Make your own flip books

Getting M to write, and got her started with online flipbooks.

http://www.flipsnack.com – this needs a pdf file be uploaded

http://www.littlebirdtales.com/home/default/

thre’s also mixbook

Pre-Writing Worksheets

I like the spirals here.

Loads of pre-writing sheets, some are OK, but have to sieve through a bit.

Some are OK here too.

Maybe the spirals are the least boring.

Waldorf Grade 6 Geometry

So in Waldorf education, the compass for drawing circles are introduced in the 6th grade, some beautiful geometrical art to see: Waldorf 6th grade geometry.

Dinosaur counting ryhme, pre-writing & Waldorf form drawing

H2 woke up first, then the kakak2.

I wanted them to say du’a for waking up, but I thought they’d resist, being all sleepy still even after a bath for H and H2. So I started with the Bismillah song (I look I see) on youtube ( we have the CD, but it’s somewhere..!*!). That got H2 grooving and H twirling her skirt while saying alhamdulillah and all…emm…well, then after a few repeats of the song, I got them to say du’a for waking up. My plan is to extend this to reading Qur’an, praying dhuha slowly inshaAllah. M has already prayed fajr, so I didn’t want to impose anymore, esp sunnah at this stage.

We have a really fun counting rhyme book, but since it’s all been stuffed away somewhere (we’re in between houses), I looked up counting rhymes and came up with this.

Tried the pea in a pod rhyme, but H2 was still lying down, until I read this:

Dinosaurs

Subtracting Numbers from Preschoolrainbow.org

Five enormous dinosaurs
Letting out a roar–
One went away, and
Then there were four.

Four enormous dinosaurs
Crashing down a tree–
One went away, and
Then there were three.

Three enormous dinosaurs
Eating tiger stew–
One went away, and
Then there were two.

Two enormous dinosaurs
Trying to run–
One ran away, and then there was one.

One enormous dinosaur,
Afraid to be a hero–
He went away, and
Then there was zero.

Then the kids enjoyed this song from the Dinosaur Theme

I’m a Mean Old Dinosaur
 (Tune:  I’m a little Tea Pot)

from Preschoolrainbow.org

 I’m a mean old Dinosaur 
   (Make a mean face, the kids make the cutest mean faces)
 Big and Tall
   (Gesture hands big and tall )
 Here is my tail, here is my claw.
   (Gesture hands behind your back for tail and make claw hands)
 When I get all hungry 
   (rub your tummy)
 I just growl
  (have the kids exaggerate the grrroooowwwlll)
Look out kids I’m on the prowl.
  (Here I tickle each one of the tummy and they all giggle)

After having a look at the Dinosaur Theme page, I find this site to be quite good, fab! With the ever famous vinegar volcano project coupled with plasticine dinos, fossil digging (dino dig), but we don’t have sand or plaster of paris, measuring dinosaurs we can do, that’s a really great idea, I’m thinking that can be expanded to whales later on in the year.

The paleontogist part gave me another idea of assembling chicken bones, well plaster castings of the bones, in our birds unit study, but no plaster! We can probably make a mold using pasticine/playdough instead of sand.

some more rhymes for tasks.

So back to our day, they had breakfast/snacks, whatever you want to call it. Oh, before I tried to teach them a zikr for morning, one I memorised but coudn’t regurgitate slowly, only at speed. So not benig able to teach them slowly, we only got halfway, I gave up 🙂 I need to print the du’a out, laminate it or get M to copy it in her du’a book to be read out this week or s’thing. IT’s the first zikr in ma’thurat.

Then they still wanted to sing/play, so we exercised a bit, made a ‘t’ with our bodies, stood on one leg like a flamingo, walked on the line, ended with ring a ring a roses, cause I thought that would tire them out. Alhamdulillah Tok Wan then came down and offered to take them all to the park and they all came back with a bunch of flowers. Mummy will now have to research their names, and main characteristics of flowers for M, and maybe H to draw/label. I’ll probably check preschool rainbow/internet for a flower theme to get H2 involved.

Also did some crayon waldorfy form writing, I say waldorfy as I was inspired by this (first grad form drawing):

and this is even more examples for grades 1 to 5:

but could not find anything free online yet for steps and enough examples of Waldorf form drawing. I felt that H needed help in her writing, and I can’t get hold of Galt Early Writing locally. Checked out other pre-writing sites but wanted something not so boring, repetitive. Waldorf weaves stories into pre-writing that would entertain a 4yo enough to engage her and not force her to write. Most worksheets are boring, repetitive, just writing down the same letters on and on..

Did a lot for a change, a sundial in progress, marking the shadow as the day progresses, and carrying on with the bird unit, using encyclopedias and online stuff.