lesson plan - spring, windy, rainy day

Sunday nights, I try to hide in the children's art room and draft a lesson plan for the week. We were anticipating rain, so I found a few craft projects the kids could do. But first, I had to make our Spring tree {made with just large sheets of brown construction paper}. I also cut out green leaves and placed these in a small tray - each time the kids complete an activity, we can write on the leaf what they learned about "Spring" and add it to our tree {my hope is that it'll "bloom" before summer!}

Index cards with weather pictures are taped to the mirror on the side so that the kids can observe and talk about the weather... Today, it was...

Rain is in the forecast, so we started an umbrella art project.

For the full scoop on how to do this sticky umbrella art project and what they look like finished, see our Creative Crafting Corner.

Onto the rest of our lesson plan... I read Charlotte's Web and The Very Busy Spider and made spiders of our own with colorful pipe cleaners and googly-eyes...

The kids practiced their worksheets found in their baskets {I cut theme-related sheets out from their preschool workbooks} focusing on the colors red and orange, and cutting and pasting the shapes rectangles and squares. I really like how organized the day was. Not everything had to be written down in the lesson plan book either {that would have drove me insane}. Instead, we let the day open itself up for learning opportunities around us. Like when we were in the backyard, Noah went through a web and he felt a "string" stick to his arm... or when he played with his ambulance and police cars - and he noticed the "rectangle" shapes... oh yes, learning is everywhere...

How do you organize your learning day? Do you start out with a theme? The weather?