Oceans, Part 1

Today we started learning about the ocean and some animals that live in it.

Book: Angel Fish
This is a fun interactive book which allows the children to lift up a flap and see what's under it! It's main focus is an angel fish, however it has other animals in it as well.

Math-Fish Sizes: I have 4 pictures of the same fish yet each are a different size. I first set it out in the right order and teach them the different sizes. Then I have the children try to set it up in the correct order.

Gross Motor-Johnny Jump Up: I have a picture of a stick-figure jumping. I can use this with a lot of activities. This time I mixed up some pictures of animals (a couple of them live in the ocean). Then I would stick Johnny Jump-Up inside the stack. They would tell me if the animal lives in the ocean or not and when we got to Johnny, they would have to jump up.

Story-Rainbow Fish:
I have Popsicle puppets of the story Rainbow Fish. I told them the story (a great one to teach sharing and friendship). With older kids, you can have them participate and be a fish.

Art Activity: Crab
I mixed red paint, karo syrup (makes it shiny), and sugar (makes it rough, like sand). The kids painted their crabs with it. You can either glue googly eyes on it once it's dried or just draw them on.

Coming Up: Tomorrow we will continue learning about the Ocean! Lot's of fun activities and sharks coming up!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I also tied in Emotions/Feelings with the topic since most of Valentine's Day is about LOVE!

Book:
Today I Feel Silly
by: Jamie Lee Curtis
Such a cute book with 'busy' illustrations, enough to keep a kid looking at it for a long time!

Social: What Makes You Feel...?
I have some Jack-O-Lanterns (I know, wrong season, but the kids don't care)! They have different emotions on them, happy, sad, angry, surprised. As I showed them the face I asked them to make a similar face and then to tell me what makes the feel that way.

Cognitive: Emotions Bingo
I have 9 different 'faces', each with a different emotion. I asked the children to find a specific emotion and place a marker on it, once the page was filled, they could eat their candy!

Book: Kisses
This is also a really good goodnight book...it being about a goodnight kiss.

Math: Heart Patterns
I had 3 different colors of hearts (red,pink, white). I first used red and white since it is easy to tell the difference. I then introduced what a pattern is, I said that each color 'takes a turn'. I laid down 4 hearts (white, red, white, red), then asked the kids what color comes next (which colors turn is it?). It took them a couple tries to understand what I was asking but eventually they got it and told me white! We finished that pattern, then I switched the colors and Pink and Red and they got it all right that time too!

Gross Motor: Heart Jump
I laid down 5 different color hearts (any color). Then told the kids to either jump, tip toe, run, etc. to a specific color heart.

Art Activity: We made Valentines. I let the kids use the glue by themselves and they glued smaller hearts onto a big white one, then painted and colored them.

Coming up: Next we we will be learning about the Ocean and the animals that live there. I love this topic so we will be doing 2 lesson on it, so watch for 2 posts!

Manners...and Families

I didn't have enough for just Manners, so I tied Families into it as well!

Book:
Please Say Please
by: Donald McCullough

This is a cute book on manners. It follows a group of animals to Penguin's house for dinner. Each animal has a bad manner and then fixes it with the good manner. I try to get the children to tell me what the good manner is before I read it to them.

Good/Bad Manner Pictures: I have some pictures of kids doing good and bad manners and we talk about them individually.

Family pictures: Talk about who is in their family. Include grandparents and aunts and uncles. Discuss ways the children can have good manners with them (doing nice things for them).

Art Activity: Draw Family

Activity of the Month

Every month I am going to post an activity you can try with your children. Each will focus on a different skill. Have fun!

Sorting Games
Focused Skill: Math
*Sort canned goods while putting away groceries
*Toys when they clean up
*Money from their piggy bank
*Buttons
*Silverware
*Dirty clothes when you do laundry
*Clean clothes when you put laundry away