preschool journals

I got behind on sharing our journal pages to go with each letter.  Then our internet with out for a week and a half and I got behind on everything.  You can click on the tag name "Journals" on the side (or click here to see the beginning of the year and the A-F journal pages).  Here's a post about the journals and how we're using them.

Sorry these aren't printable as some of the past ones are... I can't seem to get it all figured out.

Here's G:  Watch me grow.   I'll measure them again at the end of the year.

H:  draw hat and hair  (this person outline is from: Inchmark)

   -crazy hair

      -sweet piggy tails

   -egg head?

   -Indian hat? 

I:  My insect
  

J: What gift would you bring baby Jesus:   (Lalaloopsy dolls were popular for Jesus)

k:  What is in the kangaroo's pouch?   (Here's our kangaroo day Part 1 Part 2)

 

 L:   I love _____

M:  My mom...

  -This poor mom isn't 38!  I'm not sure she'd want us thinking she is.

  -But neither is this mom 14.  

A lot of the kids like to free draw in their journals too.  Here on of my little friends practiced her number 8s.

This poor little friend has a house fire on Christmas Eve and drew about it almost everyday for two weeks. 

If they tell me something to write by the picture, I do.  They all seem to want this narration now. 

If you knew this friend, you'd understand! 

J is for Jesus- preschool style

This week was Jj week. I had Jj math day.  We had already done some things the day before with candy canes and the letter Jj, so I just kept it Christmas related and I'm needing to keep things really easy with all the Christmas song practice.  Flexible and easy.

Here was the craft.  The kiddos used a wooden block to stamp red stripes on a J shaped candy cane piece of poster board.  Then they glued a star and baby Jesus in a little paper manger.  Jesus is a little wooden spoon (pre) wrapped in fabric. 

I read this book, The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister.  It was a good book, but the wordage was a little advanced for the kids.  It's a 4.3 AR level.  I used it over other Christmas books because it used the words Lord or Lords and King of Kings and Prince of Peace, which are all words from one of the songs we are singing for our parents.

I printed and laminated these number cards which I printed from a mystery source.  I either didn't pin it or I accidental pinned it in a random category and don't see it.  I am sure I'll come across it again someday and will be sure to cite it.  Anyway, I velcroed them onto a poster board.   I showed the kids this poster and we counted with them, we talked about how 1 was at the top left and 20 at the bottom right.  I pointed out how, just like our calendar, when one line was done, we started the next row at the left again and counted to the right.

Then I took them all off and passed them out randomly. I told the kiddos I wanted to see if they could work together with as little help from me as possible. They came up and added their piece when it was their turn.  They did do it pretty much on their own, which was neat. They helped each other and called out the next number when someone didn't step right up.  We have had most of these kids for 2 years now so there is so much growth to be seen.

After we were all reassembled, we counted again to check our work.  Then we paid attention to the pattern.  I took some off and we decided what numbers were missing and what shape the piece was.

Later in the day I had them work with partners.  I passed out the number cards and asked them to make towers as tall as the number on their card with the unifex blocks.  When they had it right, I switched cards with them and they worked on another one. This was the end of the day, so several boys ended up using their blocks to make some type of 'shooter' -something we clearly discourage.  

We also retold the Christmas story using the advent pieces that I assembled.  I used it as a counting activity as well.  I kids did seem to like it and noticed that it was sort of like the resurrection eggs, but with the birth of Jesus.   I'll share this activity tomorrow. 

jelly beans- preschool style

Jelly bean day might have been my favorite day had my kids not been CRAZY.  End of the year, bad weather over the weekend, storm rolling in, whatever- teachers will blame it on all kinds of things. 

I read this story My Garden by Kevin Henkes.  It's about a little girl whose family has a garden and she dreams that her garden grows chocolate bunnies and jelly beans.

Then we looked at many pictures of food and talked about what they are and if they could be grown in a garden.  I got many of the garden pictures from some old calendars that my mom saved for me.  I got the other food items (cookies and pizza, etc) from real simple magazine.  They have great photos for cutting!   One of our little guys knows all the names of random fruits and vegetables.  They eat super healthy at his house and he knows all about persimmons and pomegranates.

Then we worked on the jelly bean prayer.  I sent the jelly bean prayer color booklet home for the kiddos to work on if they wished along with the correct colored jelly beans in a little wax paper envelope.

As we went through the prayer/poem, I used these larger pieces on the felt board.

Jelly Bean Poem

Red is for the blood He gave.

Green is for the grass He made.

Yellow is for the sun so bright.

Orange is for the edge of night.

Black is for the sins we made.

White is for the grace he gave.

 Purple is for His hour of sorrow.

Pink is for our new tomorrow.

A basket full of jelly beans, Colorful and Sweet

Is a prayer, a promise, A loved one's treat!!

I had all  these jelly bean pieces cut out to place in the middle of the floor intending that with each color, the kids would search for their own so that they had a complete set at the end.  The kids were crazy as I mentioned, so I skipped this and will save them for another year or another activity.   Its' a lot of cutting to waste, bu that's just how it goes. 

Then I handed each child a plastic egg with 5 jelly beans.  We went through this little counting rhyme together.

Jelly Bean Countdown

5 little jelly beans I wish I had more! I'll eat the (color) one
Now there are four!
4 little jelly beans Tasty as can be I'll eat the (color) one
Now there are 3!
3 little jelly beans Only a few. I'll eat the (color) one
Now there are 2.
2 little jelly beans Eating them is fun I'll eat the (color) one
Now there is one.
1 little jelly bean The last one for me I'll eat the (color) one
I'm as happy as can be!

h

We also graphed some jelly beans that I passed out to the kiddos. I don't have any pictures, but just had them place the appropriate color on our felt board in rows.  I asked some questions about the colors and the numbers.  I love how even little bitty guys can do this kind of math.

Here'  the craft from jelly bean day.  The jars were drawn on the paper and the kids stamped jelly bean shaped sponges in the jar.  The kids held onto the sponges by an empty film container hot glued to the backside of the sponge.   Lou put his in rows.

I found these cards in the paint sample section at walmart.  Some cards have photo of items.  I grabbed one of each of them and was sure that I'd find a game or activity to use them with.  I also grabbed a matching paint color.  I just left them out for the kids and a few of them created their own little game with matching and sorting. 

I also reviewed the Easter story with the resurrection eggs.  I made a bingo sheet to go with it.  I used these print out cards from 1+1+1=1 to go along with it.  I tried leaving out the resurrection eggs and pieces for the kids to play with, but the kids made off with the pieces and I had to track down everything.  Leaving the cards out was safer for all of us, eggs included.   For the bingo game, all the cards were the same and the pictures were in order so that we reviewed the story as we went.  It's just something I made up in word with pictures I google imaged.  If I knew how to share files, I'd would share the bingo sheet.

Edited to add:  This post was late today because we spent last night hunkered down in the basement.  Crazy storms!  We lost the roof off our shed and a bunch of branches, but the house was fine and the kids slept through it!  It was a little exciting in the morning to go see all the wind damage in the neighborhood.