Temporary Hiatus

For those of you who actually read this blog on a daily basis... I apologize.  I got wrapped up in a lot of crazy junk going on in our household last week, and our "classroom time" has been put on hold.  I am going to have to make more lesson plans, and work on gathering some ideas before I can pick back up again.  However... that will happen, sooner or later!  Thanks for reading...

How Loud is a Lion?

I literally rolled out of bed and did classroom this morning!  We usually have to wait for mommy to get everything together, but I did that yesterday, so it was simple!  Today we talked about lions!  Abbie likes to roar, and I thought she would enjoy talking about lions, so I picked a book called "How Loud is a Lion?".  It was a really cute book, and she enjoyed it!



After circle time and story time, we did an activity that I thought Abbie would really like.  I had cut a paper plate in half, and cut out eyes and a nose.

I let Abbie color the plate yellow, and then I stapled strips of yellow and orange foam around the outside.  I added a piece of elastic, and we had a lion mask!

 

She wore it just long enough to snap a picture!  She was NOT a fan!

 She liked it MUCH better hanging on the wall!!

Oh well, she isnt going to like every activity I put together for her I guess!!  But, at least she got to roar like a lion during circle time!  Tomorrow we are learning about cows... she should like that discussion too!

Dd is for Ducks...

Our letter of the week is Dd, our number of the week is 4, and our theme this week is animals!  I ended up bumping another week of lesson plans back, and adding the animal week in!  When we came back from the library, I realized how many animal books I had, and decided to make a lesson plan for them!!  So... this morning, we discussed ducks!  We read a fun book called "Ducks Skates", but Abbie wasn't very excited about me reading it to her!  She read it to herself after I was done, and was much happier!  Our activity this morning was of course a duck theme!  I had pieces of ducks cut out ahead of time, and glued the pieces for Abbie.  I let her place the pieces and she did a GREAT job!  I was pretty impressed!  The plan was to do 4 ducks, but she spaced them out so much that 2 worked just fine! 

She was very focused on each piece, and I had a great time watching her build her ducks!

She of course, admired her work when she was done!!  I love it when she does this!!

 I think it turned out super cute!! 

A Fall Walk...

We decided that since Fall made it's first REAL appearance this morning, we would opt out of classroom and go for a nice walk!  It was a GORGEOUS, day, and the weather was perfect!

Stacy and Layla joined us for our walk, but unfortunately I didnt get a picture of the girls in the strollers together.  They both really seemed to enjoy it!  We walked for close to 45 minutes, and with all of the hills in my neighborhood, I could feel it when we were done!

I hope we get MANY more of these fabulous walks in before the weather gets too cold!  I know that I should be walking more anyways, otherwise labor is NOT going to be something I can do!  I need the exercise and Abbie needs some "out of the house" time, so I think it does us both a lot of good!  I love you, sweet Abbie!

3 Leaves...

Since our number of the week is 3, I really wanted to incorporate another activity to mesh that with our theme!  We have talked about leaves, but now I wanted Abbie to see leaves!  The plan was to take her outside and let her explore and find leaves, but the day sort of got away from me!  So, during Abbie's nap time I went out and found 3 different leaves that were all similar in shape, but very different!  They felt different and looked different!  I thought she would like touching them... but she wasn't really into classroom today!  In fact... she wasn't really into anything today!  She fussed most of the morning, and woke up from nap in a bad mood too.  It's ok... I have those days too!  But we went ahead with classroom, even with grumpy Abbie!

Circle time wasn't near as much as it usually is!  She didn't want to sing or dance or clap!  She wanted nothing more than to sit there and cry!  It was sort of odd, because she sat down in the pillow herself, and never got up, so I am not really sure what the upsetting part was!  Mommy didn't force her to do this, but she cried anyways!  We didn't read a story because after crying through circle time... Mommy couldn't take anymore!  So, we went straight to activity!

Well, she usually loves doing her activity, but since it didn't involve coloring... she wasn't very pleased with me!  We counted the leaves together, and I let her touch them and feel how different they are.  Then I put tape on the back and let her stick them down.  Although when I asked her to stick them down, she said "NO" in a very mean voice!  So I really did the majority of it myself!  As you can see... her lip was out most of the afternoon!!

