Robot Week!

Well it has been quite a while! Between adding Oliver to the mix and all the final touches and crafting I was doing for the wedding, blogging and keeping track of our daily activities in writing got put on the back burner. I have been trying to get back in the swing of things since we returned from Gatlinburg as best I could, so forgive me if I am still not on top of it! Last week, we talked about Robots and here are some of the fun things we did!

Tuesday

Art & Sensory: Spare Parts Robots (Creating our own robots out of shapes)

Fine Motor: Cutting out shapes with safety scissors

Language: Talking like a robot

Music & Movement: Robot Action Game

Math Skill: Robot Patterns

Science Investigation: Dancing Spaghetti Experiment

I love when the week starts on a Tuesday. A rainy Tuesday is so much easier to deal with than a rainy Monday for some reason. We started our day off right away after breakfast. The kiddos couldn’t wait to do their projects for the day. I also love when that happens. They were excited to talk about (and talk like) ROBOTS which is our theme for the week. I tried to think of something fun we could use as a theme that would keep them interested but also has a lot to work with in all areas.

Before we got down to business, we pretended to be robots. I ‘installed’ a listening button on each of them that we could press when we needed to use our listening ears. I have to remember to use this button when they are not focusing this week. And if it works, forever! Our project for the day was making a paper robot out of spare parts. I cut up a bunch of shapes in all different colors and gave each kid a white sheet of paper and a glue stick. We looked at a few pictures of robots before we began but I let them do their own thing and glue the shapes down into any form they wanted. This is the most fun for me to watch because I see their little brains working while they glue. After we were all done creating robots, we moved to the living room for some free play and dancing. Of course we included “Intergalactic” by The Beastie Boys to really showcase our robot dance skills. We worked up an appetite and moved on to snack.

After some more playing, napping, and lunching, we decided to try our experiment. Maybe our baking soda isn’t the freshest or our vinegar wasn’t the right measured amount, but our spaghetti did not want to dance. We will have to revisit this one another time. They enjoy the big fizz the reaction made though so at least there was that!

Wednesday

Art & Sensory: Making our own robots out of recycled items

Fine Motor: Pre-writing Practice---tracing lines

Language: All About Me Robot

Music & Movement: Robot Dance

Math Skill: Counting Robots

Science Investigation: Paper Clip + Water Experiment

Today we powered on our robot suits during breakfast and made sure to press our listening button a few times. Lily and I visited the library last night so after we were done eating and getting dressed, we read two of our new robot books. It melts my heart when they get excited to read. While the kids were playing, I tried to interview them for their “All About Me” robot worksheet. Some of their answers crack me up. It is a combination of other things I have asked them, what they hear going on around them, and most of the time, Lily throws in a word or two that she made up. We didn’t get a chance to use scissors yesterday, so we practiced some cutting today. The scissors I have are plastic with no blade and I would like to move on to slightly more usable pairs, but for now these will do. When that does happen, I will be on top of them like hawks because although Tristan holds his scissors correctly, he likes to snip at things that are not paper. And Lily might be left handed so her scissor use is all over the place.

After we tried cutting out shapes, we moved on to coloring our interviews in. Then we put Ollie in his bouncer seat and we played a new game I found on Pinterest. Each button has a different robot action. I pretended to be the engineer pressing each button and the kids had to do the action it said. They enjoyed it and got silly with it. It was a cute little exercise to get them moving. I cannot wait until it warms up and we can adventure outside and to the park.

Thursday

Art & Sensory: Robot Shapes-Reassembling a robot

Fine Motor: Using glue sticks

Language: Robot Emotions—Emotions we feel and why

Music & Movement: Robot Freeze Dance

Math Skill: Robot Memory Game

Science Investigation: Ivory Soap Experiment

 

Thursdays are rough. I try to mentally get out of thinking that it is Thursday and I try to stay goofy and lighthearted, but for some reason, Thursdays are the days they press every single one of my buttons and then have major meltdowns when there are consequences. I have been trying very hard to lay out some ground rules and goals before we start the day or a certain activity. I think a behavior chart might have to be assembled for all of our sanities.

We colored and glued our robots together first and then we practiced writing the letter A. I get so impressed with how well they have been tracing and even more impressed with how they write their letters on their own. We had some free play with our art supplies which is a good outlet for creativity. I like to hear the names they make up for their creations. We made it through the day with a couple of tears from all four of us, but hey, we made it!

Friday

Art & Sensory: Five Noisy Robots-Coloring

Fine Motor: Using Colored Pencils

Language: Acting out Five Noisy Robots

Music & Movement: Robot Simon Says

Math Skill: Counting backwards from 5 to 0

Science Investigation: Balancing Robots

 TGIF! We had our moments this morning, but we managed to power through. I decided to start with a fun project so we colored in some robots and then glued them to some cardstock. By taping a penny in between the cardstock and the paper, we made the robots balance upside down on our hands! We also tried it on our noses, our toes, our toys. It was so cute to see them giggle and do their “magic” balancing act. Since we had some extra energy, I brought down my speaker and we had a dance party all while Oliver bounced and danced and laughed in his doorway jumper.

We skipped our Robot Emotion Flashcards yesterday, so after our dance party I had the kids sit down with me and we looked over each emotion and made the faces with our faces. We also talked about times we were sad, happy, scared, etc. I love how some of their stories are real (I was scared when the lights were out in my room) and some are so embellished and all in their imagination (I was surprised when the monster jumped down the steps at me). I think using our words and saying how we are feeling is a pivotal tool at this age. I am trying so hard to express myself and my feelings to them using my words vs using actions or just yelling. It is very tough but it is a learning experience for all of us.

I had plans to make a flannel board for the 5 Noisy Robot rhyme but it never happened. Maybe this weekend I can have Lily help me and we can do it next week when we have down time.

As a sidenote, I could not get through this Robot Unit without cracking up due to an episode of the Goldbergs where the dad pronounced robot “Ro-bit”. 

This week, we are talking about the Food Pyramid and eating healthy so I will be (hopefully) updating soon about that! I also am in the middle of doing our lesson plans for Dr. Seuss week and I am pretty excited!