A Lesson Schedule for Spring

Week 1
Welcome to Preschool or Field Trip

Week 2
I have a terrific body: Body Parts

Week 3
I have a terrific body: Bones and Muscles

Week 4
Nutrition

Week 5
Nutrition

Week 6
Senses: Eyes

Week 7
Senses: Nose and Mouth

Week 8
Senses: Ears

Week 9
Senses: Touch

Week 10
Life Cycles: Animals, Butterfly or Frog Habitats

Week 11
Life Cycles: Plants, plant “Eggbert”

Week 12
Life Cycles: Plants, cut “Eggbert’s” hair

Week 13
Life Cycles: Animals, Butterfly or Frog Habitats

Sample Schedule

Mommy Preschool Sample Schedule

Welcome Time 10 minutes
Imagination Time 20 minutes
Story Time 10 minutes
Free Play 30 minutes
Snack Time 10 minutes
Rest Activity 5 minutes
Science Time 15 minutes
Music Time 10 minutes
Creative Time 15 minutes
Outside Time 15 minutes

Total time 2 hrs, of course all of the times are really approximate and if the kids are really enjoying something you can always give them a little longer with that activity and cut shorter ones that they are not as engaged in. Every time ends up a little different.

What to expect in the future

I know that the last several posts have been extremely dry, and I should have warned you before I did it, but I wanted to have a foundation so that when I talk about them in up coming posts you know what I'm talking about.

From now on most of the posts will be about lessons that my mommy preschool group is teaching how we taught using the seven intelligences and how the lessons went, with pictures of the activities and such. My hope is that this will give you lots of ideas on how you can incorporate these things into teaching your own children and see that it doesn't have to be hard, time consuming or expensive.

Thanks for staying with me through the boring part, I hope you enjoy everything a lot more from here on out.

Intrapersonal Intelligence—"The Poet/Efficiency Expert"

Intrapersonal Intelligence—"The Poet/Efficiency Expert"
People with high intrapersonal intelligence have a strong sense of themselves, their wants, and needs. They are self reflective and in touch with themselves. They may be the nonconformist individuals who march to their own drummer. Additional characteristics include the following:

• Well developed sense of self
• Awareness and expression of different feelings
• Self reflection and mindfulness
• Ability to think about thinking (i.e., metacognition)
• Transpersonal sense of self. Asks big questions—"Why are we here?" and "What happens when we die?"
• Often is a daydreamer
• Often writes introspectively including prose, poetry, or journal writing
• Excellent self planners and good at goal setting
• Enjoys solitude and likes to think alone
• Good understanding of strengths and weaknesses
• Enjoys self discovery

Activities for Intrapersonal

• Alone Time
• One-person activities
  
• Computer center (e.g., self-paced software)

These kids need plenty of time to themselves to process information, be sure to talk with them one on one about what they are learning and what they think about them. It will help them to process everything and give them a sense of support.

Interpersonal Intelligence—"The Counselor/Minister/Teacher"

Interpersonal Intelligence—"The Counselor/Minister/Teacher"
People with high interpersonal intelligence process information through relatedness to others. They are "people" people. It is in relationship to and with other people that they best understand themselves and the world. Additional characteristics include the following:

• Ability to notice and discern subtleties among others, such as moods, temperaments, and feelings
• Discerns underlying intentions, behavior, and perspectives
• Easily makes friends and enjoys the company of others
• Ability to get into the perspective of another
• Responds to verbal and nonverbal communications-facial cues and body movements
• Recognizes and empathizes with others' feelings
• Ability to negotiate and handle conflict resolution
• Works cooperatively in a group
• Works well with a diverse group of people
• Good communication skills
• Loves to talk and influence

Activities for Interpersonal:

• Puppets
• Dramatic play, ie. playing house, knights, cowboys, tea time
  
• Have them "teach" it to you, another child or even their toys
  
• Cooking

The more these kids can "act out" what you are teaching them the better they can understand it.