I guess everyone has this kind of day at some point!  If not, then maybe Abbie hit her terrible 2 phase at 19 months!!!  I am hoping it is the first option!  I hung up her art... but she didn't seem proud of excited like usual either!  She was just off today, and hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Fall Leaves...

Part of our focus this week is an introduction to fall!  Fall is pretty much my favorite time of the year, and although "technically" we arent in fall yet, we have definitely begun to feel some fall weather!

After doing our songs at circle time, we read one of Abbie's new FAVORITE books!  I am not sure where her love for this book came from, but she asks for it by name!  Its called "How do you Wokka Wokka?"!!  She loves it and says "Wokka Wokka" and does the please sign!  She may like it because I tend to sing it to her, well more like rap it to her!!  So I rapped, and she danced and clapped, and when the book was over she read it again!  All of our library books were due back today, so I went and got new ones!  But, I renewed the Wokka Wokka book!  This may be one that we have to purchase!!

After circle time and story time were over... we headed to do our daily activity!  Since I wanted to talk about fall, I cut out leaves in red, orange, and yellow... and a tree trunk!  I had her glue the leaves on the tree.  I only placed the first leave!  The rest, she placed, and she did a great job!!

I, or course, was putting the glue on and handing her the leaves, but I let her pick the colors, 

before I put the glue on them!

She had so much fun with this activity!!

Admiring her work!  She was very proud!

And so was her mommy!  I think it turned out great!

Cc is for Crosses...

We are back home, and back to our lesson plans!  We missed Monday, but we may do Monday's activity on Friday!  We have a cooking activity to do, but Abbie really likes craft time!  So, Friday may be double fun!!
We will have to see how Friday goes first, and if we don't do Monday's activity... we will use it in another weeks plans!  (On which note... I really need to get to work on the next weeks plans!  I haven't started those yet... yikes!)

Today we started a new letter and number of the week!  This week the letter is Cc, and the number is 3.  To touch on both topics, we did a worksheet with 3 Crosses!  After circle time, we read the story about the crucifixion in Abbie's child friendly bible!  I had Abbie show me her hands and feet, and we talked about Jesus and how he had nails in his hands and feet.  I said ouch, and Abbie said ouch!  It was cute!  We talked about how much God loves us to send his son for us, and we sang Jesus Loves Me.  Abbie, of course, danced along!

We headed to the table to discuss the letter and number of the week, and do our worksheet.  We counted the crosses, and I gave her 3 different colored crayons to color her sheet with!  She had a blast coloring... no surprise there! 

I am so glad that Abbie enjoys our classroom time each day!  It makes all of the work, worth it!

Salute to Fire Fighters...

Since it was the last day of our 9/11 lesson plans, I thought we should definitely discuss the people that ran into the buildings that everyone else was running out of.  I wanted to discuss with Abbie how fire fighters are heroes, and we should be thankful that we have people such as them, to protect us!

We, as usual, started off the morning with circle time!  Abbie was very into it, and I just cant get enough of it!  I am sure everyone who reads this is thinking "you do circle time every day, why are you still talking about it???", but the answer is simple... LOOK AT THE PICTURE!  I laugh through the entire circle time, because she loves it so much!  I love to watch her dance and clap along to the 4 songs we sing!

I didnt really have an activity for Abbie to do today, as she is too young to trace and cut out patterns!  So, I put together a firefighter hat for Abbie from an online pattern and craft foam!  She liked holding it, and like throwing it like a frisbee, but putting it on her head... she didnt like so much!!!

 She cried until I took it off!  The hat is really too big, so I am not sure why she disliked it so much, but she was far from happy wearing it!

We said the pledge of allegiance again, and I caught a picture of Abbie putting her hand on her heart!

She is pointing to all of her artwork hanging on her art display!

This week's projects!

We are a HUGE fan of Crayola Color Wonder products... HUGE fan!!  

Since I didnt have an activity for her to do, I let her free color, which she would do all day, if I let her!

