Preschool -- Dd

Xander is 3 and starting preschool this year. As part of his education and social development, I'm participating in a preschool swap with some of the other ladies in my ward. We take turns having all the kids over and teaching the lesson. There are 6 kids (5 boys and 1 girl) ranging from 2-4 years old. This week was my week and I was responsible for teaching the kids the letter Dd. The following are my lesson plans for the week.

Tuesday

The Letter D

Objectives: Be able to recognize the letter D (capital and lowercase). Be able to make the “D” sound and identify several words that start with D.

As the kids are arriving, I had the letter people DVD playing, "Meet Mr. D"

Opening activity: Children take turns picking objects from my bag and determining if it starts with a D or not. (Ex. Dog, Duck, Doughnuts, Dinosaur, Diamond, Dress, Doll, Dump truck)

Art Project: “D is for…” sponge painting

(This was my sample. After trying it out beforehand, my husband and I decided that my dog was unrecognizable so I made a better sponge for dog.)

Story Time: Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller Detective Dog and the Disappearing Doughnuts by Valerie Garfield

Snack: Delicious Donuts!

Doughnut Dance: play Mr. D song

After Tuesday, I realized that the kids have very short attention spans. Although I thought I had too much planned, we finished before the hour was up and the kids ended up playing with toys until the mom's picked them up. Thursday's lesson plan was much more involved as a result.

Thursday

Circle time: Sing songs; Look Who Came to School Today
(tune: Mary Had A Little Lamb)

Look who came to school today
School today, school today
Look who came to school today,
_____ (child's name) did.

5 Green and speckled frogs, 5 little monkeys swinging in the trees

Opener: Children find the word strip with their name on it. Then they can take it to the table and glue beans on the letters.

(I copied this activity from Xander's other preschool. He does much better at staying on task and finishing projects when mom is not the teacher, so this was his project from the other class.)

Fish: Go fishing for letters (identify whether it’s a capital or lowercase Dd).

Science Experiment: Sink/Float Have the children take turns putting objects into a tub of water. Place the objects on a T-chart in either the “sink column” or the “float column.”

Story time: Read Dinosaurumpus! by Tony Mitton

Craft: lower case d with a dinosaur behind the door. Skills [coloring, cutting, gluing, sticker].

(This idea I stole from "No time for flashcards." The button is in the right column of my blog. She has a great website dedicated to activities for your little one! I highly recommend checking it out!)

Snack: Jell-o jigglers cut into dinosaur shapes.

I was much happier with the second day of preschool. The kids were attentive and excited. We also used up all 60 minutes. I can't wait for the next time I teach because now I know what to expect.

Milestones and things...

I haven't posted about the kids for a while, so here's the low down.

Tayla: The vampire teeth have come through, finally! It's been a crabby couple of weeks as she's been getting these teeth. It seems like she hasn't gotten teeth for a long time, so these surprised her with pain she probably doesn't remember having experienced.

Tayla is starting to put words together. Last night it was an adjective with a noun: "big stick." Then she surprised us with her first sentence last night! "Iawnta book" (I want a book.) She's starting to learn colors and letters.

Preschool has been hardest on her (and she's not the one going, Xander is.) She used to cry everytime we dropped him off. Then she'd wander around the house looking for him..."nanner, nanner, are you?" But the separation has been a good thing. Now she immediately starts jabbering when we drop off Xander; as if she hasn't been able to get a word in with him around.

Xander: Started preschool. He loves it, and I've already noticed a big difference in what he's learned! One morning I was laying in bed, when I heard Xander yelling at Tayla so she'd wake up. The next thing I hear is him singing song after song to Tayla; 5 monkeys swinging in the trees, ABC's, itsy bitsy spider. I could never get him to sing to me before! And here he was singing to his sister. He just melts my heart.
Xander also has a newfound love of corn on the cob! He eats a lot of it too. Good job son!

We've been enjoying these warm September days! We only have been to every playground in town, except for one. We'll probably check it out next week. We picniced in our backyard on a day Curtis had off. It was very pleasant.

Marathon 9/5/2009

Here's how my marathon went:

2 days beforehand I got a cold. I lost my voice and everything. I still had junk in my sinuses and lungs. Not ideal, but I still ran.

4:45am I wake up to get ready.
5:20am I catch the bus to take me to the starting line.

I'm figuring I have a lot of time because the race isn't until 6:15. So I get in line for the port-a-potty (The port-t-potties were literally lined up in someones pasture, only in Idaho right?) Just before I get in the port-a-potty I get a 5 minute warning until race time. When I get out I take off my long-sleeved shirt and put my bag in the truck to be taken to the finish line. By then I have like 2 minutes. So I try to find a spot where I won't get trampled at the start. I do a couple of stretches, but don't really have time to do much. Then BANG -- the race starts.

