MFW Kindergarten Uu is for Us {All About Me}

All About Me Unit for Kindergarten

This week we studied:

Unit 7 of MFW

Printables pictured are from MFW  unless otherwise mentioned.

Theme:

Us {All About Me}

Words to Remember:

God made us wonderful!

You can read about our curriculum choice and organization HERE.

We had so much fun with this unit that we spent three weeks on it.  I honestly think we could have kept going, but at some point we had to move on.  One of the first activities we did was to make a life size cut out of each boy.  As you can see above, JZ (5) loved this!  He was so proud of his finished product.  He had a bit of a bumpy road making it.  We've been working on doing our best and being slow and careful.  He quickly drew a face on his head and wasn't pleased with the result.  After a few tears I showed him how we could cut out another head, and he was able to draw a new face on it.  The second time he was careful and did his best work.  

Both boys especially loved getting traced.

J-Bug (3) was too adorable coloring his.  He really focused and took pride in his scribbles.  I love watching him work.

I hung their finished cut outs on the door of our studio.  We used butcher paper for the bodies and cardstock for the clothing and shoes.  The boys used Pipsqueak markers to draw their faces.

We spent a large portion of the unit focusing on the five senses by reading informational books and doing hands on activities.

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Games and activities we did to explore the five senses:

• Sight
• Hearing
• Touch
• Taste
• Smell

The curriculum we chose, My Father's World, is not a worksheet oriented program, and we love this!  I am a firm believer in hands on learning.  The more senses that are stimulated, the more young children will retain.  When movement is combined with learning, children are more likely to focus and remember the information presented to them.  One of my favorites is post it note math.  In our Turtle unit JZ put the numbers 1-20 in order.  This time I wrote out the numbers 1-30.  I kept 1-10 in the top row, 11-20 in the middle, and 21-30 in the bottom row.  Next time we do this exercise I will mix them up.  I was very please with how quickly JZ was able to line them up.  In true little boy style, he grabbed one of our paint rollers and rolled each number in place while making a machine like noise.

Another day we worked on addition and subtraction.  JZ is getting very comfortable adding and subtracting single digit numbers.  For this activity I put together a problem using gem magnets and magnetic symbols.  JZ had to put the correct number above each group of gems then answer the problem both with gems with correct numeral. This way he can physically see the problem and also work on recognizing written problems.  Both the post it note math and the addition and subtraction problems were done on our DIY magnetic board.

A wonderful and fun tool that we used to learn more about ourselves was the My Book About Me by Dr. Seuss.  We had a blast filling it out!  It is a bit long, so we did a little each day.  It covers topics such as name, age, birthday, address, phone number, siblings, etc. as well as random fun details like how many windows in your house, how many steps from the front door to the mailbox, and much more.  It was such a neat way to learn details in a hands on way, and best of all now we have a special keepsake.  I filled in J-Bug's, but JZ wrote the answers in his own book.  I think I might have them do a new book every year, so we can compare the progress.

Using the pom pom magnets I made, JZ played a game of letter sound bingo.  I made a sound, and he put a magnet over the correct letter.  I love the bonus sensory stimulation the pom pom magnets provide.

I mentioned that MFW isn't worksheet heavy.  A typical unit includes one math page, one letter practice page, a cut and paste page, a blend ladder page, and a sound discrimination page.  JZ generally does one page each day.  It's a good balance for him, and I'm very pleased with our curriculum choice. 

To encourage writing and introduce sentence structure I made a journal for JZ.  I wrote a sentence at the top of each page, and he copies it twice.  You can see on the page on the left where I traced the lines in colored pencil to help him know which lines to keep the letters between.  After he copies the sentence twice he draws a picture to go along with what he wrote.

All About Reading is going really well.  We are averaging three lessons per week.  I love the flexibility that AAR provides.  The lessons are set up in a way that easily allows a partial lesson to be taught each day.  JZ especially loves reading the easy readers that come with the AAR program. Each story is unique and entertaining.  He loves having the ability to read an entire story by himself without help.

Pictured below he is playing another game of letter sound bingo (this time on a cookie sheet with gem magnets), cutting word bones to feed the creature, and forming words with the letter tiles.  The letter tiles are hands down JZ's favorite part of AAR.  He sits at our DIY magnetic board and forms words long after our lessons are complete.  Putting together letters without vowels never ceases to amuse him.  He knows he can't make an actual word without a vowel, but he likes to sound out a row of consonants.

For more ideas follow my Kindergarten on Pinterest.

 

More kindergarten ideas:

• Ss Sun
• Mm Moon
• Ll Leaf
• Aa Apple
• Nn Nest
• Tt Turtle