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Notes:  A perfect teaching day. Just perfect. I am left feeling sad about not being able to do preschool with the same group next year! The children loved being able to share their favorite healthy foods while sitting in the teacher chair. They also had a great deal of fun playing Bingo. I have never had a day better than this one teaching this group of children. 

Nutrition/Mother's Day, Lesson One

Monday, May 14th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·         Does anyone know what month it is?

·         Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·         Count Days (Job)

·         Season (Job)

·         Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job)

-Review schedule for the day

-Review letters (B, A, G, F, S, D, H, C, P, Th, O, T, Y, U, N, Z, J, D, Ch, L,Q, R, M, E, I, K, V, W, X)

·    Have letters written on cards. Review what is what, big/capital and little/lowercase and sounds

·    Say letter and toss ball to student. When they get the ball they must make the sound or have students think of a word that starts with that letter. (optional)

-Introduce letter of the week (N) by making sound/ sharing picture with something letter starts with

·    "Does anyone know what letter blend that is?" Open the mystery bag and look at letter blend.

• Talk about what it looks like, what words start with it, and the sounds it makes.
• Can anyone think of words that start with the letter "N" sound?
• Can anyone write it in the air with their finger wand?

-Introduce Topic, Nutrition

·  -Morning Message: Today we are learning about nutrition. Nutrition means eating healthy foods. What do you eat to stay healthy?

• Read message out loud while pointing to works. (directionality)
• Discuss any of the following: capitalization, punctuation, spacing between words.
• Have each student come up and find a word by the sound.
• Have student come up and point to each letter while we read it aloud as a class.
• Take turns answering the question asked in the message: What do you eat to stay healthy?

·         Writing together

o   Have students take turns coming up and tracing over one letter of the word "nutrition". Have them tell everyone what letter they are doing and the sound it makes. Reinforced that all letters are written from the top to the bottom.

 

2. Reading time

• Read, You Are What You Eat by Sharon Gordon
• Ask, "Should we eat a lot of sweet foods and snacks?" (cavities, not all food gives you the same nutrients. Some foods are super foods that make you super strong: share super food chart with class and refer back to food pyramid)
• Ask, "What is you favorite food to eat?"
• Ask, "What is a fruit?" and "What is a vegetable?" (examples of each)
• Read, I Can Eat a Rainbow  by Annabel Karmel
• Ask, "What are some healthy food?" and "What are some unhealthy foods?"

2. Finding Healthy Foods Activity

• At the table, have students sort through grocery store adds to find pictures of healthy foods they like to eat. Students will glue these pictures to a piece of construction paper.
• When they are done, students will share their healthy foods with the class.

3. Reading time

·         Read: Healthy Food for Dylan by Julie Fogliano

o   Mention author and illustrator in review

o   Ask, "Do you like to try new foods? Or is it hard to do?"

o   Ask, "What foods do you hate to eat the most?"

o   Tell, "Now let's try to make our own silly faces out of healthy foods!"

4. Snack (silly face design)

5. Reading time

·         Read: Badger's Fancy Meal by Keiko Kaska

6. Nutrition Bingo

Objective: To learn how to play Bingo and learn the names of many different kinds of fruits and vegetables.

Lesson Plan:

·         Before the day of the lesson cut out many different kinds of fruits and vegetables out of magazine pictures and glue them onto a piece of construction paper to make a Bingo card. Make enough cards for the number of children in your class. If possible have these cards laminated so you can use them often.

·         Then make up cards with names of all the fruits and vegetables you used on your Bingo cards for the caller to call out. When a child gets 3 or four in a row they call Bingo.

·         You might want to have stickers as prizes or nothing at all. The kids really enjoy this and they can learn new fruits or vegetables if you put pictures of unusual fruits of vegetables such as eggplants and Kiwi.

 

7. Math

· Review numbers out of order of flashcards, calling on students to id number.

• Healthy Foods Counting
• Create sheet and have students glue fruits and vegetables to complete word problems.

2 + 3 = 5

Picture of 2 carrots + picture of 3 carrots = students can glue on 5 carrots

8. Reading and Song

• Read, Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson
• Song:
• I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor

 

9. Conclusion

·    Ask, "What do you eat to be healthy?"

• Homework:
• Goodbye Song!

