S Week

 S week started with lots of sunshine and spring-like weather.  We had fun swinging and singing “Mister Sun” on these beautiful days.  I do have to admit that when the weather is so nice outside, I have a hard time focusing on school time and just want to go outside with my girls.  We did rush through school time several days so that we could sit on the deck and paint, sing, watch the birds, or just talk.  I’m trying to enjoy this time outdoors before the mosquitoes invade our backyard.

          On Monday, Brooklyn glued her S snake onto a piece of paper and added some brown stripes to him.  She also did her dot S picture.  Then we went outside to enjoy the sunshine!

         Tuesday was all about sunflowers.  Brooklyn loved the “A Sunflower Grows” poem so we acted that out several times together.  I showed her pictures of real sunflowers and we talked about how they look similar to the sun.  We sat outside on the deck, and Brooklyn used a sponge to paint a piece of paper yellow.  She also painted a green stem, leaves, and grass onto a second piece of paper.  Once it was dry, I cut petals out of the yellow painted paper.  I then drew a circle above the stem on the second piece of paper.  Brooklyn used the circle as her guide to glue the petals around.  Lastly, we filled the circle with elmer’s glue, and Brooklyn added seeds to the middle of her sunflower.  (I realized I had forgotten to get sunflower seeds so she used beans instead.)  We ended up getting carried away playing outside and forgot to do the sun activities, so we decided to save them for another day.  

         We went to MOPS of Wednesday and didn’t do school.

         On Thursday we started off by doing our sun, shade, and shadow activities. We went outside in the morning and traced our shadows onto the driveway with sidewalk chalk. I did hers first, then she insisted on tracing mine too.  A few hours later, we went back outside, stood in the same spot and discovered that our shadows had moved and gotten smaller.  I explained how the earth moves around the sun and how the sun rises on one side of our house in the mornings and sets on the other side at night.  We also talked about what makes a shadow.  I explained that when we block the sun, or light, it can’t go through us so it goes around us to make a shadow.  Later, we made a spider in his web.  I painted Brooklyn’s hands (excluding her thumbs) black and stamped them onto the back of a paper plate - palms together.  Once it was dry, Brooklyn stuck on two googly eyes.  I punched holes around the outside of the plate and gave Brooklyn some yarn.  I taped one end of the yarn to make it easier for her to put through the holes.  She then strung the yarn through the holes, crossing over the spider in the middle of the plate - to form a web.  We also enjoyed singing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and reading The Very Busy Spider.  We waited to do the sink or float activity during bathtime that night.  We enjoyed observing how boats and empty measuring cups float but washcloths and a few bath toys sink.  

The outline of her shadow around 10:00 am...

...a few hours later, her shadow had moved! 

         On Friday we read the story about Hannah and how she prayed for a baby.  We talked about how she promised God that if He gave her a baby, she would give it back to Him.  We read how God gave Hannah a baby boy named Samuel, and when he was old enough, he went to live in the temple with Eli.  We also read about how God called Samuel in the night and how Samuel was a good listener every time he was called.  Brooklyn then colored her picture of Samuel.  

For details and instructions of these crafts and activities, please click to see my lesson plans. If you have more ideas for the letter S, please comment and share - I would love to hear them!!