Seasons and Science

After almost a month-long break for the holidays, Preschool Rascals were back with a special kind of energy. This was one of those days I’ll be chalking up to working on social skills and having fun instead of meeting academic goals– and that’s totally ok because these kids are just three and their job is to play and have fun!

* Today’s Pro Tip: one marshmallow per kid.

We started the day with a rousing rendition of our typical ABCs & instruments, then moved right into our theme story.

Abracadabra, it’s Spring! is a super interactive book, with flip pages revealing the changes occuring in Spring. Each Rascal had a turn saying the magic word and opening the page to reveal the beautiful illustration. There are lots of counting opportunities to be had within the illustrations and the colors are vibrant and inviting.

Next, we sang a months-of-the-year song, which, admittedly, went awry when I tried to add in some lap-tapping to the beat. Oh well, they all did absorb that at least there are some months. Names of months are arbitrary anyway, right?

To get bodies moving, we attempted to play hopscotch using the months of the year as blocks. I color coded the months according to season for some visual clues. It was game over when I said we’d be using marshmallows as our stones. They had zero interest in anything else but delicious treats and only just humored me by hopping haphazardly down the game so they could eat their treat at the end. But! They did get some wiggles out and worked on body coordination and movement planning. I’ll do hopscotch again when we can be outside and use an inedible pebble.

Next we studied the seasons pictures in the Our World (a My First Reference book by Usborne) book and talked about the differences in each season. I found some really great season cards over at Planting Peas and we used finger paints and puffy “snow” paint to make the trees seasonally appropriate. The Rascals love to paint and get messy, and we haven’t done a really messy project in a while, so this was a great way to get their hands dirty. We talked about the weather in each season, the order of the seasons and what animals do in each season. Then I laminated the cards when they’d dried a bit for the kids to take home.

After they’d finished their cards, we moved back to the school room again and things went a little bonkers. First, I passed out marshmallow shooters I’d made from a plastic cup and a balloon. We talked about the safety rules (don’t point at people/faces) and then discussed force. The more you pull on the balloon, the harder the force on the marshmallow and the farther it will shoot. If you only give a little tug, it won’t put much force on the marshmallow and it may not even come out of the cup. Then, each kid got a marshmallow and went to town experimenting with how far they could shoot the marshmallow “snowballs.” They got pretty good! The giggles were plentiful while we played with these. Also, masses of marshmallows were consumed. Masses.

Our next marshmallow physics activity involved levers and fulcrums. I made spoon catapults, with the spoons attached at varying lengths. (I had made these before, but there are some good instructions here) This activity was a little trickier to master for some because it involved a little restraint. Eventually, most got some really good launches. My intention was to measure the distance of launches, but I think I’ll hold off until we can make an outdoor catapult. More masses of marshmallows were consumed.

Finally, we broke out the new light tablet! We explored bug x-rays and translucent magnets, which was perhaps the single most focused the children were the entire morning that didn’t involve marshmallows. All in all, a hectic, but really fun first Preschool Rascals of the new year!

Who’s Who: An Owls Mini-Lesson

Inspired by an article by The Audubon Society, we took a break from our current unit to do a fun seasonal mini-unit and learn about “spooky” owls after we finished our daily studies today (Halloween).

 

We started with a little tablet time and read through the awesome Audubon Society article giving some brief details about a small selection of owls. The photographs included of each were so detailed and beautiful- they were clear and focused, kind of like mugshots!- they held my kids’ attentions while I read the description. I brought out a tape measure and we measured out each owl and then compared their height to our bodies and other things in the room. I was slightly surprised that they were so interested in the height of each owl. My preschooler was fascinated to know that a Flammulated owl would fit in her hand and my kindergartener was shocked to learn the Eurasian Eagle-Owl hunted foxes! The picture atlas was opened to a world map and they pointed out where each owl lived as we read.

Next, we looked up owls in our Picturepedia (one of our favorite non-fiction references) and read a little more about owls in general.

The kids enjoyed making owl sounds, so we looked up common owl calls and found some awesome resources that had multiple owl hoots, including some from the article we had just read! We also watched a video on the Flammulated owl per request (because “they’re so cute!”) and an additional video on Great Horned Owl territorial hooting (because it was mentioned in the Audubon article). By chance, we were linked to a ScienceLive! video about Flammulated Owl conservation- short and super informative- which led to a discussion about conservation vs. hunting.

