The Graduates!
 |
| Emily |
 |
| Isabel |
 |
| Eve |
 |
| Grant |
 |
| Kai |
 |
| Joseph |
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Year End Review - Day 2
Our last day of Joy School! Six little wild things showed up at our house. It was difficult to get everyone settled down, but once I did we had another fun-packed review-of-the-year day. Joseph gave us the exciting announcement that his little brother was born yesterday on May 18. We were all very excited for him and his family and can't wait to see little Charlie.
After welcome and weather, we practiced a song the students will sing at their graduation. It's an easy song and I hope they will all remember it for Saturday. We then had a story from the lesson manual in review of the "Joy of Trust & Confidence" unit called "Sally and the Spid
er." The story is about a little girl who is afraid to try something for fear she may not be good at it. She then sees a little spider who falls from his web and tries multiple times before he is successful in getting back to his web. Watching the spider encourages Sally to try new things, even if they appear hard at first. After the story, we had three little girls who wanted to each say something they thought was hard at first but that they can do well now. Emily said she practiced for a long time to snap her fingers, which she can do well now; Eve said she tried the monkey bars and can do them; and, Isabel said she can climb the rope bridge that she was initially afraid of. We finished the story with a quick art project in which everyone made a spider to help them remember to not be afraid to try.
After "Sally and the Spider" we did a journal entry which was a lesson in obedience and trust in following directions as review of both the "Joy of Obedience & Decisions" unit and the "Joy of Trust & Confidence" unit. I drew something and they were each supposed to copy exactly into their journals what I drew, until the completed drawing was an alligator. Joseph expressed some frustration at not being able to do his drawing perfectly. I told him he was doing a great job and that the most important thing was that he was doing his best. I was very impressed with all of the finished products.
We put away the journals and pro
ceeded to prepare our own snack, which was a make-your-own pizza. The Joy School students all thoroughly enjoyed making the dough into individual little, flat, disks and then adding the individual toppings. This was also a review of of the "Joy of Obedience & Decisions" unit in that they all made decisions about how to press the dough and what toppings they would like. None of them were too adventurous and all their pizzas were either cheese or cheese and pepperoni. While the pizzas cooked, the Joy Schoolers had some free play running around in the yard. We then ate our snack and added to the pizza some grapes, goldfish and pirate's booty.
After snack, we read "Diary of a Spider." Everyone seemed to enjoy the story about what happens in the life of a spider. We then played with live ladybugs. These things were review of the "Joy of Interest & Curiosity" unit. The Joy Schoolers were delighted (except for Eve & Emily) to let the ladybugs crawl all over them. They were all excited that they would be taking a few ladybugs home with them.
We came back inside for two stories in review of the "Joy of Family Security, Identity & Pride" unit. We read "Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born" and "When I Was Little." Both stories are about the importance of family and discuss the different dynamics of family life.
We finished our day with reading Dr. Suess' "The Sneetches" which was review of the "Joy of Individual Confidence & Uniqueness" unit. This story is about two groups of characters, ones with stars and ones without, and about how they come to understand that we don't want to all be the same and that differences are good.
As the students were picked up they found in their cubbies gift bags containing the supplies they have used throughout the year and their journals. This was review of the "Joy of Spontaneous Delight" unit. They were all delighted to receive them.
After welcome and weather, we practiced a song the students will sing at their graduation. It's an easy song and I hope they will all remember it for Saturday. We then had a story from the lesson manual in review of the "Joy of Trust & Confidence" unit called "Sally and the Spid
er." The story is about a little girl who is afraid to try something for fear she may not be good at it. She then sees a little spider who falls from his web and tries multiple times before he is successful in getting back to his web. Watching the spider encourages Sally to try new things, even if they appear hard at first. After the story, we had three little girls who wanted to each say something they thought was hard at first but that they can do well now. Emily said she practiced for a long time to snap her fingers, which she can do well now; Eve said she tried the monkey bars and can do them; and, Isabel said she can climb the rope bridge that she was initially afraid of. We finished the story with a quick art project in which everyone made a spider to help them remember to not be afraid to try.After "Sally and the Spider" we did a journal entry which was a lesson in obedience and trust in following directions as review of both the "Joy of Obedience & Decisions" unit and the "Joy of Trust & Confidence" unit. I drew something and they were each supposed to copy exactly into their journals what I drew, until the completed drawing was an alligator. Joseph expressed some frustration at not being able to do his drawing perfectly. I told him he was doing a great job and that the most important thing was that he was doing his best. I was very impressed with all of the finished products.
