Always something to learn

Past Projects: stars and flags

2011-07-02T09:53:00.001-07:00

I don't have any 4Th of July decorations so I am having my two girls to help make some. Here are two we have finished-if we have time I hope to do a few more.

4Th of July Stars for the windows- This was really easy and something a little different. Aubrey really enjoyed it.

I cut out red, white, and blue stars. Aubrey cut out little piece of paper to use as confetti.Next I cut out a large piece of clear contact paper. I helped Aubrey lay the three star on the sticky side.
She then sprinkled the confetti over the stars and contact paper.
I added another piece of contact paper on top to seal.
We hung it in the window so the people outside also have something cute to look at. It turned out pretty cute.

Variations-Make three separate ones (one for each star instead of the three stars together) and hang them in a row OR use it as a cute place mat.
Our Flags- Very simple and both girls helped. I cut out a blue square-the girls made polka dots with a white crayon for stars. I cut out red stripes of paper. The blue and red paper were glued down. Cut off the extra red that went over the sides. They aren't very evenly spaced and I am pretty sure one has a few extra stripes but the girls really like them.

We also listened to a few patriotic songs on the computer. It was great because some of the videos had flags and Aubrey was able to point them out.

Past Projects: Cupcake liner Fireworks and F Flag

2011-07-02T09:51:00.001-07:00

We did two projects yesterday both found on No Time for Flashcards.

Cupcake liner Fireworks-So easy (make sure to use white) Color with markers and cut a few slits around the edge so they lay flat. We glued ours onto black paper so they look like they are in the sky. Olivia also made some. Aubrey's are the two on the left and Livy's are the two on the right.

F is for Flag- I had Aubrey glue on the stripes and stars. We practiced patterns as we did this activity.

Past project: 4th of July Mobil and fireworks

2011-07-02T09:50:00.001-07:00

Here are two crafts we did today.

Patriotic Mobile found on 4 Crazy Kings-It looks so cute. Aubrey did all the painting and I cut the pieces out and put it together. We now have something to hang from these silly hooks all over our house.

Firework Finger painting- (found on Our crafts n things)Aubrey and Olivia enjoyed this project. They may not look completely like fireworks but they are a lot of fun. To make this project easy I made a few dots on their paper with each finger paint color and let them paint with that. Last time I gave them a plate with paint and Livy dropped hers on the carpet. This worked much better and Aubrey loved it so much she made three.

Last minute 4th of July projects

2011-07-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

I printed off a star. Gave the kids long strips of red white and blue paper. The practiced their cutting skills by cutting the paper into squares the gluing them onto the star. We then cut the stars out.

Olivia's

Aubrey cut her star out first and then glued her paper on.

I printed off some flag coloring pages and let them paint them. I showed them a real flag and we talked about the colors, the patterns, the stars, etc. Also a little about America.

A is for Alligator

2011-06-26T18:19:00.001-07:00

Top: Aubrey's Bottom: Olivia's

Idea found here

Muddy Pig Painting

2011-05-03T16:20:00.000-07:00

We began our P is for pig theme. First up was painting piggies with pudding. We talked about how much pigs love the mud and how they use it to keep cool. Then we covered our own pigs with mud (chocolate pudding).

First I drew a pig for each of them on tin foil (I'm not an artist). Then gave them a plate of chocolate pudding and let them use it to finger paint their pigs.

So much fun!

next theme...

2011-04-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

is P for pig! (and a little pink to) If you have any ideas for me send them my way please. We'll be starting our activities on Monday and posts to follow. Have a great weekend.

Mixed up eggs

2011-04-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

This is a simple game that teaches many skills. grab a bunch of plastic eggs and mix up the colors.

Next have your kids take them apart and put the right colors together. seems easy enough right? Well it teaches colors, matching, helps those fine motor skills (its not so easy to take apart or put together), and big and small (you need one of each for the eggs to fit together).

Paper Plate Bunny

2011-04-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

We did a little free art last night and made some paper plate bunnies. I gave them a paper plate. Drew some ears that they cut out (I helped Livy) and the craft box full of glue, crayons, markers, pompoms, pipe cleaners, beads, buttons, and clothespins. This is what we came up with.

Aubrey's

Livy's

Easter Theme from the past

2011-04-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

While we are starting our Easter projects today I thought I would share a few that we did in the past in case you need time to prepare. Here's our Past Rabbit/Easter theme (Here) That is full of craft projects, math ideas, motor skills, letters, etc. Its one of our favorites and hopefully you will find it useful. Here's a few things you will find.

Here's a Fun Resource I Found this year:

E is for Easter Mommy School Packet from Oopsey Daisy. We are excited to use a few things from this packet.

Meet Austin

2011-03-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

I am currently hosting a fundraiser on my craft blog to help raise money for a little 3 year old in need of a kidney transplant. As you can imagine the costs are high. I have 6 Huge giveaways you can enter for a small donation to Austin. Some of the prizes are handmade hats, sewing patterns, $80 gift certificate to CSN (who has everything from toys, shoes, to bedroom furniture), and much more. There is over $950 in prizes plus an extra surprise if you donate today. Please stop by and find out more about Austin and details on the fundraiser.

Here's a little bit about Austin.

He is my friends' little boy He is an amazing little three year old in need of a Kidney transplant. Last summer he contracted a deadly strain of E. coli that caused his kidneys to shut down and is very lucky to have survived.

He has been through so much this last year with tests, operations, in and out of the hospital, and dialysis three times a week. It truly is heartbreaking how much this little boy has already been through. He is scheduled for a much needed kidney transplant sometime this spring or summer. You can read his entire story here.

Please stop by his fundraiser and find out more details about this little boy and how to help help him.

Through their eyes

2011-03-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes its fun to hand over the camera and let them take pictures of whatever they want. Its kind of funny how much they learn and copy you. Yesterday while waiting for the bus I took a quick picture of one of our flowers about to bloom (I'm not a photographer and really need a rake!) We talked a little about all the green leaves and flowers coming up and that spring was coming!

I then handed the camera to Livy and here's her picture she wanted to take. Notice the green in the very back.

Aubrey's. More green

and a few more things that caught her eye.

It was fun to see nature through their eyes even if things are still kind of brown. It also led to conversations about flowers growing big, why they need water, why we need to get rid of all the dead leafs, and of course spring. Learning doesn't need to always happen around the table but can happen even while waiting for the bus.

