watercolor painting at preschool

This is a fun little watercolor activity we've been setting out for the kids at arrival time.  Simple pictures are drawn on little squares of watercolor paper.  Sharpie is the best for the outlining, something else might bleed when wet.  I like watercolor paper, it's just the best.  Other thick paper could be substituted, but regular copy paper would not work.  Wouldn't it be frustrating for a little friend to have the paper rip and curl up when they add water?

Then, Bee and I add some color with her watercolor colorpencils.  Just a bit of color at the edges. I've written before about some fun things Bee and I have done lately with watercolors.  We both love love love these watercolor color pencils.  These are from the art store (and are so rich and lovely), but I used to have Crayola's set from a big-box store and they worked just fine too.

All we need to set out for the kiddos is water and paintbrushes.  The color from the pencils blends to cover whatever area they paint with water.  They swoop in and the papers are gone in just a few minutes.  I need to keep a better eye on if lots of friends are doing it, or a few friends are doing all of them.   We did one day of Valentine hearty sort of pictures, one day of "P" words, but now it's whatever simple image comes to mind.

Here's a little friend (on jammie day- hence her robe) who was showing her little brother (20 months)  how to do it.  She was the leader and her mom and little brother joined us for the morning. 

Oh my goodness, look at his concentration!  How sweet.    He kept whispering, "dot, dot, dot."  I love when little people are so focused.

This certainly wouldn't help a discussion on process vs. product, but it has been a fun little activity and perhaps an intro to watercolor for the preschool class.  We do an organized craft each day, and I suppose they are a little more product vs process, but the kids are given a number of other opportunities for process work.  They can paint at the easel each day, create something in the 'office' area, usually involving heaps of colored tape and small yarn and crepe paper cuttings.  So given the other opportunities for free creation and process work, I feel alright about this 'product' work. Plus, it's nice looking piece they feel good about participating in. 

the octopus that keeps on giving

You may remember this octopus.

The one I took to school for octopus day.

Yeah, the one that now lives in a jar in my basement.... remember, we're not telling my husband I still have it around...

Bee and Lou got him out for a little 'scientist work.'  They mostly did jounal observations.  Here's Lou's. That's his mouth, not a belly button.

You can't tell from the picture, but Bee's is covered in glitter.  She was less concerned with scientific accuracy and more with the 'fabulously fancy' factor.

 

The Octopus was just the start. We ended up with tables of rocks, shells, beakers of water to pour and magnifying glasses, all in the name of science.  

valentines

We couldn't wait until February this year to get the Valentine decorations out.  We got things out a little early, but our favorite things to hang up were last year's love notes.  

Here's one from Bee to Lou last year.  He is "speshale."

Bee had a whole series of these birds last year.

Last year, Lou 'wrote' his own and then had me write the words below. 

This year, he's on his own.

The love notes for this year are already filling our boxes. 

Oo octopus day- preschool style

Octopus day was great.  I really, really enjoy teaching the older kids this year!  They can do so much more than the 3 year olds!   Here's the break down from octopus day:

First, Lou and I tracked down some octopuses to take to school.  We found them at the international food market in town.  They were in a bag or 12 or so and were frozen.  They thawed out nicely overnight.  Bee and Lou had a good look at them before school. 

Lou was not afraid to touch, but Bee preferred to keep her hands safely away from any grossness.

They are a bit rubbery.  The tentacles and little suction cups on the tentacles are really neat.  I knew my kiddos at school would like them too.

Our leader came dressed as Shrek, an Ogar. His mom had to explain it to us!

We read these two great non fiction stories Octopuses by Carol Lindeen and Octopuses by Judith Jango-Cohen.  I think the Pebble book (green one) was the one I was able to read entirely.  With the other one, we just looked at some pictures.

We talked about the suckers on their tentacles.

We looked at what their bodies look like.  They have a funny little siphon on their bodies that shoots out the ink and spits out hard shells from crabs they eat. 

The inking is really cool.  The ink even smells like an octopus.  This really fools those moray eels.

The kids thought it was neat how they laid their eggs in chains hanging from the roof of the den. 

Of course, changing colors is neat too.  They change for camouflage and mood. 

We looked at some fun octopus pictures to talk about their size.   I also brought my laptop in and showed three clips from youtube.  This is the first time I've done that and it worked out really nicely.  I emailed the youtube files to my email so I didn't have to open youtube at school.  You never know what you'll get.  I showed this one of an octopus swimming,  this one of one inking, and this one of it crawling on rocks.

Then we played this octopus game.  I had one of the girls on staff at the church use the churches big risseograph machine to copy these octopuses on larger paper.  The kids used those bluish gems to cover the letter when I called them. 

