Triangles!

 This week was triangle week.  I'm happy to say it is our last week of shapes.  Shapes were tons of fun, but I'm ready to move on to something new.  :).
Day one of triangles:  our word today was triangle to introduce the theme.  Our triangle song this week is sung to Sally the Camel, and goes like this:
A triangle has (clap and jump) three sides (repeat)
A triangle has (clap and jump) three sides
1,2,3 boom boom boom (while shaking hips)
Above is our triangle window art.  The outline of the triangles is the plastic folders and the girls colored them in on the contact paper with sharpies.

Our word for day two of triangles was pizza!  I made a felt and foam pizza similar to the sandwich shop game from square week, and it was hiding in our surprise closet.  The girls had fun making pizzas for each other today.

Day four of triangles was tent day:  the word today was tent.  I absolutely love the tent my DH made for us for tent day.  I have no idea how he made it except that he used wood, drilled a hole in the top for PVC pipe, and rolled the sheet around a thin strip of wood then nailed it all around the frame. It is pretty sturdy.  We played bear hunt,camping, castle, laid in the tent to watch a video, and took it outside and rode our trikes through it today.  

Day four of triangle week was cone day.  We set up cones and rode around them with our trikes outside. (I did not get a pic of that).  I did get a pic of the sponge triangle art that the girl did.  The second picture is our Popsicle stick shape man.  I made Velcro Popsicle sticks and the girls have enjoyed making shapes, monsters, robots, houses, etc. during small groups this week. What a terrific triangle week!

Bonus pic:  Hanging out in the cubbies.  :)

Ovals!

Time to catch up on my blogs.  :)   Oval week happened to fall on Easter week, so I did a combination oval/Easter theme this week.

 Day one:  Our word was oval to introduce the week theme.  We sang two oval songs this week.  The first was sung to "oh oh oh It's Magic":
Oh oh oh an oval, you know, is like a stretched out circle
An oval, you know, is like a stretched out circle

The other was lots of fun mainly because of the last verse: (I gave everyone an oval cut out)
Wave your oval in the air in the air(repeat)
Wave your oval in the air
Wave it here and wave it there
Wave your oval in the air in the air

Wave your oval by your toe by your toe (repeat)
Wave your oval by your toe
That is silly don't you know
Wave your oval by your toe by your toe
(Stand and jump up and down flapping your oval on the next verse)
Wave your oval like its hot like its hot(repeat)
Wave your oval like its hot
Now sit on your spot
Wave your oval like its hot like its hot.

  During calendar time we also read The Story of Easter, which talks about the true meaning f Easter in a child friendly way.  Then when we did our window art (shown above) we put a cross in our egg shape to remind us of what Easter is really about.

 Day two of oval week:  our word today was egg.  We had Plastic Easter Eggs hiding in our surprise closet.  Along with our oval songs, we also did an impromptu egg song which the girls LOVED.  It went like this: ( sing while holding the egg in both hand and shaking it)
I have an egg, I have an egg, I have an egg and it is sad (the egg then cries)
I have an egg, I have an egg, I have an egg and it is silly (the egg laughs)
I have an egg, I have an egg, I have an egg and it is hot (throw the egg in the air)
"  ". And it is shy (pretend its shy and coax it to peek at the class)
". ". And it has a tummy ache (then open it and say "Burp, I feel better") -this was their favorite verse and resulted in tons of giggles

We did tons of other verses: angry, broken, scared, likes to roll, etc. anything I could think of.
We also made cookies today, the girls rolled and cut out their own, so some were more like biscuit cookies.  :).   We decorated them squeezing the frosting on out of ziploc bags, which was not nearly as messy as using knives.  They were quite colorful and very delicious.

Our day three oval week word was Jelly Beans!  We had jelly beans in our surprise closet and did a fun number identification/ counting jelly bean activity.  We also got to eat some of course.  We did egg hunts this week as well with empty plastic eggs to "practice" for the real thing.  They loved finding the,, hiding them for each other and finding them again.

Day four the word was just Easter.  We colored eggs today.  I love how some of them had a tie dye effect.  I had the girls use a wire whisk to dip their eggs and it worked great!  No dropping the eggs or spilling the colored water.  It was a outstanding Oval week.