Homeschooling River, which is essentially what I do albeit with a group of peers, is hardly the local norm. Here is the suburbs of Baltimore most everyone I know sends their children to a preschool. Preschool wasn't always the trend. In fact, from what I garner from friends, unless they went to a preschool through a church (like I did) they did not go to preschool at all. In fact, pre-k was in place for students who needed the extra boost of early intervention. This is the purpose that Head Start serves, providing early schooling for children from low income families as well as students with disabilities. Why? I am guessing a correlation between resources and time parents are able to provide to educate their own children. Sadly, the trend is that students from low income families come to school with less skills. I am not saying this is a rule, but a trend. Head Start gives these children a...well--a head start. 

Springtime, Lesson Three

Friday, April 13th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·        Does anyone know what month it is?

·        Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·        Count Days (Job)

·        Season (Job)

·        Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job)

-Review schedule for the day

-Review letter blend, sh

-Review Topic--

·  -Morning Message: In the spring is rains a lot! The rain helps the plants and flowers grow. What do you like to do when it rains?

• Read message out loud while pointing to works. (directionality)
• Discuss any of the following: capitalization, punctuation, spacing between words.
• Have each student come up and find a word by the sound.
• Have student come up and point to each letter while we read it aloud as a class.
• Take turns answering the question asked in the message: What do you like to do when it rains?

·        Writing together

o   Have students take turns coming up and tracing over one letter of the word "rain". Have them tell everyone what letter they are doing and the sound it makes. Reinforced that all letters are written from the top to the bottom.

 

2. Reading time and Songs

·  Read, Cherry Blossoms say Spring by Jill Esbaum

·        Song, Rain Rain Go Away (break this song down into Rhyming words)

Rain, Rain Go Away Come again another day. We want to go outside and play. So Rain, rain go away.

·        Do the same with, It's Raining It's Poaring

It's raining, it's pouring the old man is snoring. He went to bed and bumped his head and didn't get up in the morning.

 

 

3. Craft

·        Check Lima beans and Carnation.

·        Finish butterfly craft by attaching pipe cleaners for body of butterfly

·        Work on umbrella ornament craft. (an umbrella with the letters for spring suspended in raindrop shapes underneath.)

4. Reading time

·        Read, Spring's Sprung by Lynn Plourde

·        Read, Ivy in Bloom  by Vanita Oelschlager

5. Snack

6. Reading and Journal

• Read, It's Spring! By Linda Glaser
• Read, Mama is it Summer Yet? By Nikki McClure
• Journal (what learned)

8. Conclusion

• Review
• Show and Tell
• Treasure Box
• Goodbye Song

9. Color Hunt Walk

• Give students a piece of paper broken into colors. Go out walking with tape and have students try to find an object outside for each color.

 

 

Springtime, Lesson Two

Wednesday, April 11th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·         Does anyone know what month it is?

·         Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·         Count Days (Job)

·         Season (Job)

·         Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job)

-Review schedule for the day

-Review letter blend, sh

-Review Topic--

·  -Morning Message: There are four seasons. The seasons are winter, spring, summer, and fall. Which season is your favorite?

• Read message out loud while pointing to works. (directionality)
• Discuss any of the following: capitalization, punctuation, spacing between words.
• Have each student come up and find a word by the sound.
• Have student come up and point to each letter while we read it aloud as a class.
• Take turns answering the question asked in the message: Which season is your favorite?

·         Writing together

o   Have students take turns coming up and tracing over one letter of the word "season". Have them tell everyone what letter they are doing and the sound it makes. Reinforced that all letters are written from the top to the bottom.

 

2. Reading time and Songs

·    Read, The Busy Spring, Carl Emerson

·         Songs:

o   The Itsy Bitsy Spider

o    Spring
(to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star")

o    Spring, spring is coming soon,
Grass is green and flowers bloom,
Birds returning from the south,
Bees are buzzing all about,
Leaves are buddign everywhere,
Spring, spring is finally here!

 

3. Craft--Coffee Filter Butterflies (part 1) and checking Science

·         Using colored glue and glitter, have students decorate a few coffee filters (allow to dry)

·         Check Lima beans and carnation: is anything happening yet?

4. Reading time

·         Read, Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms by Julia Rawlinson

·         Read, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Pop-Up

·         Have students act out the book: crawl around and eat pretend food for caterpillar, make a cocoon with blankets, and the come out and be a butterfly

5. Pattern and Math Game

·         In egg carton or ice cube trays have students create a pattern or continue a pattern.

*	^	*	^	*

 

·         Put students in pairs and have them play the flowerpot game by taking turns rolling the die and adding flowers to their pots. First one to fill their pots wins.

