Kindergarten at Home - Day 38 - Colors all around

It was GORGEOUS outside today!  So, we took the opportunity to pull the paints back out, go outside, and practice mixing colors: Red and Blue make Purple; Red and Yellow make Orange, etc.  Then, we used some fun sponge shapes we had received in a goodie bag from one of the weekend parties to make some underwater scenes.  Advertised as "clean" art tools for kids, the sponges seemed like a GREAT idea.  It doesn't last long before they start using their fingers... then two fingers... then their whole palm... then, paint up to their elbows.  Think blueish-greenish bath water after the "fun" was over.

Math: One Greater and One Less.  This activity was actually before the painting fun, hence the nice, clean hands in the following photos.  We used rocks from our front yard to help visualize the concept.  Both my kids can recognize when a number spoken aloud is greater than, or less than another number, but they were both slightly confused when I had two rows of rocks and asked them how many fewer/less rocks one row had than the other.  So, adding or taking away only one from each row helped them understand which row had "one less", rather than merely "less".

Technology Studies: F, J, Space Bar.  We practiced proper finger placement, with the pointer fingers placed on f, and on j, and your thumbs resting on the space bar.  Then, we accessed a practice portal where it gave a series of j's and ff's and spaces to type correctly and it would make a "donk" sound if you typed incorrectly.  I think it mildly amusing that my daughter is learning how to type in Kindergarten, and I was mid-high school when I first learned proper typing!

Social Studies: Neighborhood Map.  With very little help, my daughter drew a map of our neighborhood, and where the cemetery and the church are down the street, and the big hill we live at the top of...

Art: Night Scene.  The art assignment from the Connections Academy was to use black construction paper and experiment with which colors will show up on the black backdrop to create a night scene.  Both kids (independently of one another!) decided to draw mean raccoons coming out at night.  We have mean raccoons that eat our chickens and get into the trash in the middle of the night, so that's the first nocturnal animal that came to mind for the both of them.  I like how my son drew a frownie face on his raccoon, and my daughter drew mean, sharp teeth.

Language Arts: Colors All Around.  My daughter wrote sentences to describe what she was wearing, using descriptive color words, and then drew a picture of herself.  To help her form the letters correctly, I used a highlighter to write what she dictated to me on handwriting paper, then she traced it with a pencil.

 These last two photos are just for fun - we bought these horsie costumes from Target earlier today, because we're going to a family-friendly Costume Party on Saturday, and we're planning to be characters from the Gangnam Style video!  The kids will both be horses, I will be Hyuna, and my husband will be Psy!  I need to alter the powder blue blazer jacket I found at the Salvation Army store, add black accents to it, and then it'll be the PERFECT Gagnam jacket!  My daughter has been prancing around the house all night in the horsie outfit!

Kindergarten at Home - Day 37 - Graphs + Bounce House Recess

Math - Graphs.  Today, we learned about making graphs to help organize and display bits of information.  Graphs help us to see at-a-glace how many of a certain object, shape, or color are in a group without having to count them all over again.  The picture below is the beginning of her very first graph-making experience; she sorted balloons and flowers by color.

For recess today, we went to an indoor inflatable play gym since it has been raining and cold outside the last two days and we haven't had too many opportunities to get some lengthy exercise in.  The play gym has obstacle courses, bounce houses and several slides.  I had coupons, which made the trip to the gym today only $4 total!

Language Arts - Using descriptive color words to describe what we are wearing today.  She was wearing a Sunset Pink and Cloud White shirt, Mud Brown Sweater, and Raspberry leggings.


Educational Technology - Typing: Space Bar, and proper finger placement.


Science - Sense of Hearing.


To end the day, we went to the kids' big half-sister's very last soccer game!  She plays on the Varsity team as a HS Senior, so it could possibly be her very last school soccer game EVER if she doesn't play on a team in college!  It didn't show well in the photo below, but there were actually two rainbows right above the field - the double-rainbow proved to be a good omen because they won the game!

Kindergarten at Home - Days 35 & 36: In the Big Blue Sea

Monday and Tuesday were both similar lesson subject matter, building and reiterating the concepts over two days.
Language Arts: "In the Big Blue Sea" & "Caps of Many Colors" stories - Developing creative writing skills.  We learned about using descriptive words with colors (such as Lemon Yellow, rather than just plain Yellow), and descriptive words for what something might sound like, like Splish and Splash.  In the book, In the Big Blue Sea, there are photographs of vibrantly colored fish and undersea life.  For lunch, I made them a fun underwater scene to fit the lesson theme with their bean patties, veggies and salami... before they ate, they added more veggies and made them swim around like little fish on the plate before being eaten by the big, giant human.
We also had an online Live Lesson on Tuesday with her teacher.  She read the class a story about a bear waking up from hibernation and was so hungry that he ate too much and couldn't fit back into his house for his birthday party.  Then, she asked the class questions, and the kids are able to practice typing in the "chat " box (everyone can see your answer typed in the chat box area).  Usually, the kids dictate to us Learning Coaches/Parents what to type, but sometimes I let her find the next letter on the keyboard to type, and then press the Enter key to publish the comment.

