Feelings and the Letter H

*Hh*

Let's just say we had PLENTY of opportunities to discuss our bible verse this week, but I'll talk more about that in my Raising Rock Stars post.

Letter of the Week

Our letter this week was "Hh". Our primary H words were hippo, hearts, hands, and Halloween. We did our routine weekly stuff from Hooked on Phonics and workbooks. 

Cricket did both the capital and lower case collage pages from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

I think I'm going to have to revise our sign language lesson. Cricket is getting the letters, but meaning and usage seems to be lost.

Math

Cricket worked on the number 7 this week, and she did a really good job of writing this one.

I gave Cricket the counting bear manipulatives (I scooped up at a consignment sale for a dollar) and she immediately sorted them by color. Then I gave her a big number 7 and had her pick out and place 7 bears on the 7. Cricket enjoyed this and repeated it with a second color. 

Cricket did a cut and paste hexagon, that she did an awesome job cutting out. She is now grasping the scissor correctly and cutting well (with occasional reminders to turn the paper). We also discussed the shape of the hexagon and counted the number of sides.

 Fire Safety

Cricket did a worksheet on thing that are hot and we discussed the danger in them. We were also lucky enough to be at the library for the fire department's fire safety presentation. The kids had the awesome experience of watching a video projected onto the ceiling, unintentionally but fun to them. The firemen were really great. They reviewed stop, drop, and roll and they did something I had never thought of. They had one fireman get into complete gear and turn on his oxygen, so the kids could see and hear what he was like to ease any fears. Let me tell you there were fears, this never would have occurred to me! My Cricket wanted nothing to do with him. They explained that if the kids ever saw someone dressed like that in their home not to be afraid and hide, that the man would be there to help them. The firemen explained that the "scary fireman" was just like the rest of them, and he took off the scary gear in front of the kids. Only after it was off would Cricket go talk to him. Then they went outside for the real show, Cricket along with the rest of the kids LOVED the fire truck. 

Geography

We did our normal coloring sheet for Hawaii, and talked about how it's an island. Her favorite part was a hula dancer that my aunt sent her. Cricket loved her dancer and carried her around for the rest of the day. 

Art

Cricket enjoyed doing a hippo cut and paste this week.

Our primary art project is hard to view and that was the whole point. I gave her a black sheet of construction paper and asked her to pick a color and draw on it. She picked blue initially and began drawing. She looked at me immediately for an explanation. I told her to try a different color, like the blue the orange made marks on the paper but you couldn't see color. I explained the color/light spectrum briefly and how black is the absence of light. She was able to rephrase this as she continued trying different colors. This was a nice science/art drawing.

Physical Education

Cricket continued her twice a week gymnastics classes, and she did pass her initial test last week.

Life Skills

Just more of the same her, no new projects or accomplishments to report.

Tot School

We did a Feelings Tot Pack this week from 1+1+1=1 that Cricket loved. She did better than I expected with it too. The Tot Pack included: a matching game; feeling word cards; color cards; a mini-book; drawing page; and a how are we feeling game. Before we started the tot pack I mentioned feelings and asked Cricket if she could name any. She named: sad; angry; and happy. 

Cricket didn't seem to relate the feelings to the colors and she was iffy on the mini-book. She did really well with the matching game though. (I started her off with only these and then added).

Cricket cracked me up with the feeling word cards. When I held up surprise she put her hands to her face and said "oh my gosh". Then for loving she said "I love you". 
Her favorite was finding an emotion to put on the bodies though (how are we feeling). The first time I just asked her a question or gave her a scenario and she picked out the face emotion. The next time I just let her play freely and name the emotions. The last time we played with it as I read through Today I Feel Silly.

When I showed Cricket the drawing page and explained that it was for her to draw how she felt. She said I feel angry, as she laughed. After talking about being honest, she admitted that she didn't feel angry but that she just really wanted to draw an angry face. So she did, Cricket drew her self angry face because she thought it would be funnier than a happy face.

In addition to the tot pack I had a happy vs angry worksheet that I let Cricket dot to answer. She did a good job of following instructions for this.

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