A “big kid” preschool we have been working on learning how to use our words to share our thoughts and feelings, or to ask for help. We have also been focusing on understanding expectations for/ learning how to follow instructions and making transitions from one activity to the next smooth. Day by day we are figuring it out as a team: mom, teachers, Z, and his classmates.
At preschool Z learned about groundhog day. Mom later showed him the video of Mr. Phil being afraid of his shadow: and therefore proclaiming more winter. Z practiced writing the first letter of his name on valentine cards for his preschool class. He was very excited to open his self-decorated bag of valentine cards, toys, and treats from his classmates.
Z has been practicing/emphasizing separate sounds of letters in words he sees, says, and hears. He is connecting letter shapes to their sounds not only at the beginning of words but in the middle as well.
At home we spent the first two weeks of the month focusing on valentine’s day. We did a sensory bin with colorful rice, conversation hearts, and colored pom poms.
We also made many pretend cakes, cookies, and treats with pastel play dough and the heart cookie cutters.
For our craft project we made valentine cards for our family. We traced heart cookie cutters then used dot markers to color. Mom’s plan was to glue the hearts to paper for cards. Z wanted to make the hearts a surprise with a pocket inside the card. Mom was happy to see Z get put his own twist on the project design.
We did a lot of activities with the conversation hearts: counting mats, patterns, estimate games. Z loved learning how to play Bingo -especially getting to eat a conversation heart when you win. We watched convo hearts dissolve in hand sanitizer-pushing them around the heart shapes drawn on the bag.
With Dad we did an experiment putting convo hearts in vinegar, water, milk, and some other substances I don’t remember now.
Z also helped me make valentines treats for his teachers: adding the candy heart sprinkles onto chocolate dipped Oreos.
In these first two weeks we also read books about our emotions and how we can express or share our feelings. We did a short lesson on the five love languages talking about ways Z prefers to be loved. He determined quality time and physical affection were his top two. We also talked about the ways he/others in his family can/do show love to each other using the five love languages.
After valentines we shifted focus toward anatomy of the heart and the circulatory system. For our sensory bin we used red water beads to look like red blood cells and white ping pong balls for white blood cells.
We also played with red and blue playdough with our heart molds. We watched videos explaining how blood moves through the heart and the heart’s job does of moving oxygenated blood through the body.
Z found this all fascinating and was very observant; coloring all pictures of the heart with blue on the left side and red on the right to show the difference between blood with/without oxygen.
For an anatomy related snack, we made strawberry jello with strawberries and marshmallows in it.
We enjoyed our one weekend of snow this past month. In the past Z hasn’t been a fan, this year he loved it! Making snow angels, throwing snow balls, clearing snow off of his toys and play gym and running around in it all until he was soaking wet.
Mid-February we stared our Lent study (aka Easter countdown). Z enjoys taking down a colorful paper ring each week and hearing a truth and story. This year I shared my lent study with a few other families and friends. I am hoping to get some good feedback and if all goes well share more about this next year. If you are curious and want to more send me an email.
A.Greene's Adventures 