Thursday, August 26, 2010

Preschool - Week 2 - Yellow Ball

Week two - on to a new book! E was sad to see Jesse Bear go back to the library. But this was a neat book, too.


This story is more pictures than words, so there is a lot to talk about. We discussed perspective, and opposites (near/far, above/below) and I made some little flash cards to go along with that:
E loves to paint, so one day I helped her recreate the cover page of the book:


We did another magnet page, although I realized that I only have one of each letter so, "BALL" didn't work out so well... I have a plan to use clothespins as a backup. Wait and see!

I also had some small, colored foam blocks that I was using to make patterns for E to complete.  She really didn't understand anything more complicated than ABABA, but we'll work on that.  Just another reminder that she is only 3 and that I can't expect her to do what C did last year.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Preschool - Week 1 - Jesse Bear What Will You Wear?

As C was off to the exciting land of Kindergarten, E was eager to start her preschool.  As I mentioned before, we will be using BFIAR as the main "curriculum" for her first year of preschool.  This basically involves reading a book each day for a week (or four days, as I have planned) and doing little activities along with it.

Our first book of the week was "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?"


E loved this book.  We read it through many times, to the point she pretty much had it memorized by the end of the week.  In addition to this, we did some "look and find" activities as we read the book, and talked about some of the things in the story.  A couple days I just ripped out a page from one of our many workbooks and had her do that after our story. 

She wanted to do a science experiment "real bad" so we made a sun-fade picture.  You find some objects and place them on a sheet of construction paper in the full sun.  Later in the day you can see where the sun has faded the paper:

Each week I plan to make a "magnet page" for E that will highlight a key word in her book.  Maybe this will turn into some sight words?  I bought a pack of letter magnets for $1 at Target and scanned them in. Then I used those images to make a page that she can match the magnet letters to and color in.


As another fun activity, I cut out a "Jesse Bear" from cardboard and E helped me make him some "clothes."  We went through my scrap fabric and I cut out some boots, shirts, pants, etc.  Then I'd say: "Jesse Bear, what will you wear, what will you wear to.... (insert made up location here)" and she'd pick out what he would wear.  She really loved this, despite how simple it is. Although she *really* wanted to make Jesse Bear  a girl bear. Uh - No. I am a realist/mean mom. He's a boy, dear. Let it go.


Since the story is a rhyme, we did some rhyme puzzles the last day to reinforce that concept.