Fun Friday~ {It's A ZOO Around Here!}

Earlier this week EK and SJ took one little section in our Apologia Science book

and went ZOO wild with it.

They immediately began making zoo keepers and visitors.

Their dad took them to Walmart for supplies and found a board to build on

and Today they created All! Day! Long!

They collected all the animals they could find in their room,

built all the exhibits, copied info about all the animals~

 and BOOM... their own Zoo~

 A few closeup photos of each area complete with signs and info boards~

I had them give me a tour while I videoed and think they did amazingly well~

The other kiddos ran back and forth checking out the progress

then back to their Fun Friday activities...

Listening to stories, making amazing Art projects~

 Playing with the Kinetic Sand which we LOVE!!!~

Turned out to be one of the best Fun Fridays ever!!!

This and That this Week~

Science~

I know I've said it before and now again...

The girls LOVE Apologia Exploring Creation with Zoology!

 I save it for last each day as it motivates them to move along so they can get to it!

Writing~

I have always believed writing to be a direct correlation to reading and vice versa.

As we began SJ's kindergarten year this year I had her draw anything she wanted and dictate to me. 

Really she was doing this last year. 

After the first week or so I would still write down her dictation but left space for her to copy underneath.

The next step was writing on her own by sounding out and I do this using magic lines.

Magic lines are just lines I draw to represent each word she says... giving her a visual for what she will write.

I think the gradual procession through these steps has been a super smooth transition because she comes to writing workshop ready to write~ (bottom photo)

You can see from the photos on top the boys are drawing and dictating each day too.

I drew a shape today on their paper and they used it to make something... trucks of course.

After drawing and coloring (have to use 5 colors because they are 5), I have them tell me about their story and I write the words.

They trace what I write and can {Read} them back to me.

Writing Rocks!!!

 Preschool Drawers~

I had an activity in which the boys and Evie would cut out 4 toys they wished for for Christmas and glue onto a sectioned paper plate...

the big girls couldn't resist doing it too.

I did have them label their toys and they had to find more than their age~

I also made it clear we wouldn't be getting all these amazing things... just wishing.

AND from the last photo in the collage I guess you can see Evie did a little hair salon work today.

{Luckily can't tell where and I am thankful!}

The boys absolutly LOVED the Build a City game today:

They rolled a die, counted the dots, built a building with unifix cubes, and placed on their street~

SO much good language went on with this activity!

"I rolled a 4" (picks up 2 and says "need 2 more".

Pretty sure that is addition and they don't even know it.

Also "This building is taller" or "shorter"...

I think the cool thing was by the end of their street, they were recognizing the dots without having to count.

SUPER Job boys!!!