9.3.1.

Almost done! I cracked open the Calvert lesson plan book yesterday and saw Babe only has 14 lessons left of Kindergarten! I got a little giddy. How exciting!


In Math today we reviewed the terms from Chapter 5. Babe was pretty much able to recall the definitions of every one of them. She did tell me that a circle had "two-thousand four hundred" sides though, but then I emphasized the word "sides" and she corrected herself.


"I meant that number about lines."
ha!


I then wrote a few family names on a sheet of paper and had her do a symmetry activity. I handed her a toothpick and asked her to find all the letters that had a line of symmetry, and then to draw the line(s).


She struggled a bit at first, but after I did the first two or three with her, she was on her own and did perfect.

 

With Math done, Babe was bouncing in her seat to see which Mother Goose rhyme she was going to pick today.


"OK, but first I want you to recite all the poems you've learned so far."
"OK! I'm going to say them in order."


And she did! She remembered the order she learned them in. Crazy kid.


Today's poem: Little Boy Blue!


I was personally so excited because I brought out our old Mother Goose Time curriculum and saw that this day was left unopened, meaning I had enough for everyone to participate in this craft. And the craft? Making horns!


After we recited the poem multiple times, and after discussing why Little Boy Blue would need a horn to tend to sheep and cows, I gave them each the provided cardboard tube and had them choose the color they wanted to paint their horn. I splattered some paint in a paper plate and they proceeded to roll their tube in the paint.

 

They then decorated the rest of their horn pieces with corresponding color markers.

Then added the last touches.

And voila! Horns to fall asleep under the haystack with!

Speaking of haystacks, I quickly thought up an activity to play the rest of the morning. I ran to the back room and grabbed six farm animal pieces and had everyone gather in the living room. I laid out the farm animals and had each kid name the animals I brought out. Then I had Babe play first.


I told her to go hide under the "haystack" and not come out until Bubs and Z "woke her up." While she was "sleeping", I took away one of the farm animals. When she woke up, she ran back to her farm to figure out which one was missing.


Babe was very good at this, even when I took three of the six away. Bubs and Z had a blast with this, too, and even cooperatively took turns and everything! While the chosen Little Boy Blue was sleeping, the other two recited the poem once before waking him up again.

 

They played this for the rest of the morning, even choosing to shorten outside play time to play this a little bit longer. Amazing!


After lunch, we measured our Spring Experiment and Babe took note that none of the plants grew at all! In fact, they are actually dying. I told her we would measure one more time next week before writing our conclusions and observing the plants a bit closer.


She then added two more sentences to her story and added more dialogue. I just love her imagination. And how everything is flowing so far. I can't wait to share it.


The last thing left to do was Reading Comprehension with her new unit on animals. For some reason, the theme of animals is what Calvert is tying to Mother Goose rhymes, so for the next few days Babe will be learning about animal needs, habitats, etc.


She started by reading "Run Away!" by Gerald McDermott. It's a cute little story based on a Kootenai tale. The pages in this book had more words than normal on them, but she pulled through and comprehended it very well. She struggled very little and I was getting prouder by the minute. 


Amazing.


She completed her corresponding worksheet, then got ready for dance!


And Monday was complete!

9.2.5.

Kept it light today. Babe reviewed lines of symmetry in Math today with toothpicks and wooden shape blocks.

She found all the lines of symmetry in those shapes, and then I asked her how many lines of symmetry she thought was in a circle.


"Zero!"


I drew a circle and handed her some toothpicks.


After she put four down, she was pretty settled on that answer, but then I showed her the rest until we ran out of toothpicks. I then cleared the paper of the toothpicks and picked up a pencil and started drawing lines...and didn't stop.


She was flabbergasted.


"So there's like, two-hundred-thousand-hundred four lines of symmetry!?"
"Well, kind of! There is an infinite number of lines. Infinite means that you can't even count that high. The number just keeps going."
"Wow."


Mind. Blown.


I handed her the pencil and she added a few more lines to the circle.

After Math, Babe picked "Jack Be Nimble" for the Mother Goose poem of the day. I taught her the poem, had her recite it, and handed each kid a paper towel tube.


I told them this was going to be their candlestick, and they had to decorate the candle before I could "light" it. While they decorated, I cut a flame out of a sheet of paper for them to color.

 

We then put the candle sticks together (by placing the flames into the paper towel tube), and...you guessed it.


Jumped over the candlestick!

 

I had Babe and Bubs recite the poem but replace Jack's name with their own name. They loved this activity and did it the rest of the morning. Babe even added Hula Hoops to jump through on the way to the candlesticks!

 

They played up until lunch!


