October: Projects

Yep, still in October over here.....in an effort to keep the "wrap-up" from being too much of a dump zone, I'm going to post the October schoolwork here as its own post.

Every Wednesday at preschool they have "chapel" where all the classes meet in the sanctuary and learn Bible stories. When they get back to class, they do a project related to the lesson. Bet you can't guess what they learned about in this lesson? This is Daniel's. 

Anabella's

They also learned about fire safety in October and made hats and badges.

These were my birthday cards! 

The large structure in the middle is the castle, where I live. And, beside that to the right is our family....including Solomon & Shilee, of course. 

E was one of their letters....can you guess what this is?

F is for......fish, very good. :)

The owl was their first project during orientation week when parents were there; they came home this month after having been hung in the classroom for September. 

L is for lighthouse. They were both intrigued by these and asked when they were going to see a lighthouse. We need to put that on our list! 

I didn't get any pictures of their letter sheets, but they bring those home weekly, along with homework letter sheets that they have to complete for additional practice. Daniel doesn't like to do this much, and we are actually two sheets behind right now on this. They sent a note at the beginning of the year explaining that the HW was supposed to be beneficial and not worrisome, so that if the time wasn't right or the child wasn't interested, just to let it go; we don't "let it go" every week, but some letters are harder than others, so I pick and choose what I think is right for him- sometimes instead of the letter sheets (lowercase e for a child who has trouble with Ls, really?) I have him cut or do other fine motor activities instead).

In addition to the weekly handwriting practice, Anabella has a story that comes home every week that coordinates with the letter they're learning. She has to color (which she's not a big fan of), cut (loves to do this), put in order (we read the story and she sequences it- the pages have numbers and she's no dummy, so she does this pretty quickly) and staple together (what 4 year old doesn't want to staple?!).

Okay, so if that's not enough, Anabella also gets 4-5 "sight words" or phonetic words that go along with the letter of the week. I make them into flash cards and put them in a hanging chart that we keep in the kitchen where we periodically review them. More on this in a later post.

Now to the next project- each month they have a few "monthly" assignments as well. Ocotber's homework was to make 3 pumpkins and label them small, medium, and large and to go on a scavenger hunt for fall items such as leaves and acorns.

How you did the pumpkins was up to you, and since painting is one of both Anabella and Daniel's favorite activities, I drew them each 3 pumpkins, let them paint them, cut them out and then we labeled them.

Handwriting sheets are done separately at different times since they're at such different stages with their handwriting, but this was an activity they could enjoy together. 

After they painted, they wanted to fingerprint, so we got those out and they had fun getting their hands dirty.  

Daniel is great at using scissors!! Really, really GREAT!!! Which makes me feel better about his fine motor skills....the handwriting will come.....

Anabella is good at cutting, too. 

Daniel's 3 pumpkins

Daniel did the D, the n, the i and the L. We did hand over hand for the other letters. Lowercase e is very hard for him. 

Miss Independent's three pumpkins....she did not want me to write the words, so I spelled and she wrote.

Anabella's finger painting: grass, sun, sky, and daddy mowing the lawn with the lawnmower.

Daniel's pumpkin and jack-o-lantern (I love his happy face!) 

Anabella said her teacher dotted the hearts and she connected them. She did the mouth herself.

They don't bring home as many cutesy things as they did last year, but I can tell from our conversations that there's a lot of learning going on in those three hours, and they both love school, which makes me happy.  There's definitely more academic stuff coming home (such as handwriting sheets and sight words), which I suppose goes along with it being the year before they hit the "real deal" next year.

Trying to treasure every minute!!!!

Forgot to get pictures of their scavenger hunt hike....I think Chip has some on his phone, but I can't stay in October forever....maybe they'll make the wrap up post.