Week 7: Monsters

Talk about slacking. Two weeks ago we skipped class completely. I had the Monster unit planned and ready but it just didn't happen. When Thursday rolled around I knew we should just skip. Then there was last week. Adam was out of town, Natalie got four teeth, and Molly missed her dad something awful. Still we managed monster week, but only on two days. Monsters are huge in our house right now. I think I've seen Monsters University 5,000 times. So I thought it would be the perfect theme to connect with her.

Then this week looks grim also. I pulled my back Sunday. Luckily the chiropractor seemed to help. I'm hoping tomorrow will be even better. I'm just not much use right now. So this week will just be random things. I got a adorable printable for lego numbers here. I know we will be using those and some past loved games and some new ones. Since we missed a week, had a short week, and now no unit this week I don't want her progress to slip.

I couldn't find a pocket chart that I liked so I made these instead. They didn't get a ton of use, but I think they will be fun for next Halloween too. 

This little craft is our new class monster. After she painted it I added sharp teeth in the mouth and eyes. We are going to use it for different games. Like say shapes, feed the monster the star. 

I made little shape monsters to play a game. The shapes are from the Melissa and Doug shape puzzle and then the set 2 color tabs. It was a lot of fun and she loved the game!

The second day I had my nephew over. I was excited to have him because like Molly he has always stayed home. One of the printables was how many monsters are at the door. It was really cute. To make it fun I would knock under the table and then set the amount of monsters on the paper. They loved this game and it went on for awhile!

Then we worked more on size sorting. Aiden picked up on my showing small, medium, and large with my hands and he kept doing it the rest of the day. It was adorable. Of course he stopped when his mom got there. 

I loved this paste body part activity. It didn't keep Aiden's attention much so he played while we worked on it. 

Then we made squish art. I love the picture of them showing off their monsters. Once they dried I cut them out, added eyes, and the glued them to popsicle sticks for puppets.

After that it seemed like each of them went off to do their own thing for awhile. 

Then they teamed up to create a block structure. I love seeing them work together. 

We did some prewriting work too. I notice this time that Molly has started to hold her utensil correctly. I'm not sure when she started, but I was definitely happy! Teaching preschool I know it can sometimes take work to get kids to start doing this. I was happy to dodge that bullet. 

I made a little counting game to go with the number cards. Aiden loved this! He is a pretty good counter for two. I knew he could count to 20, but I wasn't sure if he could quantify. He did great! The object of the game was to count the eyes and match them with the correct card.

Here is the link to the printables used

Her favorite song this week was:

f You Are a Monster added 9-2-01 Original Author Unknown

Sung to: " If you're happy and you know it"

If you're a monster and you know it wave your arms
If you're a monster and you know it wave your arms.
If you're a monster and you know then your arms will surely show it.
If you're a monster and you know it wave your arms.

Continue with:
...show your claws
...gnash your teeth
...stomp your feet
...growl out loud