Five Senses: Sense of Touch

Man, I really should have typed this up last week when it was still fresh on my mind.  Now we've had more than 3-feet of snow and an entire week of snow days to interfere with my memory.  Sadly, I didn't even take as many pictures as usual either to help me jog my memory.

Near as I can remember, we started off by discussing the five senses.  I would tell them the part of their body they used and they would guess what the sense was.  Of course, they were all pretty good at it, although it was pretty humorous to hear that they all thought that talking was the sense their mouth was used for.  :)

Then we read a couple of random books and noticed people using their five senses in the stories.  The kids really liked this activity and I think that pointing out how you use your senses in every day life is a great way to reinforce these concepts.  

After we talked a little about their senses, we started focusing in on their sense of touch.  

First we laughed at the counting box that looked really silly with seven socks hanging out of it.  After we counted the socks, each person picked a sock and reached their hand inside without looking to try to guess what was inside.   We went around the circle and had each person use descriptive terms to describe their items (ex. smooth, soft, round, etc) and then guess what they thought it was.    Most of  them had a pretty good idea.    

Next we went on a touching scavenger hunt (no pictures).  I made a list of some descriptive terms like bumpy, smooth, hard, soft, scratchy, hot, cold, rough, sticky, etc. and then we went around the house together searching for things that fit the description.  When we found something the kids would take turns crossing it off my list.  

Then we did an art project that focused on textures and touch.  I provided the kids with a variety of materials like sand paper, cotton balls, bumpy paper, and tissue paper and let the kids use their imaginations to create their own pictures.  

The kids really enjoyed the unstructured time with scissors and glue and went to town creating a tactile masterpiece.  

The kids were pretty meticulous with their work and spent a good half an hour on this project.  

Later on we worked on our pages for the Five Senses Book which you will get to see in a few weeks(no pictures either).  

It was a fun way to kick off learning about the five senses and I think the kids will really enjoy delving into the rest of the senses in more detail over the next few weeks.  I, for one, am really looking forward to our Krispy Kreme trip!  :)  

Fun with Shadows on Groundhog's Day!

Today at preschool we learned all about Groundhog's Day and shadows.  None of the kids seemed very familiar with the story of Groundhog's Day, so I started off at the beginning  by showing a picture of a real groundhog.

Most of them thought it was a beaver, but quickly grew excited as I told them all about groundhogs.  We learned about how they like to burrow under the ground and on Groundhog's Day pop their heads up to see if they can see their shadows.

Then we colored and cut out our own groundhog hats.  It was interesting to me to see how detail oriented all the boys were in their coloring while the girls were much quicker.  They were all a little intimidated by the cutting, but did a great job themselves. 

We also worked on our Groundhog Day books (while the boys finished their hats), to give them some handwriting practice.   

 
After everyone was finished, we put on our groundhog hats and went outside to see if we could see our shadows...

 

BUT it was way more fun to sled for a while first...

until our hands got cold and people got sad...

  

so we hurried up to check for our shadows before we got even colder.  It was a semi-cloudy day, so our shadows were light, but they were definitely there.  Six more weeks of winter!  The kids didn't seem to mind a bit about the extra winter as they skipped up and down the driveway watching their shadows skip with them. 

  

Rachel was particularly excited by the skipping up and down the driveway activity. 

  

Then we went inside and took turns crushing some Oreos into some fake dirt. 

  

Then we used our imaginations and placed our cookie groundhogs into our cupcake burrow with snowy frosting and Oreo dirt on top for the coolest preschool snack ever...or at least this week.  :)  

  

It was a stretch for their imaginations, but they were as thrilled as can be with the fun snack. 

  

After our freezing cold experience with barely noticeable shadows outside, we eagerly grabbed our flashlights and headed to the warm confines of our bathroom to have more fun with shadows.  We tried to make animal shapes and took note of the fact that an object has to be in front of the light in order to make a shadow. 

  

After that, we headed out to the living room for a quick game of "Beaver, beaver, groundhog", which happens to be exactly like, "Duck, duck, goose".   We had to institute a rule in the middle that each person had to pick someone of the opposite gender, so we didn't get stuck in too much of a rut.  They, of course, had a great time and burned off some more energy! 

  

Last thing before lunch we put our cutting skills to use once again and created these little groundhog burrows.  Now you see them....

Now you don't!

  

Then the kids spontaneously named their little groundhogs and started playing pretend with them.
 

It was quite cute to see how enamored they were with them...

  

and to see their imagination shining through.  Cute kids! 

During lunch time we did a little more reading practice and made sure we used our manners, since they seemed to have a hard time with that at Simone's house last week.  They did great!

It was another fun day at preschool! 

Air and Space Museum

Everyone had a good time in the "How Things Fly" exhibit. Air is a cool thing!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Hmm. What should I say about preschool on Thursday? Well, we read some fun books about babies. This one was super funny:

But it's told from the perspective of Sophie, who's not thrilled about every aspect of being a big sister. So, we talked about how you can't believe EVERYTHING you read (or hear).

When I read this page, Matthew (our newest big brother) said, "Why? Why don't you want to watch?" You're right, we Americans can be kind of stuffy sometimes, Matthew.

This page was the reason why Simone insisted I read it at preschool. Any book that mentions "underwear" is a winner!

