First Day of Preschool!

My mornings start early. I feel behind if I am not up way before the children wake. I usually exercise and do my Bible study, drinking coffee, like a real adult. On ideal days, this is all done by about 7 a.m. I have been running/walking with a friend three times a week, and that gets me out of bed by 5:37 most mornings. I dread the alarm going off, but I am so thankful to be exercised, fed with the Word, full of coffee, and possibly even showered by the time the first dear child walks groggily out of his or her room.

However, as a Type-A Creature of Habit, I get a little anxious when something new is thrown my way, possibly throwing a monkey wrench into my schedule. I have to pray about this often.

And yesterday was our first day of preschool! Thankfully, everything went smoothly in the pre-children hours, and we were able to make it on time. It was so exciting! We took backpacks, blankets to sit on for circle time, our milk crate of school supplies, and the rest of our breakfast.

The kids had a blast! The mommies were a bit overwhelmed, and we all agreed that two hours felt like 20 minutes, but each lesson was completed, and we hope each kid learned at least one new thing! We know things can only get easier.

So, as promised, here is the lesson plan for week one of preschool...

Circle Time:
Courtney started our morning with energy! Here is her Circle Time schedule.
"Good Morning Song"
Calendar and Counting to 30
"Days of the Week" Song
Flag Salute (new and exciting!)
Sharing Time
"ABC Song"
Intro to the letter A, and the A lesson from Scholastic Alphatales.

Art:
Intro to primary colors, specifically Red
Krista took a large, long piece of butcher paper and drew "red things" on it. The kids then were able to use finger paint to color her drawings, like a strawberry or an apple.
Then she had the kids look through magazines to tear out pictures of objects that were red.

Music:
The kids took a short play break after Art to get clean and release some energy. We then had them line up at the back door. I gave each child an instrument (I ordered the instruments here) and we marched back to the school room, banging on our instruments and singing the ABC song.

Language:
A for Apple.
I used the A Beka Language Arts curriculum card for "apple". It has a giant flashcard and a lesson on the apple. I brought red, pink, and green apples and as we learned about apples, the kids got to feel, smell, and taste each kind of apple. Then we did a quick game with styrofoam apples- each child came up and had to distinguish between a capital "A" and a lowercase "a".

Snack Time:
We had goldfish crackers, apple juice, and the remaining apples. This is going to be our constant snack, so I'll try not to mention it each time. During snacks, Laura taught the children our "A" verse from the ABC Bible Curriculum. I remember it because we sang it: "A soft answer turns away wrath"(Prov. 15:1). I will be trying to work on that one as I remind the children of its truth! Laura then had the kids color their Bible verse page. She will be bringing folders for each child to put their verses in during the school year.

Math:
We finished with Math. Laura had about 8 shapes that she cycled through, asking the children to identify them. After the kids had identified each shape, she taped each shape paper to a chair and had the kids move over to each shape as she called out something like, "Jump over to the oval", or "Tiptoe to the rectangle".