We put away the journals and pro
ceeded to prepare our own snack, which was a make-your-own pizza. The Joy School students all thoroughly enjoyed making the dough into individual little, flat, disks and then adding the individual toppings. This was also a review of of the "Joy of Obedience & Decisions" unit in that they all made decisions about how to press the dough and what toppings they would like. None of them were too adventurous and all their pizzas were either cheese or cheese and pepperoni. While the pizzas cooked, the Joy Schoolers had some free play running around in the yard. We then ate our snack and added to the pizza some grapes, goldfish and pirate's booty.
After snack, we read "Diary of a Spider." Everyone seemed to enjoy the story about what happens in the life of a spider. We then played with live ladybugs. These things were review of the "Joy of Interest & Curiosity" unit. The Joy Schoolers were delighted (except for Eve & Emily) to let the ladybugs crawl all over them. They were all excited that they would be taking a few ladybugs home with them.
We came back inside for two stories in review of the "Joy of Family Security, Identity & Pride" unit. We read "Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born" and "When I Was Little." Both stories are about the importance of family and discuss the different dynamics of family life.
We finished our day with reading Dr. Suess' "The Sneetches" which was review of the "Joy of Individual Confidence & Uniqueness" unit. This story is about two groups of characters, ones with stars and ones without, and about how they come to understand that we don't want to all be the same and that differences are good.
As the students were picked up they found in their cubbies gift bags containing the supplies they have used throughout the year and their journals. This was review of the "Joy of Spontaneous Delight" unit. They were all delighted to receive them.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Year End Review - Day 1
We started the day with rainy weather and active kids. Then Joy Boy made an appearance to explain to the children that this is their last week of Joy School and that over the next two days we will be reviewing all of the units we have studied throughout the year. Everyone of course loves to see Joy Boy.
The first task we did was to color our crowns, which the children will all wear for their graduation on Saturday. They all seemed very excited about the graduation. Everyone had a fun time coloring and decorating their crowns. During the project we talked about "Joy of Honesty & Candor." We played a little game while they worked on their crowns in which I gave them a series of scenarios and they responded with how they would feel. I asked them things like: "How would you feel if . . . 'you heard a strange noise outside', 'you want something but your mom won't buy it for you', 'your dad brings home a surprise for you', or 'you do something nice for someone.'" They all really seemed to like the "game." After that, Joseph started talking about how he felt when he got a shot at the doctor's office. This intro made every single one of them want to talk about their "shot" experiences at the doctor's office.
We then read a book about nocturnal animals, which Emily told everyone that this means they do not sleep at night. We had a lot of fun making the animal sounds as we read the book.
After the book we talked about "The Joy of the Body" unit and we looked at a little human skeleton replica. At first a couple of the girls pretended to be squeamish looking at the skeleton and organs, but after a couple of minutes everyone was clamoring for a turn to take a closer look at the skeleton and touch the little internal organs.
It was time for snack. As part of the snack, we integrated some letter review, the "Joy of Communication & Relationships" unit and the "Joy of Sharing and Service" unit. I was really impressed by how much everyone remembers from the units. I reminded them that at Joseph's house they had talked about and done a little turkey project in which they discussed good communication words and asked if they remembered what any of those were. Immediately Eve, Emily and Joseph gave us examples of "pardon me," "may I" and "please" respectively. Then Isabel remembered "thank you" and Grant gave us " you're welcome." Kai remembered "excuse me." Emily also started combining a couple into "may I please." All of these good communication words I encouraged them to use throughout snack. So, snack started with going over the first letters of each child's first and last name. Most of them knew what these were and Joseph and Isabel both wanted to spell out their whole names for me. Then, I brought out the snacks, which I had picked to correspond with their initials (some of the letters were a little hard to find in snack form). The child who had the corresponding initial would "share" the snack with her friends, by asking if they would like some of that snack. The child getting the snack was supposed to say "yes, please" and "thank you." We accomplished a very polite snack time. Some of the things we ate were grapes and goldfish for G (Grant), raspberries and ritz crackers for R (Robertson), juice and jellybeans for J (Joseph and Johnston), fruit for F (Fantozzi) and Hostess mini cupcakes for H (Hesen). They had fun coming up with the letter of each food and the corresponding person. They all ate everything and especially had seconds on goldfish crackers, strawberries and grapes.
