Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

On Wednesday, Miss K continued her Circle Time lesson on Fire Safety with a very simple yet very effective activity. She printed out a large flame and used masking tape to stick the flame to her shirt. She reminded the kids that if their clothes ever caught fire, they should "Stop, Drop, and Roll."



Then they took turns stopping, dropping, and rolling:



For Independent Work time, I was hoping a Daily Plan would work again after having had so much success with it the day before. As with almost all things, it seems, the second day did not go as well as the first. For starters, when I asked my daughter what she wanted to work on for the day, she glanced at the Practical Life shelf and rattled off the first three things she saw: sorting 3D objects, lacing cards, and open/close boxes. I wrote them down on her list and added Word Drawers 2 and 4, which she still had on her list from the day before, as well as domino math.

She diligently got to work on the domino math while I asked Miss D's son if he would like to make a plan for his day - he said yes. He suggested the 3D Feel & Find Puzzle that he hadn't gotten to finish the day before, as well as the Tool or Toy sort game that Miss K had presented during her Fire Safety lesson and put out on the shelves as an activity. I suggested that we also add the next set of yellow letters, h/u/s/c, which he would sort according to their beginning sound. He agreed and got right to work on the Feel & Find game while Miss C's son and Miss K's daughter worked with the knobless cylinders:



Miss K played I Spy with Miss C's son...



...while my daughter and Miss D's son strayed from their Daily Plans and worked with the binomial and trinomial cubes instead. (My daughter completed her domino math work, and Miss D's son did the entire Feel & Find game, so each of them completed one item on their lists. I told them I would save their lists until Monday. I think the plan is a good idea and gives a great sense of satisfaction as each item is checked off, but it might also feel like something hanging over their heads if there is something on their list that they don't want to do. My own To Do list includes things I put off because I don't want to do them, and when I finally just suck it up and do the thing I'm avoiding, I find that it wasn't that big of a deal at all, and I think that experience is a good one for them to have too. I've gotten some helpful comments about using a plan (thanks!) and I'd love to hear any other opinions on keeping kids on task and also being flexible.)

For Arts & Crafts, Miss K led the kids in making their own fire trucks. Here is Miss D's daughter coloring hers:



For the older kids, Miss K used a white crayon to draw an outline of a tire on black paper, and the kids cut the tires out themselves.





We closed with the "G" story and verse from My ABC Bible Verses: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."