Project Initiating Activity:
After reading the book Bird Builds a Nest to Alexandra, we talked about the following terms: nest, push and pull, and heavy and light as suggested by the author Jenkins (2018). Then Alexandra selected her paint colors and painted seven (7) pre-made cardboard birds. She discovered the alla prima or wet-on-wet painting technique that uses wet paint on wet paint. This technique mixed her colors: red and blue became purple, and white and red was like a "candy cane." While she painted, I played bird sounds. We talked about how nature can make music. Then she noticed it was raining outside, and we talked about how rain sounds. Once her birds were dry, she glued googly eyes and feathers made from fabrics she selected. Then she made two birds nests like the bird in the story we read. She layered yarn strips around the pre-glued felt to "feather" her nests.

Book Reference:
Jenkins, M. (2018). Bird builds a nest. Candlewick Press.

Then we did our Let’s Hear Colors, Lines, and Shapes Lesson. I asked Alexandra to close her eyes and listen to the music that was playing: contemporary jazz pieces. I asked her to imagine what colors and shapes she saw when she listened to the music. She selected the colors of paint that filled two palettes. I gave her three pieces of heavy-duty paper and several brushes. While the music played, she painted the colors she heard. We also talked about the rhythm or beat of the music and what that could look like when painted. She made staccato or short brush strokes that showed the beat of the music. She also identified the shapes that she was painting.

When she was done with her expressive paintings, we went to the carpet area and listened to music. Alexandra played the drums, and I played the maracas. We listened to the beat of the music and stayed on tempo.

Lastly, we returned to the art table, and Alexandra used the rest of the paint in the palettes to paint her two birdhouses. Then she washed her hands and was ready when Miss Barbara come for her science lesson.

It was a very exciting and productive day!

National Core Arts Standards Pre K

VA:Cr1.2.PKa
Engage in self-directed, creative making.

VA:Cr2.1.PKa
Use a variety of artmaking tools

VA:Cr2.3.PKa
Create and tell about art that communicates a story about a familiar place or object.

VA:Cr3.1.PKa
Share and talk about personal artwork.

MU:Pr4.3.PK
With substantial guidance, explore music’s expressive qualities (such as voice quality, dynamics, and tempo).

MU:Re7.1.PK
With substantial guidance, state personal interests and demonstrate why they prefer some music selections over others.

Alexandra began today's session by working on an academic activity sheet called "cookie addition,' using pictures to add and write the sum in the spaces provided. The activity afforded an opportunity to use mathematical terminology (e.g., sum/equal) during computation. Alexandra used both my fingers and counters to assist her in performing the math required for successful outcome; we used concrete objects such as marbles, counters, blocks and other math manipulatives to assist in number correspondence activities. Prompts were afforded to facilitate her ability to write certain numbers. She holds a pencil correctly but had some difficulty remembering the exact order and orientation of certain numbers, such as the number 5 (this is known as mirror-writing, and is very common in young children, and often seen up to the age of 7). Alexandra was afforded practice via modeling to write the numbers 5 and 8, and we worked on handwriting and tracing activities to further strengthen her number perception and graphic ability to reproduce numbers. She clearly demonstrates an understanding of concepts of bigger than and less than and adding more and taking away. "If you have 3 apples and I don't take any away from you- how many will you have left??" "I'd have 3 apples." We've also begun working on broadening Alexandra's conceptual understanding of tens and ones and began writing two-digit numbers as I explained them as follows: after she counts objects (blue counters) to ten, she is asked to put them in a group and told it is a group of ten things. We then counted another group of counters, noting that it is another group of ten. We did this with three groups of ten, and Alexandra counted the 30 counters and I explained," there are three groups of ten. You just counted thirty blue counters in all. Now how do we count just 4 counters?" As she counts them, I explained that they are not in a group of ten, so they are in a group of ones; she wrote the number 4. I hope to teach expanded notation next to show Alexandra that there are 30 + 4 counters in the group and how to write the number 3 on the left and 4 for the numbers of ones. I verbally gave Alexandra a series of one and 2-digit numbers to write but she grew tired halfway through the activity, and prompting methods helped her complete the task. We also worked on repeating the pattern activity on which Alexandra completed half the assigned task. The activity used two and three different shapes in repetitive patterns. Alexandra understood how to complete the pattern, only having some difficulty reproducing multi-sided figures such as pentagons; however, she made a concerted effort to replicate them. I ended the session by drawing a picture of one of her unicorn stuffies and we readied ourselves for dismissal.

We worked in the Preschool Classroom instead of the Art Room, so Alexandra could sit in a safe non-rolling chair at the smaller art tables. I read to Alexandra the following book: Unicorns Love Ice Cream by Ben Okon. She learned a new word: sublime. After we read the book, we did a fun ice cream cone art project. Alexandra was given two large cardboard templates each of an ice cream cone with ice cream scoops. Alexandra selected her paints and brushes to create her two colorful ice cream cone artworks inspired by the story we read. She enjoyed using the brushes and paints and then decorating her ice cream cones with glitter "sprinkles" and pom-pom "cherries."

