Friday Fun- Spider webs!

I was trying to decide what to do with my kiddos in zoom this week. I wanted to do something on spiders since they were learning about arachnids this week. I had already told them we were going to do a direct drawing.

I came across two options. Here is the one I am not doing on zoom, so those who watch on zoom have another fun spider direct drawing project.

Materials: paper, pencil, black marker, things to color with

cross lines

Hold the paper vertically (tall and skinny)

Draw a line down the middle of the paper (this divides the paper in half making 2 rectangles)

Draw a line across the middle of the paper forming a “t” (this divides the paper in quarters making 4 squares)

From the middle of the page, draw lines out to the corners, this is a tough skill, but even if the lines aren’t straight it will work. (this divides each quarter in half making two triangles each. when done your paper is now in 8ths and 8 triangles)

Now the fun… ummm tough… no fun part.

completed pencil web

Pick one section. Draw smile lines connecting the two sides of the section together. I did about 4/5 smiles in each section. As you go around, try to connect the smiles in one section to the one in the next section. — again if this doesn’t work exactly it is fine!

After you complete drawing the web with a pencil, I then have my students go over all lines with a marker. This provides the “coloring book lines” and makes the coloring pop as well as makes it easier for them to see the illustration.

Next, we color! I think I have colored more in this quarantine then I have in years past. One the right side of this web I colored in a randomly. This looks really cool, but the teacher in me then switched to doing patterns on the left side! You can do either, both or something else in your imagination. I used crayons because I have those at home. Water color paints would be really cool for this project.

if you want to see the project I am doing with my students on zoom… check out my Instagram account (@mydayinpre_k)… I posted it there.

Word Work Wednesday- Read it, make it, write it Spiders

In my classroom we do a lot of work work activities at the writing table. This is a favorite of my students. Read it, make it, write it. The children are given labeled photo cards with vocabulary words matching the theme or topic we are learning about in class. They are also given a set of letter manipulatives, we switch these up to keep it interesting. Finally they are given a paper that is laminated and a dry erase marker. You do not need this sheet to do the activity, just a place for your child to read, make and write the word (sheet of paper, white board or even outside with chalk on the sidewalk)

laminated worksheet

When I set this up for my preK class I have all the vocabulary sheets in baggies with the letter manipulatives to match the spelling in the same bag. This does a few things, it keeps everything organized. It helps the children find the letters they need AND moves the process as they are not having to search for the letters in a bin or container. When I do this same process with kindergarten or first grade students I do not set up the letters ahead of time, but just provide a set of the manipulatives.

word cards for read it, make it, write it

The children choose a vocabulary card, the words need to be an obvious match to the illustration. The children place this card at the top of their paper and then “read” the word.

Next they make the word with the letter manipulatives. Some manipulatives I use are magnetic letters, unifix cubes with letters or even letters written on cut paper. The children need to match the letter and letter order to the word written on the vocabulary picture card.

Finally at the bottom of the page the child needs to write the word. Again, your child needs to follow the letters on the vocabulary sheet to write the word correctly. You could make this more challenging by having your child write a sentence instead of just copying the word.

If you do not want to print out word cards, you can have your child use the letter manipulatives in the read it section and the draw a picture in the make it section.

Topic Tuesday- Arachnids

As I mentioned on Sunday, research and fact finding are a favorite for children who are preK age. This is why they ask so many questions. They want to know more and more and more. While I’m showing you how we do this using arachnids, you can choose to pick a different topic such as your child’s favorite animal, food, sport, form of transportation or any topic that fascinates your child.

When searching for videos on youtube, I typically put in the topic for kindergarten or for kids. Such as when I searched up the video today I searched arachnid facts for kids. Next look over the video. I look for facts, visual interest and sound quality. You get to see the same sources over time and know the quality of the videos.

Put the close captioning on. Yes, this sounds strange, but it is a great way to connect the printed word to what is being said. You may not realize how often your child will notice the close captioning and see words they know or begin to make that connection between a word used over and over in the video.

Watch the video all the way through. Now lets go back and review the new information. Here are a few ways to do that.

Can Are Have chart

Can, are, have (need) charts are a way to put the facts you know into quick sentence forms. Your child will provide knowledge about the topic in the form of Arachnids are spiders. Arachnids have 8 legs. Arachnids can hunt their prey

Topic Web

This is just a collection of thoughts. You web off the the main topic and then can expand from there.

Illustration facts

Have your child draw illustrations to show what you know. In this case they could draw a detailed picture of one type of arachnid and then be able to use that to show that they have 8 legs, 2 body parts, can paralyze their prey etc…

Conversation

One of the best ways for a child to show what he/she knows… is to talk about it. Have a conversation where you pull information and facts that they have seen in the video. Can they make connections between what they knew already and what they just learned? Do they have more questions?

This activity can be the jumping off point of more research. Do you want to learn more about the same topic? Did your child leave with new questions? Would they like to learn about a similar topic or something totally in a new direction. This is a great way to encourage the why questions your child already has and show him/her how they can learn more about these topics.

Sunday Topic- Arachnids!

Before Easter, we did a week’s worth of activities based on insects. Often times people combine insects and arachnids into the category of bugs, but they are very different.

Children of this age LOVE to gain information about the world around them. They love learning scientific facts and big words. On Tuesday, we will dive deeper into these differences and show you ways to help your child categories this information.

• Monday math- 3D shapes
• Topic Tuesday- arachnid facts
• Word work Wednesday- write the room
• Phonemic Awareness Thursday- phoneme blending chant