This week, in honor of St. Patrick, I chose rainbows. As I was telling Spencer about how lepraucans are always looking for gold at the end of the rainbow (he thought that was pretty silly since they are in the sky), I was thinking of a way to lead the conversation to the idea that we shouldn't chase after money, but find peace and happiness in God. I was reminded of Peter's words in Acts 3, where he told the lame man, Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” I would love to make a card St Patrick's Day card with this theme, encouraging the recipient to find peace in God. Maybe one day.
A broad theme like rainbows leaves a lot of room for ideas, so I may have planned more than I could reasonably do with a three year old, expecially considering that he chose today to display his more-three-than-I-can-handle side. We may try a few more things tomorrow, but at least he got the concept. Here are a few things we did and some of the goals I had:
Reading/Writing/Organizing
Make a rainbow book: cut Red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
and purple sheets in staggered heights. Write the name of the colors on the top
of the sheets (so when they are stacked, you can see all the names). Spread
out.
·
Allow child to practice writing the names of the
colors on their pages.
·
Sort the pages by size (making sure you can see
all of the names of the color).
·
Staple or tape rainbow together to use as
reference the rest of the day.
I made the mistake of writing the letters in lower case, which he doesn't really write with, and this caused all kinds of problems...along with a little sister who like to help a little too much. But, we did get it finished (I had to finish taping it during his
Writing, Creativity
Rainbow art: Use a tray and spread a little of each rainbow
color to make a rainbow. Use sponge brushes or fingers to spread the paint out.
·
Make rainbow handprints onto construction paper.
·
Make a rainbow print by putting construction
paper directly onto the paint on the tray.
·
Practice making letters with a Q-tip or fingers,
using a craft stick to clear away the lines between.
He didn't do a great job of making the rainbow, it would have been better if I had squirt bottles to place them a little better, but he did love painting with q-tips, and he liked making letters, although he insisted he had a friend named OEL (pronounced like Noel, without the N)...then he spelled it backwards, making LEO. Whatever...
Colors, fine motor skills
M&M Rainbow: Print out the rainbow
template here: http://www.teachpreschool.org/2012/03/the-4-rs-reading-writing-arithmetic-and-rainbows/.
Have the child put the correct color M&M (or skittle) into the spaces-then
EAT THEM!!! (you can see we had finished the M&M project in the above picture and were eating them while we painted).
Color your Lunch: we found food items to eat for lunch that were the colors of the rainbow. If I had thought ahead, I might have found a blue food, but a little food coloring does amazing things! Can you spot all of the colors?
Can chicken nuggets count as yellow? In our house, they can!
Then, we decided to do a Small,Medium, Large matching...
Throughout the day, I worked on making our playroom a little more Montessori-esque. A place for everything and everything in it's place! One toy/theme per cubby. Of course, my closet (see the door on the left) is now packed, but at least it is behind a door! These are our more "educational" toys. The ones on the top are more for Spencer-what we call his "special games."
And this sits under out TV. A shelf for Annabelle and a shelf for Spencer. Matt says it looks like a parking lot, except for the house-and a purse we found at an estate sale today-I couldn't put it away yet, we just got it. One thing at a time, here!
So, despite a little but of what I like to call a "attitude malfuntion" at the grocery store (that's another post in and of itself) and really throughout the day, it looks like we still got a lot done!
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