Mile 1: is a steep downhill. I didn't see the point in using energy to slow myself down, so I let the hill take me down. I probably went too fast, because I passed nearly everyone. But it felt sooooo good to be running free!
Mile 2: I settle into my pace. Everyone begins to pass me.
Mile 3: I'm thinking where is the first aid station. There's supposed to be like 15 of them, shouldn't I be passing one soon?
Mile 4: A group of girls catch up to me and I think, I can keep up with them. I pace with them for a mile, but soon they pass me for good. A guy in a red hat, realizes it's my first marathon and give me some advice. "When you can't run, just keep walking, or crawling to the finish line."
Mile 5: There was this horse in the pasture going crazy as all of us ran past. He was sprinting from one end of his enclosure to the other. He was fun to watch.
Mile 6: I notice, that my gluts have cramped up and it hurts. I want to stop a stretch, but no one even stops running at the aid stations. So I keep running.
Mile 7: I can't take it anymore I stop and hang stretch to try and fix my gluts and hamstrings. But to no avail...they are too tight.
Mile 8: The man in white, grabs me and keeps me from stopping at the aid station so he can give me advice. He'd noticed that I was cramped up and told me I was over-pronating, therefore wasting energy. So he helped me refine my stride.
Mile 9: I stop at the aid station and get 2 cups of Powerade.
Mile 10: I realize that by straightening out my stride, I am beginning to get blisters on my arches like I did when I first bought these cheap shoes. So I go back to running how I normally do.
Mile 11: Past by quickly.
Mile 12: I take some IB Profin. Stopped and stretched some more. Just trying to get comfortable before spectators can start watching.
Mile 13: Halfway!!!! My butt hurts so much, that I really have no idea how I'm going to finish.
Mile 14: I run with another girl. Curtis finds me and continues to follow me for the remainder of the race. The kids get out with signs they made for mommy. It was so adorable and quite distracting. I told a couple of runners that those are my kids; I was so proud.
Mile 15: The first aid station with bananas and oranges. I take an orange slice and keep running.
Mile 16: I hit the WALL!!! I realize that I needed some food -- bananas would have been great (potassium helps with cramps). Oops, it's gonna be a while before an aid station has bananas. (I the next one will be at mile 19!)
Mile 17: I get lightheaded, my fingers are numb, I feel like I'm going to pass out at any moment. I send Curtis out to get me some much needed food.
Mile 18: This other runner gives me a "salt pill" and some mustard. I said I'd save it for later, but I actually never took his no name pill. Weirdo!
Mile 19: I cried! I ate three piece of banana! I drank! Hope was restored. And I took off running strong and caught up to the pack in the next mile.
Mile 20: Curtis got me a power bar and I devoured it very quickly.
Mile 21: Not a bad mile for me.
Mile 22: I start counting down. 4 miles left!
Mile 23: I took some more IB Profin, just because I was offered it. That's what I like about the marathon. There is no shame in taking pills in order to finish. It makes me laugh.
Mile 24: I know I can make it. There were encouraging people cheering me on.
Mile 25: I pick up the pace, running as fast as I can, so I can finish strong.
Mile 26.2: FINISH!!! Again, I cried! It was an AWESOME feeling to finish! I got my medal. There was a lot of food at the finish line for me to partake. My time was 5 hours 13 minutes.I would compare the feeling to delivering a baby. As soon as you cross the finish line, you forget all the pain you had to go through to get there. Your body will feel it and remind you that you've been through an ordeal, but your mind will only tell you that it was worth it.

2 days later, I feel much better. I've stopped taking drugs and I can walk without drawing too much attention.

Book Club: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Tracy Chevalier fictionalizes a story behind this painting. I loved this book! It takes us into the life of a 16-year old girl in the 1600's who must work as a maid to support her family. The story-line was very interesting.

Griet, the young maid, has interesting philosophies about virtuous women. They don't open their mouths in paintings, nor do they let their hair show. Griet changes while working for this Catholic family and finds herself compromising her character. Do you ever find yourself impressionable, doing things because someone else wants you to do them? Griet struggles to find the balance between keeping her values and politely following orders. She hangs on the fence between her work life and her personal life until finally she falls.

"I ran...Only thieves and children run. I reached the center of the square and stopped in the circle of tiles with the eight-pointed star in the middle. Each point indicated a direction I could take...I stood in the circle, turning round and round as I thought. When I made my choice, the choice I knew I had to make, I set my feet carefully along the edge of the point and went the way it told me, walking steadily."

This is a beautiful coming-of-age story as Griet figures out which direction she believes her life must go. There is love, deciet, passion, suspense, hatred and much more. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this elegant novel! I highly recommend Girl with a Pearl Earring.