Friday, September 27, 2013

Week 1: Leaves

This week was our first week in homeschooling. Adam finally agreed to let me redo the office and turn it into a classroom. I can't wait to share it in a post, but we are waiting on a few more things to come in! Molly loves it and it's a great place to step away from outside distractions and focus on learning.

We will probably aim for three days a week. (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) This week was short since we were out of town Monday and Tuesday. Then Thursday I had a newborn session and our big biweekly grocery shopping trip. So we stuck to Wednesday and Friday.

Since we are now starting into Fall I chose to have our theme be leaves. The next several weeks will be loosely based on the changes, topics, and weather of Fall. Molly loved the theme and today ended with her walking away with more knowledge on what Fall brings. She especially loved the songs! Her favorite was this song found at preschoolexpress.com!

ALL THE LEAVES ARE FALLING DOWN
Tune:  “London Bridges Falling Down”
All the leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.  (Imitate leaves falling down)
All the leaves are falling down, it is Fall.
Take the rake and rake them up, rake them up, rake them up.  (Imitate raking up leaves)
Take the rake and rake them up, it is Fall.
Make a pile and jump right in, jump right in, jump right in.  (Children jump forward)
Make a pile and jump right in, it is Fall.
                             Sent in by Diane Chancey

We sang songs and went over the changes of Fall during circle time. Which was the start of the day.
 
 
I printed off and laminated these three pictures. We talked about the color of the leaves and where they come from. We discussed how they fall off the trees this time of year. We also went over the other name for Fall, Autumn. Then today we talked more about the picture of the clothing. I pointed out some of the clothes and had her name them. I told her we wear jackets to keep warm. I then asked her if we wear them to keep warm what is the weather like. She said cold! Little ones can really impress you with all the things they soak up!
 

Near the circle time area is our pocket chart. I found printables with Fall themed items to quantify with numbers. Both days we went over the chart and I had her count out some of the lower number cards. (yes she wanted to wear her back pack!)



We also did a prewriting exercise. At first she really just scribbled. Then I took her hand to lead it across the bottom line in the top picture. She then did the top two lines on her own. So I handed her the next sheet and she quickly did the three slanted lines. I love these worksheets!



 
I bought a five pack of small pumpkins for counting and science activities. I also got a garland of fake leaves and cut them off for various things. For this sink or float activity I used a pumpkin, leaves, a feather, and rock. I asked her if each object was heavy or light and let her hold them and tell me. I then would ask her if she thought it would sink or float. After those questions we would test the object out. She loved this! After that I let her play with them in the water tub.
 




For an art project we used glue to make a Fall tree. She loved the different steps of paining her arm for the tree, ripping paper, and gluing! Especially the gluing.

 
We also did this dot sheet with bingo markers! She did great at coloring in the dots. I love these little sheets. They are great for a dexterity activity.
 


Another great fine motor activity is lacing! I printed off these leaves and did a quick color job. Realizing another thing I have to run to the store for is a single hole punch, I just quickly cut holes with scissors. She then put the leaves back on the "branch." We also had fun making them fall of the branch later! I printed 5 off so we could also get some counting in.



 
At the end of today we did a play dough counting sheet. I made little balls of red play dough in different amounts for her to count. Afterwards I let her play with it. I was so excited when she told me she was making trees!
 


While she was playing play dough I laminated a new set of pocket chart cards. These also led us into next week. (apples)
 

 
 


 

No comments:

Post a Comment