Mm is for ....

We talked about the letter M.  We started out by looking for pictures around he house that started with M.  We found a monkey, money, moon, and mermaid.

 We then talked about the five senses using a Marshmallow

Sight- They said it looked round and white.

Smell- They all took a good whiff and said it smelled yummy and also like a flower.

Touch- They then felt the outside and said it was soft and they we opened up the marshmallow and felt the inside and it was sticky

Sound- We then took the marshmallow and squished it in our hands to see if we heard anything and we didn't

Taste-  This was the last and best sense to talk about.  I asked what it tasted like and they decided it was yummy and tasted like a marshmallow!

 

Max

 Calvin

Jessa

Lynlee

 After we finished the marshmallow sensory we read the book "Five Little Monkeys Go To The Store" about the momma monkey missing little monkeys as she has to find things in the store.  We then colored a picture of a monkey and finished up with a marshmallow treat.

 On Day two we started by playing with magnets.  We had fun putting the letters on the pan and then tipping it upside down to see if it would fall.

 We then read the story, "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" and then went to the table to make a mouse with the letter Mm.  For a snack we talked about mud.  We discussed how when dirt gets wet it turns into mud and how you can find worms in the mud.

So, for the treat we had chocolate pudding that looked like mud with gummy worms and smashed Oreos for the dirt on top.

pin the nose on the narwhal!

it was mine and max's turn to host wee school this week, and boy did we have fun!  we did the letter N, and the first day we talked about nests and numbers.  we read "the best nest" by p.d. eastman and talked about the sorts of things birds find to build their nests.  leaves, hay, straws, man hair, horse hair (ha ha--love this book!), etc.     

then we went outside and gathered our own supplies to build nests for baby birds.  we found leaves, soft grass, dryer lint, etc., and the kids pointed where they wanted me to hot glue gun their soft nest supplies (not trash...ha ha) on their nest.  we colored a little baby bird and stuck him in his happy home!

next we played the number game.  we worked with numbers 1-10, and had to count the items on the cards and match them with the correct number puzzle piece.  these kiddos did really well with their math skills and number recognition!

on day 2 we talked about Noses!  i asked them if they knew a body part that started with the letter N, and we cycled through a few things (belly button?  no... ears?  no... mouth?  no...) before we all agreed Nose started with the letter N.  this part was pretty hilarious--i asked the kids what we use our noses for, the very first response:  "we pick them!"  

"very good!  we can!  what else can we do?"

 " we sneeze!"

  "that's right!  how about this?" (i make a sniffing noise)  

"we smell!"

so we decided to test our sense of smell--close your eyes!  you can't look, you just have to guess what's in the bag based on what you smell!  cinnamon and vanilla were a little hard--they knew they knew the smell, but not what it was called, and they didn't know the name peppermint, but knew the extract smelled like a candy cane.  and they all guessed orange and banana right away!

then we played the matching smells game--we had to glue pictures of things that smelled yummy or yucky on the right side of the paper.

then we read "the nose book" by al perkins and saw all sorts of different kinds of noses on all sorts of different animals.  we found an odd looking animal called a narwhal, and watched a national geographic clip about them so we could see what kind of nose they have.

then we played pin the nose on the narwhal!  wouldn't you?!

Jj is for...

"J" is for...

We talked about the letter J.  We practiced writing the letter in the air as well as on our papers and then made a J book.

 We used finger paints to put handprints on our papers.  As soon as we were done we flipped our papers over so that our hand prints now looked like jelly fish!  We attempted to draw eyes on our jelly fish.

 Jessa

 Max

 Calvin

 Lynlee

 The best part of jello is that it starts with "J"

We took cookie cutters and cut shapes out of the jello and the best part was eating it!

 Lynlee

 Max

 Jessa

 Calvin

These kiddos loved the jello! 

K is for Kangaroo and King!!

Letter K week started out with tracing our Letter K and talking about "k" words.  We were sad to see Camilla move, but we are so happy Lynlee is in school with us now!  She is a great addition!

We read Curious George Feeds the Animals to see what kind of "K" animals George would meet at the zoo.  We found a koala bear, and a kangaroo!  We spent some time talking about what makes kangaroos different from boys and girls.  We discovered kangaroos have pouches, really long tails, and they up a lot.

Then we made kangaroo paper bag puppets (joey included!)

And then we went outside (to enjoy this amazing December weather!) with our very own kangaroo pouches to find letter K's out in the yard!  I scattered letters A-K throughout the yard, and the kids were only allowed to put K in their pouch.  It was a hit!  And so cute to watch them get excited when they found the right letter, stick it in their pouch, and then hop away!

On day two of letter K, we created K's with fuzzies (Max was very excited and finished his while waiting for everyone to arrive)

Then we read the story of Teddy Koala Bear's Secret, about a Koala bear who lives in England, but takes a secret tunnel to Australia every night and meets up with his friends, a kangaroo and a kookaburra bird.  

Our two last activities were sizing--matching up small, medium, and large kings with their small, medium and large crowns, and then also matching up shapes (circle, square, and triangle) on a letter K crown.  Then snacks and outside to enjoy playing!