After snack, we proceeded with our "Joy of the Earth" project which was to plant tomato plants in little pots. The rain had
cleared enough for us to go outside (with coats and shoes) to plant our tomatoes. Everyone jumped right in to put their hands in the soil to fill their pots. Joseph especially seemed to like getting his hands dirty. Everyone was very proud of their potted tomato plant. And, they were all happy to get a little bit of outside time on this rainy day.
We came back inside for our final project of the fun-packed day which was to put rubber bands on tee shirts for tie dyeing. Each of the children placed their rubber bands, which I helped them get tight and picked out the colors that their shirts would be dyed. I was actually a little surprised because
I thought they would all want to have every color, but all three of the boys only wanted one color on their shirts (Grant - green, Kai - red, and Joseph -yellow) and the girls only picked out a couple of colors for theirs (Eve - purple and pink, Emily - red, purple and blue, and Isabel - purple, pink and red). After the dye sets and the shirts are washed, the parents can see their finished product. We did the tie dyeing project as review of the "Joy of Imagination & Creativity" unit. They should all be very unique and beautiful shirts.
Everyone was apparently famished today (I guess the rain does that), so all the children opted to have a "second snack" for the last 15 minutes of the day instead of play time. As they sat at second snack we reviewed their goals from the "Joy of Order & Goal Striving" unit. Everyone perfectly remembered what their goals were (which was all the way from January). However, most of them informed me that their goals had changed since then. Emily told me her original goal was to help with the laundry, but that her new goal was to braid hair. Eve and Isabel (who seemed to be the only two sticking with their originals) told me their goal was to memorize their phone numbers, which they recited to me. Joseph told me his original goal was to write his name, but his new goal was to help take out the trash. Kai told me his original goal was to try and sit still, but his new goal was to help with the laundry. Grant told me his original goal was also to write his name, but that his two current goals were to practice writing his name and to be good so that he can play outside.
Our packed day came to an end and I look forward to finishing our review on Thursday, which will hopefully be sunny and warm so we can be outside more.
The first task we did was to color our crowns, which the children will all wear for their graduation on Saturday. They all seemed very excited about the graduation. Everyone had a fun time coloring and decorating their crowns. During the project we talked about "Joy of Honesty & Candor." We played a little game while they worked on their crowns in which I gave them a series of scenarios and they responded with how they would feel. I asked them things like: "How would you feel if . . . 'you heard a strange noise outside', 'you want something but your mom won't buy it for you', 'your dad brings home a surprise for you', or 'you do something nice for someone.'" They all really seemed to like the "game." After that, Joseph started talking about how he felt when he got a shot at the doctor's office. This intro made every single one of them want to talk about their "shot" experiences at the doctor's office.
After the book we talked about "The Joy of the Body" unit and we looked at a little human skeleton replica. At first a couple of the girls pretended to be squeamish looking at the skeleton and organs, but after a couple of minutes everyone was clamoring for a turn to take a closer look at the skeleton and touch the little internal organs.