Since we already had the tablet out, we watched the Owl Babies animated read-aloud, which the kids LOVED. Afterward, we sequenced the story of Sarah, Percy and Bill and identified the beginning, middle and end of the story. Then we watched it again because it was really fun! I had been saving the “hay” from our Three Little Pigs Preschool Rascals to use as paintbrushes and threw some cotton balls on there too, for fluffy baby feathers. We cut out owl silhouettes and used some felt, foam sheets and googly eyes to create owl faces and painted some white feathers like the owl babies onto our cutouts. We identified each owl part as we went and confirmed that these owls would be daytime hunters because of their eyes using this fascinating article from The Owl Trust and then put everything together. Finally, they used the top of the paintbrush to outline feathers in the paint.

 

The kids then worked together to review the things owls eat and used this cut-and-paste activity from the Highland Heritage blog to create a collage of the items. They wanted to add a fox after learning about the Eurasian Eagle-Owl, so they drew one and added it to the belly.

I transcribed as the girls completed the Owls graphic organizer to review some vocabulary and facts, then my Kindergartener traced the words. They did really well with this, its the first time we’ve done one and I was impressed with how quickly they caught on to the task.

Leaves and Gravity

Preschool Rascals met this week and we made a big mess of leaves. The leaves are just beginning to turn and fall in our area, so there weren’t a whole lot to choose from on the ground and I had to *gasp* buy fake leaves for this weeks lessons.  However, this week also happened to be Leaf week in our nature study curriculum so my Kindy hooligan also go to do some fun projects with leaves.

Booklist:

Main title: Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert

Supporting titles:

• What is Gravity? by Lisa Trumbauer
• Fall, Leaves, Fall by Emily Bronte
• Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
• My Leaf Book by Monica Wellington

Resources:

• That’s My Leaf! worksheet from The Mailbox

 

For Preschool Rascals, we started our day with instruments and ABCs, as usual. We then read Leaf Man and looked for the shapes within the pictures. The kids really enjoyed finding animals made of leaves. We used that interest to transition to our sorting chart and review shapes and sort them into categories. We did some beginning patterning, too. After that, we needed to get some wiggles out so we read our Emily Bronte poem (the shortened version) and at the end we threw our piles of fake leaves into the air. This elicited some wide eyes and big giggles! I’m pretty sure they were surprised I encouraged a big leaf-y mess INSIDE THE HOUSE.

The abridged version of Emily Bronte’s Fall Leaves Fall.

I set out cardstock and glue sticks and we gathered the leaves up and prepared to make Leaf People of our own. I had the laminator on standby and once they were done arranging and gluing the fake leaves into leaf people on their paper, we put them in laminating pockets and sealed them. This may have been their favorite part. Once the leaf people mats were cooled, we marched to the big table to make our snack- Leafy Spinach smoothies! Each Rascal helped to load the blender with the ingredient of their choosing (strawberries, spinach, a banana and almond/coconut milk) and then chose a straw to slurp through.  Once their tummies were full, we trekked outside for a science experiment and leaf ABC hunt! The Rascals did a great job of seeking out and identifying the leaf letters I had hidden throughout the yard.

We started learning about gravity by climbing into the playhouse to read our book about gravity and then we briefly talked about gravity’s job of pulling all things DOWN. To illustrate the point, we dropped our leaf letters from the top of the playhouse and watched them fall to the ground like leaves fall from trees. I had gathered various sizes and weights of baseballs, foam hockey balls, giant inflated balls and balls of all kinds prior to class. Then each rascal got to throw a ball from the playhouse while we watched it fall down to the ground, even if it did go UP first. It was a chaotic and interesting experiment. Further discussion will be needed for sure!

We wrapped up the day with some name practice art on big felt maple leaves. I simply wrote each child’s name on a maple leaf and provided fabric paints with which they could trace their names… or, as most chose, simply decorate the leaf as they wished. This was super messy, but really fun to watch them get creative. This activity was also great to help with dexterity and building fine motor skills, as well as hand strength- Those little fabric paint and glitter glue bottles were tough to squeeze!

