R is for Rainbows

Wow, I'm three weeks behind on my blogging!  I started working as a Reading Interventionist a few days a week, and although we've still been able to fit in preschool, I just haven't found the time to blog.  Unfortunately, I'm playing catch-up while my husband is in surgery, but hopefully this will make time pass more quickly.

Ryan was a fabulous substitute teacher on 

Day 1

First, Parker filled in the missing letters of the alphabet with the correct letters.  

Nice silly face, Parker!

Then he counted the number of dots in the rectangles and put the right number card on top.

They counted to 40, reviewed letters A-Q and their verses, and learned letter R and its verse

"Rejoice in the Lord Always" - Phillipians 4:4

For the Intro to Letter R activity, Parker found all of the red puff balls and then traced the Rr's with them.

He needed to find some red buttons to finish it up.

Time for the rectangle puzzle.  We've been reviewing shapes and their properties.  This exercise teaches that rectangles come in all shapes and sizes.  They just need to have two long sides and two short sides =)

Finally, they read

Day 2

I absolutely love rainbows.  If the weather is even close to the right conditions, I am outside waiting for it.  We've seen two really awesome ones within the last year and Parker thinks they're pretty sweet, too.  What a beautiful symbol for God's promise to Noah and to us!

That's why I entitled today's lesson, "5 Way to Make a Rainbow."  We reviewed letter R and its verse, counted to 50 and then we learned a song for the colors of the rainbow.  You just sing the colors in a scale, one color for every note, except indigo gets two notes.  First I said each color's name and had him repeat them.  Then I sang it through a few times and pretty soon he got it, too. 

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

Rainbow #1 - Color Sorting

I had a shape cut out for each color.  A red heart, orange pumpkin, yellow star, green leave, blue whale, indigo butterfly and purple flower.  Then I had a bucket full of random objects that he had to sort and match to the right color.

Rainbow #2 - Ordering by Size

Each of the colors is a solid arch - as in, they aren't just thin strips. They are each a full sheet of paper cut to this shape.  Hope that makes sense!  I spread them all out and Parker found the biggest one - red.  Then he sang the rainbow order song to help him figure out what to put on top of the red.  He kept layering the colors until he had a complete rainbow.

Rainbow #3 - Pipe Cleaners

I had the playdoh balls and pipe cleaners laid out.  He sang the song and stuck in the colors.

Rainbow #4 - Rainbow Pattern

Parker thread a pipe cleaner with beads in rainbow order. 

Rainbow #5 - Letters in Raindrops

I used water beads to make a raindrop sensory bin.  Those things are so cool!  I put the letters, 

R-A-I-N-B-O-W, inside and told him to dig around until he found seven letters.

Once he found the seven letters, I told him to put them in rainbow order, and they would spell the word rainbow.  How convenient! He sang the song, and put them in order. 

Then we read these books.

Day 3

After singing the rainbow song and reviewing letters and numbers, Parker spelled his first name with the letter magnets.  Then I showed him that his middle name starts with R, and had him find the magnets to put on top of those letters.  

He did the red color-match.

And we made a rain cloud with shaving cream and blue water.

We were supposed to go the local zoo to see Rabbits and Reptiles, but of course, it was less than 30 degrees.  Come on already, Spring!!  As much as I wanted go for the sake of going during R week, we are tired of freezing.  We'll take a raincheck ;)