Showing posts with label Calendar Time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Calendar Time. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Memory Game and Calendar Time

(31 Months)

An unexpected teachable moment for mommy.

I wanted to find out which pieces from our Thomas the Train Memory Game we were missing, so I emptied the box onto the playroom floor and began flipping all the play pieces over.  Wild One asked what I was doing, and I explained that I was going to find the match of each piece.  He then started scanning approximately 40 pieces and began finding matches!  No way, it had to be a fluke.  Another match, then another and another.  The boy found all 20-something pairs (and that's with Little Miss taking some of the pieces and hiding them in her pencil pouch).  I would never have laid out that many pieces, I would have tried four sets, then worked up to ten.  I would never have tried that many.  I loved watching him make those matches, he was so proud- so was I.

Another proud moment was during Calendar Time this morning.  Little Miss and Wild One surprised me and sang (almost perfectly) the Days of the Week song.  It's incredible how easily they can remember something if it's set to music.  I guess that's why Schoolhouse Rock has stood the test of time.

This morning they took turns playing "teacher" and asking one another questions based upon our Calendar Time board.  It was so cute to watch, although they kept giving each other the answers.  "Can you find the trapezoid? (extremely short pause) It's right here.  Do you see it?"  I love watching them.

Monday, September 10, 2012

"I love school" Thank You Calendar Time

(31 Months)

My cheeks hurt from grinning like the Cheshire Cat.  We had our first Calendar Time this morning and the kidabunks loved it.  They even sat on their mats, listened to directions and followed instructions.  I'm telling you this school board is magical - WILD ONE sat still (well, for a little while).

We began by inviting them over to sit on their mats with a special friend.  Little Miss chose one of her tiny teddy bears and Wild One choose his blue nosed puppy.  So far, so good.  Next, I introduced them to the school board and let them just look it over.  We began at the top, I told them today's date.  Then we clapped to ten.

We sang the Days of the Week song.  I tried to explain the concepts of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.   They took turns placing each of the place holders in their respective days.  We looked out the window and saw that it was sunny and beautiful, then we looked at each of the symbols and put on the correct sunny card on Monday.  We talked about Summer and how the weather is really warm, and all of the fun things that we do in summer.

Next we looked at what we'll be working on this week.  We sang the Leap Frog song, "the E says eh, the E says eh.  Every letter makes a sound, the E says eh."  I pointed to the word pink and then asked the kiddos that on the count of three to try and find two things that are pink.  Little Miss quickly ran and grabbed a big and small Abby Cadaby and Wild One found a big and small pig.  

Then we discussed the rectangle and we went around the room grabbing objects that are rectangular (books, lids, sheets of paper, a shoe box, picture frames, the cookie trays...).  We practiced saying "at" and I said we'll come back to that one later.  

We sang the Months of the Year song, while pointing out each month on the board.  Wild One decided that he wanted to point out the names of the months while we were singing.

We read the poster All About Number 2, and then we went off finding pairs of objects.  We made a huge mess, my fault- I should have said just find one pair of objects.  I was brought animals, trains, pillows, coffee/tea cups, books...  I'll try and remember tomorrow to just let them show and tell two sets each.

We played point to the shape on the Shape poster.  We didn't spend much time on it, I noticed that I started losing their attention.

Then we moved onto the _at blocks.  I was so surprised at how quickly Wild One picked it up.  He loved playing school and kept wanting to say the word over and over again.  I'm so proud of my little man.  Little Miss decided it was time for her baby to eat breakfast, so she began cooking for her in their kitchen.  I noticed that she was watching her brother while cooking.
These were so easy to put together.  I didn't write on the blocks themselves.  I placed tape on the blocks and then wrote on the tape (that way we can use the blocks for other word families).

After we finished with the blocks, Little Miss came over and wanted to play.  I asked Wild One to show his sister what he was working on.  He lit up and said "I do school!"  He told his sister that a-t is at.  Look at my little teacher!  I'm so proud.

We played again with our Pinkalicious play-doh.  We made sandwiches, pancakes, faces, poked holes with pretend carrots, made textured patterns with pretend corn, and then it was time for lunch.  What a fun morning!

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Calendar Time

(31 Months)


I've been wanting to making this board for several weeks now.  Calendar time offers so much learning in one confined space.  For the past few weeks, after the kidabunks were asleep in bed for the night I searched blog after blog, Pinterest board after board, looking for ideas.  The process seemed to be too time-consuming to tackle during a once-a-day, hour long nap.  Then, one wonderful day last week they took a two-hour nap (two glorious uninterrupted hours).  It was the jump start I needed to get this project underway.  Once I started, it actually came together pretty quickly (although not as fast as homemade play-doh).  

I had certain goals that I wanted to accomplish in using this board, which determined the material that I placed on the board.  My goals over the next year+ are to practice learning:
  • the days of the week (in order)
  • the months of the year (in order)
  • the concept of yesterday, today and tomorrow
  • what the weather is outside (cloudy, sunny, rainy)
  • the names of the seasons and our current season
  • learning about each number 
  • learning numbers in sequence, through a real-world number line
  • begin learning about word families
  • understand that there are several ways to draw a basic shape
  • practice in forming letters (out of shaving cream, play doh, blocks, sticks, pom poms) 
  • -this one is for me, I wanted a board that requires little time to update, and that will grow with the kidabunks for the next two plus years.

The board is finally finished!  The ideas and inspiration came from my Pinterest board and Today's Weather is a free printable from Homeschool Creations (thank you, to all of you incredible mommies out there for posting your terrific ideas).  We're going to start using the board tomorrow and I have a lot of fun activities planned for us that I'm so excited to share with the kidabunks.




We sing the Days of the Week song to the tune of "Oh My Darlin'"-
There are seven days,
there are seven days, 
there are seven days in a week.
There are seven days,
there are seven days,
there are seven days in a week.
Sunday, Monday
Tuesday, Wednesday
Thursday, Friday
Saturday.

Sunday, Monday
Tuesday, Wednesday
Thursday, Friday
Saturday.

We sing the Months of the Year song to the tune of "Ten Little Indians" - 
January, February, March and April
May, June, July and August
September, October, November, December
Those are the months of the year
(repeat two or three more times)

I'm so excited for tomorrow!