It is always hard to get back into the swing of things after a break for the holidays! We did our K week the week after Thanksgiving (even though I’m posting this in January – I like to stay a couple of weeks ahead). Either way, it takes extra discipline to plan and follow through with school time after having time off. I have to admit I was somewhat dreading doing school this week (I was just so overwhelmed with all the busyness of Christmas); however, I am so glad that we did. We had such a fun time learning about the letter K, and Brooklyn looked forward to our craft each day (I think she had missed the structured school time!) This week, as Brooklyn practiced writing her K’s, I taught her a cute trick that seemed to help her remember how to write them better. We talked about how K is for kiss. I first told her to write a straight line down, then draw a line to the middle of the K, let it kiss the K, and come back. We even made a kissing noise every time we drew a K. Our verse was Proverbs 12:25 “A kind word cheers up.” Brooklyn learned this verse quickly and was even able to explain it by saying “saying nice words makes people happy.”
On Monday we had fun saying our Kangaroo poem and hopping all around the room. We talked about kangaroos and how they carry their babies, who are named joeys, in their pouch. We then glued together our kangaroo K.
Tuesday we talked about kites. Brooklyn’s favorite movie is “Mary Poppins” (which she calls “Mary Hoppins”). She LOVES singing all of the songs from the movie so of course we had to sing “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” on kite day! I had planned to use contact paper and tissue paper to make a kite; however, Brooklyn wanted to paint so I decided to draw a diamond on a piece of white paper and let her use watercolor to paint it. The next day, once it dried, I cut it out, taped popsicle sticks to the back for support, taped on a tail, tied a string to the popsicle sticks, and let Brooklyn fly it around. She was beyond excited when she realized she could sing “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” while actually flying a kite (instead of using her usual clothing, towel, or washcloth props for the song). For our math activity, I had cut out several triangles. We played around with the triangles to make different shapes including diamonds (which she called “kites” at first) and hexagons. I also made a maze for some extra fun. I drew four kites onto a piece of paper and labeled them with the numbers 1-4. I drew loopy lines to the bottom of the page where I put insect stickers (because that’s all I had) which were grouped in groups of 1-4. I found these reusable dry erase pockets on clearance a few weeks ago which came in handy with this activity. I placed the picture in the pocket, gave Brooklyn a dry erase marker, and let her trace the lines to find out where each kite tail ended. The lines were a little confusing for her, but she enjoyed it and did a good job.
We started our day on Wednesday by playing in Brooklyn’s little kitchen together. She was able to tell me that kitchen starts with the letter K while we were baking cookies and making soup together. I printed out a place mat that shows how to set the table. I gave Brooklyn a plate, napkin, fork, spoon, and cup and guided her as she set each item where it belonged. Once we did it together once (with the help of the place mat), I removed the place mat and asked her to set the table again all by herself. I was so impressed that she put everything in the right spot without any help! She then asked to color her place mat. Later in the day, we talked about things that can be found in a kitchen. I pointed out different appliances and told her what they are (she already knew most things).
Thursday we played with keys. Brooklyn loves sneaking keys whenever she can get her hands on them. She always pretends to unlock doors and go “bye bye.” She was shocked when I told her that we were going to play with lots of keys! We first made our craft. We put several keys onto the table, put a piece of paper on top, and colored over the keys to make their imprints. This was a little tricky for Brooklyn so she mostly scribbled while I colored over a few keys – she had fun though. After that, I let her practice putting the keys in the right doors.
We have been reading the Christmas story a lot through the month of December so the story of the three kings going to visit baby Jesus fit in perfectly. After we read the story, we began our craft. Brooklyn first painted some green grass at the bottom of the page. Next, I painted her hand brown and stamped it three times to make three camels. I then painted her fingers different colors and stamped them on top of the camels to represent the three kings. Once they were dry, I added faces, and put glue in the shape of crowns on top of each king’s head. Brooklyn sprinkled gold glitter on top of the glue. We finished by making a star in the sky.
For details and instructions of these crafts and activities, please click to see my lesson plans. If you have more ideas for the letter K, please comment and share - I would love to hear them!!