It was time for snack. As part of the snack, we integrated some letter review, the "Joy of Communication & Relationships" unit and the "Joy of Sharing and Service" unit. I was really impressed by how much everyone remembers from the units. I reminded them that at Joseph's house they had talked about and done a little turkey project in which they discussed good communication words and asked if they remembered what any of those were. Immediately Eve, Emily and Joseph gave us examples of "pardon me," "may I" and "please" respectively. Then Isabel remembered "thank you" and Grant gave us " you're welcome." Kai remembered "excuse me." Emily also started combining a couple into "may I please." All of these good communication words I encouraged them to use throughout snack. So, snack started with going over the first letters of each child's first and last name. Most of them knew what these were and Joseph and Isabel both wanted to spell out their whole names for me. Then, I brought out the snacks, which I had picked to correspond with their initials (some of the letters were a little hard to find in snack form). The child who had the corresponding initial would "share" the snack with her friends, by asking if they would like some of that snack. The child getting the snack was supposed to say "yes, please" and "thank you." We accomplished a very polite snack time. Some of the things we ate were grapes and goldfish for G (Grant), raspberries and ritz crackers for R (Robertson), juice and jellybeans for J (Joseph and Johnston), fruit for F (Fantozzi) and Hostess mini cupcakes for H (Hesen). They had fun coming up with the letter of each food and the corresponding person. They all ate everything and especially had seconds on goldfish crackers, strawberries and grapes.
After snack, we proceeded with our "Joy of the Earth" project which was to plant tomato plants in little pots. The rain had
cleared enough for us to go outside (with coats and shoes) to plant our tomatoes. Everyone jumped right in to put their hands in the soil to fill their pots. Joseph especially seemed to like getting his hands dirty. Everyone was very proud of their potted tomato plant. And, they were all happy to get a little bit of outside time on this rainy day.
We came back inside for our final project of the fun-packed day which was to put rubber bands on tee shirts for tie dyeing. Each of the children placed their rubber bands, which I helped them get tight and picked out the colors that their shirts would be dyed. I was actually a little surprised because
I thought they would all want to have every color, but all three of the boys only wanted one color on their shirts (Grant - green, Kai - red, and Joseph -yellow) and the girls only picked out a couple of colors for theirs (Eve - purple and pink, Emily - red, purple and blue, and Isabel - purple, pink and red). After the dye sets and the shirts are washed, the parents can see their finished product. We did the tie dyeing project as review of the "Joy of Imagination & Creativity" unit. They should all be very unique and beautiful shirts.Everyone was apparently famished today (I guess the rain does that), so all the children opted to have a "second snack" for the last 15 minutes of the day instead of play time. As they sat at second snack we reviewed their goals from the "Joy of Order & Goal Striving" unit. Everyone perfectly remembered what their goals were (which was all the way from January). However, most of them informed me that their goals had changed since then. Emily told me her original goal was to help with the laundry, but that her new goal was to braid hair. Eve and Isabel (who seemed to be the only two sticking with their originals) told me their goal was to memorize their phone numbers, which they recited to me. Joseph told me his original goal was to write his name, but his new goal was to help take out the trash. Kai told me his original goal was to try and sit still, but his new goal was to help with the laundry. Grant told me his original goal was also to write his name, but that his two current goals were to practice writing his name and to be good so that he can play outside.
Our packed day came to an end and I look forward to finishing our review on Thursday, which will hopefully be sunny and warm so we can be outside more.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
The Joy of Family Security, Identity, and Pride--Day 2
As the kids arrived today they played house for a while until we started circle time. Kai brought the share bag today--a soccer ball. We sang Mother's day songs for music time, and the kids pretended to be picking flowers and giving them to their mothers while we sang I Often Go Walking. Somehow during storytime the subject of Halloween came up and everyone had to go around and say what they were for Halloween. When it was Kai's turn, he had a faraway look on his face, and then he said, "I'm trying to decide who I'm going to marry. Maybe Emily or Isabel." I told him he had a few years to get that figured out! After storytime and snack, the kids played outside. I was very impressed that the entire group spontaneously played together the entire time. I think it was Kai who came up with the game for the boys to save the princesses with swords. All of the kids were really into it. There were "damsels in distress" collapsed all over the floor while the boys ran around with swords defending them. It was very cute to see them all play so well together. I took them aside one by one to have them write their Mother's Day cards. It was cute to hear & record their responses to the questions. During the lessons we played "Name that Baby". All of the baby pictures were so adorable posted up together on the board! We guessed who each baby was, then that child got to hold up their family picture and tell us who was in it. We then finished our Mother's Day gifts, which they were so excited to present to you! Happy Mother's day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)