6. Snack

7. Reading

·         Read, Hurray for Spring by Patricia Hubbell

·         Read, Spring Song by Barbara Seuling

8. Craft

·         Need four seeds, glue, paper, crayons

·         Have students practice a hamburger fold and hotdog fold

·         Each box gets a sentence strip, a seed needs dirt, a seed needs sun, a seed needs air, a seed needs water

 

9. Planting outside

·         Have students help me plant outside in my flower boxes. Discuss the parts of plants, (the roots) and their function. Can they help provide all the things the plants need?

8. Summary/Conclusion                         

· Read, Spring is Here by Lois Lenski

· Homework: Spring Scavenger Hunt

·         Goodbye song

Notes:

The boys were insane today. A long spring break could be the cause. I felt like I spent most of the time just trying to keep them still and listening. 

That aside, this was a great lesson. I found a website that really inspired me to try adding a few new things to my lessons. The morning message went over very well. Introducing a question allowed each child to have a turn to share and the other students to practice listening. It also gave each one a chance to practice writing, letter recognition and phonics without a worksheet. Similarly, the math was also far more fun for the students. By using a stamps, I made it novel. 

The only downside is every moment of play/free time. Even with discussion and reminders about inside voices, not running and not throwing/crashing toys--the boys are still extremely rough and loud. Next time, I am taking them outside. I just can't deal with their energy in the house for very long! 

I am really starting to get excited about next year. I hope we can continue the preschool group. I would love to do it the same way--swapping teaching weeks I love a break! That's for sure. I'd also love to try teaching more often. This way students would get accustomed to my rules and I'd have a lot more flexibility to continue topics beyond a week and tie things together (integrate the curriculum). It would also better help me measure their progress and work on helping students individually. I'd love to have weekly centers for independent work set up. I have a lot of ideas. I know it will take a lot of time, but the experience will be the reward. Well, we'll see!

Springtime, Lesson One

Tuesday, April 10th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·         Does anyone know what month it is?

·         Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·         Count Days (Job)

·         Season (Job)

·         Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job)

-Review schedule for the day

-Review letters (B, A, G, F, S, D, H, C, P, Th, O, T, Y, U, M, Z, J, D, Ch, L,Q, R, M, E)

·    Have letters written on cards. Review what is what, big/capital and little/lowercase and sounds

·    Say letter and toss ball to student. When they get the ball they must make the sound or have students think of a word that starts with that letter. (optional)

-Introduce letter blend of the week (sh) by making sound/ sharing picture with something letter starts with

·    "Does anyone know what letter blend that is?" Open the mystery bag and look at letter blend.

• Talk about what it looks like, what words start with it, and the sounds it makes.
• Can anyone think of words that start with the letter the "sh" sound? (shell, sheep, shrimp)
• Can anyone write it in the air with their finger wand?

-Introduce Topic, Springtime

·  -Morning Message: Today we are learning about spring. What happens in spring?

• Read message out loud while pointing to works. (directionality)
• Discuss any of the following: capitalization, punctuation, spacing between words.
• Have each student come up and find a word by the sound.
• Have student come up and point to each letter while we read it aloud as a class.
• Take turns answering the question asked in the message: What happens in spring?

·         Writing together

o   Have students take turns coming up and tracing over one letter of the word "spring". Have them tell everyone what letter they are doing and the sound it makes. Reinforced that all letters are written from the top to the bottom.

 

2. Reading time

• Read, Spring  by Gail Saunders-Smith
• Ask, "Have you noticed plants growing outside?" and "What kind of plants?"
• Ask, "Do you know what plants need to grow?" (sun, water, soil) Compare winter to spring. "Is there more sun in winter or spring?" (water) So plants wait to grow in the spring when they can get the things they need.

2. Lima Bean Seeds (begin) and Carnation (begin)

• Talk about what is inside a seed. We're going to start these seeds sprouting.
• Have students put name on bags, dampen papertowels, fold and put in bags along with lima beans.
• Talk about the stem of the carnation. Put the carnation in water. It will drink the water up the stem, what do they think will happen if we dye the water blue?

3. Reading time

·         Read: and then it's spring by Julie Fogliano

o   Mention author and illustrator in review

o   Mention how they are going to help me plant some plants tomorrow

4. Craft--Cupcake flower

·         Look at flowers and have students see that flowers are for creating seeds. Seeds are baby plants.