Here is the demonstration version I used.  I programmed some old cannning lids with letters upper and lower case letters a-o.  When I read off the letter, I covered it on the blue poster.This let those that needed to see where the letter was or what a j was.  Several are struggling with Jj.

Right before we washed hands for snack, I gave the kids a chance to touch the octopus.  Most did choose to.

Some just used popsicle sticks to push them around.  We did it in the hallway since they smelled pretty strong.

It was great to be able to see the parts we had talked about up close. 

Then we scrubbed our hands. Some scrubbed again,  the smell was hard to get off.

Here was the snack that our leader brought.  They are chocolate octopuses.  The brownie head is made from brownie bites (from the grocery) iced to an oreo.  The arms are twizler laces.  The eyes are cut sections of gum drops and M&Ms.   He also brought gold fish and oranges. I'm sure some of our kids aren't hungry at lunch!

I try to pass on the snack, but I did enjoy one of these!

After snack, we danced around the room to some underwater music.  I made up a yarn octopus finger puppet for each child to wear on their finger while we danced them around.  The boys pretended that they were getting inked.  At the end of the day, a few kids wanted to put one on each finger.

They made up in about 10 minutes each.  After 4 or 5 I thought, "yeah, no problem."  After 10, I though...  "why did I start this?"  By then I too far in to turn back. 

We danced our little octopuses to Underwater Land by pat Dailey and Shel Silverstein.

This silly one wanted to check out Bee's fish tank!  The pattern is from Sheep Dog's Fleece.

Here was the craft.  Letter O as an octopus.  Lou's looks more like a spider.  Some kids drew on circles for suction cups.

For our short time at the end of the day right before dismissal, the kids poked a page. 

They lay on the carpet and tap a toothpick over the letters, poking holes in the page.  They love how the finished piece feels on the back and how you can see the light through it.  It's a favorite, and a quiet activity.

I shared our 'car talk' clipboard last time, but here's a more 'normal' one.  It talks about what we did briefly and anything upcoming. It helps the parents direct conversation on the way home.  It tends to bring on better conversations than just:  "What did you do at school today?"  "Played." 

Here's our paperwork.  I photographed it to see if you have any idea what animal that little mouse-like creature is.   Does he start with an O?

The inside of the paperwork ended up looking a lot like my game, but was for tracing the letters.   I'm not sure what the resource is for all the paperwork.  I suspect they are old.

So... one of the octopuses is at our house in a jar.  I put vinegar in the jar and he floats around really nicely.  I think he's pickled and will be good for next year.   Don't tell my hubby, he would not be in favor of a dead octopus living in the basement.

reading list

I love the quote "Children become readers on the laps of their parents."

At our house, in addition to the regular picture books that the kids chose each night for us to read to them, we love a good chapter book.  Bee is now 6 and Lou is 4.  We started including a chapter book, I guess a year and a half or two years ago.  Some books will need to be re-read when they are older, but they are getting a lot out of them now too.  Often, the kids will call 'extra___' instead of choosing a picture book for us to read. Of course, I love that they are enjoying our story so much that they just want more of it.  We can get through a good sized chapter book this way in a week or two.

If there is a movie based on the book, we like to watch it when we are done.  If there is a special food or craft or something from the books, we like to work on that.  There have been so many teachable moments and good discussion points that have come up while reading these larger works.  I asked the kids to help me make a list of what we've read recently.  Here's what we remembered:

Laura Ingals series:  (Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy-we skipped this one, but have it),  Little House on the Prairie,  On the Banks of Plum Creek,  By the Shores of Silver Lake,  The Long Winter,  These Happy Golden Years,  Little Town on the Prairie,  The First Four Years    These put Lou to sleep, but Bee loved them. 

The Littles (as many as we could get our hands on:  The Littles, The Littles take a trip, The littles to the rescue,  The littles have a wedding, The littles give a party, The littles and the great halloween scare, The littles and the trash tinies,  The littles go exploring, The littles go to school, The littles and the terrible tiny kid)

Pipi Longstockings (as many as we have gotten our hands on, although I think there are many more: so far- Pippi Longstocking and Pippi goes on board)

Ramona series:  (Beezus and Ramona,  Ramona the Pest,  Ramona the Brave,  Ramona and Her Father,  Ramona and Her Mother,  Ramona Quimby, Age 8,  Ramona Forever,  Ramona's World -I don't think we read this last one) 

Ralph books:  Ralph S. Mouse, Runaway Mouse, Ralph and the motorcycle)  Lou enjoyed these!

Charoletts Web   A classic that everybody loves.

Stuart Little    Many parts of this story seemed to bother Bee and Lou was always worried about Stuart.  I think reading it was stressful for them in a weird way. 

