Z-WEEK!

July 18-24, 2010...This was the last week of our "Letter of the Week" theme. Twenty-six weeks actually went by really fast. For Z-Week we read books about zebras, zippers and the zoo, how to make zero in math a created a zoo in our living room. Lili found every stuffed animal that you could find at a zoo and set them up in the living room like it was a zoo. Then she pretended to be the zoo keeper. She pretended to go around feeding and checking on all of the animals. She even helped Gabi (playing little girl visiting the zoo) feed some of the animals. We also played some new games outside with sidewalk chalk, an alphabet game and another game called "London". It is kind of a cross between hopscotch and hangman. Lili also learned how to play a few new board games. We played Guess Who, Connect Four and Hands Down. She really loves Guess Who! We have been playing it everyday.

Time to move on to new topics to learn about and Kindergarten work.

Y-Week

July 11th-17th...I am finally posting within a week of my last post...amazing!! I figured I was all caught up so better to keep it that way. Our Y-week was pretty laid back. We have been enjoying the summer before it is over. We still spent time each day on school and we are finishing up the summer reading program at the library. It ends at the end of July. The girls are having a great time turning in their books for prizes every week. I have already warned them that soon the prizes will be over. We will still get books every week but no prizes for reading them besides the enjoyment of the book.

Here is a look at what we did for Y-week...
We read books about yarn and how wool yarn is made from sheep's wool, yo-yo's and yawning. Strangely enough while trying to read the book about yawning I yawned at least 3 times. I tried to show Lili that sometimes when someone near you yawns it will make you yawn too. She saw me yawn all 3+ times and never yawned. She said, but mommy I didn't yawn. Hmmm.....
We also talked about the word yesterday and what it means. We told each other everything we did yesterday. We also talked about what a year is and how it takes one year from her 4th birthday until she will turn 5. This next activity was a huge hit. We will definitely be doing it again and again. I brought out a few magazines (Family Fun mag. mostly). We each took a magazine and found a picture in it that we liked. Then we made up and told a story based on the picture. Lili had a great time and got pretty creative.

June 6th-july 10th

T-Week...books about teddy bears, trains, trucks, triangles, and telephones. Practiced time/clock. Reviewed using the telephone and calling 911.

Project this week...Ice Magic!
"Fill a glass with water and add one ice cube. Let a child lay a piece of string across the ice and try to pick up the ice with the string. Sprinkle a little salt over the ice cube, count to 10 and have child try again. Show child how the salt melted the ice just enough to bond around the string." This took us a few tries but worth the time for the excitement when we finally picked up the ice with string. Very cool!



U-Week...books about umbrellas, uncles and up. We talked about uncles and what makes someone an uncle. Uncle Carl! Couldn't find much to do for the letter U so we filled our time with workbook pages (Lili loves them), extra reading for the summer reading program at the library and fun with daddy (he had 2 days off this week).

V-Week...books about vegetables and volcanoes. Learned what a vertical line is and the difference between vertical and horizontal.
We made our own volcano!! "Place an empty baby food jar on a tray. Surround the jar with playdough. Form the dough to look like a mountain. Put a drop of red food coloring and a tablespoon of baking soda in the jar. Then add some vinegar to it to make it erupt." Lili and Gabi both thought this was FUN!! Especially all the bubbles when it "erupted." Next time I will stir in the red food coloring better. It all sat at the bottom so our lava wasn't red. The girls didn't mind though.

For our Friday art project we made sun visors for V-Week. We decorated them with lots of foams animals, hearts and their names.


W-Week...books about wagons, winter and wacky Wednesday! We reviewed the days of the week. Played with water outside in our water table. Lili and Gabi "painted" the driveway with paint brushes dipped in water. Then watched the sun make their art disappear. Daddy was home Friday again and joined in on the water fun. All three of them were soaked and smiling.

The girls also enjoy helping mommy water the garden.


Gabi is enjoying the summer fun too.



X-Week....not much starts with x so we went with words that have an x in it. So our books were about boxes, foxes, exercise and a taxi. Not exactly using the letter x but ideas were limited so here is our project this week..."Inclined plane.. slower and faster... do above.. except roll the ball down an inclined plane that is very steep vs almost parallel to the floor.. which ball rolls faster?" It was a hit! The girls continued to come up with games using their "ramp" while I made lunch. For art we each decorated a large letter X with stickers, markers and crayons.

Our Letter of the Week is approaching its end. Lili started writing her own list of topics to cover next. Time for mommy to get busy planning.