·         Using a cupcake wrapper, have students glue seeds in the middle and add stem and leaves cut from construction paper.

5. Snacks

6. Reading time

·    Read, Spring is Here by Will Hillenbrand

7. Math

· Review numbers out of order of flashcards, calling on students to id number.

• Counting grid (using spring themed stickers)

1	*
2	*	*
3	*	*	*
4	*	*	*	*	*
5	*	*	*	*	*

 

8. Reading and Song

• Read, Hooray for Spring by Kazuo Iwamara
• Song:
• 3 little monkeys hanging from a tree

o    Springtime
(to the tune of "The Muffin Man")

o    Springtime is garden time,
Garden time, garden time,
Get your spades and come outdoors,
Springtime is here!

o    Springtime is planting time,
Planting time, planting time,
Get your seeds and come outdoors,
Springtime is here!

o    Springtime is jumping time,
Jumping time, jumping time,
Get your ropes and come outdoors,
Springtime is here!

o    Springtime is singing time,
Singing time, singing time,
Children sing a happy song,
Springtime is here!

 

9. Conclusion

• Read, Everything Spring by Jill Esbaum

·    Ask, "What are some things that happen is spring?"

• Homework:
• Goodbye Song!

 

 

Music, Lesson Three

Wednesday, February 29th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·         Does anyone know what month it is?

·         Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·         Count Days (Job)

·         Season (Job)

·         Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job)

-Review schedule for the day

-Review Topic--

• Yesterday we learned how we can make music with our bodies. What else can we make music with? (instruments)
• There are so many musical instruments. More than we can talk about. More than I even know. So we will just talk about some of them.
• Look through: Musical Instruments of the World (listen to instruments as talk about them)
• Some people play musical instruments for fun and some play them as their job! Did you know that? They are called, Musicians. Read: A Day in the life of a Musician.
• Watch a musician preform: Lucia

2. Drum Craft

·  Read: Banging

• Make drum
• Do Jumping Beans experiment? What happened to bean when bang of drum? Does it bang to the beat?
• Now I will bang a beat and they have to jump to it.

3. Read and Instruments

• Read: Farmer Joe and listen to the instruments it mentions
• Read: Plucking and String Instruments and look at Jason's guitar

4. Snack

5. Math and Craft

• Guitars with numbers 5, 3, 0 and 1 and strings for children to glue onto them.
• Math sheet--

6. Reading and Journal

• Read: Crash, Bang Donkey and Let's Make Music
• Music Flash Cards
• Journal

7. Looking at Instruments with Juliana

8. Conclusion

• Review
• Show and Tell
• Treasure Box
• Goodbye Song

 

 

* extra time---singing sack

Notes:

The children were very well behaved today. They especially liked singing and acting out the song "If you're happy and you know it". Today I didn't plan as much. The entire atmosphere was far more relaxing when I didn't try to cram a lot of material into our small block of time. Since the last time I taught, students have a much better understanding of how to do patterns. I realized we haven't worked on cutting in awhile. Maybe something I can fit in during our next lesson.

I'm currently very busy trying to clean and prepare for preschool before we leave to visit family in New York. Thus this is short with no photos this time around! 

Music, Lesson Two

Tuesday, February 28th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·         Does anyone know what month it is?

·         Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·         Count Days (Job)

·         Season (Job)

·         Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job)

-Review schedule for the day

-Review Topic--

• Yesterday we listening to a lot of different types of music. Today we're going to make music of our own. What can we use to make music right now without getting anything else? (our bodies!"
• One way to make music is by singing. Now we are going to make vibrations in the air with our built in instrument: our voice box. It's also called your larynx
• Have student put their hands on their throats. Have them feel as they whisper, talk, shout, and sing. Different vibrations!
• We can also make music with our bodies.
• Read/Sing: If you're Happy and You Know it

2. Craft

·    Make a kazoo: compare it to the throat. Use a paper towel rod with wax paper over the end.

3. Sing loud and soft

• Sing: (to tune of row, row row your boat)

"Sing sing, sing with me. Sing out loud and clear. Tell the people everywhere that music time is here."

