Our First Week of School 2012 *Picture Overload*

We have done some schooling off an on for the summer, mostly just play type stuff. This week we got down to business and started our new curriculum. We had a three day school week as Austin was out of school Monday and Tuesday and I am following the same Calendar as the public school.

Wednesday our theme was Who are You? We started the morning off with me wearing a funny hat. It was my I feel special hat. We talked about what makes us special and how everyone is special in their own way. Then I shared my hat and Dylan told me what makes him special. 

Thursdays morning theme was Hands-On. We looked at a hand print that I printed out and discussed the lines and finger prints on the hand. 

Fridays theme was Favorites. Dylan was allowed to bring his favorite stuffed animal to School for the day. We discussed how different people have different preferences.

He did a worksheet on things that he like, night or day, dog or cat, car or airplane. His favorites were night, dog, and airplane. 

After we discuss these theme we add the Calendar Number to the Calendar. We say what month it is. We sing our days of the week song. Add what today is, what tomorrow is, and what yesterday was. Then we do the weather and season.

We review what our key points of the week are. 

This week it is the Letter A, Number 1, Color Red, and Shape Circle. 

Then we move to the table to do our Circle Time Journal.

 Next is Discovery Time

Wednesday we painted by instruction. Thursday we made finger prints with ink pads and observed them. Friday we colored on black paper with chalk and smeared it with our fingers. 

Our next stop in the day is Geography. We are using Expedition Earth from COAH.We are doing it on a PreK level though. Keeping it very simple. 

We just introduced the globe and some coloring of the globe this week. The second pictures printable came from 1+1+1=1 Continent Kids.

Then we have Art. 

Wednesday- I am terrific hat! Thursday- Hand prints with paint. Friday-Bubble Name Decorating.

 Then it is Free Play (read books, educational toys, or sensory bin) and Lunch Time. 

After Lunch we head back to the classroom to do Alphabet time. 

Here is just a little of what we did for the Alphabet this week.

 Then we focus on our Number of the week.

Then onto Colors.

 Last part of our sit down work is Shapes.

 After all sit down work is done he is allowed to explore and play with educational toys until Austin gets home from school. 

Here are a few pictures from that part of the week.

Last but not least we had some Sensory Bin fun!

 This gives a pretty good idea of what our day is like. We start school at 9am and end at 3pm. We had a few moments on the first day where he didn't want to do what I had planned so we stepped away and came back to it after he calmed down. It seemed to help and he was ready to go from there. Thursday and Friday were great and he was ready to learn.

Linking up

Circle Time Journal

We have started school officially today! 

I wanted to share a little about what we started today with focusing on our Circle Time. 

This is where we start our day. We sing songs, read a book, do Calendar, talk about our focuses of the day such as Letter, Number, Color, and Shape. And we have one focus on a topic, like today's was "What makes you special?" and we talk about it. 

To go along with our Circle Time I wanted something that would help prolong this time just a little bit and to also reiterate on our key points of the week. 

Each day after Circle Time.

He will start with writing his name at the top. 

( I am pretty proud of where he is with this as he has never done this before)

Next we determine what we had just said was the Day of the Week and he colors in the appropriate rectangle. 

Then I write the month as he is not at that point yet and he fills in the number of the date for that day. 

Then we discuss what our letter, number, color, and shape of the week are and he fills them in on each box on the paper. 

Then we discuss what we talked about was the weather outside and he colors in the square that goes with the weather that day. 

Here is the final page from today. 

I have the pages printed and hole punched to fit in a binder with the cover that is in the printable I will share below. 

This will be a daily journal that we can look back on and review with at the end of the year. 

You can get these printables for free HERE or HERE.

I know there are many versions of these printables out there but I needed to make something that went with our Circle Time exactly so I hope you all Enjoy this printable! 

How to Teach Series Part #2

This week I'm going to cover Calendar and Circle Time.

Our first part of Circle Time starts off with our Good Morning Song.

Good Morning Song

Good Morning (Child's first and Last name) how are you?
(The child replies I'm Fine)Repeat 2 times

How are you this special day
We're so glad you came to play
Good morning( child's name) how are you?
I'm fine(child replies)

Repeat for every child

 Calendar

Then we move on to our Calendar. We take turns weekly on who does the date on the Calendar.

Then once the number is up we count starting at 1. 

Days of the Week

We start our Days of the Week topic with saying what day it is. We normally get a little loud to make it fun and I find they remember it and repeat it during the day.

We also sing the Days of the Week Song

(Sing to the tune of the Addams' Family)

Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week (snap, snap)

There's Sunday, and there's Monday, there's Tuesday and, there's Wednesday, there's Thursday and there's Friday and even Saturday

Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week (snap, snap)

Month of the Year

 We start  this part of Circle time with saying the Month we are in. Then we find it on our Calendar.

Follow it with this song below.

(Sing to the tune of 10 little Indians)

January, February, March and April,
May, June, July, August and September,
October, November and December
These are the months of the year

Weather and Season

This is another part of our Circle time where we have a job. Whoever is the person to do the weather goes to the classroom window and takes a peek outside to decide what he thinks the weather is. Then he comes back and sits down and shares with us which picture is our weather. And then he places it on the chart shown below.

Since our season doesn't change everyday we just repeat the season we are in and some of the characteristics of that season.

Shape, Animal, Letter, Color, Trait and State of the Day

Each day we change out our shape, animal, letter, color, trait and state of the day.  As you can see below we place them in their spots on the chart.

We take turns drawing from these cups shown below which I've found to be very easy for storing the pieces.

Letter of the Week

I normally have a Letter for each Week that is part of our theme. So I try to pull random objects that go with that Letter. The picture below our Letter was P. I fill our tray and we explore and name the objects.

Bible Verse of the Week

Each week we have a Bible Verse that goes with out Letter of the Week. We say our Bible Verse daily.

Read a Book

At the end of Circle Time we read a story that goes with our theme. Whether it go with our letter, color or our Unit Study. I make sure it fits in with a part of our theme for the week. We also discuss the book after we read it just so I know they were paying attention.

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We always try to have fun. Some days I throw the musical instruments in the mix, or we stand up and jump when we answer a question. I have found movement is key in getting them ready for learning and it also gets the wiggles out of them! 

For the Printable resources I used in our Circle Time you can find them at 1+1+1=1. I also bought our Calendar at Mardels.

I'll be back next week on Tuesday with another part of the How to Teach Series that will focus on Fine and Gross Motor Skills.

Our School Week! Letter B

We started our week with making a Bumblebee Letter B.

Here is A working on his Letter B Playdough Mat. He enjoyed talking about the color green as we talked about words that started with B as well.

We also discussed Feelings this week and read a book called The Feelings Book by Todd Parr. Both boys enjoyed reading the book and A enjoyed the tot book about Feelings made by Carissa!
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FEELINGS TOT BOOK

The pics below are of A and D coloring there Bumblebee worksheet!

A worked on his mazes this week!
And i just happened to find one that has a bumblebee in it so we used it a couple times this week to talk about bugs and other b words!

D does more Tot School type of stuff, Definitely more Hands on as you will see in the pic below.
He is working on sorting. He knows hows to name colors but doesnt always get them right so we are working more and more on colors since he's showing interest in them this week!

I also set up our new Calendar/ Circle Time area this week.
The boys enjoyed that i moved it down to there level and they can sit and enjoy it now!

During Circle time this week we talked about circles. I got the shape finders HERE. I let them take it and find a couple objects throughout the house that were circle! They loved it!