songs for a rainy day

WEATHER SONGS
THE RAINBOW
Tune: “Jingle Bells”

The sun is shinning’
The sun is shinning,
Shinning all around.
Can you see the shadows
It makes upon the ground?
Rain is falling,
Rain is falling,
From the clouds up high.
Can you see the rainbow,
It makes up in the sky?
Jean Warren

PITTER-PATTER
Pitter-patter falls the rain,
On the roof and windowpane.
Softly, softly it comes down,
Pitter-patter all around.
Adapted Traditional

COLD WINDS
When cold winds blow
And bring us snow,
At night what I like most,
Is to crawl in bed
And hide my head,
And sleep as warm as toast.
Adapted Traditional

MY UMBRELLA
Here is my umbrella,
It will keep me dry.
When I’m walking in the rain,
I hold it up so high.
Adapted Traditional

from:http://www.preschoolexpress.com/music_station01/music_station_sept01.shtml

Busy Morning

Some one asked me recently how much time we spend each day doing homeschooling with my 3 and 5 year-olds. I guess it varies from day to day and most of what we do in our regular daily activities I think qualifies as preschool/ kindergarten work.
These are some of the things we did this morning
1. Sorting picture cards into three categories: animal, plant, or other object
2. Rhyming puzzle
3. coloring with color wonder markers
4. making pictures with shapes
5. ordering graduated shapes
6. reading aloud
7. phonics
8. Claire read little books to me

Physical Education

We've been doing a lot of P.E. this week. We did hanging and climbing and running at the park Tues. Emily did bicycling/triking Monday and Wednesday. She is getting good at steering so that I think she will be able to navigate on the sidewalk for a trip to the pocket park soon. The girls have both been practicing their gymnastics skills on a bar we put up in the door jamb with a crib mattress underneath. They are both getting brave and strong. I'm going to try to keep up the practice on a regular basis.
Scattered throughout each day are bouts of jumping on the trampoline and riding the exercise bike. We also took a walk to the pocket park yesterday and did sprints. I was the troll under the bridge and I would chase them across the sand and they would run away from me. Good exercise for all.

Other subjects

In addition to academics we have been working very hard on 1. managing frustration and disappointment and anger 2. being kind to one another including using our words to explain what we want and how we feel, and 3. working hard to complete a task.
I am very pleased with Claire's progress on the latter as evidenced by her hard work taking many loads of trash out to the bin yesterday when I was getting rid of a bunch of stuff and today when she filled her entire paper with ink using her ink-a-dot markers.

Right now the girls are having an impromptu pretend tea party with the brass tea set from Nonna Beth. Very sweet.

Button math

You can use a lot of math concepts in a short amount of time using buttons and a jar. Claire filled a spice jar with buttons. Then estimated that there were 50 in the jar. Next we counted them into piles of ten, counted by tens and discovered there were 65 buttons in the jar. Next we sorted them by color. Then Emily sorted by size taking out the tiny ones. Next Claire strung the golden/brass buttons onto a pipe cleaner. Next we are going to make patterns using two or three colors of buttons.

Thanks to Nanna and Mrs. Jenney for the butons.

Phonics in motion

We have been using some books called Explode the Code for Phonics. I have been supplementing with some active games that I though of. I wrote each of the letters for the sounds we've been working on a piece of paper and set them around the room. For the first game (musical chairs variation) I sing and when I stop the girls stand on a letter and tell me what sound it makes and a word that starts with that letter. The second game we use the same papers and I call out a sound and everyone puts foot on the letter that makes that sound (I plan to do this with blends, digraphs, sight words etc.)

Here's another game;
PHONICS HOP (see video)

Getting the ball rolling

This past week as really our first full week of homeschooling.

We did phonics: learning sounds for "oo" "C" vs. "K" and "Y" girls glued buttons on for double o's in boo, poo, boot, shoot book, look, took. We made OO's with our hands as we talked about what words have the double O.

We did math: we are making a collective book with clear pockets attached and the kids put in the correct number of mini pom poms. We put together the October calender. Claire helped cut out the pieces and put them on in order. We did number 10 day Monday- they had to do various things with ten items including build a tower 10 blocks tall. We did the O's (cereal) guessing game...how many O's do I have in my hand? No more than 5, no less than 11 etc. Another game with O's where I flash a small handful and ask how many after I close my hand.

We worked on penmanship: how to hold a pencil. How to make loops-- i.e. for a cursive e or l, how to begin a letter by starting on the line. I also did a few cursive demos so they could get the idea of connected flowing script.

Science: we read books about bugs.