Book Reference:
Okon, B. (2025). Unicorns love ice cream. Younger Media, LLC.

While she had her snack, I read to her the lyrics to the Rainbow Unicorn Song by CoComelon. We also talked about our five senses. After she had her snack, I read to her the following book: Never Let a Unicorn Scribble by Diane Alber. After we read the book, we did two art activities. Using a large variety of colorful crayons and drawing paper, I showed Alexandra how to draw a unicorn using simple shapes like a circle and an oval. She drew some unicorns and named one Goldie. Then she did a few crayon scribble drawings inspired by the book. I played unicorn songs while she drew. We made a folder for her artwork to be taken home.

Book Reference:
Alber, D. (2019). Never let a unicorn scribble. Diane Alber Aer, LLC.

National Core Arts Standards Pre-K:
VA:Cr1.1.PKa
Engage in self-directed play with materials

VA:Cr1.2.PKa
Engage in self-directed, creative making.

VA:Cr2.1.PKa
Use a variety of artmaking tools

VA:Cr2.3.PKa
Create and tell about art that communicates a story about a familiar place or object.

VA:Cr3.1.PKa
Share and talk about personal artwork.

After she was done drawing, we went to the rug area of the Preschool Room, and Alexandra played the drums while we sang a unicorn song that had directives and a rhythm. For example: "Unicorn, unicorn touch your toes. Unicorn, unicorn touch your nose." We sang the whole song a few more times keeping the rhythm, and then Mrs. Brager came to take Alexandra to her Spanish lesson.

National Core Arts Standards Pre-K:
MU:Pr4.3.PK
With substantial guidance, explore music’s expressive qualities (such as voice quality, dynamics, and tempo)

I brought her artwork up to Miss Elise at the front desk for Alexandra to take home at the end of the day. It was a great first day!

Alexandra completed her calendar talk, read her sight words, read her emergent readers, played reading games, put together her daily word puzzle, and completed her phonics activities,

We listened to and learned a song about "Dem Bones." She put together a skeleton and added its organs. She labeled the skeleton. She labeled the organs. She used candy bones to complete a math graphing activity.

We made a book of Spanish words and the pictures to go with them. She practiced saying the words.

Alexandra began working on an exercise involving shapes. It required that she count the sides of the shapes and color according to a key provided. She was reminded of the names of the shapes and encouraged to repeat them and subsequently queried for recall. She also was tasked with filling in the blanks about 2 dimensional objects and their surfaces (flat or curved). Alexandra was exposed to a variety of hands-on activities that involved tracing, drawing, naming, and identifying 2D shapes and comparing them to real life objects, (e.g., a shoebox, a spoon, a pan), which further developed Alexandra's ability to recognize the difference between 2D and 3D shapes and discuss their characteristics, such as the numbers of corners and sides. Alexandra was also presented with word problems tasking her with using check marks on pictorial graphs to solve problems. Math vocabulary such as "how many pieces of fruit did she buy in all?" was reinforced. Finally, Alexandra used a color code to color the picture which developed concepts of greater than and less than ("what number is greater than 8 but less than 10') to further develop, reinforce and refine her number sense.

Alexandra completed her calendar talk and calendar writing, put together her daily sentence puzzle, read and discussed her reading comprehension story, worked on her phonics activities, and read her sight words.

We began by reading a book about the shape of things to reinforce the concept that shapes make up the world around us. The book contained simple rhymes and illustrations to help illustrate the idea to be able to distinguish the shapes in nature and the environment. One example we discussed and drew began with a diamond shape, which we transformed into a kite when we added some string - or a tail to it. Alexandra was encouraged to manipulate, draw, compare, describe, sort, and represent shapes in a variety of ways in order to develop and concretize ideas about shapes. We expanded this concept by working on exercises which included a discussion of geometric shapes using math vocabulary. Alexandra was prompted to describe shapes and other objects using relationship words like, 'near, 'under, 'by,' on top of,' below,' 'right,' and 'left.' I also introduced Alexandra to another book which challenged her to count and distinguish shapes up to 50. We continued reading another book that tasked Alexandra with skip counting by 2's 5's and 10's. We used an abacus to show different ways to show and represent numbers and Alexandra worked independently on an exercise in which she looked at objects and then drew a circle around the solid figure on the line next to it that looked like its shape. She was also tasked with naming it. To stimulate higher-order thinking, Alexandra was prompted to name the solid figure shown and to then draw two additional objects that looked like that shape. She showed a very good understanding and execution of tasks given to her.

Alexandra completed her calendar talk and calendar writing, worked on her phonics activities, put together her daily sentences puzzle, read her sight words, and read, discussed, and answered questions to a reading comprehension story.