single picture with a few items I was able to scramble to find around the house. Not very impressive, I know! But it was fun to see how Ellie described the different items and record her response. It also made me aware that she isn't familiar with a lot of adjectives to describe how objects feel and that is something I will focus more on in this fall.
- We didn't have time today but I thought it would be a great theme for making sensory bags. My girls love them! I have mentioned them before and here are a few websites to check out for easy ideas:
- Plain Vanilla Mom
- Growing a Jeweled Rose
- Growing a Jeweled Rose (another sensory bag!)
Fire Safety:
- We were fortunate to go to our local Public Safety Expo several weeks ago. We spent the entire week talking about safety (primarily related to cars and traffic). At the expo, we got all kinds of great freebies that I filed away for different lessons and review on safety. I pulled out the fire safety diagrams and coloring books for Ellie to work on this day.
- After discussing fire safety, I made sure to ask Ellie important questions to ensure she understands what to do in a fire emergency. We practiced "Stop, drop, (cover your face) and roll!" several times. Of course when I was reviewing with her and asked, "What should you do if your clothes are on fire?" She responded, "I say, 'Excuse me ma'am, my dress is on fire!" Sigh. At least she remembers her manners.
Farm:
- We talked about the different sounds animals make and tried to guess the animals on this farm animals quiz. Hannah Rose thought this part was so funny! Then we read farm related books.
- After the story, I asked Ellie questions to help her make connections to our farm theme i.e. self, family, community and the world. We talked about how we recently visited a farm for a friend's birthday party. Ellie actually got to milk a cow! I explained how that milk can then be sold at our grocery store and the same with the chicken's eggs.
- We colored some pictures of farm animals. I had also wanted to make a grass collage but we didn't have time.
- To review shapes, I got out some yarn and explained how the yarn we buy at the store comes from sheep's wool all around the world (another connection). I had her feel it and then cut off about a yard long piece and tied the ends together. We laid it out on the floor and made different shapes with it. It was fun to show her how a circle can be stretched into an oval and, similarly, a square to a rectangle.
I had also planned to use "Fall" as a theme this week but it was rainy and the leaves haven't changed colors. I think we'll save that for a little later this year so that we can incorporate more science application as we compare the leaves and their colors.
No comments:
Post a Comment