Dr. Doolittle-  Really really good, I didn't even know it was going to be so good!  We all loved it!

Captain Underpants and the attack of the talking toilets-  actually the kids asked not to read others and to get back to 'real stories'.  Not exactly good literature but they are a fast read.

Matilda-  a favorite!  We could hardly put it down. 

James and the Giant Peach- a favorite for the kids, one of my childhood favorites too.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-  a favorite.  The kids even asked for early baths a few nights so we had more time to read it.   Charlie and the great glass elevator-  not a favorite-  almost didn't finish, but we stuck through it!

Mr. Poppers Penguins- The kids loved how different it was from the movie.  They usually agree that the book is better than the movie.  They are good kids.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-  The book was fine.  The kids were afraid of the robbers.  The movie was a little dated for me.  The kids surprisingly enjoyed it a lot.


 Indian in the cupboard  The kids LOVE it.  I have a special cupboard put up that I plan to get out soon, but I know there will be fights!

 EDITED TO ADD:  We finished this last night and everyone agreed it has been the favorite read so far!  I even let everyone stay up an extra half hour to finish it!  I couldn't put it down either!

Adding to the list of books read:

Sarah Plain and Tall- we read it in just three days.  We were waiting for a book to come in (the next in the series of Indian in the cupboard) at the library.  We had to find a quick read to fill the gap.  Everybody liked it.  I know there are others in this series, but we will wait until our other series is over. Also read Caleb's Story and Skylark.

 3/23/2012
Indian in the cupboard, The Return of the Indian,  The secret of the Indian,  The secret of the Cupboard, and The secret of the Key.  I had read the first two before, but the others were also really good reads.  I think the kids would vote these the top of the list of favorites. 

April

Trumpet and the Swan-  We liked it.  Lou followed the plot line so closely and still talks about it. He would like a trumpet now.

May

Miss Piggle-wiggle books. We thought the first one was good, didn't care for the others as much. 

June2012

Where the Red Fern Grows-  My favorite book of all times.  Favorite. I cried, Bee cried. We were a mess!  You can't go wrong with a story about two coon hounds and a boy who loves them. 

Holes-  This was a favorite read aloud when I taught elementary school.  I was thinking the plot was a little too intertwined and thick for the kids to get, but they loved it.  We watched the movie too, and I had forgotten that it's probably the closest book/video set out there. 

July 2012

Chocolate Fever-  After reading Holes, this was a basic plot.  Too basic.  It was short and funny and easily understood, but afterwards, even Luke said something about it being a simple book. 

Cricket in Times Square-   This is one of those books that I've had in my classroom library forever, but hadn't read myself.  What a sweet story it was.  Animals who are friends- one with an undiscovered talent.  We all liked it.  It would make a great read aloud in a classroom and I'll remember that.

August 2012
Half Magic-  We didn't care for it.  Bee insisted we finish it or we would have cut our losses.  I know this is a celebrated author, but we just didn't get into it. \

September 2012
Louis and the Spitting Image-  Another one that wasn't really great.  It was alright, but just kept going and going.  Maybe an older kid might have enjoyed it, it just wasn't stellar literature.

October 2012
Mrs. Frisby and the rats of Nimh-  Finally!  Back to a really really good book.  I can't believe I have never read this.  We all couldn't wait for the next chapter.  We even got baths early several nights so that we could read extra.  This is a great one for boys and girls both, even daddies!  It's starts with the story of a mother mouse trying to save her children and ends with an exciting adventure of super smart rats setting up their own self sufficient habitat.

November/Demember 2012 
 

Bud, Not Buddy  Many themes in this book were for a bit older kid, but it's a good story.  I had to explain many parts of the story and some parts I just let go.  Bee is confused already how our neighbor's girlfriend has a baby when she isn't married. This might of added to some confusion.

Spring 2013
 

Adventures of Mohan and Mohan in the Jungle both by Ella Grove.  They were lent to us by a homeschooling friend and are by the folks at Rod and Staff.  Both were good reads. 

 Also from Rod and Staff, we read Bread for the Winter by Harvey Yoder.  All three books have strong Christian messages and were books we enjoyed.  I may read Bread for the Winter as a read-aloud next year to my 3rd graders. 

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner.  It's one of the novels we will read in 3rd grade next year.  I hated to ruin it for Bee, but I need to read all our novels this summer so I'm ready.  WOW,  surprise ending to that book!  It was so good that we read it in two days.  The kids couldn't wait for me to read more.  They even asked me to read during dinner, which I did one day.  Major surprise at the end.  I'm glad that I pre-read it though.  If I was reading it with the kids at school, I would have been caught off guard for sure!

Currently reading:  

One Hundred Dresses