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

I know this is late but my current pregnant condition has made sitting at the computer more difficult.  But nevertheless I want to share what we did on St. Patrick's Day.  Take the gold is a game we created involving color recognition, numbers, addition, subtraction, and a little competition.  We started by identifying the colors and order of the rainbow.   We put some of each color in our grab pile.  To grab a color you had to roll the number corresponding with that color in the rainbow.  For example: red-1, orange-2, yellow-3, etc.  You could roll two dice if you could call out both the number and color correctly. Even me and Master Dragon forgot to call out both sometimes. After a few rounds of players being stuck, even rolling two dice, we decided if your dice total was the number you were seeking you could gain that color Lego for your rainbow. (Adding and subtracting) Once your rainbow is complete ...

As part of our pet unit we studied measurements.  I found a worksheet online and printed it out.  On the worksheet were different sized dogs. The first step was to measure our Lego to give us a reference of measurement.  The Lego was about 2 inches. We used Legos to measure how tall or long the puppies were.  Little Dragon liked this activity! We practiced numbers, counting, and comparing. 

Even though our days are pretty full and busy of fun hands on activities my children never stop moving!  I am not exaggerating either.  When I say Big Energy I am not joking.  After all the preschool we do The Dragons are still ready to run around and have a good time. Here are a couple activities we have done outside of our curriculum.  Played Lego's.   We play Lego's often.  When Barbies are out so are the Lego's.  When cars are out so are the Lego's. The Dragons play Lego's in the tub a lot too. Go on a quest.  This is an often occurrence.  We give The Dragons a quest like finding a special flower at a far away lake to heal their precious stuffed animals.   They ride their pet dragon to far away lands to complete their tasks.  Play with Play Dough   Play dough comes out a lot.  It is easy to get to and easy to play with.  The most common thing played wi...

The end of our b week was heavy on activities that did not include pencil and paper. Bible We read the story of Jesus walking on water again and touched on Jesus calming the storm.  I did not feel like the kids were grasping this concept completely.  To help I looked for a video for a visual retelling. There were many videos on this and we watched a couple. Together we also played out both stories.  I put on some awesome storm sounds in the background.  After the main story was told we ran into a couple sea monsters and made port in California.  I have no idea where 'California' came from. In the picture Doll Dragon is on the boat and Little Dragon is swimming in the sea. A fun way to experiment and talk about Jesus walking on water is Obleck!  Our obleck was blue to appear close to water.  Obleck sits as a liquid but if you apply pressure to it it becomes solid.  It is quiet neat.  Because of these properties we talked...

Sensory Play I had kitchen sensory bin written in my lesson plan but I could not remember what I had in mind when I wrote it.  I didn't write down any clues or tags to jog my memory.  The kids have a toy kitchen in the playroom but they tend to enjoy playing with real kitchen utensils more.   I put some spices in the bin along with some measuring cups filled with some leftover baking supplies,  walnuts and butterscotch chips.  I also added potatoes.  They don't make a mess and won't spoil or bruise easily.  Of course there were also pans, spoons, plates, and bowls.   Creative Play Together Little Dragon and I built a Lego Castle.  Little Dragon lay down his blanket for the moat.  He also built two Lego boats for the moat. He also built chairs for our Lego people to sit it.  We worked on number recognition with the number Legos.  Once the castle was finished we played pretend with the people.  D...

Focus on Jesus is perfect for the month of December.  I want to make sure we are talking about the miracle and love of Christ during the magic of Santa and Christmas. Our house is full of imagination and magic during the Christmas season. Even though we do pretend Santa is real and leaves presents for good boys and girls we take more time talking about the reason we celebrate Christmas-that is Christ. The whole month of December our we will be learning about the letter J, candy canes, and the birth of Jesus.  Of course we are going to take a couple weeks off for the holidays to just enjoy the magic. Heads up a was a bad picture taker this week.  I didn't take my camera out as often as I usually do. Bible To introduce the story of Jesus I used the YouVersion Bible app for kids.    We listened to The First Christmas Gift.   It was awesome!  My kids loved it and I loved it.  It was very interactive and colorful.  The story was also shor...