The Plan
Theme: Match objects to words: Pig, Sheep, Chicken, Barn, Cow, Tractor; Book
Sight Word: Create and read animals “in” sentences using farm words
Math: Building with one and two blocks
Letter A: Play-do letter As; Book

What Actually Happened…
Theme: Match objects to words
I really only planned on reading a couple books about farms throughout the two weeks, but the kids really wanted to read one today. I have a feeling that we may read a book about farms every day, which is great because that means they are interested.  After the book, I pulled out the farm pictures first to see if the kids could identify them. Koala and Panda were easily able to identify my rough drawings. Then I pulled out the words. I was pretty surprised the Panda was able to match most of the words to the pictures. I wasn’t sure how he would do because I haven’t really tried an activity like this before. I think it helped that most of the words started with different letters and he could identify the beginning sounds. With Koala, I really am just focusing on building her vocabulary.

Sight Word: “In” sentences
The kids LOVED this activity. We began with matching the words to the objects and repeating the word ‘in”. I worked with Koala to complete this activity using just the pictures and the word “in”. She then told me phrases like “pig in tractor.” Then she took the picture of the pig and put it on top of (in) the tractor. Apparently, this was pretty hilarious and she continued to put different animals into the tractor. With Panda, I started using the pictures and the word “in”. We then began using the words instead of the pictures. I was really impressed that he was able to place the words with the pictures based on the beginning letters sounds. Once again, he hilariously placed the cow in the chicken, etc… We could have done this activity for at least an hour, but Grizzly kept stealing the cards and causing his usual chaos.

Math: Building with one and two blocks
I planned on just having the kids build towers with one or two blocks, but that went rather quickly and seemed entirely too easy. I dumped out all the blocks and had them give me 1 or 2 blocks of a certain color. Panda knows all of his colors, so he had no problem, but Koala is just learning hers, so this was a good activity for her. I tried to challenge Panda by telling him to give me 1 red block and 1 blue block, but again this was pretty easy for him so I had him help Koala when she struggled. This was a very basic, very easy activity that I will do with higher numbers as we go along. It can also be a great clean-up activity.

Letter A: Play-doh letter As; Book
We read the beginning of the BOB A-B book twice. The first time I read it straight through. The second time, the kids were able to identify most of the pictures and corresponding letter A words. Then we ended with the day play-doh because I knew they would want to play for a while after the activity. We quickly made the capital A and smaller a. I thought I could get the kids to make some creations that began with the letter A, but I had already lost them to the magic of the play-doh, so I made dinner.