And I just loved this book, especially because of the illustrations:

How many books about babies show babies looking like this? Like they really do when they're first born?

Simone said, "That baby looks mad!" And Maylie said that the baby looks like a monkey. Rachel promised her new babies didn't look like that when they were born. Those are some pretty cute, chunky little ones Adelia has; maybe Rachel knows what she's talking about!

And we listened to this book on CD:

Ellie also shared a book about McDuff getting used to a new baby in the family. It was fun to read about how a new baby is an adjustment for a pet as well.

We also ate baby food for a snack. The kids liked the cheerios, of course, but actually were not excited about eating the pureed fruit that Gerber makes. Perhaps they were hungry having skipped snack, and that could help explain their behavior.

We colored some emergent reader books about what babies and big boys/girls can do.

Matthew colored the face of the baby in his book red because he says that new babies have red faces.

We learned how to sign "baby" and some other family words.

And we compared dry and wet diapers. The Kirkland brand diapers hold just over 3 cups. The full ones are very squooshy and heavy, we noticed.


Now, there were some other things we talked about that I hadn't planned for:

1. We talked about how sometimes friends say unkind words (this happened quite a bit on Thursday). But then the next day they've forgotten all about being mad. So, we just have to forgive and forget.

2. We talked about patiently waiting. There was quite a bit of demanding around snack and lunchtime.

3. We also talked about how people need (and therefore get) different things. For example, you might not always like what your mommy or the host provide for lunch or snack, but you are not entitled to juice boxes, blueberries, bread, string cheese etc. Even if the person next to you (in our case, the baby) has them.

4. We talked about choices and consequences. Like, if you don't want to do the project or even join in the conversation while others are working, you may not just go play. even if you want to really, really badly.

5. And we talked about treating your friends' toys kindly.

It was actually quite a difficult day, and I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions you may have. This group of kids is just delightful, and it seriously seemed like some life form from another planet came and took over their bodies Wednesday night. Because they're never like this. And even on Thursday there were a few sweet moments. Like when Matthew leaned over and said to Simone, "Simone, I really love you." And then he turned to me and exclaimed, "Whew! That was hard to say. I was really nervous!" Or how Gavin started taking a lot of interest in Haven for the first time, probably because of our focus on babies. When she started crying at one point, he told me, "You should nurse that baby!" Being that she's 18 months old, she'd probably prefer an oreo McFlurry to breastmilk, but it was nice of him to look out for her!

Any suggestions? What works at your house?

Color Mixing

We had fun learning all about colors today.  First we learned about the primary colors and sang the primary color song to help us remember them.  Next we got out three glasses of milk and discovered that you can make lots of different colors with just red, yellow, and blue.  Despite the facial expressions exhibited below, the kids were fascinated.

Next we worked on creating our very own color wheels.   I printed out the template from here, and cut them out and mounted them onto heavy paper plates.   Then we divided into groups of two (or three) and  I gave them each a squirt of yellow, red, and blue.   I had prelabeled the correct places on the wheel, so they just needed to "read" the right color (with a lot of prompts about which letter it started with).

Next we picked one of the primary colors to start with and went around the color wheel, mixing colors as we went.  I would squirt the new color onto the plates and they would mix them using their Q-tips.  Although it took about a half an hour before we finished, it was a smooth process and their enthusiasm remained high the whole way through.

They were quite proud of their finished color wheels and were starting to get the different color combinations.

 

Next we went to work creating our own edible color wheels with sugar cookies and brightly colored frosting.  We basically did it the same way as with the color wheels, except simplified to only three color mixes.

 

Don't mind the off the shoulder look here, she really didn't want to take her paint shirt off.

We finished up with some good old-fashioned running and jumping.

My favorite quote of the day from Gavin (a youngest child):  "I like Q-tips, because they're really CUTE and I'm the cutest one in my family."    Ellie (the other youngest child) eagerly chimed in that she, too, was the cutest in her family.   For some reason, no one else seemed to have the same notion.

I Am a Child of God

While we missed Ellie, we had a good day at preschool, talking about who we are. We read from Old Testament Stories about our pre-earth life, but of course these kids already knew all that. They are super smart, and have been paying attention in primary the past couple weeks :)


We also talked about January's shape and number. We added dots on multiple number cubes to make six.


Spotlights. My goal was to have each child walk away from preschool having been reminded once again of how special he/she is. But after listening to their conversations, I realized that each one of these kids had a healthy self-esteem already. It was sure fun for me though, to learn of talents and stories about these kids. Like who would have guessed that Daniel is a cook? Or that Matthew is so protective of his younger brothers? That Maylie was born a month early, or that Simone likes to tell jokes? That Rachel is such a good little mother hen to her *babies*, or that Gavin is a snuggler?

Wouldn't you feel pretty special, sitting in our fanciest chair decorated with Christmas lights, being applauded by your preschool friends?!


We traced

and colored our bodies and talked about how we are created in Heavenly Father's image. Daniel worked really hard on his for about 45 minutes and wouldn't let me see it because it was a *surprise*.

And we looked for rectangles around the house. We found light switches, computer screens, paper, windows, drawers and so many other rectangular things. We colored rectangle pictures and brainstormed r-r-r words.

Here's a slide show the kids watched. Hopefully the truths from this song sunk deep into their minds and hearts.

Aren't these just the cutest kids ever?!