For my Kindergartener, we added some leaf science experiments about Cholorophyll and further exploration under a microscope. We read My Leaf Book (I highly recommend!) and completed the That’s My Leaf worksheet for several different kinds of leaves. All of this tied in nicely to the week’s lesson from our nature curriculum! We read the complete version of Emily Bronte’s poem and used the first lines (pictured above) as our copywork for the week. Then we illustrated it using these great leaf  stamps and mailed it to Grandma, who is an eager recipient of any projects and mail we send. I also found this blog post to be a great resource for ideas, and a good reminder that knowing and being able to label the parts of a leaf is pretty key knowledge.

 

 

Kindergarten Curriculum

The time has come for my oldest hooligan to officially begin reviewed schooling. In our state, we meet with a representative from our county twice a year so they can check in and make sure our kid is making progress. So, I combed through homeschool groups, websites, blogs, curriculum stores and reviews and finally decided on our courses.

Since we school secularly, a lot of the boxed curricula are not an option for us. My kids love stories, so I chose a Charlotte Mason-based program called Build Your Library. I purchased the Kindergarten Around the World, a world culture based program that incorporates studies of ecosystems, animals and native habitats, a LOT of geography, some awesome beginner writing projects and tons of reading out loud. Essentially, it is the “spine” of our studies as it covers everything but math and phonics.

For language arts, we use Explode the Code phonics books, BOB books combined with Usborne readers & phonics workbooks, as well as the Teach Your Monster to Read app an hour or two spread throughout a week. Each morning, she completes a section in her Lakeshore Learning Daily Sight Word Journal and a page or two of Zaner-Bloser handwriting. On Fridays, she completes a page in her Lakeshore Learning Writing Prompt Journal. There’s always writing throughout the day in other ways as well. Of course, reading out loud happens often through the day.

Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Math (standards edition) is a well curated program we’ve thus far enjoyed. The lessons are challenging without being discouraging and I love the spiral style of the material. She’s building a lot of confidence as she completes the first half of the curriculum (“A”) and is on track to begin the second half (“B”) in January. Paired with a hanging Numbers and Counting chart and a selection of manipulatives, its been really successful and I’m happy with our choice.

I think it extremely important that our kids have the opportunity to study nature and be outside as much as possible, and so Exploring Nature With Children has become our guide in focusing our time outside. I love this program because it includes a poem (many by Emily Dickinson) and an artwork recommendation for each week that compliments the study. There are extension activities, journaling suggestions and a book list for each week as well as detailed instructions for discussion during the nature walks. This program is so flexible, which fits nicely to our busy days. I have seen elsewhere that this curriculum isn’t considered secular but I haven’t happened across anything questionable (yet).

As for art study, I’m finding that easiest of all. This is a study close to my heart and I am incredibly passionate about the place of art in learning and life. For now, we do a lot of looking through books of well-known paintings and artists, reading biographies, listening to classical composers, studying and creating sculpture. We participate in an art class at one of our local art museums (taught by a most talented educator who breathes such vibrant life into the subject) and it is the highlight of our month. I often try to link the region which we are currently studying with a artist (Mexico and Frida Kahlo, for instance) and make a strong effort to highlight female and indigenous art. We use a wide variety of art medium and always have supplies available. When it comes to art study, they are in charge of how their art is created. We provide materials and maybe a little guidance or an example, but ultimately don’t interfere with their process.

For Spanish, I utilize a teacher’s guide for Kindergarten. It has worksheets and black line masters of posters and other materials that I can copy and we color or use throughout the week. I also stock books in Spanish (Goodnight Moon, Where’s Spot?, and other classics) as well as a few “first” dictionaries for looking up vocabulary. We love Salsa Spanish episodes for some downtime. Endless Spanish app on the tablet is also great for long car trips and reinforcement.

Cosmic Kids yoga on YouTube is great for physical activity and mindfulness when we need to be indoors, but otherwise we play outside as much as possible. Both my oldest kids ice skate, the kindergartner learning how to play hockey as well.

As I detail our unit studies upon their completion, I’ll try to include links to specific sites or resources I’ve found particularly helpful as well.