Lesson of the Day 1

Today's Fun Time is brought to you by the letter A featuring An Ant's World and a Rainbow of colors.

Life Skills: Pouring exercise

Materials needed:

• 2 small pitchers
• Rice or small beans
• Tray

Method:

Place on the tray one pitcher filled with rice and the other empty pitcher or container. Slowly, show your child to pour the full pitcher into the empty one. When he has mastered the technique without spilling you can use water instead of rice.

Math and Reading readiness

This is a great way to teach colors and matching.

Materials needed:

• Red, Yellow, Orange, Blue, Green, Brown, Black, and Purple Paper
  
• 8 Paper Plates

On each Paper Plate cut a circle of each color. Make 2 tickets of each color.

Method:

If your child doesn't know all their colors this is the first step.

Spread the paper plates on a clear area of carpet or a table. Mix up the colored tickets. Give the first ticket to your child and ask them if he can put it on the paper plate that matches it. Continue until all the tickets are matched.
The next step is to teach your child names of the colors.

Take 2 colors he doesn't know. (Example, yellow and green)

STEP ONE

Point to the yellow ticket and say, "This is yellow." Point to the green ticket and say, "This is green."

STEP TWO

Give me yellow. (If your child can do this go to step 3, if not go back to step 1) Give me green.

STEP THREE

Point to the yellow ticket and say, "What color is this?" (If your child can do this you are finished with this lesson, if not go back to step 2).

Add new colors each day.

When teaching new concepts Montessori always does this 3-step method. It is really breaking the learning process down into introducing the new concept, understanding the concept at a concrete level, and finally understanding the concept at an abstract level.

Also, this approach is very positive because you don't need to say the word "no" or "wrong." You just go back to the last step your child knew.

Advanced Color Game

Find objects in the house that are the same color as the plates and see how many colors you can find. Take the kitchen fruit bowl and match the fruit to the colors.

You will find different shades of colors, dark green, lime green, grass green. You can put the colors in order from light to dark as well. A large box of crayons work well for showing different shades of color.

Song Time

You can sing this little song anytime about colors. Sing or chant.

"Ryan is wearing red socks, red socks, red socks, Ryan is wearing red socks all around the town."

"Don is wearing a blue shirt, blue shirt, blue shirt, Don is wearing a blue shirt all day long."

Group Activity

Spread out the different colored paper plates either outside or in a large area. Put all the colored tickets in a bag or a hat. Pull out the colored ticket, the children then shout the color and run to the appropriate plate. The first child to the plate gets your job to pick out the colored ticket out of the bag.

As a prize you can have colored lollipops or balloons for all the players.

Art Project–collage

I like to tear paper before doing cutting exercises.

Materials:

• Thin colored paper, such as newsprint, thin construction paper, or tissue paper.
• Glue stick or homemade paste (mix ½ cup cold water with 1 cup flour).
• Large sheet of construction paper.

Method:

Past torn pieces of paper on the background paper to make a collage.

Introduce the letter "a"

Show the letter "a" and say the short phonetic sound, ask your child to point to the letter "a"(short sound like in "ant") , point to letter "a" and ask, what letter is this? Tell your child what sound "a" makes- short a sound, like in apple.  Many children, who know the names of the letters, are offended when you just do the sound, so it is okay to explain the difference between the letter name and sound. There are children who want to used both the name and sound of the letters.

To reinforce the letter let your child point to the letter and rap or sing to the melody of "Row, row your boat."

When singing this ditty use the short letter sound:

Ah, ah, ah, the ah choo sound, "a" makes an ah choo sound.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, "a" makes an ah choo sound.

If this is simple for the child, add another word with the short "a" sound, such as ant.

Add another letter that has been introduced and do the three period lesson .

Advanced Game-use the amount of letters that will make this interesting and successful for your child.  

Sand letters

Put some sand, sugar or cream of wheat in a square cake pan or box for drawing purposes. Help your child trace the lower case (small) "a" Feel and say the short a sound.

Sing the alphabet song or chant it as follows:

You chant, "a,b,c"-use the phonetic sounds
Your child repeats, "a,b,c,"
Work your way through the whole alphabet. You can break this into sections if going through the whole alphabet is too difficult at first.

Applesauce surprise

Cut and peel some apples. Cook them for 40 minutes or until tender. Cool the apples. Take turns mashing the apples into applesauce. Add a little honey. Put the applesauce in a cup, add crushed cookies or raisins. Eat and enjoy.

Reading Out loud Corner

Here are some great books about ants and color.

• I wonder what it's like to be an ant by Erin Hovanec
• The ants go marching by Geoffrey Hays
• Ants in my pants by Wendy Mould
• The ant: the energetic worker by Cecelia Venn
• What day is it? by Patti Timble
• The And and the Grasshopper by Amy Lowry Pool
• Gus and Button by Saxton Freymann
• What Color is that, Piggywiggy? by Christyan Fox
• Favorite Colors by Marcia Leonard
• I Love Colors by Hans Wilhelm
• Red Hat, Green Hat by LouiseGikow
• The Color Kittens by M. Wise Brown

Spanish Corner

Show a glass of water, say the word water, then the
Spanish word, agua.
Have your child repeat agua.