The 5 Senses: Touch Day 1

Today was our first day, so it was a bit of an experimental day for me, but I think it went well.  We did the warm up routine (see the previous post for an explanation of that).

We focused on the number 1.  She was able to tell me how many dots there were and how objects there were (I had gathered 1 of a bunch of things). Since it was just 1, I'm not sure if she understood "counting", but we also practiced writing 1s.

We also did the letter "a".  We mostly focused on identifying Big As and little as in isolated places as well as in books.  She has a hard time with the "a" when it looks like it does in this font.  But when it's just a "circle and a line", she can pick it out.  We then practiced tracing them with whiteboard markers with the tracing sheet inside a page protector.  One, it saves the pages and we can do them over and over, two, the fat markers are easier for her to grip, and three, she LOVES using markers, so this was a huge motivator for her to use them.  (We did need to have 5 minutes where she could just color with the markers anywhere she wants since this was a new thing for her).  We then pulled out her "a" book and read through the objects that start with a and talked about the sound that "a" makes (we focused on the short sound).  This is the part I'm not sure how much she is getting.

 We then moved on to the theme.  This month we are focusing on the 5 Senses.  This week I chose the sense of touch.  There is not necessarily a "skill" or an objective that I had in mind, as much as trying to develop the idea of school as fun for her.  Plus, sensory activities are supposedly really good for kids.  So we started with some balloons.  I took 10 balloons and filled 2 with the same kind of material for a total of 5 pairs.  She then had to feel them and find which two went together.  (Idea found here.) She did really well with the water, the sugar, and the quinoa beans.  She could match them without any assistance.  The chick peas and the black beans were too close in feeling that she needed a little help.

 We then took a bar of Ivory soap (it HAS to be Ivory) and put it in the microwave.  If you didn't know, Ivory soap expands and forms a HUGE cloud.  It is super cool to watch in the microwave, so make sure you get close to see!  (Idea found here).

 If you just play with the soap after microwaved, it turns into powder.  We did that for a bit.

 Then we added a bit of water, stirred it, added some food coloring and shaped it into different shapes.  So Brooklyn has her own little soaps!  (At first she loved mixing the soaps, but once her hands got dirty and dyed purple, she decided she hated it and made me finish.  Haha).