Flag Day-June 14th

June 14th FLAG DAY

I love patriotic holidays and even though we don't get this day off it is still good one to celebrate.  Here are some fun things to do.  I really like the idea of making a family flag to teach how flags represent a group of people and what they stand for.

• Learn American Flag Etiquette.

www.brownielocks.com has a flag information site with audio for "Grand Old Flag"

www.ehow.co.uk/american-flag-etiquette

• Flag coloring page:

www.familycrafts.about.com/cs/independenceflag/l/blcoloramflaga.htm

• Make a family flag:

Use your imagination. There are so many ways to do this.Michaels Craft store has some project ideas:
#25311a or e05331 that can be adapted.
They also sell foam pennants and embellishments

My local Kinkos can print photos onto fabric, check out your local office supply store.

Use fabric paint that comes in tubes or pens.
Use iron-ons printed from your computer.

Size and durability depend on your choices.

Symbolically or realistically (using drawings or photos) on your flag:
Ideas you might include:

1. Number of family members
2. Pets
3. Favorite foods
4. Favorite pastimes
5. Favorite books
6. Favorite trips and outings (even locally)
7. Favorite colors
8. Favorite games
9. Family friends
10. Traditions
11. Special events or happenings

• Fun Flag Holder Craft

Materials:

United States Flag on a 8- 12 inch long dowel
Styrafoam cup or waxed paper cup (that will peel off)
Red or white beans (can use a mix of both)
White school glue that dries clear
Small paper plate
Aluminum pie pan
Scissors

Step 1 Fill cup with beans then empty beans into pie pan
Step 2 Add enough glue to coat all the beansStep 3 return beans to cup, packing tightly into cup to prevent air pockets
Step 4 invert cup onto paper plate
Step 5 insert flag into bottom (now top of cup)
Step 6 let sit for at least 24 hours till glue sets
Step 7 peel cup off beans and trim paper plate to fit bottom of flag stand. The plate should be secured to the beans by the glue used on the beans.

Display the flag on a table or in a window year round or just on special flag days.
We had one made in Cub Scouts and it lasted for 10 years.

Visit Preschool Corner for more ideas of great things to learn and do with your kids.

Donut Day - June

I love any excuse to have a good donut so when my mom sent me this story we had to do it. (I barely got this picture before he had downed the whole thing in record time.)

The first Friday in June is National Donut Day. The holiday was proposed by the Salvation Army, in 1938, to honor their "serving ladies" and to raise funds for the needy in Chicago.  The Salvation Army created "huts" in France during the first World War. It had rained for 63 days and the solidiers were very discouraged. The "huts" were staffed by 4-6 women, who made coffee and other baked goods for the soldiers. They were the only women allowed on the battle field. The hot donuts were a big hit with the tired soldiers.  Legend has it that this was the origin of the term "doughboy" to describe soldiers. But the term has been found as early of 1846 in the Mexican American War.

Here a few ideas to celebrate donut day.

• Check with your local donut store to see if they are participating in either giving away free donuts or donating matching funds to the Salvation Army if you buy donuts.
• Make your own easy donuts from canned biscuits. www.ehow.com/how_4695785_donuts-canned-biscuits 
• Discuss the history of the Salvation Army that has the red kettles we see at Christmastime. www.salvationarmyusa.org 
• This is also a day to discuss helping our soldiers and volunteeing.
• Buy store bought donuts and enjoy!

We also reviewed the sounds and writing of the letter O since it is a donut shape.

For more ideas visit preschool corner.

Volcano Day- May 18

May 18th is the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.  I lived in eastern Washington at the time and although I was still a toddler I remember coming home from church and having our house and yard covered in ash.  My mom collected several jars of the ash and when we moved to California a few years later we would take the jars to school each year for show and tell.  Eventually all the jars were broken and we don't have any of the ash left but I decided it would be an interesting childhood memory to share with my kids.  So we this week we celebrated volcano day.
We started off by watching a short, simple video about volcanoes on How Stuff Works.com.  I liked that it was not too complicated or scary!  We discussed the terms volcano, magma, lava, and erupt.  We reviewed the word igneous from an earlier lesson on the types of rocks.
Then we did a mini-book on volcanoes from crayola.com
 Finally we made a little volcano in the sink.  I put some baking soda in the bottom of a cup and added a few drops of red food coloring.  Then I slowly added vinegar and the kids watched it "erupt".  We did this several times because they were enjoying it so much.  There was no clean up since we were doing it in the sink.
This seemed about the right level to approach the topic of volcanoes for the first introduction and we had a great time.
Find more ideas from other mothers at preschool corner.

Bird Week

We started the week by looking up birds in our encyclopedia.  We talked about the parts of the bird (wings, feathers, talons, beak, etc...), the different types of birds, and where different birds live.  Our encyclopedia had full page pictures of five different habitats each with a few birds from that habitat.  There was also a picture of a bird skeleton (we reviewed the term vertebrate) and a section on the different uses for the different types of bird feet (webbed for swimming, curved for gripping, or sharp for ripping).
On Tuesday we read a book called Beaks! by Sneed B. Collard III.  Each page focused on a different type of beak and what its particular shape and make up are good for.  Some beaks are made for pecking, some for fishing and some for tearing food.  One type of beak is even made upside down.  The end of the book had a little quiz to test our new knowledge of beaks.  Tuesday night Dad and the kids watched a Woody Woodpecker cartoon and talked more about woodpeckers.
Wednesday we combined birds with another theme day - park safety and Dad took the kids to a duck pond for a picnic dinner and to feed the ducks (a nice break for Mom).  The ducks loved the bread and kids were able to share with Dad the parts of the bird they knew and what ducks webbed feet and beak were used for.
Thursday we talked about state birds and the national bird (bald eagle).  We have a flapbook that has the birds listed for each state so we looked up ours (Alabama yellowhammer), grandma's, and some of the other states he knows.  It was a good geography review.

