2. Prepare - hangs up school bag on the cupboard doorknob, puts out folder and school book on the dining room table, then goes to "Circle Time". (Not really, she is not doing it today, I do it for her since she is having a meltdown over breakfast and being rushed from her usual hour and a half time period that it takes her.)
3. Circle Time - Greeting I greet her but I get no response. I see that Alex is very crabby since I made her eat all of her french toast, heaven forbid. I remind her that I am Teacher now, not Mom, so we move on.
4. Prayer - We make the sign of the cross before and after. She likes this part best, I am going to have to add some hand motions to the prayer. I have picked a prayer that will work for every day: "Dear Father, Thank You for the world so sweet, Thank You for the food we eat, Thank You for the birds that sing, Thank You, God for everything."
5 How Are You Feeling Today - ME Book She has no trouble deciding that she feels mad, and her face that she draws sure does look it. Next, we glue her picture onto the cover.
6. Show and Tell I give Alexandra the "teacher chair" while I take her place on the pillow. I need to mention now that my other daughter Amelia who is 2 is very much a part of our preschool, but she is known to disappear every so often. She comes to the parts she likes. She calls me "Mom", and her and Alex get into it at about this point. Alex yells at her "No, Amy. That is not Mom. It is Teacher!" Amy wails "Mom!!" Amy has a pillow, a chair at the table, her own Me Book and workbook to color, so she is by no means left out from the learning. So as I turn into Mom and yell at them both as they fight about my name, I eventually get Alex to get up on the chair. I love watching her face as she experiences an audience for the first time. Teacher and Amy are watching. She is shy at first but smiling and I can tell she likes this. She picks Elmo for something red and her barn animal is a horse. Before long all three of us are neighing like wild horses. Next she shows us her coat that is for cold weather. I help her put it on and we talk about the long sleeves, hat, and zipper. I tell her okay, get down, and give Teacher her seat, but she wants to talk some more, and I can tell she is gearing up for a doozy as she rests her hands on her chin and sighs, "now I am going to tell you a story...:" That's as far as I let her get, I know, ain't I mean ? ...But the girl tells stories that last for hours, and I am on a schedule. Staying up all night on Sunday has caught up with me, and I haven't had my morning coffee yet...which I plan to get while she does her activities.
7. Month, Date & Day Alex does not remember the word September, but she is ready for the page when I flip to it, waiting patiently until I get there, shaking her head "nope", "nope", "nope", to each month. I forget to sing the days of the week, oopps.
8. Weather She loves doing this! I know I have said that already, but she gallops to the window where the world outside is dark and gloomy. She decides it's partly sunny. She's still worried about that frowning sun. I tell her to look again, and she hangs the cloud on the board, with our "W" magnet, looking a little defeated.
9. Exercise Today I use Just Me by Marie Hall Ets to tie in with the farm animal theme. Amy and Alex LOVE this book (no wonder it is a Caldecott Honor), and doing all the actions of the animals takes us almost twenty minutes. They hop, crawl, run, jump, flap their arms, and even curl into a ball like the turtle. This is better than the Elmocise dvd I am thinking.
10. Activity Time 1 - We jump right into the workbook pages after singing the alphabet. She is in a good mood now. She does wonderful on her A handwriting and is writing her own A for her name at the top of her pages. She is having a hard time with the point at the top, and would rather curve it. I try and tell her to make it a point like a triangle. I am pleased that she is writing A's now on everything, even when she colors in her coloring books on her "day off".
We do some more left and right line workbook pages that have cute farm animals on them.
Her favorite page today is the barn that she colors red. I give her some farm animal stickers and she spends a long time decorating her barn, I hate to have to tell her to stop, since I am also enjoying my cup of coffee at this point.
Activity Time is a long time today since I move on to give both Alex and Amy (who has joined us again) a farm puppet show. I bought three farm animal puppets and a puppet frame for under 20 bucks at Ikea a few months before.
I crawl under the dining room table and smash myself up against the wall and start to sing Old McDonald, with my hands in both a sheep, and a horse puppet above the table. The girls are into this, trying to crawl on top of the table and over to the puppets. I realize I don't have enough hands and call for backup. Allen joins me under the table, he is very tall and it is not easy to join me under there, but we share a smile and think how fun this could be in another circumstance. I yell at him to "Grab piggy and oink!". We laugh hysterically and the girls are howling like some farm animals I have never heard of. At the end of the song, I then read Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown. This book is great at teaching big and little, and I make them point to the pictures as we read.