Lots of gooey fun!

2011-03-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

I saw the idea to make oobleck on a Mommy's Adventure and knew we had to try it!

To Make your own you need 2 parts corn starch to 1 part water. We mixed up 2 cups of cornstarch and 1 cup water and mixed in about 5 drops of red food coloring (they wanted pink). It wipes off easy with water but if your kids are anything like mine it ended up everywhere and a bath was necessary. Take a look at the fun!

See Lots of gooey fun.

The end result-

and the back.

It took some time to clean up but it was so worth it. They are still asking for more.

I'm back and S is for snowman

2011-03-07T09:05:00.000-08:00

Okay I know I mentioned I was done post on this blog but I kind of missed it. I like having one spot where I can find all of our past learning activities and its also fun to see how much my kids have grown and learned. So I'm back at it. I can't promise there will be something every day but hopefully every week.

S Snowman-each theme is decided by the letter we are studying for the week. We always do a letter craft project. Draw an S and cut out a hat and nose. Livy glued on hat, nose, and buttons. I helped her with the face and she colored her snowman. Great cutting practice for older kids.

Snowman Matching game-I found 10 different snowmen (search for snowman clipart). Copy and paste into a word document. Size and print out 2 copies on cardstock for durability. Cut apart.

S is for snowman coloring page

Cutting practice-we are just learning to cut on a line so I drew some different patterns for her to follow. This was a little too advanced.

Marshmallows Snowman- Take three large marshmallows and stick pretzels. Stick a pretzel to the top of one marshmallow. Slide another marshmallow all the way through and add one to the top. You should have 3 marshmallows on one pretzel stick. break a pretzel in half and add it for the arms. As you can see Aubrey love this activity but didn't stop at a snowman she created a huge "spider machine." Livy didn't really get it she was too busy eating her marshmallows.

Do you have any fun snowman or snow activities?

CSN Review

2010-12-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

I Love CSN Stores. They have over 200 online stores where you can find everything from toys, to extra tall bar stools , to shoes for the whole family! Here are a few things on my wish list.

A kitchen aide

this bike

baby doll bed

Love this tree

CSN has kindly offered to let us review one of their fabulous products. I can't wait to show you what it is!

Its time for a change

2010-11-15T20:30:00.000-08:00

Life is to busy and I'm overwhelmed. I have two little kids and just not enough time in the day to do everything I would like to do. I currently have three blogs and sadly its time for this one to go. I just haven't been able to keep up with it like I had hoped. Thank you to everyone that followed it really means a lot to me. Now don't think we are done with posting preschool activities. I've decided to merge this blog over to my craft blog. I know many of you already follow over there and if not I hope you will come join us. I don't have all of the details worked out but I think its going to be a nice fit and much easier for me to keep up with. I'm really excited and hope to see you in our new home.

*This blog will stay here so you so you will still have access to all past posts. I may move them over one day but for now this blog won't go anywhere.

Thanksgiving Flashback

2010-11-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

With Aubrey is school and the limited space here we just have had a hard time getting back to structured learning. I'm hoping this will change and I'm working on a plan but in the mean time here are some fun Thanksgiving crafts we did last year.

Halloween games

2010-10-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

Matching Characters game (can't find the link but there are many cute ones out there) It was a fun way to introduce my little ones to different Halloween characters and get them excited for Halloween.

Pumpkin Sizing

Candy Corn Color matching (purchased here)

Pumpkin Color puzzles found here.

Pumpkin 1-10 counting (I used this print out) I gave my girls the numbers and I would put some pumpkins in the patch. we would say something like 5 little pumpkins in the pumpkin patch 2 more grew and now there are 7. 7 little pumpkins in the pumpkin patch 3 rolled away and now there are 4. etc. Continue to add and subtract numbers until you do 1-10. My girls loved this game.

Bats

2010-10-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

I found an outline of a bat and let them color them. We cut them out (I let them do most of it). Then I punched a hole at the top and we tied yarn through it. We taped them to the ceiling and the girls love watching them fly.

Livy's

Aubrey's

CSN Winner!

2010-10-13T07:44:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Amanda West! Please e-mail me (scharris21@gmail.com) to claim your gift.

Thanks to everyone that entered.

Last day!

2010-10-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

To enter the $40 gift certificate to CSN. Enter here!

Or if you want a chance at winning a $60 gift certificate to CSN visit my craft blog and enter here!

tear and glue pumpkins

2010-10-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

*Don't forget to enter the CSN giveaway!*

This was a really quick and easy activity we did with our friend Isak. I cut out a few pumpkins from black and gave them some orange paper. They tore it and glued it on their pumpkins. They also added some orange pom-poms as well. I forgot to add stems but they are still pretty cute.

Ghosts and pumpkins from last year

2010-10-08T16:37:00.001-07:00

We read the book Snappy Little Halloween this week and it inspired a lot of fun activities. First we pretended to fly around on our witches brooms and then crash into the couch. It provided a lot of laughs. Then the girls wanted to be ghosts so we threw some blankets over their heads and they walked around like this laughing and falling. Livy loved it the most. (Bad Mommy moment-Livy suddenly took a wrong turn and I couldn't catch her before she hit the TV stand. She had two red bumps on her head. Poor little girl...I really need to get rid of that thing. It keeps hurting my baby or just watch her better).

Later that night we made some simple pumpkins. The girls had fun making their own and we now have some fun decorations for Halloween. I cut out the eyes but Aubrey did everything else all by herself.

Livy colored her with every marker we own.

They were tired, it was late, and they did not want to pose for the camera. They really did have fun.

We are adding this to stART at A Mommy's Adventure .

Witch projects from last year

2010-10-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

Here is our first set of projects- W witch- I just cut out a W and a hat and let Aubrey glue them together. She then drew a face and added fun Halloween foam stickers.

(What do you do when you run out of room on your paper? You add them to your face!)

Witch and broom-I found this (here) I cut it out and Aubrey glued it together. I let her pick where everything went. She did a great job!