Friday we wrapped up the week by making a bird.  I went to the DLTK site under listings by material type to the toilet paper roll link.  (I use this site all the time since we always have toilet paper rolls around.)  We looked at each of the birds they had on their list and he choose Tweety Bird since it is yellow like the yellowhammer.  So, we watched a Tweety Bird cartoon.  A nice end to a really fun week.

Hope this gives you some good ideas.  Feel free to add some more in the comments and look for more at preschool corner.

NASCAR DAY May 16th

NASCAR DAY May 16th

Being a west coaster I won't presume to tread on a Southern tradition. But this is a great day to Run your own race.

Using the small metal toy cars and pre-made ramps or making your own you can ESTIMATE, MEASURE and AVERAGE for distance, speed and weight.

Make it a Car day and learn to change a tire, check the oil and other fluids, and maybe even wash the car.

Have a tail gate BBQ, Watch the movie "CARS".

Learn about Route 66.  Play the Nate King Cole song "Get your kicks on route 66" 

Spend the whole day making left turns.

Run your own 500. Make cardboard cars with suspender type straps to fit over the shoulders or just have them hold them on with their hands. Let them decorate them. Run all kind of races, timed, obstacle, backwards.

The Kentucky Derby-May 1

THREE FAMOUS HORSE RACES: The Kentucky Derby has passed (May 1st) Won by Super Saver. Can Super Saver win the Triple Crown?

http://www.triplecrownraces.com/ has a lot of information about the three races. The Preakness Stakes will run on May 15th and The Belmont Stakes on June5th. (Geography lesson)

For Derby Day we made silly hats and talked about the history of the races.

Math skills were enhanced as we learned how many inches in a Hand, a furlong, and where the term Horsepower originated.

http://www.discover-horse-carriage-driving.com/ was excellent for learning about horses in general.

We learned the rules for playing Horse Shoes. If you don't have a game set you can use broomstick handles or sticks hammered into the ground and jar lid rings. (like quoits, a good scrabble word)

If you have a horse shoe and want to put it over the door or someplace where it will bring good luck - remember to hang it so that the ends are up so your luck won't run out.

This topic can be expanded depending on the interest in Horses.

Books to read: National Velvet by Enid Bagwold, Black Beauty, American Girl: Meet Felicity, Justin Morgan Had a Horse by Marguerite Henry.

A new movie Flicka 2 is coming out this month but I haven't read any of the reviews.

Pretzel Day - April 26th

Today we celebrated pretzel day.  Since we usually have a morning snack around the time we are doing "home school" we just made today's snack pretzels.  With stick pretzels we did math.  We began by counting 20 pretzels out of the bag (making sure not to skip 15!).  Then we used the pretzels to do manipulative addition and subtracting (ie make piles for 3+4 and count them to get 7).  You could also do multiplication. 

This ended up going a step further as it is a tradition in our house to serve stick pretzels with mini-marshmellows (they like to stick them onto the ends of the pretzels).  My three year old, tore his marmellows into pieces so he could have "more".  This lead into a good discussion about fractions.  I broke one pretzel in half and laid it along side a whole pretzel.  We talked about how two haves could be added together to make one whole.  You could do higher fractions if you are at that level. 

We also used the pretzels to make letters.  When it was time for writing we focused on the "stick" letters that he had made with the pretzels and how to properly form them when writing.  This could be extended to making words. 

A simple day with a snack I already had on hand - just what we needed.

Pencil Day - March 30th

We have been trying to come up with ways to encourage writing. As parents we have been modeling writing more and encouraging dictation of stories to us that we write on artwork. We still needed a way to get our oldest to pick up a pencil himself. Then I learned that on March 30th the first pencil with an eraser was patentened.

So the week before we went to Walmart and bought neat pencils with erasers. Ours happened to be glittered. Personalized pencils would be great for children with unique names or spellings.  Then on the day before Pencil Day we sharpened all the pencils in preparation.

On Pencil Day we took some of the pencils to his neighbor friends and wished them a "Happy Pencil Day". Upon returning home we took our paper and new pencils and drew pictures. The boys were very excited to use their new, special pencils.  When we were finished we put the pencils in a prominate location so they can be seen.  The special pencils have been requested  several times for school and artwork.  Our oldest has learned he likes to sit at the table and draw or write while I am making dinner.

A simple celebration brought about lasting results.

da Vinci Day - April 15

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15th.  We decided to celebrate the day by reading out him in the encyclopdia. I knew he had painted the Mona Lisa but learned some of the other things he did as well and the day grew from there.
The picture above is a self-portrait that da Vinci had done.  It was a beautiful day so we took the sidewalk chalk outside and did self-portraits of our own. Then we washed the cars (a bonus for me) and washed our drawings away.  Inside we continued to be artists as we did some painting of whatever they wanted to paint.

Another interest of da Vinci's was flight.  He made sketches of parachutes and even his idea for a helicopter.  After learning that we made tissue paper parachutes and talked about gravity for our science lesson.  Older children could expand this into learning about Newton as well.
It was good to talk about how you can do lots of different things like da Vinci did and learn about anything that seems interesting to you at the moment.