Saturday, February 27, 2010

Preschool Lesson Plan - The Ocean

This is a lesson plan I did with Suzy waaay back in September. I thought I might post one every now and then. If nothing else, I know at least Suzy's grandmothers are interested!

The Ocean

Monday- Family Day, Nate's day off (no school)

Tuesday
Bible- Bible story and catechism with Daddy in the evening

French - watching French cartoons about the ocean and beach, learning names of some ocean animals. (French is my least successful subject with her. It's embarrassing to even chronicle this in a blog. Please never ask her the name of something in French. She doesn't care. At all.)

Physical- Dancing together

Art - making a paper plate fish

Reading/Cognitive - Reading ocean books (Everyday. She especially liked Dr. Seuss's Cetation Station. Go ahead and ask her what a cetation is. She cared about that!)
-Learning ocean songs. She loved this one, to the tune of The Wheels On the Bus:
"The sharks in the ocean go chomp chomp chomp,
Chomp chomp chomp, chomp chomp chomp,
All through the sea...
The crabs in the ocean go pinch pinch pinch, ect
The octopus in the ocean goes squirt squirt squirt, ect
The sea horse in the ocean rocks back and forth, back and forth, ect
The whales in the ocean go spout spout spout...
The fish in the ocean go swish swish swish..."
(She still asks to sing it sometimes. She likes to add things now that don't belong in the ocean, to see what I come up with. The car in the ocean goes glug glug glug, the bike in the ocean doesn't go far, doesn't go far...)
Math/Activities - Fish tanagram mats (she only did this for about 2 minutes, but I should try it again now that she's older)
-Sea animal die-cuts for sorting
-Examining shells
-Sand pudding ( A cute idea. You take vanilla pudding, and then put finely crushed vanilla wafers on top, so when you give it to the child, it looks like a cup of sand. Except Suzy doesn't like vanilla wafers, crushed or not, so she didn't eat it. I'm beginning to regret choosing this lesson plan to share. But I've typed too much now to change it!)

Wednesday
Bible- Bible story and catechism with Daddy in the evening

French - watching French cartoons about the ocean and beach, learning names of some ocean animals.

Physical - Running outside.

Art - wax paper fish. (Oh great, another educational failure. This project was way to teacher-driven for a preschooler. Actually, I did the whole thing, so it was pretty worthless. She just watched me, which was not the goal. I thought Suzy could shred the crayons, but she couldn't. If you have an older child, this is what it is: you take crayon shavings and place them on a piece of wax paper. Place another piece of waxpaper on top. Put an old towel on your ironing board, and put the paper on top of that. This is experience speaking. I have melted red crayon on my ironing board cover. With your iron hot, pass it over the paper, close, but not touching. Otherwise all your colors will swirl together and make brown. When the crayons have melted, let it cool, then draw fish shapes and cut out. You could also do flowers. I won't, but you could!)
Reading/Cognitive- Coloring an illustration to Rub-aDub-Dub rhyme, reading the rhyme.
-Ocean animal memory game

Math/Activities - Sink or Float game (This was fun. During Suzy's bath, I gave her a variety of items for her to drop in to see if they sink or float. Easy and educational!
- Octopus for lunch (I made an octopus out of a hotdog. Leaving about an inch and a half uncut, you cut it lengthwise so that it has eight little legs. Then you plop it in some boiling water until the legs curl up. Put it on a plate and add two little ketchup eyes.)

Thursday
Bible- Bible story and catechism with Daddy in the evening

French - watching French cartoons about the ocean and beach, learning names of some ocean animals.

Physical- Dancing together

Art - handprint octopus (This was a cute one. I painted her hand, except for her thumb, and then she made a print on blue paper. We did this several times. After they were dry, we added eyes with a marker, but gluing on google eyes would be cute too.

Reading/Cognitive - Rainbow Fish story re-telling. (We read Rainbow Fish, and then I gave Suzy some paper and crayons. I asked her to draw something she remembered from the story. We've done this with several books and even poems. She always enjoys it)

Math/Activities- Tuna sandwiches cut into a fish shape

Friday
*Story hour at the library* (Then we spend another hour getting books in the library.)