Fun Halloween Songs

2010-10-08T16:34:00.001-07:00

We have been singing a few fun songs. Aubrey is starting to learn the words and both girls love the actions to 5 Little Pumpkins. I found both songs here on Epicurean Style.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin Song

(sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

Pumpkin pumpkin on the ground

How'd you get so big and round

Planted as a seed so small

Now you are a great big ball

Pumpkin pumpkin on the ground

How'd you get so big and round

Five Little Pumpkins

Five Little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh, my it's getting late!" (Look at your watch or touch where it should be)

The second one said, "There are witches in the air." (Look around nervously)

The third one said, "But we don't care." (Shake finger back and forth, "no" motion with finger)

The fourth one said, "Let's fun, let's run!" (Running motion with your arms)

The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?" (Make the "what" motion with arms)

The Wooooooosh went the wind (make a windy movement with your hands)

And OUT (clap hands together) went the lights.

And five little pumpkin's rolled out of sight. (Whisper this last line and Roll your hands

Preschool board

2010-10-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

*Don't forget to enter my first giveaway!

I love to teach my girls at home and in our last place we had tons of wall space to hang up what ever I wanted. Here we don't have that luxury so I decided to make a portable preschool. Its our special board that we can pull out each day and easy put away.

Here's what it contains: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree (we are going to add each letter as we learn it), Our calendar with removable numbers and month, weather center, and what we are learning each week. There is also empty space at the bottom for anything else we want to add during the week such as sight words.

Here's how I made it.

I used a box that paper comes in and tore the edges apart.

I then cut off all the extra flaps.

For the Calendar I found a blank one online and sized it in Word. Printed and cut it out. I then glued it onto my cardboard and covered it with a piece of clear contact paper. I typed up the numbers and months and printed them out on cardstock. I attached them to the board with tape and store the extra in an envelope.

For the weather center I used clip art from the Internet and printed them out on cardstock.

I added two magnets to the cardboard and magnets to the back of each picture.

For the Learning Board I typed up each subject and cut them into rectangles.

I glued them on to the cardboard and covered with contact paper. Now you can write on them with white board markers and they easily erase.

For the Tree I used this site and cut it down to size. I just glued it on. We will use tape to attach our letters.

Here's Olivia examining her new preschool board. Aubrey already asked me to teach about the calendar. I think it is going to work well.

Another great part is it folds up and slides behind their dresser when we aren't using it.

CSN Giveaway!-Closed

2010-10-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

I Love CSN Stores. They have over 200 online stores where you can find everything from toys, to bar stools, to shoes for the whole family! Here are a few things on my wish list.

This Bean Bag

this bike

Love this tree

and this stroller

CSN has generously offered one of my readers a $40 gift certificate to any of their stores.
To Enter (leave a separate comment for each entry)
1. Leave a comment telling me what you would buy if you won.
2. Follow Always something to learn
3. Blog, Tweet, or Facebook about this giveaway and leave a comment stating what you did.

Good Luck Giveaway will close October 12 at Midnight.

More Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities

2010-09-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

We watched this fun video on YouTube. There were a few but this was our favorite. Livy was dancing like crazy.

Then we colored a picture. (found here)

Then we made this coconut tree by coloring it. Then I cut out the pieces. Then Livy glued them on and added letter stickers.

Coconut trees and more

2010-09-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Our new theme is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I thought we would start off our new year with a Letter review for Aubrey and an introduction for Olivia.

First we made some fun coconut trees.

For Aubrey we painted her hand green and her arm brown and stamped it onto the paper. We then added a few more green handprints around.

Livy did not like the idea of having her arm painted so I helped her paint a coconut tree instead.

Once it was dry we used a brown ink pad and stamped their fingers to make coconuts.

Then they added alphabet stickers to their trees. (Great for fine motor skills and letter identification)

Finished trees. Livy's is the pink and Aubrey's is yellow.

Other activities:

We read Chicka Chicka boom boom.
Sang the ABC song
Practiced some rhythm by hitting the table each time we said chicka and clapping each time we said boom. We started slow and continued to increase speed. Aubrey caught on pretty well and Livy just had fun the faster we went.
We played ring a round the rosies but substituted the words. We would sing part of the ABC's then yell chicka chicka boom boom. On the last boom we would fall down. (we did A-G, H-P, Q-Z) It was a big hit.
Reviewed some letters with starfall. (link is on the sidebar)

We won't always do this much because Aubrey is in preschool for 3 hours a day so I don't want to wear her out (I still want her to enjoy learning :) She was home sick so we were able to fit in a little extra. Livy LOVED preschool today so I'm excited to continue with her this year. I'm still trying to figure out how everything is going to work but I'm really excited.

Back to School

2010-09-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

Its been a fun and busy summer and we are ready to get back to school. This year Aubrey will be attending preschool 4 days a week 3 hours a day. It will be preschool combined with therapy-speech and occupational. It will be a lot but we are going to still try and fit in some more formal learning activities at home just maybe not as many as before. However this year Olivia is now old enough to start some preschool activities. I'm still not sure how we are going to structure everything. It may take us a few weeks to see what Aubrey will be able to do at home and then go from there. In the mean time we worked on a craft today! Aubrey will be ridding the bus to and from school so we made our own shape bus today. It was super easy and fun for the girls to glue and color their buses. Aubrey even drew herself on the bus and me driving. So cute!

Olivia's is red and Aubrey's is purple.

Shape Bird House and online stories

2010-07-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

I cut out a large rectangle, Triangle, and two circles for each girl. We practiced colors, shapes, and following directions. I showed them where to glue their shapes to make a bird house and let them do it. (I only helped Livy add glue she did the rest). I then gave them markers and stickers and let them decorate their little bird houses. Fun project that teaches a few different skills-my favorite kind.

Here are a few fun online stories we've been enjoying.

Are you my Mother

The Best Nest

This is a cute clip. There are no words so I used it to ask Aubrey questions like what do you think is happening? How do you think he feels? Why is is so sad? etc. (Aubrey struggles a bit with these types of questions so I've been trying to ask questions in as many daily situations as I can.)

The Ugly Duckling

Lets build something!

2010-07-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is a fun and and easy activity that my girls really enjoyed. I gave them marshmallows (big and small) and stick pretzels and let them connect them to build whatever they wanted. I showed them how to push a marshmallow into a stick and then let them do the rest.

Aubrey caught on really quickly and was soon building something.

This little one caught on pretty well but preferred to eat them.

She kept going and going

until finally her "spider" was complete. She worked at this for about 30-40 minutes. Doesn't it look awesome.

As soon as she was done she said "can I eat it now?" What a cutie!

