Thursday, July 11, 2013

July Day 6 - Water & Landscapes

On Day 6 we started our day with placing the purple diamond on the Easel Poster, tapped it with our paint brushes and said "purple diamond."

The character building of the day was about contentment.  I explained that contentment means to be happy with what you have.  I had pre read it and then set the book up on the counter and I was sitting down on the ground with the kids.  I was having a hard time keeping their attention as it was, so I knew if I got up to get the book I would lose them completely.  MGT says to explain contentment as being happy with what you have even when others have more.  So I got pretty close.  We searched for the purple Contentment feather and read the scenario on the back.  We only had time for one before they were ready to run off.  In the scenario Falco and his Sister both got something but Falco's was smaller so he was sad.  I do love in the scenario that they used the word that is opposite of happy - sad.  I thought for sure Lachlan would understand that Falco was not being content.  But he got a little mixed up.  I don't think he quite understands the use it or lose it question at the end and I might try rephrasing the next one.  When we are all done with Falco's nest I will put all his feathers on a binder ring and keep them to go through down the road.  I love the character building portion and the big character words they can learn. 

Pond Toss was up next, which was perfect since the kids were ready to move!  We got out our inflatable globe that came in the box.  I showed them the continent of Europe and we found the country of France.  France is this weeks country of focus.  I put green paper out on the carpet scattered.  Close enough together for jumping.  I did a little presentation first.  I tossed the globe and hopped on the green paper, lily pads, to get to the globe.  I grabbed the globe and hopped back strongly exaggerating that I didn't want to fall in the water so I had to stay on the lily pads.  Lachlan loved this.  He took his turn and did perfect.  The littles on the other hand, could care less if they were on the lily pads or not, but still had fun.


Slow shutter speed and quick movement don't go well together.  So excuse the blur.  But great action shots none the less.  Check out that leaping frog.



We worked on the art project for the day which recreated Monet's water lilies painting.  I handed the kids the paper with the water lilies to cut out first as I prepared the paint.  Grant and Peter mostly snipped at the paper and couldn't quite follow a line in a circle.  We were supposed to add laundry detergent to the paint to make it puffy.  I think maybe it was supposed to be powdered detergent?  All I had was liquid and it didn't really do anything to the paint except water it down.  Still not sure on this one.  They painted with wadded up paper which left a really cool texture on the page.  Next we added spots of yellow paint to add spots of light to the painting.  We glued the water lilies and the bridge cut out on and lastly wadded up purple tissue and glued it to the lilies to look like the water lilies flowers.  Peter really like that last part.  I keep being surprised at how much Peter enjoys the details in these art projects.
 
Sticking on the water lilies.
Peter crumpling up the purple tissue paper.  Really concentrating.
I put drops of glue scattered around his painting so he could crumple up the paper and stick it to the glue.
To get them moving a big more we played one of the songs on the CD Groovin' with the Goose! that came in the box this month.  We played "Frog Throne" and jumped around on the lily pads (green paper) which was placed in a circle.   There are 37 songs on the CD this month!  Amazing.  We have listened ahead a bit and one of the kids favorite songs is the "Flower Grow Song."  It sings about a little flower growing in the sun and being watered.  One kid is the flower, one waters the flower and one pretends to be the sun.  Fun stuff! 

Need or Want?  What a great concept for preschoolers to start to grasp.  MGT provided us with 5 tags.  Some needs and some wants.  I started this conversation with Lachlan asking him an open ended question.  What do we need to stay alive?  His first response, "toys."  I ran out of time that day to actually lay the tags out and get more in depth.  But I still have the tags sitting here by my computer because I do want to get more in depth when an opportunity presents itself.

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