Body/Kinesthetic Intelligence—"The Athlete/ Dancer/Actor/Surgeon"

Body/Kinesthetic Intelligence—"The Athlete/ Dancer/Actor/Surgeon"
People with high kinesthetic intelligence process information through their bodies-through muscle, sensation, and movement. Their bodies are their avenue to learning and understanding any content or subject and is also their preferred form of self-expression. Additional characteristics include the following:

• A fine-tuned ability to use the body and handle objects (fine and gross motor)
• Ability to express emotions through bodily movement
• Enjoys physical movement and dance
• Constant movement-likes to get up and move around
• Commitment to comfort
• Uses body to accomplish a task
• Experiences a strong mind/body connection
• Expands awareness through the body
• Experiences a total physical response
• Often good at creative drama

Activities for Kinesthetic:

• Climbing structure, mini-trampoline, Dance circle
• Woodworking
• Manipulatives
• Take-apart
• Imaginative-play center
• Playground/outdoor play
• Tactile-learning (e.g., sandpaper letters, sample textures and cloth)

You need to give these kids as many chances to do things themselves as you can, they won't really get it until they do it and sometimes over and over.

Visual/Spatial Intelligence—"The Architect/Engineer/ Sculptor"

Visual/Spatial Intelligence—"The Architect/Engineer/ Sculptor"
People with high visual intelligence process information best using pictures, visuals, and imagery. They have a sense of direction and an ability to think and plan in three dimensions. Additional characteristics include the following:

• Ability to create complex mental images
• Active imagination
• Ability to find their way mentally and physically around environment
• Ability to see the physical world accurately and translate it into new forms
• Ability to see things in relationship to others
• Ability to use "mind maps"
• Uses imagery and guided visualizations
• Likes visual support-video, pictures, photos, charts, posters
• Organizes space, objects, and areas
• Enjoys designing and decorating

Activities for Visual/Spatial:

• Sculpting dough, collage, painting, drawing
• Manipulatives (e.g., 3-D manipulatives, visual puzzles)
• Blocks, legos
• Computer (e.g., visual design and layout software)
• Videos, slides, photos, charts
• Trains with tracks they can put together themselves

It's great to teach these children using "the bag" where you put something in a bag or box that can't be seen through and they have to figure out what it is by touching it only, it really strengthens their ability to visualize things in their head and solidifies the object in their memory. Letters, numbers, shapes, objects, anything they can touch.

Musical Intelligence—"The Entertainer/Musician"

Musical Intelligence—"The Entertainer/Musician"
People with high musical intelligence learn best through sound, rhythm, and music. These people learn better when music is playing and through musical metaphors. Additional characteristics include the following:

• Ability to perceive pitch, tone, and rhythmic pattern
• Well developed auditory sense and discrimination
• Ability to create, organize rhythmically, and compose music
• Picks up and creates melodies/rhythm easily
• Remembers songs easily
• Ability to sing or play instruments
• Sensitive and drawn to sounds
• Possesses "schemas" for hearing music
• Constantly humming, tapping, and singing

These children learn well when you put things to song and with background music as well.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence—
"The Scientist/Philosopher"
People with high logical/mathematical intelligence create order out of chaos by analyzing, grouping, and categorizing. They recognize relationships, connections, and patterns more easily than people with less logical intelligence. Additional characteristics include the following:

• Ability to handle long chains of reasoning
• Likes reasons for doing things
• Possesses good inductive and deductive reasoning
• Quick to learn equivalencies
• Asks "why" and "how" questions
• Solves problems rapidly
• Likes to predict, analyze, and theorize
• Enjoys dealing with abstraction
• Strong at math and problem solving skills
• Sequential thinker
• Enjoys board games and games with rules

Activities for Logical/Mathematical:

• Playing store
• Science activities
• Anything they can take-apart and put back together
• Puzzles
• Recycling
• Weather Chart
• Computer (e.g., logical thinking, sequential software)
• Cooking
  
• Creating patterns by stringing beads

Even if this is not your childs "intelligence" these are important and simple ways of teaching math and science skills. Neither of them need to be hard, they only tend to seem so, go to A Place of Our Own to see more ways you can incorporate math and science lessons into everyday activities.

Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence

Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence—"The Writer/Orator/Attorney"
People with high verbal/linguistic intelligence love words. They prefer to process information through words and language versus pictures. They may prefer oral or written methods, or excel in both. Additional characteristics include the following:

• Sensitive to the meaning, order, and sound of words
• Uses varied language
• Avid talkers; good speakers
• Likes to explain, convince, and persuade through words
• Enjoys and excels at word games
• Enjoys listening to, telling, and reading stories
• Enjoys rhymes and poetry
• Has good memory recall for names and dates

Activities for Verbal/Linguistic

• Story time
• Writing
• Listening to books on tape
• Flannel board stories
• Making their own books