11. Craft Time Her craft is a bowl with apples to glue inside it. The apples are cutouts that I have used from a workbook. Each apple has a picture of an a-sounding word, or not. She first has to pick what apples to put in accordingly. This seems a little beyond her, we talk through it together, both trying to sound out the words of the pictures. She tries to cut the bowl and is once again determined to do it but is having trouble. It is hard for me not to help her but I don't. Once she tires of the cutting, I finish cutting the curves of the bowl. She glues the apples in and puts her craft on the easel.
12. Snack Break We start with cows. I have rummaged up every cow animal we have, including some farm puzzles. At Circle, I give Amy and Alex each a cow and we describe (black and white, brown, "mooo", etc.... We talk about cows making milk and I read a simple poem called Cushy Cow by Rusty Fletcher that has a great picture of milking. "Cushy cow, bonny, let down your milk, And I will give you a gown of silk". .. I try and explain the udders, and how milk comes from cows. Why? So that we can have milk and cheese for our snack, of course. They really listen to what I am saying and I love it that their little brains and lit-up eyes are trying to process this new bit of information. As we snack on milk and cheese in cow-patterned dishes that I dug out, we do all kinds of Melissa & Doug puzzles all about farms. I am amazed at how fast Amy is putting them together and wonder why I have not noticed before. I am really having a good time with them today but that is all about to change when we go outside!
13. Outdoors I first read Sara the Squirrel and The Lost Acorn book. I talk about acorns again and our tree theme. I then ask them both "Who lives in a tree and eats acorns?" At this time, I give them each a little Ty beanie baby squirrel to hold while I hold a Anne Geddes doll dressed as a squirrel. We describe (furry, brown, white tummy, pointy ears, great big bushy tail). They take turns with the Geddes doll (it is the cutest). We head out on a squirrel hunt singing"We're going on a squirrel hunt, we're going to catch a big one" just like the book We're Going On a Bear Hunt. It is sprinkling and they have umbrellas and this is more interesting to them than a darn squirrel.
It's a good thing because we walk the entire 30 acres and through the graveyard; Alex is holding her own but Amy is being held by Daddy, and we don't see one squirrel. I am stubborn like Alex, and determined to find one, so I rustle up a few trees but not one shows itself, and now I am crabby instead of Alex. We have spent twice the time we should have and it's almost noon when we get inside.
14. Activity 2 Time Our workbook pages include tracing triangles. We sing the number song, and work on counting and recognition workbook pages that have apple trees and acorns on them. We play the acorn game again. I am excited with one workbook page which is ice cream cone triangles, because I am getting ready to give them both an ice cream cone to also tie in with our "cows make milk and cream" theme.
15. Sticker Time, Review, and Me Book We use farm stickers for all her workbook pages. We then finish our day by reviewing our poster, ending with her answering the other questions in her ME Book. She is spent and does not want to think another second, I can tell because either do I after that long walk. She is laying on both pillows looking up at the ceiling. I practically answer for her so we can be done with it all and have that ice cream that is now melting on the counter. I let them both make their own sugar cones, and we discuss how they are shaped like triangles. I forget to tell her about homework, lucky for her, her teacher is her mom, and Mom will tell her tomorrow since we are busy slurping creamy vanilla.
16. Closing Prayer . . . is said real fast.
17. School Bell ...rings, finally! We are both smiling; Alex as she runs to the living room to watch TV...and me, too as I grab that second cup of coffee. It is 12:52p.m.
14. Activity 2 Time Our workbook pages include tracing triangles. We sing the number song, and work on counting and recognition workbook pages that have apple trees and acorns on them. We play the acorn game again. I am excited with one workbook page which is ice cream cone triangles, because I am getting ready to give them both an ice cream cone to also tie in with our "cows make milk and cream" theme.
15. Sticker Time, Review, and Me Book We use farm stickers for all her workbook pages. We then finish our day by reviewing our poster, ending with her answering the other questions in her ME Book. She is spent and does not want to think another second, I can tell because either do I after that long walk. She is laying on both pillows looking up at the ceiling. I practically answer for her so we can be done with it all and have that ice cream that is now melting on the counter. I let them both make their own sugar cones, and we discuss how they are shaped like triangles. I forget to tell her about homework, lucky for her, her teacher is her mom, and Mom will tell her tomorrow since we are busy slurping creamy vanilla.
16. Closing Prayer . . . is said real fast.
17. School Bell ...rings, finally! We are both smiling; Alex as she runs to the living room to watch TV...and me, too as I grab that second cup of coffee. It is 12:52p.m.
sounds like a fun day for all!
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