The K Girls~

Here are just a few of the discovery things I have set up for the girls this week~

No expectations and great results!!!

Kindergarten Girls FIAR Routine~

With 5 different levels being taught in our school this year, it is important to simplify. For the K girls I am using Before Five in a Row first and will move on to FIAR. For now I have a basket of books and the girls take turns choosing a book. We read, narrate the story, talk about our favorite parts, and go to journals.

This week they have chosen The Carrot Seed: They drew a carrot plant in position to the ground and a self portrait~

The Big Green Pocketbook: I printed a green pocketbook and the items that went inside so we could retell the story~

Kittens for Keeps: We had a cat drawing lesson and they watercolored it~

Corduroy: We used my Creative Memories things to punch circles then made our own Corduroy. I had them tell me their favorite part and I wrote for them~

They have loved having a new story each day and it is easy to get a little activity together for them.

We will continue this routine until we finish all of the books then switch over to FIAR spending more time on each book. 

AND THIS is why I am so diligent to blog what we do as a family and at school~

Our 2015-16 School Blog book came today and they LOVED it!

I promise these blog books are chosen every single day and Calla even found herself in this book!

Worth every single penny!!!

Nursery Rhyming Kinders~

One of the best things I've done with the Kinder girls is introducing Nursery Rhymes~

I introduce a new one each week and every DAY they ask if they can read THEIR books!

If they THINK they can read, they CAN!

Memorizing and then reciting is part of the reading process.

Good job bitty girls... you ARE readers!!!

Letter Work for the Bitty Girls~

Learning the alphabet and letter sounds is the foundation of reading

so making this potential boring skill fun is critical.

All my littles have loved The Letter Factory videos so I put it on for the bitties~

and they watched as they built words with Melissa and Doug game.

I also revamped their salt box using a M&D tray from lacing activity~

I bagged up the lacing cards and colored the bottom of the tray with smelly markers.

It is both colorful and smells yummy!

I also made ABC cards with smelly markers too and they love writing again!

More letter work ideas coming soon!!!

The Kindergarten Girls~ {Curriculum}

The bitty girls are beginning their first year of Kindergarten

and as I chatted with a friend from Texas about homeschooling our kids,

I mentioned maybe schooling the K girls when they came down for the morning.

They are up about 7am and willing to engage so why not?

Amber agreed and I jumped right in Thursday morning!

I NEED my morning time so I got up @ 5:30, had my quiet time and yoga,

then I heard the bitties heading down the stairs right after 7.

I had already set up the table in the sunroom for them

and as soon as we hugged and filled love tanks,

we headed to the table~

 I had their Journals opened with name written and line underneath.

They traced over and copied on the line.

Today we practiced drawing a house and wrote the word.

I love Kumon books and the girls worked on the cut and paste one.

I am using Before Five in a Row with the girls this year and this week it has been The Blue Boat.

I read the book each day and by mid week the girls are reading along with me.

They also practiced letter formation with Handwriting Without Tears~

To make letter sounds a little more fun and 'hands on', we are making alphabet handprint art each day~

 Evie LOVES painting her own hand!

For math, we used unifix cubes to practice counting sets and making patterns~

 I am also using some little Scholastic readers to teach the girls Nursery Rhymes

and they are learning many emergent readers skills.

Some of the others are joining right in when they get up each morning too~

The best part of this whole thing is having the Ks done before breakfast

and the rest of their day free for their choosing.

{They do come and go into the school room especially if I am reading a story

or working on a project and we are happy to have them!!!}