• Read: The Eensy-Weensy Spider

 

4. Craft

1. beads on skewers

2. drums made out of oatmeal containers

5. Snack

6. Read/Sing/Game

·         Read/Sing: The Boy on the Bus

·         Play: The Crazy Conductor

o   Break up kids so half have rattles and half have their kazoos. When I shake my head they need to play their rattle. When I nod my head they play their kazoo. When I wiggle my whole body they must play both. 3

7. Rhyming words and create own song

• Have rhyming words picked out and students must pair them up. (star, car, jar, moon, spoon, loon, pie, eye) For Twinkle, twinkle little star.
• worked with patterns using cut out shapes on the board

8. Song

• Read: Here we go round the Mulberry Bush
• Read: The Big Rock Candy Mountain

9. Summary/Conclusion                         

·    Review

·    Homework handout--

• Goodbye Song

 

Notes:

Each day in different teaching children. Today half the children really surprised me. They cleaned up before they had to and sat waiting for me to begin on the rug. The other half had to be reminded to sit, quietly, not touching a friend, not interrupting, and not holding a toy. I was trained as a teacher (albeit for 6 years of age and older) and have worked with students in grades K-12, but it is still hard. I have only four students and it is hard to keep them on task, focused, and following rules. They try, they do. They are never cruel or outright defiant. Just exuberant and excited. I have forgotten what it is like to be four. I wonder, is it right to encourage them to curb that passion--to listen? I know there are important things they need to learn. But I have to wonder if maybe I am too hard on them--especially River. I try to praise and discipline equally, but I can't always do the latter with a smile on my face. I remember my fourth grade teacher. A very no-nonsense teacher that everyone said was "mean". I really enjoyed her class. I liked that she could be harsh and stern. In fact, sitting here, I can still see the spider plant she gave me all those years ago. It's grown from a cutting to a full sized plant of its own. Amazing teachers, doing what they do, are a true blessing to the children they teach. 

I've noticed some amazing improvements in the students' skills. I hear one student sounding out words quite often. Another is writing his name in lowercase letters. They are raising their hands more often and listening far better. It's hard to believe one of them will be starting kindergarten in the fall and the others only have one more year. 

Music, Lesson One

Monday, February 27th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·         Does anyone know what month it is? What month is next?

·         Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·         Count Days (Job)

·         Season (Job)

·         Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job) *new ten bundle today so practice counting by tens and explain why ten ones=one bundle

-Review schedule for the day

-Review letters (B, A, G, F, S, D, H, C, P, Th, O, T, Y, U, M, Z, J, D, Ch, L)

·    Have letters written on cards. Review what is what, big/capital and little/lowercase and sounds

·    Say letter and toss ball to student. When they get the ball they must make the sound or have students think of a word that starts with that letter.

-Introduce letter of the week (B) by making sound/ sharing picture with something letter starts with

·    "Does anyone know what letter that is?" Open the mystery bag and make letter sound (since B is a review letter)

• Talk about what it looks like, what words start with it, and the sounds it makes.
• Can anyone think of words that start with the letter B?
• Can anyone write it in the air with their finger wand?
• Can everyone write it on the board

-Introduce Topic, Music (listening)

·    Write the word music on the board. What can the students tell me about music? Write it all down and repeat it back to them.

• An important part of music is listening. Let's see how well you can listen. Play a clapping game. Have students listen. Did I clap fast or slow? Did I clap a lot or a little? Can they copy my clapping? Were we making music?
• Sing and play game "It's not hard I tell you so"

2. Types of Music

• Clue: Read "Old King Cole" and "Hey Diddle Diddle". Can they guess today's topic? "There are so many types of music. First I'm going to read a book about them and then we'll listen to so types of music.
• Read, My Family Play Music
• Listen to some of the music types from the book: Country and Western, string quartet, marching band, share video on stepping (making music just by stomping and clapping)  rock & roll, jazz, swing/big band, bluegrass, polka, pipe organ, bongos
• After each song ask, "How does that music feel to you?" and "Does it make you want to move?" and "What does it make you think of?"

2. Playing with sound

• Read: Violet's Music
• Activity: Playing with Names
• Clap syllables for everyone's names
• Increase and decrease the volume
• Increase and decrease the pitch
• "We said the same names over and over again, but they sounded different. When make sounds with our voices or with instruments, we created little waves in the air around us. These waves are what we hear with our ears. Now imagine you are in the bathtub and you splash the water gently. Does that make a big wave or a little wave? What about if you jumped in with you whole body? Does that make a big wave or a little wave. Sound is the same way but the waves are in the air."
• Let's play with sound in science.

3. Science

1.      Different size cans and glasses make different noises.

a.       Have students try making noises using different sized cans and glasses.

b.      What things can they learn?

