The first week we did T and 20. We started with some tulip counting and read a book about tractor and did a craft with tractors made out of T's and some dot counting page and a Treasure Hunt. It was a beautiful day and they stayed outside and played when we were done.
The next week we did U & V and introduced counting by 10s so they can learn to count to 100. We started with some parachute fun trying to make the balls go up and see how high we could count. Then we read a book about zero the hero and how he turns single numbers into 10s then we did a little project and started to make 100 necklaces out of fruity cheerios. They all worked hard at it and then I realized after about 12 minutes it was a bit tedious so we just ate them as a snack and moved on to our next activity. I loved to read a book about the letter or number and then do a little activity and it worked out great. Then I would leave them 30 minutes at the end to have play time.
We talked about what's underground and one little girl said, "lava" which was fitting because I had planned to do little volcanoes which they thought was awesome. I was going to let them do some outside, but the wind was so crazy that day that we didn't get to it, but we did do one bigger mentos volcano outside as the moms were all there picking up their kids.
I even had to pull out the 'v'acuum because Marcus threw all his cheerios on the ground and then I found him shamelessly eating them out of the trash later.
Today was our last week to host and we covered W&X and reviewed counting by 10s. I was glad to see how Andrew picked up on the counting by 10s and can now count to 100. They played with 'w'a'x' sticks (wiki sticks) at the beginning and then we read Max's ABCs and they could make the letters with the wiki sticks while we read. Marcus was super excited while we read that book and would shout the letters out as soon as I turned the page I think it startled the other kids a bit, but I was impressed and he was cute.
We talked about the water cycle and the three states like gas, solid and liquid. Later Ellie told me that was a little advance for them since she didn't learn about it until 3rd grade. I explained to her I didn't expect them to grasp all the concepts but exposure is always good and they thought it was fun.
We even managed to coordinate our snacks with the letters like 't'angerines, 'w'atermelon, bo'x' of raisins. They really are good kids and we had a lot of fun with them.
I had so much fun planning all of the little experiments that we did that I decided this summer we're going to have science Thursdays and we're going to do fun experiments and of course I'm going to consult with my genius husband who understands why and how things works and always manages to explain it in a way the kids and I understand. So yay for learning and having fun together!