Farm Unit| Tot School Week 6

 This past week we covered Farm theme for our tot school lessons. I feel like I fell short a bit on plans for this week, though I often feel that way. I sat down and made a list of what would be helpful for her for the week and chose only a few items from the list to cover and then spaced them out. When I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed about adding lessons into our weeks or feeling like I'm not doing enough I like to do this. 

I've also learned in this process that people love to help when you ask them! If I feel like I can't really bring the lesson to life (I couldn't find a working farm nearby to take her to) I will reach out to a friend to help. My friend Kim who I went to middle/high school with now lives in Texas and has a farm with chickens and cows (many different kinds). I sent her a text and she put together a video for Leighton that toured her farm. This was certainly the highlight of our lesson! Leighton got a kick out of her dog Rooster, the very large cows wondering around her land without a care and her fluffy chickens. Kim couldn't find any eggs under them as she searched and Leighton laughed out loud. 

Other things we covered this week included:

Reading From Cows to Cheese which shows how cheese starts from a cow and ends up on a grocery store shelf. We read a handful of others but returned them before I remember a picture! I recommend searching 'farm' and filtering for children on your libraries website. We didn't have a bad seed in our bunch so there are plenty of good resources out there.

We also did a few prewriting worksheets and glue + place. She has really worked hard at using a glue bottle and is doing great with it. I let her take the reigns and glue +paste the entire sheet and she did so great.

Our sensory bin was put together using all we had on hand and she really enjoyed it. I did something similar for her last year but printed out different animals and farmers and placed their photos on popsicle sticks to prop in the bin. I kept it simpler this year.

We also did an animal sort activity where we divided farm animals from zoo animals. She loved this activity and kept trying to add dinosaurs to the mix. 

We reviewed letters A, C, T and the sounds they make using our ABC See Hear Do book. She can identify letter A and we will continue reviewing the 3 letters until she can identify and sound them all out, then we will move on to another batch of 3. 

We also continue to work on counting and touching each item we count. She was getting silly with this activity and I said 'no ma'am' and she asked me not to say that. I asked her what she would rather I say and she told me 'try again.' You got it, sister. 

Her bible verse this month is 'Be strong and Courageous, do not be afraid for the Lord your God goes with you.'- Deuteronomy 31:6.

She has it memorized and has recited it for us, her stuffed animals and her uncle Mark. Our church has a superhero theme this month and they were sent home with masks this past Sunday. 

With heart from our home, 

Jordan