 All in all, I think our 9/11 Week was a success!  I know next year I will be able to really explain it more, and teach her a little bit about why the day is so important!  I am glad we paid tribute to it though, and we will continue to do so through Sunday... the 10 year anniversary of 9/11.  Its hard to believe it has been 10 years since that tragic day.  I was 16, and I had a hard time understanding why anyone would want to hurt that many innocent people.  I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it.  But, in honor of our lesson today... I am truly thankful for the men and women who risk their lives everyday to save someone like me!

I Pledge Allegiance...

Today we learned about the American Flag!  I thought again this would tie to the theme of 9/11, and it would allow us to touch on something very important, the pledge!  We did our usual circle time, and Abbie of course had a blast!  I think the idea of school is one she is really warming up too!  She danced and clapped, and I sang all of our songs!
She is starting to mouth along with me too!  Of course the version that she sings is far from my version, but it is more than precious, and I love to see her involved!









 When circle time was over, I said "Would you like to color?", her eyes lit up, and she ran for the table!  I got her all set and ready, and she was laughing with excitement!  I gave her a red and blue marker, although, crayons may be a better option for a few days (as markers write on other surfaces very easily & Abbie likes that)!!  So, this will be the last marker activity for a little while!

 ANYWAYS... I colored a flag as well, so we would have one to recite the pledge to!  

After we were done coloring... I taped my flag to the wall, and asked Abbie to put her hand on her heart... (I apologize for the BLURRY picture my husband took... I will try again later!!!) and this is what she did!

Remembering 9/11...

So, at the last minute, I decided we would not do the planned lessons this week, and instead we are choosing to use this short (3) day week to learn about September 11th.  Now, the concept of what happened on 9/11 is more than LOST on a 19 month old, but I figured we would go over the "pieces" of the puzzle, and one day I will teach her all about it! 


In our "circle time" this morning, which as you can tell by the pictures, Abbie LOVES, we sang our usual songs!  But we also sang the Star Spangled Banner.  I know it isnt the 4th of July, but I thought it would be patriotic for Remembering 9/11!  Abbie danced and laughed all through Circle Time, and then stared at me like I was a crazy person, when I was singing a song she didnt know!


Today, since it is also Labor Day, we talked about pilots and airplanes.  I felt that this lesson tied together the 2 completely different concepts in a simple way!  I printed a worksheet that had a pilot and plane on it, and we talked about airplanes, and I let her color the picture with red and blue markers.  I thought the airplane tied to 9/11 in a very obvious way, the pilot tied to Labor Day in a pretty obvious way, and the red and blue markers were of course to represent US colors!


After craft time we pretended to be airplanes and flew all over her room!  That was fun!  At first, Abbie looked at me like I was a nut job, but she followed suit, and we laughed!!

I love to take pictures of Abbie working on her craft for the day!

   

   

A Bunch of Bananas

For Friday's lesson, I thought I would make it a little more hands on!  Layla was still visiting us, but her mom, Stacy, was intrigued by our preschool routine, and wanted to see how we run the "class"!  So, we did our usual circle time... The Good Morning Song, The Days of the Week Song, The Days of the Week in Spanish Song, and the ABCs!  The girls did great in circle time, we all clapped along to the songs, and Abbie danced!  She gets so excited about our lesson each day, we call it "classroom"!  I will say, "Abbie, are you ready for classroom?", and she will run over to the pillow where we sit for circle time, and start dancing!  So, she danced for us, and Layla & Stacy clapped along!  We read of nursery rhyme for the day which was Jack & Jill, and the girls both took turns pointing at the pictures in the book! 
Our craft had NOTHING to do with our nursery room, but everything to do with our letter of the week, Bb!  I printed out a sheet that had 4 bananas on it, and had the girls color the bananas yellow.  I cut out Abbie's bananas and Stacy cut out Layla's and we had them glue their "Bunch of Bananas" to Brown construction paper!  We made sure to go over the letter Bb and use the Ba sound!  The girls did VERY well repeating the Ba sound back!  When we would ask them to say Banana we didn't have as much success!  Both of the girls actually got "Nana" out, but that doesn't contain the letter of the week!  They did enjoy coloring, and I think Abbie really enjoyed having someone else be a part of our classroom time for a few days!  Her art display is full, and I think it looks great!  She pointed at it today and just smiled, so I am glad that I am hanging it up each week!

Now, it is time to get the next week's plans together and ready for next week's classroom experience!