Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts

Monday, June 23, 2014

Things I Learned From End-of-Year School Papers…

You know all those papers that come home out of your kid’s desk at the end of the year?  I have been learning a lot from those since school got out a couple weeks ago.  We are going to have to do something about all the events in my daughter’s lift that I have been missing out on…

1.  "One thing that makes me very special is my super great grandma was Sacajawea."

2. Her dad is a Loch Ness monster. I, of course, am a fairy queen. She is a mermaid, so it is fitting that we have fish instead of a cat. I think you're supposed to ignore the teeth.

3. Past dreams of being a ballerina teacher and astronaut baker have been set aside. She's got laser focus on becoming a mermaid when she grows up.

4. She watches TV all day, every day. Except when she is in school, of course.

5. She is partially honest.  She draws the gutter guards on the lane for her well-executed strike.

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6. She had a front-row seat to Barbie: Pearl Princess.  Apparently I took her over spring break.

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7. She takes karate lessons, belongs to a Diva Girls team, and plays guitar.  (Her favorite restaurant is Taco Bell, and TV Show is Last Man Standing – but this I did know.)  Her most valued attribute in a friend is the “ability to keep secrets” – which is probably why I don’t know much about her? :)

8.  She has a pet baby rattlesnake named Willy.

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9.  If she could change one thing about school, it would be that there were 10 recesses (1r=1h).

10. This is how she measures up:

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11.  She has never kissed a frog.

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13. “The worst thing about me is I’m not as others.”

14. One question for her teacher:  “How long is it ‘til recess?”

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15.  Five words that describe her:  Diva, Fast, Smart, Late, Everything

16.  Last summer, “I learned how to swim.  Even though I don’t really like swimming, I still do it.”  Pretty crucial skill for a mermaid, no?

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17. “Sabbath” is not a word on her spelling list…

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18. If she didn’t sleep in a bed…

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Is it any wonder this is her end-of-year award?

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Big Green Monster

Go Away, Big Green Monster!And the award for the first “I Can Read This!” book goes to Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley…

Little Miss was cozying up in a Playhut tent on our bed with a stack of books when she came running out to the living room.  “I can read this book!  I can read this book!”*  It’s a good learning-to-read book – a fun topic with visual prompts, repetition, and not too many words.

So we decided to do a few activities in celebration. 

First was the playdough Green Monster…  I made a big batch of green playdough that I just can’t get unsticky (new recipe), but it worked for this – and then she used some of her leftover “store” playdough for the colored features.
Green Monster

This was followed by a quick sketch on the easel…
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…and then I went hunting for printables online, of which there are stacks.  A mask, cut out by Miss Esmé herself:
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A do-a-dot piece of art:
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A bit of tracing work:
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And a build-a-monster project (some parts cut by Esmé) combined with a sequencing mini-book
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Ahhh… A fun and scary side trip…  Now back to ladybugs…

* I’m so reminded of the “can she walk yet?” phase in this learning to read phase.  When is the exact moment a baby learns to walk?  When she can take steps upon prompting?  When she chooses to take steps on her own?  When walking becomes the default method of locomotion?  When she’s comfortable and steady with it?  It is such a gradual process that one day you realize it’s happened, but you never really captured “that moment.”  Esmé has been stuck in that “few steps when prompted” stage forever, so it’s exciting to move on to self-motivated “reading” – whether you’d classify her as a reader or not…

Best toys for toddlersTot SchoolstARTabc buttonShibley Smiles

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Homeschool Resources

Esmé's Mommy here...

It's 5:40 a.m., and I just discovered Head of the Class! I've been looking for an online curriculum to try out with Esmé - and this is FREE and absolutely perfect so far!

I've signed up for the Preschooler level to start with. There's a 149-page ebook with a list of "objectives" and the teaching process for each. There are lots of printables and online activities incorporated into it.

Most of it is stuff she can already do, but it's FUN, and I like the idea of running through the list of objectives and covering all the bases before moving on to the next level. It's not just stuff like knowing the alphabet, but also things like neatly feeding herself, stirring a bowl without spilling, building a structure (with Lincoln Logs, etc.), and balancing on one leg.

Esmé is showing signs of kindergarten readiness in some areas of reading, writing, and math, so I'm thrilled with this holistic approach to measuring progress on all levels. This won't be replacing our Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum - nothing can replace BOOKS! But it's an exciting addition, and it's FREE!

Here's another resource - still in test phase - that we're trying out: readingk-3. We're starting to work through the /t/ sound, which is perfect because T is one of our letters this month with IBB. Esmé is starting to understand putting letters together to make words - we're not pushing her, but I do want to help her out, and I love the synthetic phonics approach. Just hoping this gets out of test mode before we're ready to move on to the next letter!