And the rest of the day was spent on super-secret-unbloggable Mother's Day activities. :)


Enjoy the weekend! And Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there!

9.2.4.

Math was pretty fun today. I got out the wooden shape blocks and showed Babe how to make shapes out other shapes. She did pretty good at this, but because we had to kind of cut it short because of it being library day, I'm going to have her free play tomorrow and discover what else she can build with them.

 

 

With the time we had though, she did pretty good with figuring out what she was able to make with certain shapes! After the worksheets, she was sad to see the bucket of shapes go. I felt bad for cutting it short, but tomorrow she can have all morning to free play.


After Math, Babe picked the new Mother Goose poem of the day - Sing a Song of Sixpence. Before singing it, I read it like a poem and had Babe tell me what the poem was about.


"The birds were in the pie!?"


haha So yeah she understood it.


I then grabbed some leftover Mother Goose Time crafts for Bubs and Z, and had Babe draw a big pie on a blank sheet of paper. They were doing separate crafts, but no one minded, especially when I brought out the cloves for each of them to sprinkle and glue on their pies (in substitute for rye).

 

 

 

 

We all recited the poem at random times during the craft, and when the gluing and sprinkling were done, we cleaned up and headed to the library.

After lunch, Babe added two more (very good) sentences to her story. I hope she keeps up her amazing imagination because I can't wait to share it!


We ended the day with adding her library pick to her reading log, "If You Were a Penguin" by Wendell and Florence Minor. So so cute. Even Babe commented on the illustrations.


"The illustrator drawed good penguins! Look how cute!"


Yep. Adorable.


On to Friday! WOOHOO!!!

9.2.2.

Again, we started with Math today. This time we discussed the sides and corners of plane shapes. I knew Babe wouldn’t have an issue with this...except figuring out how many sides and corners a circle has. When I had her draw a circle, I asked her how many sides it has. Her answers ranged from 4 to 10. haha

So I explained to her how to count how many sides a shape has while drawing it. I drew a square, triangle, then a circle and dragged out the word “one” while I drew it. I then had her repeat it. She did.

After sorting the shapes first by number of sides, then by number of corners, I handed her a worksheet to do.

I guess she still needed a little bit more of an explanation. haha

So I went over it again, having her repeat the same exercise as before, then having her draw shapes with a specific number of sides I called out. Once she had it, I asked her again how many sides and corners a circle had. She answered both correctly.

After Math, we again breezed through Reading Comprehension with “Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash”. She recalled some details, answered questions, and did her worksheet. 

I set her up with another Math game, then headed in the back where Z practiced his shapes. After completing the puzzle, I put some dry oats in a pan and had him draw shapes in it. He loved drawing circles and can’t quite move his fingers abruptly enough to draw any other shape, but he tried. He loved this, and after some directed time, I gave him a few minutes to scribble in it.


 

We then headed out to the table to see which Mother Goose poem would be recited today. Babe picked “Little Bo Peep”...it figures, another sheep-themed one! 

After I told Babe the whole story of Little Bo Peep (again, I have no idea where Calvert is getting their versions because I’ve never heard of it. I mean, did you know the sheep lose their tails? And Bo finds the tails hanging in a tree?!) I asked Babe to only learn and recite the first verse - the most common way to way Little Bo Peep. Once she did, it was time for craft time.

I grabbed some cotton balls again and repeated the direction from yesterday for Z to draw a circle and glue the cotton balls inside. For Babe, I asked her to draw a sheep. I then asked Babe where the sheep went in the poem?

“They hid in the grass!”

Pretty accurate. So then we headed outside and gathered grass, leaves, pine needles, and other things that sheep could hide behind.

Once gathered, we headed back inside to glue the gathered items on top of the sheep, to hide them from Bo Peep. 

Both loved this activity. Even Z sat there and glued for longer than normal!

 

 

 

After clean up, it was outside play time, which is getting shorter and shorter because it’s already so unbelievably hot outside. So while outside in the shade, Babe and I discussed how people in Alaska live.

“In Alaska, the sun hardly ever leaves the sky. That means it’s almost always daytime! They need special curtains in their rooms that block out the sunlight when they go to bed.”

“Whoa! Does it always snow?”

“No, it doesn’t always snow, but it’s pretty cool all year.”

“Wouldn’t it be so fun to be in Alaska right now? So we wouldn’t be so friggin hot?”

ha! Cute.

After lunch, I had Babe continue with her story. Again, she found it hard to stray from dialogue, but she ended up with two sentences that I approved of. I’m kind of excited to hear the rest! You should be, too.

And with that, Tuesday ended.

Woo!