B for Bird

2010-07-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

I cut out a large B, a wing, and tail feathers. They glued it together and colored however they wanted. We added a googly eye and I drew on a beak and feet (Aubrey drew her own feet).

Olivia's Bird

Aubrey's Bird

Simple and Cute! We are learning a ton just not a lot of formalized preschool lately. We are going to do some more Bird activities and I'll try and post them as we go. In addition we have been working on a lot of motor skill activities (which right now is the most important thing for Aubrey). We've been ridding bikes, playing with play dough, blowing bubbles, computer games, using straws, swimming, wheelbarrow races, writing on our chalkboard, and just running, jumping, and playing. Its all helping but like I said not really much I can share on this blog. However, I want to start getting Aubrey ready for preschool (she starts next month!) so we will be doing more formalized learning, getting on a schedule, etc. Lots of fun things to come so I hope you keep coming back.

speech therapy evaluation

2010-06-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

Aubrey's first day of Preschool (well evaluations)!

One thing that has taken up some of our time since we've moved here is Aubrey's speech evaluation. I've been putting it off for a long time thinking she will just catch up and just do things at her own pace. Which is true she has come a very long way on her own. She amazes us every day. Well we wanted to get her evaluated to see what our options were and with enough time before she starts school. I am so glad I finally took her and also that I waited until I did. She tested with the preschool teacher, speech therapist, and occupational therapist. All three are wonderful, sweet, and so helpful. The tests were long and took about three hours (2 hours 1 day and 1 hour another day). She tested just a little low in the cognitive (we weren't sure if she would qualify for services but she will), she tested pretty low for speech and in her motor skills. The part that makes me so happy is we discovered these two are connected. Aubrey has what they call low tone or low muscle tone. I don't entirely understand it but basically her muscles aren't developed as well as they should be including the muscles in her tongue. It also causes her to tire out quickly and simple tasks that we do automatically like run or talking are difficult for her because her brain has to try and figure out how to move each muscle and tell her body how to do it. It is so interesting to find all of this out and realize there is a reason she does so many things she does. It also makes me a little more patient as she tries to get her body to do what she needs it to do. She will do preschool, speech, and occupational therapy for two hours four days a week starting in the fall. I am excited to see how well she progresses. In the mean time we are leaving her speech alone (the speech therapist suggested to wait until she can work with her) but we are working on building up all of her muscles and on cognitive skills. Aubrey asks me daily what her teachers said. Some of their recommendations are to chew gum, go swimming, wheelbarrow races, drink milkshakes, and playdough. She is pretty excited to hear all of these things and to go to school in the fall. We also will be taking her to the doctor to see if we can figure out the cause of her low tone as well as getting a hearing and eye test. Lots of stuff to do and its a little scary for me but I'm so happy to have the support we are going to have. We'll keep you updated as things go on.

Also any tips?

W is for Watermelon

2010-06-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

When I think of Summer I often think of sitting on my great grandpa's grass eating freshly picked watermelon. Yum! To go along with this we made a fun watermelon using the letter W. I cut out a large W and Aubrey glued it onto construction paper.

We practiced with the hole punch and made several black dots. Working on building up those hand muscles.

She glued all of her little "seeds to her watermelon.

And then I cut around the W to make the watermelon shape.

Mouse activity

2010-06-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

We read "if you give a mouse a cookie" and made this little craft to go along with it. We used it to learn a little about shapes, colors, and kindness.

To Make:

1 large heart (for body)

2 large circles (ears

2 medium circles (inside of ears)

pipe cleaner for tail (tail)

wiggly eyes

crayons (nose)

keep your hear folded in half and add your ears and face. Open up the heart and write I love or I can be kind by...and feel in the answer. Attach the tail with some tape and then tape the top of the heart shut.

Livy played with these for a week and I think I had to kiss that silly mouse about 20 times.

color snake

2010-06-02T14:37:00.001-07:00

Here was a quick and fun project. I cut out a snake from cardstock so it was a little thicker. I gave Aubrey scraps to cut and glue onto her snake. I cut Livy's out but she glued all of hers on herself. We practiced saying the different colors. We added eyes and a little tongue.

I was really impressed with Aubrey's ability to create her snake pretty much all by herself. Livy also did really well with the glue. She put a little where she wanted it and then knew how to stick her colored square on top. Aubrey knew all of the colors and Livy is starting to understand a little.

(I had more pictures but blogger's not letting me upload them).

Lacing

2010-05-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Aubrey was bored while I was making dinner so I thought it would be fun for her to make a necklace. Well all of my yarn is packed somewhere in the garage so we used a pipe cleaner and some pasta. It actually worked really well. It was thick and the pasta wasn't very big so it made it a little more challenging. She worked on it for a while and once it wall all threaded she would pull it off so she could do it again. I don't think it ever made it into a necklace but it was great practice.

Craft Challenge Link Up

2010-05-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to meniton the craft challenge theme on my craft blog this week is Education and learning. Please share all of your great projects you've made to teach your children at home, any teacher gift ideas, end of the year ideas, etc. There are so many things that can fit in this category and I know all of you find great ways to teach your children daily. If you want to share you can link up here.

Paper plate Snake

2010-05-24T13:51:00.000-07:00

Yeah my computer is working again! Here's a few animal projects we did.

First was a paper plate snake. We drew on the bottom of the plate to decorate our snake. I then started cutting around the plate and circling into the middle (you can kind of tell what I did by looking at the picture). It will look like the snake is coiled up.Grab the snakes head the they uncoil and are fun to play with.

We then practiced tracing with stencils. We didn't get to far a long with this but it would be fun to color and make a picture or even a zoo.

We've found a bunch of old animal books at Grandma Kathy's house and have been reading and learning about all types of animal. This has been our favorite activity.

We are finally here

2010-05-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

We made it. It was stressful. We are so excited to be here. I am still working on getting Internet access on my computer so I can get to my pictures so sorry still no posts for you. WE have been so crazy and haven't done a ton of preschool but we are getting back on track this week. Also we have a speech evaluation for Aubrey coming up this month and we are really excited about it, We are also looking into her attending the preschool there as well. Lots of big changes for us but we still plan on learning lots at home and continuing to post. Thanks for hanging in there with us.