Math: One-to-One Correspondence, Same Number, and one more vs. one less.  Using connecting cubes, crayons, and circle counters, we visually demonstrated one-to-one correspondence (noticing when or if everything has a match, and if any are left over).  This helps with the concept of having one more, or one less.  We also showed same numbers of objects organized in different ways to show that the same number of objects can look different.

Activities - Bouncing a ball: Dribbling with two hands, then try with one hand.  Bouncing a ball to hit a target on the floor, and bouncing a ball so that after it bounces, it hits a target on the wall.

Weekend Fun Activities - Pumpkin Carving Party!

One of my friends hosted a carving party for kids and adults to partake in some squishy, sticky, orange and icky in between my fingers, kind of fun!  What kid [or kid at heart] doesn't like digging into their pumpkin to scrape out all that goo?!
 My daughter's older friend helped her a bit with the actual carving after showing her friend what she wanted it to look like.  I helped my son with carving his after he dictated to me what he wanted his to look like.  My daughter chose to go the "scary" Halloween face route and my son chose to do "funny" Halloween!

Weekend Fun Trips - Fire Trucks and Racing Cars!

We went to two birthday parties over the weekend: one was at a REAL Fire Station with an old fashioned fire truck, and a modern fire truck they could sit in.  We got to take a tour of the working fire house and saw where the firemen sleep, eat, hang out, and do office work.  My daughter thought it was cool that they had three refrigerators (one for each shift).  The other birthday party had a racing car theme, so they brought in a REAL old-fashioned race car the kids could sit in!  AWESOME!  (It was pouring down rain that day, so they kept it under the cover on their trailer)

Weekend Fun Lesson - Woolly Bear Caterpillars

"MOMMY!  I FOUND ONE, I REALLY FOUND ONE!"

We found him, er, um "her" (it was a girl, according to my daughter, and she named her Zala) crossing the sidewalk at our house!  I told my Kindergartner about how there is an old wives tale that says that the wider the brown stripe, the milder the coming winter; a short brown stripe would predict a harsh winter!  Zala, the Woolly Bear Caterpillar, seemed to predict a normal winter with a brown stripe that was not too wide, and not too short.

Kindergarten at Home - Day 33 - Rebus + Pumpkin Patch Recess

Today, "recess" was back at the Pumpkin Patch!  We bought a Living Social deal which included all the activities at the local pumpkin patch and a free drink per person, for only $4 per person (after discount code I received).  So, the two kids, Oma, and I loaded up into the minivan and headed to the Patch!

We got some exercise walking, and sometimes running [after the kids], through the Corn Maze...

The farm had several animal sets throughout the maze with fact plaques.  Since this was our second time through this same maze, I actually read a few of them this time around, rather than just blowing past them in search of the end of the maze (I didn't read all of them, but at least read some this time!).  The ones above depict the Oregon Trail, and had facts about the wagon trains and the oxen, mules and horses that pulled the wagons for hundreds of miles through rugged terrain; and the Great Pyramids in Egypt with facts about camels and the ancient pyramids.

...we rode the Hay Ride and learned about the farm...

 ...Practiced teamwork with the other kids...

 ...Navigated the pitch-black hay maze with flashlights - the kids were the leaders (luckily the flash on my phone works well!)...

...Tested our strength and aim at the Apple Catapult (there were targets to aim for and I got SO close to hitting one that I was tempted to buy more 'pults, but didn't because that would defeat the purpose of saving money on the Living Social deal!)...

...Then, we picked out our pumpkins!

Social Studies: Family Members and their Roles.  We talked about each of our family members, and how they help to take care of us.  Today, we went to the pumpkin patch with Grandma (Oma) - Grandmas LOVE to spend time with and spoil their grandchildren! ; )

Art - Making a Moving Animal Picture.  First, I had my daughter draw pictures of animals that can fly, and that can swim.  I told her to make them small enough to fit on a piece of colored construction paper that would become a habitat scene/backdrop for the animals.  I cut slits in the backdrop for her, and let her decorate each backdrop: one for animals that can fly, and one for animals that swim.  Then, she cut out and glued her animals onto Popsicle sticks, and we inserted them through the slits in the paper so that the animal is on top, and the stick poked through to the back.  When you move the sticks, you can make your animals move around like a mini puppet show!  The flying animals can fly through the air, and the swimming animals can ride the ocean current...

 Language Arts: Making Rebus Sentences.  Rebus is where you use pictures to substitute for words to create a sentence.  Like, for the word "can", you may use a picture of a tin can or soda can.  I cut out some basic sight words and some pictures of everyday objects and verbs that the Connections Academy provided.  My daughter had fun coming up with Rebus sentences...

Math was a Unit Test today.
Activities assignment was to play the game, "Red Light Green Light".