Mostly Chickens.
A practical life activity with pouring. Above are a few examples. One being sand in a pitcher. The other pitcher is used to pour the sand back into the first pitcher it was in to begin with. Another activity involves pouring water into little glasses where food coloring has been added to the bottom of the glass to create colors after pouring. It entices Lily to follow through with the exercise so that you can see what the color is in the glass.
Lily took it upon herself to grab a piece of paper and start naming words she wanted to spell. After naming a word like cat she proceeded to spell it out. With hand over hand assistance she was able to complete the task of writing the word. By the last few words she was actually moving her hand and I could feel her following through with the letter shapes. It was a very exciting moment. Because she already retains the information she needs. Additionally, she added physical objects from the environment. This was not prompted.
More simple addition with the math beads. Checkboard beads mainly. There are tens in there also. The girls are recognizing units, tens, hundreds and thousands but still not applying them to their place value in a traditional number just yet as they have just been introduced. Maggie is very excited about learning how to read a number as she puts it.
Work with the pink series and the Handwriting without Tears board and moveable alphabet. The kids match the word to picture card then spell it out with the moveable alphabet. After this they write the word on the chalkboard with a sponge and chalk. Maggie can do this now without help. Lily is still requiring hand over hand but she is trying to do it on her own now and succeeding with the proper strokes.
Our newest hands on science project was learning about the life cycle of the chicken. The kids really enjoyed this setup. It included books about the life cycle of the chicken that also explained the stages of egg growth. We have a kit which represents the growth that goes on in the inside of an egg in order for it to reach the chick stage. So we put this out too. There were figures present to represent the life stages and cards to match. A little life cycle puzzle of the chicken is in the tray. Lily preferred to match this to the stages instead of the cards. I also had a made up book of the parts of a chicken that Maggie took interest in matching the cards parts. (3 part cards). I even found some inflatable chickens to draw the kids interest in the table and it worked beautifully and the chickens lasted for at least 2 days! I’m glad we started this project before Easter because now we can have more discussions during our Easter egg hunts, etc.
Timber has truly become a part of the family the past few months. She has changed most recently being a part of everything from taking baths with the children to the school work we do at the house. She is always present unless shes napping. And she is usually napping under Lilys foot. Here she is pictured checking out the chickens in a bowl we used for counting and for well, fun.
Above pictured is Lily matching up the chicken cycle and Maggie matching the chicken parts.
Lily puts together the chicken life cycle puzzle above.
Life cycle of the chicken and the frog (which we have studied in the past). Maggie practices writing in the numbers of the steps.
The above shows how Timber is usually stationed when Lily is working. I hardly ever take pictures of Lilys feet at the table. So here it is.
More work with chickens swapping activities.
Maggie and the cross tower.
The chicken setup.
Maggie uses extension cards to match up the pink tower to its card. Use of visual discrimination.
We went outside to do some outdoor painting and the kids had more fun painting themselves than the paper.
Maggie works with the trinomal cube.
Practical life pouring and growing some animal pet eggs.
One of the last shelf setups. It has changed since then. To sensorial mostly and now I’m adding practical life as requested tonight. I’ll post those pictures later.
Adapting Education 