Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Firefighters & Doctors

We started in our on Community Helper theme with hopes of being more consistent with our Mother Goose Time routine.  We started with our day all about Firefighters.  I went for the less messy activity first.  It was a great counting/numbers tool that went along with our manipulatives for the month.
Each fire house had a number on the top and then it had that many corresponding garage doors for trucks. We started with putting one truck in each garage door but ended with putting them all in a line.  We kept up the counting practice and the one to one correspondence by touching one and moving down the line as we counted.  One through five were pretty easy but he got a bit carried away and took off zooming his fingers across the trucks as he counted the rest quickly and out of order. But hey, we are making progress.
The next day I finally got out the gumption to get the paint out.  I gave them yellow and red paint and set out the fire inspiration photo.  I asked "can you paint fire?" and left it at that.  For Adam, I took the fork, pressed it in the paint and then pressed it to the paper, just to give him an idea of what to do.
He wanted a brush so I gave him one, then he asked for white paint, so I did that too.
At the end I came to take a picture and I pointed out the yellow in the flames and I said, I think there could be more yellow, what do you think?  He took his brush, stuck it right in the yellow paint and put it on the paper.  The only reason I did this is because yellow is the color we are focusing on this month.  It turns out, he knows what yellow is!  A little on the go assessment.
 I had the camera out and my oldest wanted me to take a picture.  I mean, how cool is that dude?
 I sure do love him.
At this point we were about to start in on the Doctor theme when I realized we had not done our name tags fromm Firefighter day.  It looks like Adam is doing a magic trick in this picture be he is actually celebrating his ability to write his name or at least follow a line.
I wrote his name first with yellow marker and then showed him how to follow the line with the pencil.  Then I handed the pencil to him and he tried.
 Writing on a fire truck name tag while wearing a fire truck shirt.
 I love how much he was concentrating on this task.
He has mostly followed the straight lines so I showed him how to follow the curve in the d of his name.
 "I did it!"
Next we moved into the D is for Doctor activity.  I adapted it by only using the phonic photo cards for D, V, and U.  Then I covered them up with a tissue and had Adam lift it off and tell me what was in the picture.
 He is very familiar with an umbrella.
As Adam was exploring the pictures I asked the older boys to tell me what letter each item started with.  Lachlan rattled them off easily which made me happy.
The next thing we discussed is what you do to stay healthy.  The boys chimed in saying that to stay healthy they need lots and lots of screen time.  Nice try, but no.  Finally we got the topic of exercise and I asked them if they could jump like a star.  We moved to the living room to give it a try and I turned up my ISO and my Shutter Speed so I could catch them in mid air.  It was a lot of fun.
 I could look at these all day, so entertaining.
The numbers we are working on this month are 3 and 13.  So Mother Goose Time recommended we do either 3 or 13 jumps.  I chose 13 for the big boys.

So we covered counting, one to one correspondence, art, decision making, the color yellow, writing, phonics, letters, shapes and physical fitness.  I know some people have critiqued MGT for not including all of the basics in their learning.  But the problem is that they disguise the basics so well into play that even the grown ups might not see it if they aren't looking closely.

And that was just in two days while not even doing all of the activities on each day.  We didn't do the STEAM station on day 2 where we were supposed to play with the letter cookie cutters and play-doh.  It also doesn't include our time during circle time and exploring the circle time displays which we do everyday.

On top of all those basics of learning we discussed firefighters, fire safety, fire trucks, doctors, staying healthy, what we do when we get sick and who helps us when we get sick.  So much learning and so much fun.

1 comment:

  1. Each and every kid should know about firefighters and about their work. It is parents' duty to educate their kids about firefighters and their regarding their work for fire and safety. But, not only about firefighters, but also about doctors, electricians West Chester PA, and other courageous professionals who serve services to people for a much greater purpose.

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