2.      Fill glasses with water and rub wet finger around rim. Pit in different amounts of water to change pitch and/or blow in soda bottles of varying sizes.

4. Snack (drumsticks made from pretzel sticks and marshmellows!)

5. Read & Games

·    Read: Banjo Granny

• Skate to Music: Swan Lake and Flight of the Bumblebee
• Does the music make you want to go fast or slow?
• Play musical chairs
• Read: Mole Music
• Sing and act out: The ants go marching

6. Math

·    Review letters/counting

• Worksheet: Count music notes, try to write number of notes (10) and try to spell (10) by sounding out as a group. 

 

7. Craft

· Paper plate shaker (with rice and streamers)

8. Conclusion

·    Review what learned Have them shake their shaker if they know the answer

• Homework: subtraction using pictures of instruments
• Goodbye Song!

Notes:

Wow, we were busy today. 

I began class by implementing a new rule. Children would get one verbal warning for not listening, moving off their circle or touching a friend, a verbal warning would be followed by a red card. A third offense would mean time-out away from the group for one minute. I actually placed a chair in a far corner and showed them where they would sit. Maybe due to these new rules, the children were very focused today. I had to warn students a few times for talking when I was and/or looking at or touching a friend. Only River got a red card for refusing to sit back at the table when warned. No one had to go in time-out.

They have become so good at raising their hands, except it is so hard for them to stop sharing when we need to move on. I tried to provide a few instances where everyone got to share but still had to tell them that this was listening time and not talking time on a few occasions. It's hard for them. Their little minds are bright and quick as birds. Their thoughts are all over and they have grown so much in their ability to express those thoughts. They can't help but blurt them out sometimes!

One child brought up a hurt finger (totally off topic). Another child then wondered out loud how his friend hurt his finger. My favorite is when I ask them if they have any questions and all the little hands shoot up. Yet, when I call a name--the child either doesn't remember what he was going to ask or never had a question at all! I have to say, "Let me come back to you. Maybe you will remember your question in a bit." This happened all the time in kindergarten and first grade classrooms. It's still adorable. 

The children's favorite art project was the abstract art. I suppose because of the freedom. They spent a lot of time on this project discussing what they were doing and chatting peacefully around the table. I sometimes wish I could just pull up a chair and join in!

Whenever I write lessons I have to ask myself what I want students to walk away having learned and experienced. My goal was that they would gain confidence in creating and learn that their was no wrong way to create art. So I really stressed that art could be weird, that it was only made of lines and colors (which they were all sure they could make very well) and that anything at all could be art. When students never once complained that "I can't" or "I don't know how", it felt great. When at the end a few repeated my main goals for their sentence strips of what they learned--I almost gave a fist pump. 

I can only hope that I helped to nurture their creativity and aided them in gaining confidence that, yes they can do it! 

Art, Lesson Two

Wednesday, February 8th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·         Does anyone know what month it is?

·         Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·         Count Days (Job)

·         Season (Job)

·         Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job)

-Review schedule for the day--talk about art show and art museum visit.

-Review letter A and Topic

·         Look at color wheel and discuss. Review primary and secondary colors.

·         Read: Artist Cat--art show

·         Read: Art

·         Read: I Spy Shapes in Art

2. Song

·    Itsy Bitsy Spider

·    Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar

3. Pointillism

·         Read: Katie's Sunday Afternoon

·         Make miniature pointillism paintings using permanent markers.

4. Snack

• Puzzle while wait for snack

5. Read and Math (No time for math, had to cut it)

·    Read: Art and Max

• Math: Review Numbers
• Counting Sheet

6. Still Life    (Instead of still life, I had them make contemporary art arrangements with their three objects since I knew we'd be short on time. They also had to title it. I'm afraid I don't have a picture of these things because I forgot to put my memory card back in my camera and the children took their toys before they left. Titles were, "A things and a C", "Hanging Upside-down", "Gym" and "Tools.")

·         What is it? What does it look like? (examples)

·         Have students take out three things and arrange them in front of them on the table. Then have them draw them and title it.

7. Read

·    Read: Look! Look! Look!

8. Dali

• Who was he? What did he draw? (look)
• Have students cut out silly things from magazines to make their own weird collages.
• Have student dictate sentence as they work for sentence strip of what they learned this week.

8. Summary/Conclusion                         

·    Set up for art show. Talk about art museum visit.

·    Homework handout--patterns

·         Goodbye Song!

