Friday, September 13, 2013

My Body and Me (by Christine)

Today's lesson (September 8th) was the first after our summer vacation. I think it was hard for the kids (and moms!) to get back into the swing of things, but we pulled it off.

Our super kids learned the ABCs and about body parts today.

We always open up with a welcome song, which is different for each session leader, aka Mom.

Now that our kids are 2-going-on-3 and older, we thought it would be a good idea to start with their ABCs. Using a cloth kit, we sang the ABC song and each kid picked up a few animals to match letters. The older kids in the group took the lead (and took over a bit!) matching the letters to their sounds.

What letter comes next?

We followed up this exercise with a book called LMNO Peas (Keith Baker), which even those kids that don't normally listen to books, were enthralled with.

Peas, please!

The class then moved on to teaching the kids their body parts. Most kids are familiar with these, so it was more of a review for them. Using the ever-helpful Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, the kids put together faces, hair, arms and legs, and then we had a few rounds of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and the Hokey Pokey.

Big sisters taking charge

Done!

Today's craft was a Monster Drawing Game, where each kid drew their own idea of what a monster should look like. Christine told the kids that they needed to draw 1 eye, 2 noses, 3 mouths, etc. Some of the drawings were really creative!

On your mark, get set, go!

How many eyes should my monster have?

Dinosaurs or drawing? Dinosaurs or drawing? I think the dinosaurs won this round.


Whoops! How did my picture get in here?

What should come next? Edible monster faces, of course! We found lots of different ideas online, but due to the lack of an oven, Christine decided to use sweetened yoghurt, chocolate chips, and grapes. It's hard to come up with things in a short time.

Attack of the chocolate monsters!

Clearly 2 eyes and four chocolates for a mouth. Good job!

Hmmmm....

Hmmmm...again.

Simple, and to the point!

Lastly, we ended the session with two books: Kindergarten Countdown (Anna Jane Hayes) and Just Big Enough (Mercer Mayer).

I hope the kids had a great time today (and didn't get too hyped up on the chocolate and sugar!)