(the link for the video is http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/little-red-hen/0b87715497d95dcae61c0b87715497d95dcae61c-285891559791?q=the%20story%20of%20the%20little%20red%20hen)
I know the idea sunk in because this morning, Madison decided to make every one's bed and sweep the kitchen floor, all without being prompted to. I said to her, "Wow! You sure are a busy worker bee today!" And her response to me was, "Yes, so I get to eat!" I had to chuckle at that!
We read "The Life Cycle of a Honeybee" by Bobbie Kalman and looked at a chart of the life cycle.
During snack time, I read "Honey in a Hive" by Anne Rockwell to the kids, which tells how bees make honey. While I read, the kids munched on crackers with honey.
We read "Inchworm and a Half" by Elinor J. Pinczes and made our lowercase "i" into an inchworm.(I modified the inchworm craft a little, but the initial idea came from http://totallytots.blogspot.com/2010/08/now-i-know-my-abcs-i-is-for-inchworm.html)
"Inchworm and a Half" tells a story using some very basic fractions. Madison, being a visual learner, needed some help in trying to understand the concept of 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4, so I cut up a pipe cleaner to demonstrate the fractions. I showed her our own fraction "worms" as we read the book.
Madison did a bumblebee tracing worksheet (from www.makinglearningfun.com) and an insect pattern worksheet (from www.tlsbooks.com).
For a fun art project, Madison did a fingerprint insect picture. She made bees, a butterfly, a couple dragonflies, several ladybugs, ants, grasshoppers, and even some stinkbugs. All were made with her own fingerprints!(idea from http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/2009/05/preschool-corner-finger-painted-insects.html)
5 comments:
I like the Little Red Hen/Bible/Character Training all rolled into one! Those spontaneous responses are great too. It's always so wonderful when they find a way to show us what they know. They are paying attention!
Kristin, what an awesome teacher and planner you are! Thanks for sharing your ideas and resources here.
And Heidi, I'm glad that you found Kristin's blog. She lived up the street from me when we were growing up and has remained a best friend, though she's far away. (Kristin, Heidi is a friend of mine from where I currently live, though she has moved far away for a bit, too!)
Meredith,
Thanks for your cyber-introduction. :-) Although, Heidi and I did meet in person one time at a La Leche picnic when I was there to visit a couple summers ago.
So Heidi, it's nice to meet you again. And thanks for checking out my blog! Hopefully you will find it enjoyable!
Oh yes, that's right! Well, since you're lovely picture isn't on here, maybe she didn't know you were the great lady behind it. :)
How long do you spend planning, Kristin? Do you plan a week at a time, in order to request books from the library and such?
If I'm really on top of things, I try to request our library books a minimum of a week ahead of time. Two weeks out is better.
Sometimes though, I'll admit, I completely lose track of time, forget, and are scrambling to try find and request books. I have to allow time for the books to come in because most of them are on the inter-library loan system and they take a little while to get to our library. For example, I have some books that I need for Monday's lesson, but looking at their status online, they aren't even in transit yet. I'll be very surprised if they get here in time, so I'm likely going to have to improvise.
During the week, I'll usually plan the next day's lesson either during nap time or in the evening after the kids are in bed. The amount of time spent preparing on my part varies because most lessons I have to spend time researching activities, cutting, gluing, assembling etc. But sometimes it takes me all of 15 minutes to plan. Those tend to be the days that I have a lot of carry-over from what we didn't accomplish the day before. :-)
Some nights, if Nate happens to be working late, the kids are sleeping, and I feel bored, I'll plan out several lessons. They tend to get modified as time goes on, but it's kind of nice having a basic guideline to work from and I'm always thankful on those days I don't have to spend as much time planning. Maybe I should do that more often!
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