E week: plans

If there's anyone out there who's actually reading this blog for ideas, I'm not going to be very helpful for the next three weeks. We're headed to San Diego on Monday (E week) and we'll be doing preschool (sort of) while we're there. Then the next two weeks we'll be in Utah, so we'll be reviewing ABCDandE (sort of) while we're there. But here are some ideas for E week:

• Make eggs for breakfast (experiment with different kinds of eggs.)
  
• Eric Carle author unit (This is always so much fun since his books are great. I love to do collages in his style.)
• Look at the car engine and read books about how it works.
• Learn more about fire engines (or go to a fire station to see one close-up!)
• Write a letter to everyone you love. Or have a party with every friend.
• Help your preschooler learn how to empty the garbages.
  

We'll be having eggs for breakfast one day, looking at the car engine (hopefully the uncles can help Connor out with that one), and getting a picture with everyone in our family! Connor also just got an etch-a-sketch, so we'll have fun drawing pictures on that. We'll also try to get on the computer when we can to check out starfall.com and the weather.

And we have our word cards and poem that we'll review everyday:
word cards: everyone, engine, empty, elephant, egg

poem:

Eletelephony

by: Laura E. Richards

Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant-–
No! no! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone–
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I’ve got it right.)

Howe’er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee–
(I fear I’d better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)

Be sure to stick with words that start with the short E sound (/e/) like in the word elephant. Not words that start with the long E like in the word eat. This week is about really knowing the short sound of the letter E. The students I tutor who are in first and second grade still have trouble remembering the short E sound. I like the clue for this sound from the Letter Factory. It's an "old man" in a rocking chair saying "eh?" like he can't hear the question. It works!

D week: Friday

{Daddy}

Today we read Dig Dig Digging, a book we've checked out from the library before. Connor was excited to see it again. And was disappointed to see that it had been ripped pretty badly by another library patron.

Then I did a little assessment. I had Connor draw (starts with D) Daddy. Actually I told him he could draw whoever he wanted, but it had to be a person. He chose Daddy. Sticking with the D theme, of course. I want to do this every couple of months just because I'm interested in how his view of and ability to represent people will develop. (Last week for C week he drew a picture of me under the clouds we made with cotton balls. Yesterday he looked at that picture hanging on the fridge and said, "Mommy, I forgot to draw your feet. I have to draw your feet on there!" But then he didn't draw feet today.)

We went to Costco this afternoon to get the pictures we had printed of Connor's birthday party so we can send them out in our thank-you cards. While we were there we somehow started saying the D poem that we've been reading each day this week. I thought it was a harder one that Connor wouldn't be able to memorize, but would enjoy. But he can say almost the whole thing! It's catchy and cute and once you say it a few times it does stick. It'll be fun to share our poetry with our family on our trip!

D week: Thursday

Just a regular preschool day. Computer time. Chart time. Word cards and Poem. Connor's really catching on to this week's poem now. But it's trickier to memorize than the last three. We read a book called Dog's Day about a dog who spends his day playing with other animals, doing what they do, for example, changing color with chameleon and flying with bird. And it ends with him saying that his favorite thing to do is play with his daddy. Cute book. I loved the illustrations. We were suppose to do play-doh today for our activity, but it was a busy day getting ready for the birthday party tomorrow and the kitchen was a mess from cake baking.

D week: Wednesday

Today we read two books. One by Syd Hoff–Duncan the Dancing Duck (we read his Danny and the Dinosaur yesterday). And one Little Golden Book about David and Goliath. Connor knows the story, and this book was written for older children, so I was just going to skim through, show him the pictures, and tell him the story. But we got into it and ended up reading the whole thing. Kids can really understand and appreciate more than we give them credit for. Connor really enjoyed it more than I thought he would. We talked about how Heavenly Father helps us when we need help and when we ask him in prayer. And when we do what we can to prepare for our challenges.

D week: Tuesday

Well, I said I wouldn't skip another day of preschool for a while, but we ended up skipping Monday. We went apple picking (again) with our friends Jaime, Kylie, Kaitlyn, Porter, and Halley. It was a beautiful day and so fun to go pick apples and be outside. We even stopped at the Red Rooster to play (and eat our McDonalds salads and happy meals). We left the house at 8:30 a.m. and got home at 6:30 p.m. (because we played and went to Target before coming home) then hustled to get the house ready for my Stake Relief Society Presidency Meeting that was at 8:30 p.m. A crazy, fun-filled day!

Today we had fun getting back into preschool. We had to make a new calendar for October. And Connor couldn't wait to hear what the D poem is; he wanted me to say it again for him. We did math with dinosaurs and ducks. He's pretty good at counting now and was really excited when I said the word equals because "that's from Math Circus!" We did 2+2=4 and 3+3=6 and 4+4=8. He thought it was great representing the math problems with his dinosaur toys (which have been in the basement for a while, making them fun "new" toys).

Connor also got to play with his friend Caroline today. They have fun together and play really well together. Connor especially loves jumping on Caroline's trampoline. And I got the kitchen and bathroom really clean while he was gone and Abby was sleeping!

Mr. C seems to think he's too old for naps (and bed, actually) now too. Help! It's rough. It'll be great that he's not taking naps on vacation. But it's a huge adjustment for me. I am so accustomed to my quiet, free time to study the scriptures and read blogs and organize and putter on the computer. I have to adjust and I have to teach Connor to have his own quiet time.

The good thing was that Connor fell asleep at 7:15 tonight. I can handle that!

D week: plans

I totally forgot to post my plans on Friday. It was quite the busy week. And this upcoming week is even busier. I'm slightly overwhelmed.

But here are the plans for D week:

word cards: daddy, dinosaur, dog, duck, dolphin

poem:

If I Could Be a Dinosaur

If I could be a dinosaur
I wouldn't talk, I'd only roar.
I'd stomp around and shake the ground,
If I were a dinosaur.
I'd stretch my long, long neck up high,
To see where pterodactyls fly.
I'd eat the leaves off tall, tall trees,
If I were a dinosaur.

Monday (science): desert. We'll talk about the desert, what it is, look at the map to see how it looks different where there's desert and mountains and plains. Utah is a desert and we'll be going there soon, so we'll discuss that.

Tuesday (math): Adding and subtracting with dinosaurs. We'll use Connor's toy dinosaurs to count and add and take-away.

Wednesday (scriptures/gospel): David & Goliath. We'll read a book about David & Goliath (Little Golden Books that I found at the library on their sale rack--50¢ each!) and review the story. Connor knows this story and likes it, so it should be fun. If he's into it, we may talk about Daniel and the lion's den too. Connor knows and loves that story.

Thursday (movement/activity): doh. We'll play with playdoh. We can make dinosaurs and dogs and ducks out of playdoh.

Friday (art project): draw Daddy. Sort of an assessment. I want to see how Connor is representing people in his drawing.

Other D words that might come up or spark ideas for activities: Dr. Seuss, drawing, decorating (cookies), dirt, dumptruck.

Note: Next week we will be going to San Diego and Utah. We will do E week (informally) while we're in San Diego and then the two weeks in Utah we'll focus on reviewing A, B, C, D, and E. So, October 30th we'll be starting F week.