Z zebra

2010-04-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

For our letter of the week we make a Z zebra. I cut out a large white z and a bunch of black stripes. Aubrey then added glue and her stripes. We added a wiggly eye and a nose and She colored on a mane.

Our Zoo theme is going well-we are going to continue it into this week because honestly we just didn't get to a lot of stuff I wanted to. Early last week my husband received a new job offer and the week got crazy trying to decided to take it and then the packing, planning, and stress kicked in. So we are slowly working through our plan but just aren't getting everything in daily like I had originally hoped to. I think we are going to do our best for the next few weeks (we move in about 2) and then once we get settled begin our more structured plan. I will try and post as often as I can but please forgive me for the lack of post.

Just to let you know

2010-04-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know I am giving away an adorable pillow set from CSN on my craft blog. Go here to enter if you are interested. Today is the last day so go quick!

Puzzles and math game

2010-04-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

We started our zoo theme week yesterday and our new preschool plan. We didn't get to half of the things I had planned but I was still very pleased with the day. My girls are still sick so the both took long naps-Aubrey doesn't usually nap. Here are some of the things we did.

Zoo animal puzzles-We practiced the names of the animals, putting the puzzles together, and then had puzzle races. Played Roll a Zebra found on confessions of a homeschooler

We also Read lots of books and began progressive phonics.

Our new Plan

2010-04-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

First I want to thank everyone for the comments from the please help post. I've taken all of it into consideration in addition to the ideas I had to come up with a new lesson plan. It may be too much we'll see but I'm excited about it. I haven't decided if I want to post each day separate or each activity separate...any thoughts?

*Also in regards to the speech topic-we did have her evaluated a year and a half ago because we were very worried however after the evaluation she started picking up things rapidly. Last year we had a different concern and brought it up to the doctor but Aubrey then picked that up the next week. We have been working closley with her pediatrition and monitoring her progress. We are still strongly considering doing another evaluation to get help with articulation or any other issue she may have-she has some trouble with the letters l, ch, and r and it makes some of her words difficult to understand. We want whats best for her. We don't feel like now is the time for several reasons but we may do it as early as a month depending on some situations. She has another year before she starts school and we plan to get her in and ready way before that so don't worry.

Okay here is my new plan-like I said it may end up being way to much but I thought we would try it out for a few weeks and see how it goes. I think I am going to set up a workbox type system so she can select the activity and go through them through out the day. A few of them will be at set times like when Livy naps and Aubrey will need one on one time-it will vary by day. We will try and include Livy on activities that are age appropriate.
Each week will have a theme and all activities will be based around it as much as possible (speech may be the exception on some days)
Each day we will include:

Circle Time:will include calendar, word wall, and anything else that needs reviewing
Speech-fun activities to emphasise specific letter sounds and practice speaking
Letters-one letter a week and activities to emphasis the specific letter
Math-numbers, matching, sizing, etc.
Reading-Books!!! and begin progressive phonics
music-theme related and use our song box
Art-
Extra-science, social studies, P.E. life skills, cooking, any other fun activity

Again any suggestions would be great! Also sorry for the lack of posting lately. Between family, vacation, and then being sick all week we just haven't had much time. I think things are getting back to normal and we are ready to start up again.

Easter Eggs

2010-04-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

We made these fun Easter eggs with glue and stale marshmallows. I helped them squeeze the glue to make an Easter Egg shape and then had them put the marshmallows along the line of glue.

Livy' liked to dump a bunch on hers but she did try and place some in the glue. Aubrey did a really good job following the lines

Olivia's

Aubrey's

We ran out of marshmallows and Livy was trying to eat them (careful with little ones you don't want them to eat the glue).

I need some advise please!

2010-03-31T11:53:00.001-07:00

So Aubrey has just a little over a year before she starts school and I think we need a little more structure with our learning at home. A few things I want to incorporate are speech (she's a little behind), science, and more reading along with the activities we have already been doing. Its important to me to keep it fun but also teach her what she needs to know (and a little extra) along the way.
Here's where you come in-I want to know how you structure your home learning. Do you have certain time of the day, certain subjects you teach, pretty much anything you do that makes your home learning a success. Also any tips to teach the above mentioned subjects or any others you like. If you have younger kids how do you include them (we like to include Livy as much as possible). Please just share any ideas! Thanks

P.S. I'll be posting an easy Easter Egg project later today.

Where we've been!

2010-03-21T22:30:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. We have been really busy with family in town and now we are out of town for the next week. We have been having a great time and have been learning a ton. Livy is learning new words like "peace out" and "dang it" umm should I be worried. Aubrey is learning about hot tubs, pretend play, cell phones, and that Grandma Peggy will give her anything she wants. I did bring some structured learning games so we will see if we have time for any of those. Either way I know they are learning a ton through play and loving spending time with their grandparents and aunts. We'll start up our regular activities next week when we get back.

bathtub paint

2010-03-15T10:00:00.001-07:00

Oh boy life got a little busy around here (and will continue-we are headed out of town for a little bit to visit my family!)

I wanted to share this fun activity we did earlier last week. I found this idea here. To make your own bathtub paint you mix 2 Tablespoon of cornstarch, 1/3 cup of liquid soap (we used greed dish soap), several drops of food coloring (we left that out because ours was already green and I didn't want to risk staining our rental apartment bathtub-everything stains this thing), and a few drops of water to get it to the consistency you want. I put ours in a muffin tin and gave the girls a paintbrush. It was a huge hit. It was really light so the food coloring would be a lot more fun but my girls didn't seem to mind. They played for a long time. Just be careful with little ones rubbing their eyes or sticking the paintbrush in their mouths. Livy learned this the hard way.

Leprechaun Hat and picture

2010-03-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

We made this easy leprechaun hat the other day. I cut out a basic hat shape and let Aubrey decorate it how ever she wanted. We then stapled a band to the hat so it would fit her head. She was not in the mood for pictures-this is her shy face. She then colored this little leprechaun. While I cut him out she made him a "rainbow".

Let's go fly a Kite

2010-03-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

Aubrey put together this puzzle from confessions of a homeschooler. She did really well. I think she is starting to get the hang of puzzles.
Then we made Kite pictures. I printed out a picture of each girl and cut it out. They colored three kites (I had already cut them out as well). I then had them glue their picture, at the bottom of the page, with the kites in the sky. I helped them draw lines to continue the kite tails to their hands. they also glue a bunch of cotton balls for clouds. I really like how these turned out and they thought it was so fun that they were "flying" kites.