We've also started checking out phonics videos from the library. We only watch them at Esmé's request - which is quite frequent! Her favorites right now are Between the Lions videos.

Not to neglect the spiritual side of things, I've been considering incorporating hymns into our curriculum, too. I love this Hymns for Kids site with sheet music and accompaniment tracks! I haven't bought the book yet (Hymns for a Kid's Heart), but it's on my wish list.

Do I have to do a disclaimer if this post is purely from excitement of discovering something new? No one has contacted me to do reviews, and I'm not getting anything more out of this than you can... :)

Monday, January 18, 2010

Winter School

Tot School
I've started doing the Itty Bitty Bookworm Curriculum this month, which is lots of fun! The first week was centered on the book Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London, which is all about a little froggy who gets dressed to go play outside in the snow. Except he keeps forgetting to put something on... Getting dressed is complicated!

Anyway, here's some of the stuff we did, along with some carryover Christmas stuff.

Mommy's note on the curriculum: I was a little concerned with how we'd fit everything in since I'm working three days a week, but it worked out great, as long as I had everything prepared! It takes 2 hours or less to get through the "daily" fun stuff with just one kid, so we can do that every day. Then when we're home all day, we have time for the kitchen and science and play center stuff.

Let's start with my bulletin board. Since I can't use my schoolhouse yet, we set up a bulletin board in my bedroom! Every night I get to cross off the day on my calendar, and we go over the number, letter, color, and shape of the week, plus a poem and a Bible verse. The number, letter, color, and shape are way too easy. I've memorized my Bible verse and poem, too!
I also work on my easel. Here I am writing the letter of the week: "O". I even did it in blue, the color of the month! I am learning to spell "blue."
Since the book was about getting dressed for winter, Mommy filled a basket with winter stuff - scarves, hats, mittens, etc. Here is Froggy decked out with the stuff...
...and I also spent a lot of time dressing MYSELF for winter!
I dressed up a paper Froggy with scraps of material and LOTS of glue.
Then we hung up some mittens with clothespins for clothespin practice. Except I am ANTI-clothespin. I don't like working with them! So Mommy had to do it. (Except she's anti-clothespin herself - she far prefers clothes dryers!)
I practiced my cutting by making a fringe on a "scarf." (Mommy's note: so much of our stuff is in boxes in the shop, and I couldn't make myself buy fleece when we already have it in a box, so we ended up using a broad ribbon).
I dressed up a penguin with stickers (we got this from Oriental Trading, but I don't see it in their catalog anymore).
And I dressed up a snowman that we found at Activity Village.
I put together some word puzzles (Mommy just noticed that she took a picture of me making the FROG puzzle). We got these from Ross for $5, plus a sequencing one, a letter one, and a math one.
I did some worksheets. I am getting to be an expert on these, so Mommy's gonna have to find me some harder ones to keep my attention. I also did some minibooks (not pictured).
And I learned a new way to do worksheets - instead of circling something, I placed a flat glass marble on it. On these I was supposed to find all the snowmen with a certain shape. I did perfectly on ALL the shapes. I also had to do the same type of thing with letters, and once again, I did perfectly!
We added some SNOW to my train set for a wintry wonderland... Except Flamey the cat kept wanting to sleep in my train set.
I painted with an ice popsicle and dry tempera paint! (Mommy's note - let the popsicle melt a little before using it - straight from the freezer, it's too dry to be very exciting for a toddler.)
And I did a snow painting using white paint, Qtips, and cotton balls. Mommy told me to use the cotton balls to put snow on the ground, and then use the Qtips to make snowflakes, and I did exactly that!
Speaking of cotton balls, that was what was in my "sensory" bowl this week.
Speaking of snow, here's this really cute snowman I destroyed from a blog Mommy discovered recently and loves: Toy-A-Day. (Mommy's notes - when doing paper crafts like this, use a ruler with a sharp knife to cut the slits, and then use a ruler with the back of a tableknife to score the folds. It makes everything come together neatly.)

I also (impromptu) decided to make a snowman from sugar cookie dough. It didn't bake very well.
I learned a new word: "cryogenics." We experimented with freezing dish soap, water, honey, and pudding. The honey was the neatest - it was still runny after being frozen, and it was yummy, too!
We made latkes to go with our Hanukkah books one night. Boy, are they messy!
Mommy showed me how to write my name in chocolate pudding. Here I am writing the "S." All in the name of education - to go with the "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" song.
And here is the glittery heart I made to put under the tree as my Christmas gift to Jesus.