·         Art show when moms arrive. 

Preschool Art Show!

(cardboard art display was set up on the table for viewing and one students was absent from Monday's class)

Sideways buildings floating in the sky, giant watches towering over a panda bear, trains and cars on the same track, and a giant hand attacking a building. 

Notes:

The little boys were a bit wild today, but we still had a lot of fun learning about art. I think the next big thing we need to work on is discipline--indoor vs outdoor voices and play. I also noticed that two of the children like to team up on a third. I really need to pay attention to them during their play time to help guide them towards fair and appropriate indoor behaviors.

Their letter recognition is about 99% and their letter sounds are about 95%. A lot higher than the start of the year. It's amazing how quickly they learn!

Either River is a bit behind (being the second youngest of the group and the youngest present today) or he isn't as confident. When talking about rhyming words, he was not calling out and just listening. I think I will work with him solo and see how he is doing with that skill. 

Really looking forward to our art show on Wednesday and our Art Museum field trip on Friday!

Art, Lesson One

Monday, February 6th

1. Circle Time

-Hello Song

-Calendar

·         Does anyone know what month it is?

·         Does anyone know what day of the week it is?

·         Count Days (Job)

·         Season (Job)

·         Weather (Job)

-Count days of preschool (Job)

-Review schedule for the day

-Review letters (B, A, G, F, S, D, H, C, P, Th, O, T, Y, U, M, Z, J, D, Ch)

·    Have letters written on cards. Review what is what, big/capital and little/lowercase and sounds

·    Say letter and toss ball to student. When they get the ball they must make the sound or have students think of a word that starts with that letter.

-Introduce letter of the week (A) by making sound.

·    Since the letter A is a review, I put pictures of A things into the bag and had them tell me the letter.

Introduce Topic, ART

·    Can anyone tell me what art is?  

• Did you know that art has been around a long time? As long as there have been people, there has been art.
• Look at the Big Art Book and discuss. Talk about how we are looking back through time to all these different types of art.
• What do they think about the art?
• What does it look like?
• Art comes from all around the world! Using map for reference look at photos is book Where in the World.
• Art is made up of lines and color. Read: Lines that Wiggle

2. Colors/Science

Mini-pallets I made of a cut up pizza box. We used cotton swabs as paintbrushes to mix our colors. 

• Show students an easel and paint brushes. "These are a few of the tools artists use to make art. What else will we need to use to make art with these tools?" (paint, something to paint on"
• Get primary paints. Talk about primary colors and how all other colors come from them. Talk about black and white. Black is made from all colors, white from absence of color.
• Do art project: give each child cardboard easel and brushes. Give each child primary colors on their palette.
• Then have them mix, blue and yellow: what happens? Red and blue, what happens? Red and orange, what happens?
• Talk about secondary colors.
• What do they think will happen if they mix white into a color? Have them try it with any primary color. Do the same for black.
• What do they think will happen if they mix white or black into a secondary color?

3.  Read & Song

·         Read/Sing: There was an old man who painted a sky

·         Who thinks they don't know how to make art? This book is about a girl who thinks she can't make art. But guess what? Anyone can make art!

·         Read: The dot

4. Snack (make art with your snack)

5. Read & Games

·    Read: Magpie Magic

• Rhyming game with Magpie: have the following words, plus some words that do not rhyme, stuck to the wall with tape: art, fart, bart, dart, hart, start, tart, mart. The magpie will steal the words from us if they do not rhyme and we want to keep the rhyming words! Have children take turns picking if the words rhyme or not.
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• Make an "A" out of popsicle sticks, Make an "a" out of yarn. (have students try to make A's out of these different materials.

6. Abstract art

·    What is it. Show an example

• String Magic Project: Have students cover string with glue and then randomly lay it down on paper. Tomorrow we will color in the gaps between the string for out abstract art.
• Marble Painting! (Place marble in paint and put in box lines at bottom with paper. Have students move box back and forth.

7. Photography

·    What is it? Show examples.

• Portrait and landscape. Show example.
• Have children take portraits of their friends (I let them choose costume hats/masks to make this exciting!) Photos will be printed at Walmart's one-hour so we will have them for our art show and then students can take home the photo of themselves.

8. Conclusion

·    Review what learned

• Read: The Art Box
• Homework: Letter A Review (instead of A thing for show and tell. Have students bring three small things to draw in a still life tomorrow)

·    Goodbye Song!