In like a Lion...

2010-03-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

We decided to talk about March weather using the theme in like a lion and out like a lamb. It was a perfectly windy and stormy day so we decided to make some lions to match.

Paper plate lion-We only had Styrofoam so it didn't work as well. It was still fun and turned out cute. Its hard to see in the picture but the edges are colored yellow and we ripped the edges of the plate as well. Aubrey drew her own face on her lion. The idea came from here.
Free art-I cut and drew a lion for each of them. (Umm I am not an artist so don't laugh too hard). I let them decorate them however they wanted. Aubrey choose glue and pom poms. Livy decided to color hers.

mosaic kite and sorting

2010-03-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

We worked on scissor skills with this mosaic kite (idea found here). Aubrey cut out a bunch of pieces of paper in what ever size and color she wanted. She then stuck it to a piece of contact paper. We covered it with another piece to seal it. Hole punched the bottom and Aubrey helped thread the yarn.We then worked on sorting pom poms by color.Half way through she lost interest and started building a snake instead-I still had her name the colors to make sure she knew them. We practiced fine motor skills by having her put the pom poms in each circle. I counted as she went-she just didn't feel like counting with me she was concentrating to hard. (we used the magnet page from here)

We also watched "let go fly a kite" from Mary Poppins on youtube. She really enjoyed the song and seeing all of the kites flying.

We did the letter K on starfall. She really like the maze.

K kite

2010-03-02T08:10:00.001-08:00

We cut out a large letter K and three smaller K's using the Cricut (Aubrey's favorite thing to do). We then glued the large K on for the Kite. Added yarn for the string and the smaller K's for the bows. I then had her decorate it.

The glue on her fingers distracted her so this is as much decorating as she did.Livy was up but I thought this will be a little to difficult for her so I drew a kite on some paper and let her color her own kite. She had a lot of fun.

share you kite activities

2010-03-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

My girls are still recovering but I think we are ready to start up with preschool again. We are going to move on from our music theme (even though we didn't finish) and start our next letter-K for Kite.
Kite from last year. We made it with card stock, stickers, string, and ribbon. It kind of flew.
I thought it would be fun to see what kite (or wind) activities you have done or are doing. Please link yours up this week.

Little Einstein Pack

2010-02-23T15:56:00.000-08:00

For our Music and Instrument theme I thought it would be great to use the Little Einsteins to encourage some fun learning. Its Aubrey's favorite cartoon and let me tell you these games were a big hit. We do similar activities often but having the Little Einsteins on them made them a lot more fun. (most of the graphics came from here)

Mini Puzzles-I cut the picture in half (all four different horizontal, vertical, and diagonal).

Matching-I leave them face up to make it a bit easier but I did have two different pictures of each character for her to match that way she had to pay attention to the details and not just the character.

Sizing Pretend play-I laminated the characters with clear contact paper and added Velcro to the back. Aubrey and Livy have really had a lot of fun playing with this.

My girls are sick right now so preschool is on hold until they feel better. If you want a copy of these games please leave a comment or e-mail me and I would be happy to send them to you.

Super cute leprechauns (from last year)

2010-02-20T23:04:00.000-08:00

A little Leprechaun

and another one

and another one!

Aubrey had fun looking for hidden clovers. She was pretty excited when ever she found one.

We had fun playing with the ears (idea found here) and beard (idea found here). They looked pretty cute. I also made green rice crispy treats-umm they didn't turn out very green and Aubrey apparently likes just the marshmallows.

Here's my two Little Leprechauns looking at each other.

Happy St. Patrick's day!

St. Patrick's day crafts from last year

2010-02-20T23:03:00.001-08:00

Aubrey and I have made a few things for St. Patrick's Day. I am so happy it is something we both enjoying doing together. I love decorating with all of her art work. She also loves seeing it hanging around the house and is very proud of herself. Here are some of our holiday projects.

Hand print shamrocks (idea found here)
I traced around her fist 4 times and cut them out. I also cut a little stem out. She then glued it together to make a clover.

Painted Hand print Leprechaun (idea found here)
These were a lot of fun! I painted her wrist green for the hat and her hand orange for the beard. She then made her print on card stock. With the extra paint still on her hand she made a cool picture. She loved it so much she insisted on having a leprechaun with a blue beard and a pink hat. After it dried she glued on the face, drew a rainbow, and added clouds.

Leprechaun Faces (idea found here)
We painted the outside of the paper plate (face down) orange for a beard. After it dried she cut slits. I cut out the hat, eyes, and mouth. She glued it all together.
Our house is looking a lot more festive. I have a few more things planned for next week.

Shape Musical Chairs

2010-02-19T08:12:00.001-08:00

I drew shapes on 6 different pieces of construction paper. We laid them in a circle and when the music was on we would run (or skip, hop, etc.) in a circle or where ever we wanted until the music stopped. Then we would quickly stand on the nearest paper and yell out what shape we were standing on.
It took Aubrey a few tries to figure it out but once she did she had a great time and didn't want to stop. Livy also liked to run but wanted to hold my hand.

I found this idea here.

Pinkalicious

2010-02-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

For our stART activity we read the book Pinkalicious.

We made some pinkalicious cookies. We used this recipe and I added some red food coloring to make them even more pink. They were yummy.
We also make pink cupcake collages. I gave them pink crayons,markers, pom poms, buttons, and valentines stickers (a few non pink items items snuck in their but oh well). I drew a cupcake on pink construction paper and let them decorate it however they wanted. They had a lot of fun.

go to A Mommy's Adventure for more great book ideas.

Guitar

2010-02-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

I found this idea here. I cut out a guitar from a cereal box. I drew a black circle and had Aubrey cut it out (really trying to work on our scissor skills-we had success today. She got more comfortable holding and using them the correct way). Aubrey colored and glued on the circle. I poked holes with a knife for the pipe cleaners and pulled them through. We taped them to the back. It was a fun and quick project.

Letter G book

2010-02-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

It has the words grass, goat, ghost, guitar, and grapes. We love these homemade books and Aubrey loves that she can "read" them by herself.

Little Einsteins online games

2010-02-17T16:16:00.000-08:00

We played a few musical instrument games found here and here. It was great practice using a computer (something never done before). It was also fun to hear different instrument sounds and also see what they look like. She's been wanting to play all day.

