Forgetfulness

I forgot what we were doing today. Has anyone ever done that?? I have my plans set, have materials at the ready, then I get going. And 50% of the time, I forget what I planned. Yes, 50% of the time!!! See, I don't follow any actual curriculum. I have an outline of things I want the kids to learn September through June and then another set of things for the Summer. This gives me the flexibility to change when I need to. I like to follow what the kids are interested in and only add things when necessary. I believe ANY academics in Preschool is a plus, not a necessity. If I don't go over it here, they will DEFINITELY get it in Kindergarten. I want them to move, socialize, have fun. If we learn ABC's and 1,2,3's that's great. I like to think I follow more of an Emergent Curriculum... so when we decided to change our Letter Oo and The Mitten Theme to the Letter Gg and Groundhog Theme, I thought No Problem!!! I have that stuff set for next week anyway, we'll just do it today. HaHaHa!!! Best Laid Plans, right :)



I started our day off with all sorts of Letter Oo activities. I had the Oats ready to put in the Sensory Table, I had the Oval ready to glue Honey Nut O's onto, and we were singing our O song at breakfast. :) I have a little homemade book that the kids can use to trace letters in, so The Princess was tracing her Letter Oo and coloring her little Owl when B comes up to her and says,



"Why are you coloring the O, we didn't do O yet!!"

The Princess: "Yes we did!! Miss Michelle said I could do this!!!" (please picture her hands on her hips because it helps with the whole scenario!!)

B: "But we haven't done it yet, you can't go do it unless you know it!!"

The Princess: "I know it, and Miss Michelle said it was OK!!"



So I chime in and say, "B, it's ok. We did the Letter O yesterday. She can color it if she wants."

B: "We didn't do it. We did Gg yesterday. For Groundhog Day!! Remember!!"

Me: "Hum... I guess your right B. My mistake. I guess Miss Michelle is a little silly today."

B: "A Lot Silly!!"

The Princess: "See!!! I can do it and I do know it." (hands off the hips and turns to her work)



Yup, that's me. A Lot Silly!! What can I say, I was so ready to do the Letter O, I forgot I changed it. We had fun anyway, and I am glad I can laugh at myself, because my boys are home from school and had fun teasing me all morning about it.

Little Miss M catching up on her reading during Free Play. She loves to look at the books and she loves these little Emergent Readers since the preschoolers have a lot of them memorized and will "read" to her. It is a win-win situation. The preschoolers get practice "reading" and Little Miss M get lots of attention and modeled behavior.

All the preschoolers and my son Luke worked together to make this cool fortress. They had all Luke's Army Men out and worked together to make the fortress. They loved lining the men up, they didn't want to stop or put it away.

Here are the kids gluing their Oo's on their Oval shape. They love eating their projects and when I put out the Honey Nut O's their eye's lit up. Little Miss M wanted to glue and eat. We had to keep a close eye that she didn't eat a glued O. She didn't. She did try to sneak the O's though. She didn't understand that some were ok to eat and others were not. :) In the first picture above she has just seen me watching her from across the table and the next one is her trying to make a joke out of Not Really Eating It!!! Like, "You didn't really think I was going to eat that did you!!!??? Your Silly!!" She's a PIP!!!

The kids are being Bears, Groundhogs, and Porcupines scavenging for food to fill their belly's for winter!! We learned about Hibernation and how the Groundhog, along with other animals, hibernate through the winter and some wake up around the middle of winter and check things out. So, we made "caves," scavenged for food, climbed in our "caves" and began our Hibernation. I turned out all the lights and played some "wintry" piano music while the kids Hibernated. When I turned it off we pretended it was February 2nd and they cam out and looked for their Shadows. Some saw their (if they were near a window) others didn't.

We also had water in the Sensory Table... after I realized I needed to keep the Oats for next week, I decided water would be great. We had Boats and Little People to play with.

"What??? These aren't my shoes??'