August Sensory Bin: Back to School

Pin It Preschool starts on Monday for Madelyn. My friend’s two children will be coming 3 mornings a week for FUN learning activities as well. Since the main school focus of summer was to concentrate on getting curriculum, schedules, lessons, etc. together for Samuel and Sarah, I am left with this weekend only to gear up for preschool. Luckily this is our second year for this, so I don’t need to do a whole lot.
Sensory bins are a favorite in my house. Seriously, I have our August box set out for Monday, and the kids are eagerly waiting to open it up as if I’ve wrapped a Christmas present for them. Last year I only did a few of these because of how messy they can be (on top of the other messes involved with teaching preschool…a VERY messy job) depending on the theme and objects involved. This year I am going to try to do 1-2 per month and I’ll probably only use it for a center once a week.
Our August theme is …BACK TO SCHOOL! (some ideas came from Counting Coconuts)

Contents of bin:
Ripped up magazine paper
Scissors for cutting magazine paper
Lacing string
Numbers from an old calendar that have been hole punched for lacing
Pencils
Erasers to put on and match to pencils 
Pencil sharpener
Paper clips for linking and patterns
Pencil box
Magnetic letters that can be used on the tin pencil box
Strips of paper with kids’ names that they can use with the letters
Notebook
A few crayons

The scissors will be removed at the first sign of anyone attempting to cut off fingers, hair, anything other than magazine paper. Other than that concern, which will be discussed before any use of the bin begins, this back to school fun starts in less than two days!

Our First Day

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Oh the first day…the first day…where do I begin? Today was Samuel’s first day of 2nd grade and Sarah’s first day of Kindergarten (Madelyn starts Pre-K next Monday).  We were ALL very excited for this day to come. They asked me to pick their outfits out yesterday morning (normally I do this in the evenings) because they couldn’t wait to see what they were going to wear. Aren’t they so darn cute?!

Our day started at 7:00am. After getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, etc., CJ sat the kids down for a Bible lesson. Two minutes into it, Samuel asked, “Is this what we’re doing all day long?”

Next, we went outside for pictures!

Just look at how happy they are!

After pictures we came inside to discuss rules and goals for the year.  Samuel and Sarah did a great job at coming up with 3 rules and 3 goals (I chose 3 each in order to keep it simple and easy to remember) to help our school year run smoothly and effectively.

Rules:

1. Obey your parents.

2. Be respectful to others (show kindness, no putdowns).

3. Be cooperative.

Goals:

1. Have fun

2. Learn

3. Help others

 

I told/showed them how our mornings would function and where they could find certain materials. We went back into the school room to do our morning board and make pictures for the art frames I bought for the walls in the school room. I also bought them each a new pencil sharpener for a little first day present (I know, amazing, right?!). Then we did a few lessons together at the dining room table.

 

Our first day came to an end. We had planned on having a picnic lunch at the park, but some wrong choices while at Staples quickly changed those plans. We’ll try again tomorrow. Maybe we’ll start a traditional 2nd day of school picnic instead!

Overall, here is how they rated their day:

We can’t wait to get to know all the homeschool families in our area better! Here’s to a great year!