V is for Valentine

2010-02-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

We finally made our letter of the week-V for Valentine. The V is a card that opens up to reveal a valentine's message. We used stickers, markers, and fun scissors to make our fun card.we did Sizing activity from here I made Aubrey a V word book. She loves to read these little books and they are great practice. It had vacuum, volcano, vase, violin, valentine's.(if you want a copy of our V book e-mail me)

our love tree

2010-02-11T15:58:00.000-08:00

number hunt

2010-02-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

I hid hearts numbered 1-10 around the room. I had Aubrey find them and tell me what number she had. Once they were all found we put them in numerical order.

counting, writing, and spelling

2010-02-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

I am loving Confessions of a Homeschooling preschool downloads. It really makes my life much easier. We did a few of her V for valentines day activities today. (I love that she makes them so easy to download and print)

V tracing cards I printed the V tracing page on regular computer paper and then placed in a sheet protector. We use a White board maker so it is reusable. Aubrey really enjoyed this activity. letter matching- I printed the valentines sheet on cardstock. I had already printed out the letters for a previous theme. I just printed two sets of letters on cardstock and cut them out.

we used her number match up hearts a little different. Aubrey counted out the number of hearts on each card as we put candy heart on them. We have a few more games we are going to use them for as well.

Button Sorting and a game

2010-02-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

Aubrey has been loving my button stash lately. One fun activity is sorting. I gave her three containers and had her sort them by color. It was really good because the buttons were various shades of blues, reds, and white so it made it a little more difficult. Aubrey quickly turned it into a fun game where she would use two buttons, she would hold one button and push the edge of it on the one laying down to see if she could get it to pop up into the container. (think Cinderella where Lucifer gets hit in the nose with the button-that's where she got the idea from). Aubrey actually was really good at this game-I was about 0 for 30. It made for a lot of laughs.

Love wreath

2010-02-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Aubrey made this cute wreath full of people she loves and love her. It was really simple and a fun project. The night before she told me several people she loved. I found pictures on our computer and copied them into a word document. I then used the shape option to make them into hearts and sized them to 2". I printed them on card stock and cut them out. I also cut the center of a paper plate out. Aubrey colored the plate (hard to see in the picture-she used yellow). I then gave her glue, her hearts, and buttons and let her put them where ever she wanted. Once it was dry I added a ribbon to hang.

This idea came from no time for flashcards

Heart matching game

2010-02-04T08:18:00.000-08:00

I found this game here. You just print two of each. I was a little worried some of the patterns would be to difficult for Aubrey but she did really well. I think this is the first match game (in a while) that has held her attention. Maybe I was making them to easy. I am going to add a small envelop to the bottom right to hold the pieces.

P.S. I decided to do our Valentine's theme now and will come back to our music theme in a few weeks.

Valentine Books were reading

2010-02-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

These are some we have in our collection. They are really sweet stories.

I love you as much... is one of my favorite books. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is so sweet.

Valentine Card holder

2010-02-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

I folded a large piece of construction paper (almost in half). Stapled the edges shut and let the decorate it however they wanted. We used foam stickers (great fine motor skill practice) and markers. I love that Aubrey created a boarder with her stickers and Olivia peeled of the back of the stickers all by herself.

Puzzle help

2010-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

Aubrey is just getting into puzzles. I have found many are too difficult when you are just learning how a puzzle is put together. For Christmas she received two little ones with a few pieces and the picture is printed on the board underneath the pieces. She has a lot more success with these. (she is getting pretty good with the little wood ones with the knobs but we don't have any). I bought this alphabet puzzle a while ago at the dollar store. I love that it helps her learn to recognize the letters and the order but its pretty overwhelming. There are too many pieces (obviously 26) and difficult shapes. To make it a little easier and so she can be a little more independent I wrote the letters on the board. This will give her some help while she is still learning how to put a puzzle together and the Alphabet. I will eventually change the letters to lowercase to give her some additional practice and eventually erase it all together. Right now this is working for us.

Love Monsters

2010-01-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

I cut out a heart and let her decorate her monster however she wanted. It involved a lot of glue, wiggly eyes, and some markers.

We added pipe cleaners for the arms and legs. One cute Love Monster. Aubrey has really been enjoying free art.

Valentine's countdown and activities

2010-01-27T09:18:00.000-08:00

Here's our Valentine's countdown we are going to use this year. On the back of each card is a different activity. Each day the kids will pick one card and we will do the activity on the back. They are all easy and should work for any day.

Our Activities:

make a valentine for Daddy

Heart sun catcher

decorate brownies

Love tree (our own variation)

Make and send Valentine's to Grandparents

Read "Love" books

Movie night (one about Love)

make a box for Valentine's

Felt board Love Bugs

Friendship Wreath

Special Lunch

Call someone you love

heart flowers

friendship bracelets

You can see how I made it here on my craft blog

Sorry

2010-01-27T09:10:00.000-08:00

We've been working like crazy on our Valentine Cards and haven't had time for any other formal preschool. We've been cutting, gluing, and painting. We'll show you what we've been up to after we send them out. WE only have a few left and then we'll get back to our music and Letter G theme. We've got a lot planned for later this week so please come back. Also we went to the planetarium last night (forgot my camera) but the girls loved it! Also we have been watching Little Einsteins and talking about the different musical instruments and playing along with them-Current favorite is the cello. This is the perfect cartoon for our music theme.

Drum and cookies

2010-01-25T08:53:00.001-08:00

These were so fun to make and the girls are still enjoying playing with them (Livy ripped hers but its still fun).

I measured the height of the oatmeal container and cut out a strip long enough to cover it. I let them decorate it with markers, stickers, pom poms, paper, and glue.

Once they were dry we taped them onto the oatmeal container and let them bang away.

While they were drying we made some cookies. Always a fun activity.

Flute and a guitar

2010-01-22T07:59:00.000-08:00

We started our music theme on Wednesday by going to the dollar store and picking up a few fun items. Aubrey really wanted a baton (hers broke a while ago and she has continued to ask for one ever since). We couldn't find a real baton but we did find a ribbon one-I was happy because we were going to make one of these. She wasn't a hundred percent satisfied but it will work. We also found flutes (or recorders). I was going to buy one for each but Aubrey insisted she didn't want one.
Playing with their new toys. Aubrey used her baton to conduct Olivia's music (just like Leo on Little Einsteins) Livy Loving her flute

Aubrey taking over

Me realizing I did a dumb thing by only buying one-yes I should have gone with my gut and bought two.

