Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

These movement cards were a great addition to our construction week.   They were very helpful for in-between lessons or for short breaks to get out spurts of energy.  This year I have 3 boys in preschool so energy levels are high.  And not just can't sit still energy but intense sometimes rough energy.  Giving the boys an activity to a theme they enjoy helped tame the wildness.  I found the cards on a great blog called Royal Baloo The first day we went over the cards together.  Push like a bulldozer The boys came up with some great interpretations for the movements.  Stretch like a crane I did set the cards out for Little Dragon to pick out himself and perform.  His favorite was 'tip like a dump truck' because he pretended to bury me in dirt before he picked 'dig like a backhoe' to get me out.   We have used these cards everyday this week and they are going to be a great addition to our busy bag collecti...

I don't set out busy bags for anytime use.  I usually use them as 'stations' or for an activity to fill in time when the kids are feeling bored.  I prefer it this way because the bags are not overused and The Dragons can still be entertained by them enough for the time I need to get something done. Many busy bags are also great supplements for our preschool themes and we often make busy bags during our weekly curriculum. Number Octopus This is another one we have used a couple times.  I really like this one for number practice. The point is to match the number of dots at the bottom of the tentacle to the actual number at the top of the tentacle. The numbers are not in order so this is good for counting and number recognition. 

I don't set out busy bags for anytime use.  I usually use them as 'stations' or for an activity to fill in time when the kids are feeling bored.  I prefer it this way because the bags are not overused and The Dragons can still be entertained by them enough for the time I need to get something done. Many busy bags are also great supplements for our preschool themes and we often make busy bags during our weekly curriculum. Uppercase/ Lowercase matching  We have used this busy bag a few times.  The paper pieces are lowercase 'ice cream scoops' and you match them to the uppercase 'ice cream cones'.  I didn't make paper cone's, sometimes when I use this busy bag I draw the cones on the white board for matching. This time I used the uppercase letter magnets to match to the ice cream scoops.   I gave each Dragon a tray of 'ice cream' and they matched the correct magnet.  When all of the magnets were matched they put them on the white ...

This busy bag went great with both our space theme and our adventure theme.  We took many adventures through space together while reading some fun books and this was another way for The Dragons to visualize what is in space. Before I brought out the busy bag we read a book called About Space .  It was a nice read for children, not boring, and full of info about our galaxy and solar system. This busy bag helped further the understanding of some new words we learned this week.  Such as meteor, asteroid, comet, planets, space station, and satellite. This busy bag includes:  various pictures of planets asteroids stars space shuttles space stations satellites telescopes and more!   The main part of the busy bag is a sheet of paper that has two columns; Planets and Not Planets.   The Dragons sorted all of the pictures into one of the two categories.  I left The Dragons to this activity while prepping a snack. ...

Bible To help understand The Prodigal Son  The Dragons and I acted out the story.  We did this a couple times switching roles.  Little Dragon enjoyed the role play because he got to wear his spider man robe and be 'dad'. We used stuffed animals and play food as props. (I was busy playing too so there are no pictures) The felt board was another way The Dragons re told the story. Alphabet Inside this weeks folder were small pictures of letter p animals and items.  The Dragons painted these then added them to their letter 'p' for the alphabet wall. Using pink and purple markers (both start with p and purple is our week color) The Dragons practiced writing the letter p in their alphabet journal. The Dragons finished their week folder. Pigs Pigs as the main theme we had a lot of fun with them.  Me being a pig lover we have many stuffed pigs in the house and they came in handy this week. Little Dragons favori...

Focusing on opposites was a ton of fun!  I wish we had more time to go over this.  Not because it was the kids weren't catching on but because there are endless opposite activities.   The one thing we did not get to do due to scheduling is have an opposite day.  That would have been awesome. Bible Story is Mary and Martha.  Mary and Martha are different and they react differently when Jesus enters their home.  Even in the pictures you can see they Mary sitting and Martha standing.  They are opposite, which is our main theme this week. Bible Verse: " Be still and know that I am God." -Psalm 46:10 After our first reading of Mary and Martha we took  the morning to be still like Mary before being busy like Martha. We discussed: What the differences or opposites are between Mary and Martha. Why Mary made the right choice.  Why Martha was mad. I wanted to make sure The Dragons understood that it is okay and good to serve others, but we...

Bible          "I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never go hungry" -John 6:35 This verse is what we are focusing on this week and were we get the letter H. Of course God's timing is perfect and this is the same topic our pastor went over in church on Sunday.  It was a lesson for me as well as my for my children. The story of Jesus feeding 5,000 was the story we learned together. Little Dragon helped me make banana bread for our feeding the animals.  We made 5 loafs. The next morning I set out a couple blankets and had Little Dragon collect as many of his animals as he wanted.  He set them out nicely on the blankets while I prepared the basket. I put in our 5 loafs of bread and 2 big felt fish.  As I read the story Little Dragon acted it out.  He prayed over the bread.  As he did this I dumped a bag of Swedish fish in the basket, increasing the amount of food.  You could also cut up the bread to make mo...

This post is full of name activities which were a lot of fun!  Bible The second half of the week we spent more time discussing the bible story.  I didn't think the kids would get much more out of the short story in our bible.  We played out Jesus calling his disciples together.  The kids and I all took turns calling names and following the leader.  First we called each other by name (or pretend names) then called out any of the disciples names remembered.  This was a fun activity to remember the disciples and talk about how we follow Jesus. While we played follow the leader I asked the kids how they can follow Jesus. I also asked them if they would get up and follow Jesus like the disciples did.  With no questions, if, and's, or buts. We played a 'what disciple name can you remember' game.   I asked what they remembered, they yelled out names and when they got one right they got an m&m.  Simple rules.  I like that. ...