The Wonderful World of W
Did you know that a TON of things start with W? I didn't even know what direction I wanted to take when I started planing. We started the day with binders as usual. They are getting so good at writing. I also found some great handouts on education.com that they really enjoyed. I gave them each a connect the dots that made a watch and a Maze where they had to get the worm all the way to the watermelon. They had fun with both.
We then headed to the other room for circle time. I drew a saw on the chalk board and talked about even thought it doesn't start with W it does have a W in it and how the bottom of a saw is made up of a bunch of W's. Then they each took turns drawing a saw blade. They thought it was very cool. I used the Walk Beside me Curriculum again, which I love. I printed off the pages I wanted to include this week. One was the story of Jonah and the Whale and the kids took turns finding and circling W's. Then we did some math. And I found another handout that had over 20 hidden W's that they had to find circle. I also used my friend Mr. Pelican again and let the kids take turns pulling things out of his mouth that start with W. I also have this awesome Little Red Ridding Hood story doll that turns into Granny and the Wolf. I told the story to the kids and they were ENGULFED in it. They even asked me to do it again.
I saw an idea that was to play Memory/Concentration using cards with pictures of things that start with W. I know my kids love memory so I thought it would be a great activity for school. It was good because there was a lot of repetition of seeing and saying the words on the pictures which I think helped the kids remember more things that start with W.
The kids played for a few mins while I got snacks together. Then we read books while they ate.
Then we did some W action. We Wiggled like a worm, we blew like the wind, we made W's with our bodies and we danced to the W-song.
I didn't love any of the craft ideas I found online so I settled for making a Window that showed different kinds of weather in the different seasons. Then we made a little window light charm (i dont know what else to call it). They sprinkled crayon shavings onto wax paper, covered it with another piece of wax paper and then I used an iron to melt it. Came out something like this.
Nothing too grand but we all had fun. My camera was out of memory so that is why there are not any pictures of the kids.
Letter X
I was a little worried going into today since there are not very many words that start with X but it ended up being a really fun day. We started out with putting all the letters back into the floor mat. They had so much fun they did it twice. They said the letters out loud as they put them in. I was really impressed with how well they worked together, they helped each other find them, and they shared so well! These kids are growing up!
Next we did some writing. I just had them write the letter X on a plain piece of paper over and over. We spent a little time talking about what things start with X or have an X in them. I then had them flip over their paper and drew 2 big X's on their paper. One was to make an X out of stickers and the other was for stamps. They did so well! Their fine motor skills have really improved. They had so much fun with this, they were silent for about 15 mins.
Since they were doing well at the table I decided to do our painting project. Before they got here, I drew a bunch of X's on their papers in white crayon. They then used water colors to pain the page and find the letter X's.
Didn't go quite as I had planned, but they had lots of fun. One kid could see the X's so he just painted them, another just made his own X's with paint, and the others just painted and got excited when they found an X. It was a fun activity.
Next we went into the other room to talk about the letter X some more. We made X's out of our body.
Then I had them lay down and make one big X (shhhh I know it looks more like a K but they thought it was fun).
Then I read the story "We're going on a bear hunt" and they acted the things out as I read it. The LOVED this. Then we talked about eXercise and then did a few. Jumping Jacks, toe touches, leg lifts, and sit ups. They thought it was fun. Then we danced to our letter X song.
Then we pretended to be a Pirates and went to a treasure hunt. I hid a bunch of notes marked with X. Each note lead them to the next and ended at the treasure which was hidden in a mini treasure chest in the fridge. They opened it to discover that it had a note that said it was snack time. A few seemed a little disappointed that the awesome treasure they were searching for ended up just being snacks but once one of them got excited they all started shouting in excitement that they found the treasure and were now going to eat it. It was fun.
While we ate snacks we read books about being a pirates and an ABC book that I just made and happened to be delivered as we were sitting down for snacks. (I tried to put it in this post, but it ended up making its own post. Click here or see below this post if you want to check it out.)
The kids played for a few minutes and then we talked about X-rays for a few minutes. We talked about bones and why we have them. The kids were so interested and excited. I showed them this picture I found online here.
They thought it was so cool. Then I told them we were going to make our own x-ray and they got so excited they ran to the table. I traced their hands on black paper with white crayon and then we used q-tips as the bones. I found the idea here. While we were making them the kids were playing around with the Q-tips and discovered they could make an X with them and then each wanted to put one on their paper. I thought it was a great idea. Clever kids!
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| I stole this picture from my friend Liz because it came out better than mine. :) |
After we were all done with our X-rays we only had a few minutes left. The kids really wanted to play a game, so P taught his friends how to play "Don't Spill the Beans." Then we did our calender and stickers because I forgot to do it earlier. Then the moms came.
Letter X day was eXcellent if I do say so myself! :)
We only have 2 weeks left of our little school. I'm certainly going to miss it!
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