Kindergarten at Home - Day 18 - The Senses + Games from Around the World

Lesson 1 - Language Arts: The Senses and writing.  Also, to Quickly Quantify Qualified Qq's, Quaintly Quaking Quasi Quills
The Senses.  For this lesson, we got to do outside!  We learned about, and memorized the 5 senses: Touch, See, Hear, Smell and Taste.  We thought about how the senses can help us in everyday life, and also how the senses can help us be creative in writing and in art.  First, I wrote each on a piece of paper, and had her try to sound out each word (See and Smell were easy for her to read, but the others had groupings she hasn't mastered, like "ou", "ea", and the silent "e" in taste threw her off).  Then, we walked around the yard to find an example of each sense that my little Kindergartner wanted me to take a picture of...

See - she wanted to show in the picture that she saw TONS of apples on the apple tree (they are Gravenstein apples, and they are deeeee-lish from that tree - we have another tree of the same age in another area of our property and it's just not as good).

Touch - she pretented she was blind, then she touched the first thing she bumped into (it was premeditated; she directed me to come over to where the mini ATV is first, before she pretended she was blind).

Taste - She found some nice, ripe tomatoes to eat!  We planted all sorts this year: Cherry, Pear, Heirloom (pictured), Roma, Hothouse, and a few obscure varieties that I can't remember their names.

Smell - Our Autumn Crocus are up and in full bloom!  I don't think they have very much of a smell, so she was doing it all for show. : )

Hear - I know from the picture, you wouldn't guess "hear", but the rings make a clanking sound with the chains when you swing on them.  Imagine the classic clanking of chains, and squeaking of pulleys in the schoolyard playground; that is what she was hearing.

Lesson 2 - Social Studies: How Kids Play.  The original lesson was to think about different ways you can play.  I decided to throw in a little spin on the lesson: to study different ways children play around the world.  First, we looked at pictures of kids from around the world playing Soccer (or, 'Football' in most countries) and how the game is the same, only the scenery changes.  The image shown below is of kids playing Football/Soccer outside at night in Rio because it was very hot that day, so they chose to play at night to beat the heat.  Then, we looked at different games kids play around the world.  We chose one from each continent except for Australia (we just ran out of time)

South America - Brazil: they play a game called, Cinco Marias.  (above) It is similar to our game of Jacks. While a stone is thrown up into the air, you must try to pick up stones that are on the ground before the thrown stone lands.  Try to pick up all five stones at once before the stone hits the ground.

Europe - France:  Escargot (which is snail in French) is similar to hop scotch, only you travel in a spiral and you must stay on only one foot the entire time (above).  You start at the outer part of the Escargot, and hop to the center, then back out again (I let them take a rest in the center spot).  If you make it back on one foot, you get to throw a stone onto one of the squares.  Only you may step on this square and everyone else playing must try to hop over it. Repeat.

Asia - Malaysia: Ram, Ram, Rip is popular among kids (above). One person puts out their palm, and the other person puts their first two fingers on the other person's palm.  Both say "Ram, Ram, Rip" at the same time, and the person on top tries to remove their fingers before the person on bottom grabs them.

North America - United States: this isn't a recognized game, but it's the game my kids and the neighbor girl sometimes play for fun!  The person on the ground gets to spin the two on the swing, then they take turns being the spinner!  There are tons of games they play that requires more thought, but this is what they played together today.

Lesson 3 - Math: Rectangle and Oval.  I asked my daughter what she could think of around the house that is an oval shape.  The first thing she thought of were the eggs our chickens lay.  We currently have three sizes of eggs: Large (sometimes extra-large), Medium (sometimes small), and extra small.  That is because we have mature chickens, newly laying chickens (young chickens usually lay small/medium eggs until after their first molt), and Bantie chickens (miniature chickens lay miniature eggs!).

Lesson 4 - Kindergarten Activities & Games: "Describe It".  We cut out pictures of every day things from magazines (like a chair, snowman, pumpkin, guitar, etc.) and put them in a bag.  One person pulls out a picture and tries to describe it, without naming it, and the others playing must try to guess what they are describing.  At first, I played with the kids, but as they "got it", I stepped back, then slipped quietly upstairs to do the dishes uninterrupted! 

Lesson 5 - Art: Making a Frog.  I waited until Daddy was home for this activity because I remembered that he knows how to make an oragami frog that you can jump when you push down quickly on it's rear end.  He also showed how to make a Lily Pad for the frogs.  My daughter remembered that frogs start out as a tadpole, so she also drew and cut out a cute tadpole shape to swim on her desk while the frogs jumped on the lily pad.