Literature: we listened to the first half of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Roll play: we played shopping. I cleaned everything out of the car (7 bags full)and dumped in on the kitchen floor to sort it and told them they could buy whatever they wanted. They kept asking how much various items cost and giving me imaginary money while I sorted out everything and put it away.

Hygiene and Chores: Emily brushed my wet hair Claire brushed Emily's wet hair and her own. Claire has been regularly washing off the kitchen table and helping to clear the dishes. Emily sorted laundry she found all the kids socks and separated them out. Claire put some of her laundry in her drawers and folded wash cloths.

Art: Painting on large plain newsprint with tempera freestyle- no instruction. Claire decided to fill the entire page with various colors. Emily layered various colors on top on each other in one area of the page.
Claire drew a sun and butterfly.
Drawing on brown paper bags.

Craft: girls glued tissue paper in various colors to a glass jar and squeezed glitter glue on top.

Bible verse: Matthew 28:20

Manners: Working on using napkins for wiping fingers and face.

Back to School

Well, It's been a long time since I posted anything. We took a bit of a break during the summer.
This morning we are back into the swing of things.
1. Learning about instruments online: http://kidsmozart.com/learn-instruments.html
also for music: listening to the classical music station while tidying the house.
2. Claire asked about what raccoons eat so we looked that up online... surprisingly they like snails among other things.
3. Claire wanted to know if it is always cold on the north pole. We found out that the warmest month is July and it doesn't usually get above freezing 32 F
4. Math guessing game. I held cornflakes in my hand counting them quickly in my head and hid them and asked Claire how many. Then she guessed and with each guess I told her higher or lower till she got the right answer.
5. Sorting 5 colors of cards by color
6. Art: decorate fabric with dot markers and crayons for a patchwork pillow.

Weekly Menu 2 :Summer fun

1. Splash in the sprinklers and wading pool.
2. Swim lessons taught by Mom at the YMCA.
3. Make a mermaid using a yogurt cup, paper (recycle children's painings), tape,
yarn and glue.
4. Put on paint clothes and push acrylic craft paint around with credit cards on paper
5. Go to a local free outdoor concert and read about some of the instruments you saw.
6. Harvest cook and eat home grown veggies (we had a zucchini tonight with thyme and garlic yum!
7. practice saying formal prayers used in church and sing a hymn (Crown him with many crowns)
8. Practice a memory verse Psalm 31:2-3

weekly menu

I am studying with a 3 year old and a five year old so we like to earn by lots of hand on activities.
I decided to make a weekly menu of experiential activities to help structure our time and inspire our learning.

1. find 8-10 different leaves and glue them on to a brown paper bag to make a collage and talk about the differences and similarities between the leaves.

2. Make a picture using only dots. Look at examples of such art online http://bubblegumpost.com/2011/05/australian-aboriginal-dot-painting/

3. Bake scones and have a tea party.

4. Create paper people- mom draws a face kids color it in and help make collage clothes and hair.

5. Rainbow name -write child's name very large on large construction paper and let child trace it with all the colors of the rainbow-- do the same with "I love you DAD" to make a father's day card

6. crayon rubbing with watercolor resist. Use the side of the crayon to rub over the paper with interesting textured surface underneath... we tried plywood, screen door leaves etc. Paint over the top with water color.

7. sequin collage just for fun

8. finger paints with different textures using straws, notched spatula or cardboard

reading project 1

Make our own magazine mini books




This can be adapted to a variety of ages. My children selected magazine pages and helped to fold them in half. I folded them in fourths, stacked them up, punched 5 holes on the fold and sewed them together with embroidery floss. Kids can add stickers or drawing on the pages that have additional space. For my girls I used a sharpie and wrote words on each page labeling the pictures. Older children can write sentences or make up a story on the pages add collage elements etc.

If you enjoy doing arts and crafts with your children you also might want to check out my other blog arty mom.

Founder Profile

Hi, I am Jen Hudson, Christian mom and homeschool tutor.
I started this group because I noticed a need for such a group as I searched on-line for some similar community to join.

Teacher (5 years experience teaching Kinder, First grade, Spanish to pre K through 6th grade, art to children, teens and adults.) Currently teaching my 5 and almost 3 year old daughters. Before my daughters were born I did research for the Program Research and Evaluation Branch of Los Angeles Unified School District. In this capacity I visited numerous pre-K and elementary school classrooms which was a great benefit to me as I got to observe many teaching styles and strategies and see the curriculum used in public schools in action.

I earned a California Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential at Cal Poly Pomona.

I am currently enjoying teaching reading to my 5 year old doing lots of craft projects, puzzles, outdoor play etc.

Open House

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date and place TBA

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Beginning

This is the beginning of The City of Angeles Christian Home-school Community.
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