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Dragosaurs



Thinking rainbows? 

I got off to a late start...again.  I realized today that it is partially due to the fact that I am not waking earlier but mostly because once I am able to do something successfully I want to add something new. 

For example, I can wake up, feed the kids, read my bible, and shower and start school by 10 am. 

Now that I know that I want to do all of the above and work out, do the dishes, and start the laundry.  I was frustrated after doing all of this to find it was 1130 am!

I need to seriously get myself out of bed early or drop something from my  morning to do list.  

I want to get everything done every day and am getting frustrated that I can't.  >:/

Today I did realize that I am trying to much in too little time because my back is buggin me.  I had a back injury about 8 months ago and the last week it has been irritating me, more so today then the rest of the week.  

I need to watch my bending! No picking up kids! (per the doctor) :(.

Onto the little dragons of mine....

Stations
Reading station-No interest in it at all today
Dino sensory bin-I added the extra noodles from last nights dinner to the bin and re-set it up. 

 The boys ate it.  :)  
What the sensory dino bin looked like after all the play.  No more noodles.  

All about me book-For this station I set out story paper and asked the kids to draw something of their favorite color. This activity coincides with the message that 'God made me special'.  This book will help the kids recognize and share things about themselves with others. 


Preschool
We started with prayer and a brief review of Adam and Eve.  Then we said a poem and sang a song about being special. 

Because I did not finish up my day yesterday I did not want to start on today's itinerary and get all mixed up.  But I did plan for a couple mess-ups and had extra things to do, plus the wonderful discovery packs. :)

First things first 
I finished my March calendar! 

And I created a marker for 'today'.  

I read Bear in a Square which involved searching and counting. 

The number this week is #1.  There is not much counting involved when you talk about the number one.  

So I added in some shapes, colors, and sorting. 
 Hmmm...where does it go? 



This was a great color recognition for Spencer!  There was also a big bounty of shapes for the older kids to count.  




Once sorted they had to take them out 1 by 1 (haha the number 1) until there was 1 left in the jar.  
 Then we talked about different animals that start with the letter D and started the mini Letter D books.    I noticed Spencer is getting better at his scissor skills. 
During this particular activity Athena was overcome by a tummy ache.  She had mentioned she didn't want to do preschool last night and again this morning.  

Early this morning she was seriously trying to convince me out of conducting preschool, telling me why it wasn't important and it was okay to miss a day. *chuckle*

I figured it was an excuse but gave her the choice of going upstairs to lay down and rest or she could do her school work.  She decided to go upstairs and lay down.  I checked on her while she was up there and she was just hanging out in bed but she knew I cared about her feelings. 

I continued the lessons with the other kids.  When they finished (interest lost in this activity) it was time for me to prepare lunch so they were excused to the playroom. 

Athena came down stairs very quickly to join in the playroom time.  

Of course there are 'consequences' to every decision. 

 I told her she had to finish her school work before she could play.  When she asked why I explained that she chose to go upstairs which was okay but does not mean she didn't have to do her work when she was feeling better.  She accepted this with out any argument (knowing if she were 'sick' again she could not go run around) and immediately started on the D book with a great attitude. 

When I say 'finish' the work it does not always mean fully complete.  In this case the mini letter D books are a project that usually take a couple days.  

Finish can mean when they loose interest in the activity but still do part of the project.  

When Athena decided to go upstairs she had traced 1 letter D.  To finish she needed to at least trace the other 3 D's on the paper and color the 5 mini pictures on the bottom.  

After lunch and play time we watched the letter D songs to continue to release energy. 
Then it was circle time. 



The art project today was a Letter D dinosaur or dragon.  



I found this idea on notimeforflashcards and loved it! 
Athena made the rainbow dragon on the right and Liam made the dinosaur in the middle.  
We displayed them on the wall :)

The last thing we did was play educational computer games.  I like to give the kids a chance to use the computers and they never complain about it. 


Circle Time
We read My 'd' Sound Box first then the kids helped me read Gus the Duck.  I had copies to give to all the kids of this one for night practice. 

I had pictures displayed of different creatures that started with the letter D on the magnetic board and after the display put them in the coloring folder so the kids could color them if they ever needed something to do. 

Next I pulled out 
My 'd' Sound Bag

Inside was
  • stuffed dog
  • dragon figure
  • big dinosaur
  • bag of dice
  • finger puppet dragon
  • mini dog
  • finger puppet dinosaur
  • drum
I did not think this activity would go over as well as it did.  They shared all of the items together and all took turns checking them out.  

We sang two dinosaur songs on the magnetic board. 


The last activity for circle time was a game.  I did not warn the kids that a game was coming and quizzed them on the order I took things out of my 'd' sound bag.  Both kids remembered most things except the last couple.  I take this as they were not paying as much attention because they were distracted with the other items.  I was impressed with the memory skills! 


They both received a prize! 
I found a pack of three 3-d dinosaurs in the dollar section at Walmart, super cool! 






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