Suzy's Epic Song

Suzy just spent about ten minutes dancing around the coffee table to an epic song of her own invention. I was washing dishes, so I only remember these two parts.

Part I - "I am a sinner, Jesus is a sweater knitter." Where exactly does that girl get her theology?

Part II - This was her life, as she wishes it to be:
"I am a ballerina,
with long waaaavy hair,
and also an angel,
When I go to stores,
my momma never tells me noooooo!"

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Tuna Noodles

Sometimes I think I'd be embarrassed if people knew the kinds of things I cooked for myself when I'm alone, other times I think, "I'll post it on my blog!" Obviously I'm in the second mood tonight!
Nate's at a men's once-a-month Bible study tonight. Just about every time he's gone for that, I make tuna noodles for me and Suzy.
It's not that Nate doesn't like tuna noodles. He vastly prefers them to going hungry. Or, slightly prefers them to going hungry. But I love them - especially the leftovers that I eat for lunch the next day! I
Here it is:
1 box whole wheat rotini noodles
1 foil pack of tuna
2 chopped tomatoes
about 1/2 cup of nuts (toasted pecans are my favorite, but I usually use honey-roasted sunflower seeds. Tonight I used a mix of almonds, cashews, sunflower and pumpkin seeds)
handful of shredded mozzarella

Boil the noodles 12-14 minutes until done. Drain and return to the pot. Toss them in a good splash of lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, and a heaping spoonful of dried basil. Stir in tuna, tomatoes, nuts and cheese.

It may not be to everyone's taste, but it IS healthy, so that's a point right? Oh, and don't worry. I promise if you come over to my house for dinner, I will never, ever, make this for you!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Conviction and Things to Think About

Nate and I went to a conference this weekend, and I got to go to a session for Pastor's Wives. The Lord used it to show me many things about my heart and to move me to repentance in particular areas.
I won't go all into it right now, but here are some verses from the session that I need to write on index cards or embroider on a pillow or SOMETHING to have them all around the house where I can see them!

"She does him good and not evil all the days of her life." Prov. 31:12

"Serve the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful singing." Psalm 100:2

"I will meditate on Your precepts and regard your ways. I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall ot forget your Word." Psalm 119:15-16

"But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." Psalm 115:3

"The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil." Proverbs 16:4

And I read this after the conference, when I had many things on my heart. It brought more specific conviction and also soothed my soul:
Colossians 3:1-17
"Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—
a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Dainty?

Suzy is a dainty flower. Mostly.
If you saw my facebook status, you know Suzy sneakily fed me a ladybug in a handful of sunflower seeds. It didn't bother *her* at all.
For herself though, she is much more squeamish. She loves jumbo strawberry marshmallows. She believes pink equals delicious. But she stopped eating them. She couldn't fit the whole thing in her mouth without gagging. She hates large bites of anything. She couldn't hold it in her hand and take bites out of it, because it would get gooey in her hand, which disgusted her. So I began giving her a party pick to pick up the marshmallows. So now she daintily holds the skewer and nibbles the strawberry marshmallow contendedly. With no threat of ladybug consumption.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Scented Finger Paint

We tried something new in Suzy's school time today. We're learning about the five senses, and I found an idea on a preschool website for scented finger paint.
I was excited to try it. I took a 25 cent bottle of white glue, and divided it between 3 small cups. To each cup I added a 12 cent packet of Kool-aid. I used cherry, grape, and lemonaide. The colors were awesome! So vibrant! It was really pretty, and smelled yum! I added a tiny bit of water to thin it, but if I am ever brave enouth to do it over again, I would substitute liquid soap for the water, because it STAINS! Suzy mixed all the colors of course, and her hands are now an ugly hodge-podge of the three colors.
She had an absolutely great time though, and was able to identify each scent with her eyes closed.
We also did a blind-folded taste test. She identified pickles, peanut butter, and sour cream. She didn't know what the vinegar was, but she loved it! She also tasted some baking chocolate today and learned that bitter = bad.