Week 12 - Monday

Circle time:
As described in earlier circle time post
Letter of the week: L
Theme of the week: Love and Emotions


Arts & crafts:
The kids and I put together an emotions chart using velcro to attach various drawings and names of emotions. Each family member has their own section where they can display the emotion they are feeling at any given time.





Free play at stations:
None.

Story time:
Everybody Feels... Angry by Bingham/Turner
Oh, I am So Embarrassed by Dickson/Cooke
Franklin Says I Love You by Bourgeois/Clark


Cooperative game:
Hide and Seek.

Science experiment:
This week's science theme: L is for Light.

Sunlight and Shadows
Today the kids began the first installment of our sunlight and shadows experiment by standing out in the yard and recording the time of day as well as what direction their shadows were facing. I also added a math element to our experiment by having the kids get out the measuring tape and measure the length of their shadows and compare the shadow measurements to their actual heights to see which was longer. We then talked about the reason why our shadows are different lengths depending on the time of day. The clouds quickly rolled in when we were done and the kids watched their shadows disappear before their eyes! So we then talked about how a light source (in this case the sun) is needed to make a shadow and how when that light source disappears (or in our case is blocked out by clouds) the shadow disappears too. We will continue this experiment at various times of day as the week goes on (weather permitting!) to see the differences in shadow lengths when the sun is in different positions in the sky.


Physical activity:
Outdoor play in the backyard.


Outing/social time:
Normally Monday is our weekly library day but because it was a holiday here the library was closed. We will therefore have our library visit later in the week.

Worksheets:
Coloring L word pictures, tracing letter L, tracing L words, writing name, finding between, matching picture to beginning letter, matching picture to word, matching items that go together, tracing numeral 5, cutting zig-zag lines.

Hands on math:
Measuring shadows (see Science Experiment section).

Computers:
Emotions and feelings stories and games on the iPad (Dusty D. Dawg Has Feelings Too, Feeling Frenzy, Moody Monsters).


Music:
Danced and sang to our Love and Emotions theme compilation cd and acted out the various emotions that we heard in the songs.


French:
French is emphasized throughout the entire day; especially theme related words. Today we practiced saying "Je t'aime" to tell someone they love them and also continued to reinforce all of the notions that we covered in previous weeks. We will continue to practice these sentences all week.