9.2.1.

So here Babe is, entering her final discussion topics of Kindergarten - Mother Goose rhymes! Instead of me dictating which poem we say when, I wrote all the poems down on slips of paper and put them into a container. This way, Babe will have the opportunity to kind of “run the show” by choosing which poem she learns and recites.

But first, we started a new chapter in Math. Geometry! I combined the first two lessons of Chapter 5 today and first had Babe draw each shape as I named it. I saved trapezoid for last because I wasn’t sure she’d remember what one looked like. But she surprised the heck out of me and did it flawlessly.

Awesome.

So after describing what plane shapes are, and the difference between plane shapes and solid shapes, she completed her worksheets and we moved on.

We went over some details from “Spring is Here” again, and discussed the book from the illustrator’s point of view.

“In this book, the illustrator drew a winter scene with lots of snow. What do you think he would have drawn if he lived in Florida?”

“Oh probably just people in warm clothes. Holding each other really tight.”

“That would be a good idea. What color would the sky be?”

“Grey. Very grey.”

Nice.

I set Babe up with a Math computer game and then headed to the back where I worked with Bubs and Z with shapes. They have this amazing Melissa & Doug puzzle with all the basic shapes, so I spilled the pieces on the floor and one by one called them up to pick the shape I called out. They both did good! Bubs got stuck on triangle and rectangle, calling each one a “rectriangle.” Nice try.

With the puzzle complete, I handed them each a personal chalkboard and asked them to draw a circle. Z knew right away what to do and amazed me by his preciseness. Bubs drew a teeny tiny circle that came out more like an oval.

But then I asked her to draw a square and a triangle, which she did amazing at! She drew them both nearly perfectly, without me showing her how to do it. Too cool.

 

I repeated the puzzle activity one more time and then pointed each one and asked Bubs to name them. She stumbled on oval this time, but was able to recall it after a few minutes.

I then gathered everyone to the table to see which Mother Goose rhyme we were going to learn today. Babe picked out “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, and when I turned to the corresponding page, I knew Calvert had it all wrong (haha!).

So I taught them the way I remembered learning it when I was growing up. After Babe had it down pat, Bubs and Z joined in. It was really cute hearing three little voices sing it together.

I plan on having a craft and/or activity for each Mother Goose poem, and I realize that I won’t know which poem will be read when. I’m just calling it “brain exercise” and learning to think on the fly.

So today, for “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, each kid got a sheet of paper. I asked Bubs and Z to draw a big circle in the middle of it, which they did. Then I handed them cotton balls and asked them to only glue their cotton balls inside the circle they drew. Both did wonderfully. For Babe, I asked her to draw a scene from the poem. She drew a (giant) little lamb and a Mary, who looks very much like Little Bo Peep. hehe

It was nearly outside play time but after clean up, I quickly grabbed some magnifying glasses and Bubs’ jar from our seed experiment (because, much to Babe’s chagrin, Bubs’ seeds were growing better on the paper towel). I had them each look at the teeny tiny sprout that “hatched” out of its seed. I had Babe point out the (miniscule) roots and sprout, which she did. Then I carefully folded it back up and placed it in the jar.

Outside play. Lunch.

After lunch, Babe measured the plants in her Spring Experiment. Only one plant grew this week. The soil. The sand and peat moss plants are still going strong though. Neither are dying. Very interesting.

To end the day, I had Babe start writing her story about Bananas the Clown at the circus. I think this activity will prove tougher than I thought. While writing the first two sentences, Babe couldn’t get away from speaking only in dialogue. She was doing this last week with her “Goodnight Gorilla” activity, where I told her to “read” me the story since I couldn’t see the illustrations. Pretty interesting.

The first sentence in her story is dialogue, but I had her think of another way to write what she wanted next - another quotation. After explaining to her what I meant, I think she understands. We will see tomorrow. 

With that, the day ended.

Check for Monday!