Eh-eh Esther

(pictures to follow)

This week at co op, Sadey and the kids learned all about Queen Esther and the letter E. Most of the kids already recognized the letter and some even knew the sound. Sadey is really starting to connect that each letter has its own name and sound and has finally decided that they don't all "say" meow. Yay!

Anyway, this week we read about Queen Esther and made really cute elephant masks. The kids were so adorable running all over the place acting like a herd of elephants.

We spent some time playing at the park and then ran some races to burn off some of their excess energy. Three year olds are so much fun - but they'll definitely wear you out!

Next week we're moving on to the letter F.

Duh-duh Daniel

D week was so much fun! We started our class with the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den. The kids all seemed to be somewhat familiar with it and loved acting like lions. Not a D book, but we also read "Jamberry" - because it's one of Sadey's favorites.

After story time, the kids decorated a letter D with torn bits of contruction paper and then made their print for the handprint calendar we've been working on. After that we spent about 20 minutes at the park and took a short nature walk before coming back inside to work on this week's D craft. I'm not sure why, but arming 14 three year olds with drums seemed like it would be a good idea LOL. They had a blast decorating their drums and then pounding and shaking them for a good 20 minutes. But then putting the drums away seemed like an even better idea :)
A good time was had by all.

Cuh-cuh Commandment

This post is a couple of weeks overdo, but sick kids will do that to you!

We had a great C week though! We learned that Commandment is a really big word for rules and that God gave 10 rules to Moses and His people. We also read one of our very favorite books by Eric Carle, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." We had great fun making our own caterpillars out of circles, took a nature walk and had fun playing at the park.

Buh-buh Boat!

Buh-buh Boat went off without a hitch! My goal for this year is letter and sound awareness - not mastery. And it's a good thing because Sadey insisted that B said "aaaaah" for most of the week and is now convinced that the letter is actually called "buh buh beeeeeee". It's a good thing she's cute.

I've kind of abandoned Heart of Dakota and am doing my own thing. I wasn't overly thrilled with the way the program is put together for this age group. I've heard good things about the other programs, but this one just wasn't a good fit for us. I do love the Singing Through the Bible cd that came with it. I believe that's available through Focus on the Family - but haven't checked into it. I think we'll just keep reading through the preschool Bible and listening to the cds and I'll pull my own craft and activity projects together to round things out for her.

I was also planning to use HOD with my co op class, but it's just too hard to condense 5 day's worth of activities into 1 two-hour class. Live and learn.

This week in co op, however, we were working on the letter B and the color red. We began the day with a Bible story about Noah and his ark (a very big boat). The kids did an awesome job of coming up with lots of B words like bananas, bugs, baby and buggy. We also read a Veggie Tales book about colors. The kids all seemed to know that Bob (the tomato) was "very red." After story time we got out the paints. This is by far the messiest part of our day, but who doesn't like to fingerpaint with 14 three year olds?!? After fingerpainting we made our butterfly craft. I'll have to post a picture later because they turned out sooooo cute. Then we had our snack time and took a nature walk. It was pretty hot outside, but the kids had fun. They were so excited to have spotted a lizard as we were first exiting the building. We went on to listen to the wind, feel the rough rocks, find a stream behind the building, a butterfly perched on a flower and a spider making a web. Talk about a great walk! We'll definitely be doing those more often - only maybe we'll focus on finding "letter of the week" things as much as possible.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to teach this group of preschoolers. It's a lot of work, but a good reinforcment for Sadey since we are going over the same letter we are learning here at home. The kids are so much fun (most of the time LOL) and it's nice to see Sadey playing with some kids her own age. It's a win-win kinda' thing.