Monday Journaling for Preschool

When talking about assessments, I mentioned that we do journaling every Monday. I start this as soon as they are old enough to hold and manipulate a crayon, without eating the majority of it.

We are now using this journaling page that I created, and have available FREE in my TPT store.

As mentioned also in the writing post, I assess these using a couple of matrices that I keep handy.

This one from Heidi at Heidi's Songs...

And this Drawing Development in Children chart beautiful illustrated by Susan Donley.

To see how important it is to do this regularly, and the progression you can observe, here is the art work of Mr. G over the last 3 1/2 years.

 8/30/11 First Journal Page 16 months

3/19/12 First Journal Description - "It's a bicycle." 23 months

 9/4/12 Less scribbling and more intentional drawing. 

2 years 5 months

 3/18/13 Progression to Lines 3 years

 4/10/13 Progression to Intentional Circles 3 years

Note that progression from lines to circles for this child occurred within a few weeks. If we didn't journal every Monday, I would have missed that rapid leap.

 7/15/13 Adding Letters to Drawings 3 years 3 months

Notice that movement into letter formation happened within 3 months of intentional line and circle drawing. Drawing is a natural extension into writing.

12/2/13 Extensive journal entries begin at the same time as the first identifiable figure is drawn. 3 years 8 months.

"He went to his house and he was cold when he was walking. Then he arrived to his home. He was walking long ago."

1/13/14 Some times the simplest of drawings can have the most intense meanings. 3 years 9 months. 

"Me and Cora [his dog]. She is helping me with cleaning my room. She is licking me because she loves me."

 1/20/14 Progression of drawing from just figures to object representations. 3 years 9 months. 

"These are the stairs I am walking up. Mommy is gone. The dog is licking me on Christmas Eve. This is the stockings. Cora is kissing me with licking me and daddy let me carry her upstairs. I feel happy."

5/12/14 Adding in environmental components such as sky. 

4 years 1 month. 

"Me and Blake and one of our wheelbarrows and my daddy. I'm hugging daddy."

12/29/14 Combination of skills utilized for random drawing. Practicing. 4 years 8 months. The older they get, the more specific the detail and the more they add in life experiences their parents may wish would stay unrepresented.  

"Triangle, square, trapezoid and a BIG G. Two Ps and two Rs. A man with X shirts holding a beer cup with beer inside."

LOL

When I send the children off to kindergarten, I send their binders home. I love looking back over the years and remembering the excitement I experienced every time I noticed something new, moving, or amazing in their journaling. It's always a joy to hear their stories.

Tags: homeschooling, writing, fine motor, cognitive, development, developmentally appropriate, drawing, writing, journal, journaling, speech, language, literacy, reading, grammar, teaching, theme, unit, art, hand eye coordination, crossing the midline, kindergarten, prek, pre k, child care, daycare

Portrait Color & Write

I made up these coloring and writing pages to begin their reading and writing experience. Everything is more meaningful if it is personal. They LOVED them! They colored one today to take home and another is laminated to be used here as a self-selected activity with dry erase markers.

Name blocked on purpose.

To make, I simply used my picture editing software to increase the brightness and contrast until I got an outline image. I saved it as a JPEG, added it to my word processing program, and added the lines and text. A light gray font color could be used instead of the dotted.

Original Image

Even though their cognitive abilities may be advanced and capable of beginning to read, their fine motor ability is more developmentally in line with their age. I have no expectation of them being able to write legible script anytime soon. I am not a fan at all of "worksheets," but this is intended to be a meaningful COLORING SHEET for self-selected practice that they can CHOOSE to work:

• Tracing
• Staying on a line
• Letter formation
• Left-right convention
• Beginning sight words
• Fine motor muscle development
• Tripod grasp

Tags: preschool, pre-k, homeschool, homeschooling, writing, fine motor, tripod grasp, sight words, worksheet

Autumn/Fall Items w/FREEBIE

FREEBIE!!

A great pre-writing worksheet for children to work following a curve and practicing letter formation on the word PUMPKIN.

New File Folder Game just added to TPT!

At it's core, a simple color matching game. For children with more advanced skills, also included is shapes, counting 1-12, shape words, color words, and number words. The shirt manipulatives can be divided in half for additional game play opportunities. For older students, math facts equal to the button quantities can be added.

I purposefully placed similar colors together to work observation skills and logic/reasoning. 

$1.00

Tags: free, printable, pumpkin, halloween, fall, autumn, coloring, crayon, drawing, writing, fine motor, fine, motor, pencil, kids, child, children's, child's, preschool, daycare, care, kindergarten, math, shapes, colors, center, reading, sight, words, sight words, number, color, shape, word, matching, scarecrow, file, folder, game, file folder game, 

Transportation Theme Pre-writing Freebies

As we begin our TRANSPORTATION theme this week, beginning with TRAINS, the preschoolers have completed their train pre-writing worksheets during free-choice play. 

While I'm not a big fan of "worksheets," they love these pre-writing activities which are basically just coloring sheets on which I encourage them to try to trace on the line and color within the lines. Those that can, will usually choose to work on that skill. Those that can't, at least begin to understand the concept and can chew on it until they are ready and willing to execute it. 

Set of four, train, boat, airplane, and car. I will have additional freebies over the next three weeks of this theme.
Tags: art, writing, child, Transportation, care, Car, Theme, kindergarten, Airplane, boat, preschool, Train, daycare, worksheet, coloring, unit, childcare, coloring book, prewriting, fine motor, printable, free, kid, kids