Girls Club is now Kids Club x 4!

Today kicks off the summer of Kids Club.  It consists of four groups, Big Boys Club (BBC) which includes one girls cousin and four boys.  They take great pride in the fact that they were the original kids club back when it was just, “Boys Club.”  Then, Big Girls Club (BGC) that includes four girl cousins and a bestie that’s practically a cousin.  Little Girls Club (LGC) which was version 2.0 of Girls Club, and finally, Kids Club with two boys and one girl cousin.

We’ll be rotating MWF throughout the summer.  Today I had the BGC.  We decided to use J.K. Rowling’s new book, The Ikabog that she’s been posting free online as “north star” for their reading.  It will morph into other areas too as we attempt an integrated curriculum.  Each of the girls had a printed copy of chapter one and I read aloud.  We made stops throughout to notice rich adjectives and clever phrases that they may want to use as writers.  They also made notes of who was who and tried to keep track of the towns and how each was unique.  J.K. Rowling’s writing is so dense with information so we used strategies to help us keep track of people, places and events.

Next, the girls spent some time finding creative and exciting ways to describe themselves as they would like.  They made signs of their new names as if it were to be presented at their coronation as was for “King Fred the Fearless” in The Ikabog.  There was no shortage of glitter on the floor, table, their clothes and definitely in the vacuum filter.

Finally, in an effort to review some math skills, we spent a quick second on measurement and these little ladies went to town as interior designers of their own 10′ x 12′ bedroom.  They were pretty quiet and focused on this one.

I am so grateful that they have so many cousins (and friend) right around every corner.  It’s so fun to see them together as BIG girls.  I’m also thrilled for what’s happening with all the other “clubs.”

-Emmie

Art-Day 2

I started out asking the chicks about their field trip and if they knew what we were taking about this week.  They all yelled art.  I had them share  what their favorite thing was at the museum.  They liked having a chance to talk.  Then I showed them this video about creating and talked about how when we make art we are creating something.  I googled sculpture and showed them some pictures, I should have been more prepared with that, fortunately I was able to skip some of the more provocative sculptures before they saw them!  I made  salt dough from this recipe.  I thought the white dough would make their creations  look more like sculptures.

After that we talked about mixing colors.  I showed them a short video of Bob Ross and pointed out how he mixed colors to make what he was painting.  I saw this idea on pinterest.  I only had acrylic paint so I gave them each a drop of dish soap to rub on their hand then I put about a teaspoon of paint in their hands.  After some tears, Pooh ended up with red, Uniqua had yellow, and, Kitty and Hal had blue. I had them rub their hands together and stamp their paper.  Next they had to rub hands with their neighbor and see what color they got.

I had to take advantage of a sleeping baby, so right after that we talked about what people paint.  I wanted to get sunflowers but there were none at the grocery store so I just got a mixed bouquet and had them use water colors to paint the flowers.

Just before lunch we talked about food art and making art with food.  They all have “You Are My Work of Art” from Nanny, and in it is a picture of “Summer” which is a painting if a mans face made of vegetables.  We talked about making food to look like a picture.  I wanted to do something elaborate but decided on something they would eat.  I found the picture here. I forgot to get pretzels this morning for the antennae but they knew it was a bee.

Colors – Day 2

I’d be lying if I said I was completely prepared for what was to unfold in the next three hours. Even though I had repeatedly gone over the “lesson plan” in my head, it didn’t take long for me to realize I’d have to abandon most of it:(

My abilities as a single-child mommy was pushed to its limits….and my OCD/detailed/squeeky clean tendencies would have to be ignored. Watching/teaching four kids at once is a walk in the park for my sister-in-laws, but for me, I was about to enter uncharted waters!

The first thing the Chicks see when they arrive is the check-in board. To show “Whoo’s Here”, they had to find their picture on the wall, then stick it next to the matching photo on the whiteboard.

The other 3 Chicks arrived at the same time so check-in got a little crowded and it didn’t take long for the water works to start (my Tank sprung a leak first).  Notice how well dressed the Chicks are?  Going against my “no patterns, no clashing color, no purple” wardrobe rule of thumb, I asked the Chicks to dress it the most colors they could:)

Before opening circle, we had free play with some toys.  We regrouped to say an opening prayer and pointed out some colors we could see in our clothes.  Uncle KC read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See” written by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle.  He then read “Colors”, a touch and feel book which lead to each Chick pushing over the other to get a closer look.

Our first activity was creating a rainbow.  Labeled with colored paint brush printables I found online, I gave each Chick a rainbow to decorate.  Uniqua was content with just one swipe of each crayon, while Hal took her time and colored in as much as she could.  Finally, they had to find 3 felt flowers that matched the colors of their rainbow and use glue to place them.

I switched out the crayons with markers and had the Chicks decorate a dino wood cutout (I hotglued a magnet on the back).  Again, Hal worked very tediously and made sure every inch of her dino was colored in:)  I noticed Pooh Bear prefered the markers and worked harder when she noticed Hal’s coloring techniques.

After art, we had a little playtime together and tried pointing out the different colors in the toys they played with.

While they snacked on goldfish and tuna on crackers, I played an episode of Blue’s Clues that showed Steve painting and mixing the paint to create new colors.  I failed to keep track of the time so I wasn’t able to do a closing circle before the other Mommies arrived.  I hope they all had a great, first playschool at Aunty Kyra’s:)