Bonus pic of the week:  here are the girls playing making cookies with play dough.  Playdough was an extremely popular item this week.  

Rectangles!

This week the shape we learned about was rectangles.  (I'm going to be honest, I like slowing down and spending a week on each shape, but it does get harder and harder to come up with good activities for the less common shapes.).   Our window art for rectangles was similar to the circle shape art.  We used contact paper and I found a packet of colored plastic file folder pockets for .67 cents.  I cut them in rectangles and voila.  It is very pretty in the day when the sun shines on it and makes color spots on the table and floor.  :).   We also talked about books that are often in rectangle shapes and I read a shape book to them during calendar. The rectangle song involves yelling so of course it was a big hit:
There is a shape that has four sides but it is not a square, NO!
It's a rectangle, it's a rectangle, it's a rectangle, it is not a square NO!
Two sides are long, two side are short, it is not a square NO!
It's a rectangle, it's a rectangle, it's a rectangle, it is not a square NO!

Day two of rectangles was trains!   We talked about train cars and how they are often in the shape of 

rectangles.  I also pulled out the new train toy which the girls all had a lot of fun playing with and learning to share and take turns with.  :).   They did a simple train art complete with LOTS of glue!

The third day of rectangles was flag day!  We watched a video of the song Grand Old Flag and we also watched a video clip of a college flag color guard in a parade.  We then made our "spring flags". I found some white fabric in the scrap material and we colored them with sharpies.  I duct taped them to wooden dowels) And had an outside parade marching up and down the front sidewalk and singing and waving our flags.   It was lots of fun and there were plenty of people driving by staring at us.  Hopefully they were thinking "what a fun Spring Day activity", but they were probably thinking "what's that crazy lady up to with those girls now?" Lol.  :).  

Third day of rectangles was door day!   Hooray for messy painting.  This was truly a masterpiece.  My DH put the door out on the porch and we were out there at least a half hour painting.  I used the left over paint from the kitchen and dining room.  Their favorite part was holding the soaked paint brushes above the door and drizzling it all over.  It is Beautiful!   The door is the one we are using for the classroom door.  It really brightens up the room.  :)

Day five of rectangles was table day.  I hid the picnic table in the bathtub so the girls had to find it.  They loved it.  The table is adorable and just their size.  (Thank you Uncle Allen).  We set it up in the dress up/play kitchen room.  While they were taking their nap I took it out on the front steps then they had to find the table again for their snack.  So much FUN!  We also put stickers on our shape books this week.  I will have to try to remember to get a picture of that before the end of the shape unit.

Bonus pictures... I don't know how this came to be, but all this week and last week, if the girls had to wear their coats they wanted them on backwards.  So, here are the crazy backward coat girls.  (Yet another reason for the neighbors to wonder what that crazy lady is going to do with those girls next. ). ;)

Squares!

The second week of our shape theme was filled with lots of fun square activities.
On day one we made the window hanging shown above.  I put masking tape on the sticky side of contact paper then the girls painted it with tempera paint. (they painted the sticky side). I love the way it turned out.  I have a pic of both the circle collage from last week and the squares from this week.  Our dining room is starting to look beautiful.  :)
Our shape song this week was sung to the Blue Danube Waltz tune:
A square has four sides, one two three four
And they're all the same, one two three four
A square has four sides, they're all the same
That's why it's called a square
We sang that everyday during calendar time and did a square chant while moving around a square on the carpet made with masking tape.
The square chant:
A square is a shape with 4 equal sides (repeat)
One, two, three, four
A square is a shape with four equal sides
Lets march in the shape of a square, lets gallop in the shape of a square, etc.
They love this part of calendar time.

Day two of squares was box day!   Yay boxes.  My husband found this great huge box for the girls to play in.  First they wanted to just sit and climb in it, then they asked me to turn it into a house.  Throughout this week it has been a circus, a store, a firehouse, a doctors office, a pirate ship, a trampoline, and a ball pit.  I'm sure I missed a few play themes too.  :). What a magical box. I had other activities planned for that day, but we never got to them, the box was too much fun.

