A Camping We Will Go

This week we learned all about the letter Y. You might be wondering what roundabout way we used to connect the letter Y and camping, but I assure it is quite simple. Yawn is one of the y words we learned about and when you yawn it is typically nighttime unless you are a mommy with a child going through a sleep regression then you are probably yawning all day, but I digress. So back to yawning and the letter Y. You typically yawn at night and nighttime is the perfect time to go camping hence the letter Y camping connection. 

We started off our week talking about thins you might bring with you when you go camping like a pack, a sleeping bag, hiking boots, and a lantern or flashlight. One thing I "forgot" to bring was a pair of binoculars so we made our own binoculars and what is the point of binoculars unless you can use them and what better way to use them than going on a nature scavenger hunt. 

One more thing we needed to make sure we had for our camping trip was a campfire. The most important thing you need to have to build a campfire are some rocks and some branches. Each friend searched all over the room to find one of each and once they returned to the carpet we worked together to build our campfire. 

We talked about many of the different creatures we would see while camping and one of the most beautiful is the lightning bug. We talked about the different forms of light God created for us, but nothing is more beautiful than this beautiful natural light. We watched a video of lightening bugs in a park and read The Very Lonely Lightening Bug. Next we created our very own lightening bugs to add to our camping mural.

Since we were learning about daytime and nighttime we thought it would be fun to begin working on telling time. We watched a smart board lesson on telling time to the hour then all of my friends worked on placing all of the numbers on their clocks in order.

Friday was the big day for our camping week because you can't talk about camping and not have a camp out and you can't have a camp out without pajamas so we had a big ole 4K Pajama party complete with smore cupcakes made by one of our amazing mamas! We started off our camp out by reviewing all of the different forms of light God created for us and we read the story of Jesus healing the blind man. We made candles to help remind us that Jesus is the light that leads us.

For jobs this week we made Yack Y's

yoyo y's

We counted firefly's in jars and matched the correct number

We made snakes by placing the numbers 1-10 in order

And we made forest creatures to add to our camping mural

A Camping We Will Go

What an exciting week! We have had so much fun learning about Mrs. Y and camping. 

Monday we met Mrs. Y. She has a yodeling yawn. She taught us that during the daytime the sun comes up and during the nighttime the moon comes out. We talked about things you can do at night and camping is one of the most fun things you can do when the moon and stars are out.  We sang A Camping We Will Go and learned about all the things you need to take with you when you go camping from a tent to the all important marshmallows and graham crackers to make s'mores. 

After talking about daytime and nighttime I asked the class if they knew who had made everything in the world. My smart little babies of course knew that God had created everything. We read the story of creation and learned that God created everything in 6 days and rested on the 7th from the light and the dark to each and every creature on this beautiful Earth. 

Tuesday morning we worked on our lowercase y yo-yo's. 

Then since our guidance lesson was canceled we learned about someone special who is a light in our lives just like the lights that help us see when it is dark. We read the story about Jesus healing the blind man and how Jesus was a light for his man and he is a light for us each and everyday. 

Wednesday we learned about a different kind of light made by special little beetles called fireflies. Did you know fireflies are beetles because I didn't). We watched a video of real fireflies then we watched the story The Very Lonely Firefly. After watching the story and learning a little more about fireflies we made our own glowing fireflies. 

Thursday we played a camping counting game on the smart board and afterwards we made self portraits if ourselves in our sleeping bags for our camp out mural. 

Friday we worked on our fine motor skills by ripping paper to create campfires. Now that we have started doing a lot more writing this was a great way to strengthen our little fingers. 

After workin so hard we got to have 2 special snaks. It just so happened to be a sweet little girls birthday and she had brought in delicious pink sprinkle doughnuts and we had a fun campfire snack that was supposed to happen Thursday but picture day kid of threw that off

During jobs this week we covered a lot of different skills from number order and position words to skunks and yaks. 

We made Yak Y's

We put the numbers 1-10 in order on on slithery snakes. 

Look at that beautiful grip! 

Everyone followed the position word directions to finish their camp ground pictures. 

We created forest creatures like skunks, bears, owls, deer, and porcupines. 

Last but not least we worked to place the days of creation in order. 

Our friends have been working so hard for weeks now to earn all I their Brownie Points and finally after working so hard we earned our Pajama Party on Friday. Not only did we get to wear our pajamas to school, but we also got to watch a movie during lunchtime. Everyone lovedd our super 80's Chipmunk's movie. There may or may not have been a reference to the band U2 if that tells you anything about the awesomeness of it! 

On top of pajamas and a movie we also had a very special snack provide by one of our awesome room moms. We made delicious campfires out of pretzels, marshmallows, m&m's and candy corns. I am not sure how we are going to beat this snack! It was too cute and too yummy! 

Sadly we had to do a little redocorating of our door since they scheduled Spirit Week in the middle of all out camping cuteness. I never got a chance to turn his era into horns to make him lookalike a ram. Maybe tomorrow I will get a Jane in between tomorrow's lesson and getting everything ready for next week (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that's funny thibkinni might actually have a minute to do that!) sometimes you just gotta work with what you've got and make a ram out if a bear. Teaching is all about Rollin with the punches and being flexible as Mrs Caroline and Mrs. Jessica would say (live y'all!) 

Happy belated Friday and hopefully I will get this weeks lesson up before I leave early Friday for my sisters bachelorette party!!