Day three of squares was block day.  I found a nice block set with wagon that the girls enjoyed building towers, lining up, finding letters, building houses, and spelling words with.  My husband also made some wooden cubes that I just colored with Sharpies and the girls did some cube color matching activities.  I made letters as well as shapes for this activity.

Day four of square day was sandwich day.  We of course had sandwiches for lunch, but I also made a simple sandwich shop out of felt and foam sheets.  The bread, bologna, onions, ketchup and mustard are foam, the ham, lettuce, tomato and Swiss and cheddar cheese are felt.  This was very easy to make and the girls loved taking orders and making sandwiches for each other.

The Lego game was also very simple to make and is a great game for counting and color recognition.

Day five of squares was hopscotch day.  I made this inside/outside roll away hopscotch board using a roll of cupboard liner and green duck tape.  We have rolled it up put it down, moved it to numerous rooms, (even the bathroom, do t ask me why!) and it is holding up very well.   

We also made this shape art.  I just set out various sizes/colors of shapes, glue, and brushes.  They are all very unique and beautiful modern art masterpieces.  :).   

Hooray for squares!!

Circles!

Our circle theme went wonderfully!  The girls had tons of fun (so did I) and all of them are finding circles all over in their environment!  Here are some of the circle activities we did.  (Many of these ideas I got from Pinterest.)

I'm reposting my tissue paper on contact paper in the window picture.  This was easy and lots of fun and all the girls could participate.  We did this on day one of circles.  We sang a simple song:
A circle's like a ball, a circle's like a ball, round and round it never stops a circle's like a ball.
I also had simple shapes cut out and gave each girl two and had them bring me the circle.

On ball/bubble/sphere day we did Pom Pom patterning with magnets glued onto pom poms.  The girls all did great with color matching.  They also did their own variations just playing with the Pom poms.  :). 

I didn't get a picture of the ball or bubble play, but that was great fun too.  We did bubbles outside and I brought out balls to play with our inside basketball hoop.  At calendar/carpet time I taped a big circle on the floor and we sang:

A circle is a shape (kick feet) that goes around and around(spin around),  a circle is a shape that goes around and a round, it goes round and round and round and round(draw circles in the air), a circle is a shape that goes around and around.  Lets walk in the shape of a circle; lets crawl in the shape of a circle; lets hop in the shape of a circle, etc.  they loved this...we did it the rest of the week along with our "a circles like a ball song."

Day three was hoop day!  The girls did all kinds of fun activities with hula hoops.  We played the Hoopy Pokey, they built an awesome snowman out of hoops, they played jump from hoop to hoop, and jump through the hoop like puppies, one of their favorites was playing horse and buggy.  It was hard getting them to hold still for a pic on that one.  :).

My husband helped me make this sturdy shape memory game.  He cut the wood circles and I took care of the foam shapes.  Te older girls loved shape memory. Mi did a variation for the younger girls that everyone played.  I turned one set of the shapes face side up then held the other.  I turned one shape over at a time then called out a girls' name and they had to find the matching shape before I counted to 5.  They all thought this was great fun!

Day four of circles was tube day.  I introduced the crawl tube house complete with mini ball pit that I amazingly won at a fund raiser.  :).   We also made these very fashionable straw tube necklaces and bracelets.  Then the girls suggested we do our nails to finish their glam looks.  :)

Day 5 of circles was wheel day!  We loved our wheels today.  I made a simple road on top of our corner bench with blue masking tape and created a little town to drive around.  Hubby made a nice little ramp where the cars could drive down and go to the "car wash". The car wash was big fun!  They all had to change into their spare clothes.  They loved the little sponges (i just cut up a regular sponge) and bubbles in the wash.  Who says girls don't like playing with cars!!
For art we used liquid watercolors to paint the black circles that they made yesterday with black tempera paint and a juice cup.  (I've done this with PVC pipe in different sizes). We also went outside and drove up and down on trikes and push cars.

The last is just a bonus pic of our delicious lunch..home made corn dogs...yummy.

Circle week was awesome!