Yesterday we worked on our Letter for the week. G for guitar.

We even drew some music notes.After we pulled out the white board and practiced writing capital and lowercase G. We brainstormed and drew some words that start with g. We then practiced drawing a girl. I would show her how to draw one and then she would follow along. Aubrey has never liked to draw so this was a big accomplishment for her. I love how her "mommy girl" turned out. (much cuter then my stick figure)

Valentine's activities from last year

2010-01-20T07:08:00.000-08:00

Last year at this time we were just starting our home preschool. I thought I would pull out some of the past Valentine's post to share.

Valentine box from and old cereal box. I cut it in half and gave her scrap paper to glue on it. We Added a ribbon for a handle.

cut and past heart cardsWater color valentines- First We painted pictures with watercolors Then we cut them into hearts and glued to paper for cute cards.

Decorated and ate Sugar cookies

Now she didn't get very far with decorating because the temptation was to much for her and this happened.

End result...Happy Girl

Livy even enjoyed some of the cookies.

Marshmallow Igloo

2010-01-19T07:55:00.000-08:00

This was one of the most difficult projects we've tried. I found this idea here. Oops I just read the instructions and if I had done that before it probably would have been a lot easier-I seem to do that often!

Well here's the hard way:

I made a circle of frosting and then we stuck marshmallows in it-not to bad. We then made a pile of frosting (on accident) so we stuck each marshmallow in the frosting and then stuck in on top of our "igloo". It wasn't to bad until it started getting taller-we had collapsing sides, messy fingers, and difficulty making it look like and igloo. For the top I finally gave up and kind of pushed all of the sides together to make a dome shape. It worked and it is still standing today. The good part is Aubrey had a lot of fun making it and was able to do most of it. She also loved sneaking marshmallows to eat. She is so proud of her igloo.

She thought the igloo needed some penguins. So we added dots of frosting around the igloo and the then stuck chocolate chips in it. Instant Penguins-well it satisfied her.

There's our finished igloo and Aubrey covered in frosting.

Lovely I knowThis side looks a little better.

Let me know if you try this and if the real instructions make it a lot easier. Maybe someday we will attempt this again.

The Snowy Pokey

2010-01-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

This is my girls new favorite song (I found it here)

Snowey Pokey (to the tune of: Hokey Pokey)
You put your right mitten in,
You take your right mitten out,
You put your right mitten in
and you shake it all about.
You do the Snowey pokey
and you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about.

Additional versus:
*left mitten
*your scarf
*your boots
*your hat
*your snowself

Bring the snow inside

2010-01-19T07:37:00.000-08:00

I saw this cute idea here on a Mommy's Adventure. I scooped up a bunch of snow onto the cookie sheet lid and let them play. They started off with gloves and ended up with a spoon. It was a great alternative to freezing outside.

Discovering they could eat snow Aubrey surprised me and built an igloo! She was so proud of it.

Livy enjoyed throwing the snow EVERYWHERE!Both girls having fun together.

Coming up and Valentine's Card swap!

2010-01-18T10:45:00.001-08:00

We are going to finish our Arctic/I theme over the next few days. We have really had a lot of fun learning so much about ice, penguins and the letter I. Next we are going to start a music and instrument theme with G for guitar as our letter of the week. Aubrey loves guitars (well all instruments) I am really excited and we will probably throw in some dancing as well. I'm not quite done with the plans so if you have any ideas please send them my way!

Second I want to host a valentine's card swap. Aubrey doesn't attend preschool yet and I would love for her to be able to give and receive Valentine cards.
Here's how it is going to work:
-If you are interested please leave a comment with your email address or email me at scharris21@gmail.com. I will ask for your address and then we will send you a card made by Aubrey. We then ask that once you receive ours you send one back quickly. Hopefully we will receive all of them before the 14Th! Easy enough? Any age is welcome just know you will be receiving a card from a 4 year old. Cards can be handmade or store bought. We will leave this invitation open through January 24Th so we have time to make and send our cards. We hope you join us!

*If you have more then one child that would like to participate we can send one to each of them and ask that each of your children send one to Aubrey. Or if they would like to receive two Olivia (my 1 year old) can join in too but please send her one as well.

Children's Museum

2010-01-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

We've been busy the last few days and haven't had much time for any formal learning around the table. However we had a great time learning at a children's museum. My girls had so much fun-looking and playing with everything. Here are a few highlights.

(I was so excited about the music area-a great introduction to our next theme we are going to start sometime next week)

There was so much to see, so much to try, and so much to learn! It was great.

Personalized ABC book

2010-01-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

Okay this took me forever to finish (Its already 2010 so 2008 was a while ago). I love this book and it was a lot of fun to make. It will be fun for my girls to practice their letters.

Here's a peek into our book:
The cover-
E for Easter and F for Farm

Here's a close up of some of my favorites (there are a lot because I just couldn't narrow it down):

The software I used allows you to burn the slide show to a CD or DVD and add music and other stuff. I really love it with the music and I think my girls will like to watch it as well as look at this book. ( You can see how I made it here)

Ice block experiement

2010-01-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea here

I froze water in an empty soy milk container. Once it was frozen I pulled the cardboard off and we put it in an empty tub. They did theirs outside but we didn't want to freeze.

Aubrey poured salt on it (It says to use coarse salt but this is all we had and it worked).

Add a few drops of food coloring-we did three different colors.

Watch the colors as the ice melts-The salt causes almost a tunnel effect and it looks really cool to see the different colors inside the block of ice.

We went and observed it every 20 minutes until it melted.

Umm I think it might have stained my bathtub:o

Cute and paste Igloo

2010-01-12T01:03:00.000-08:00

Aubrey practiced her cutting skills by cutting out a bunch of white squares.I cut out an igloo shape and Aubrey covered it with glue. She then added her white squares. One cute igloo!

Found this idea here.

Penguin Mask

2010-01-11T21:34:00.000-08:00

I printed the template from here. I cut out the black, white, and the nose. I had Aubrey tape everything together-it was good practice.
We traced her hand on orange and I helped her cut it out. She did better then I thought-we haven't done much with scissor cutting other then letting her cut whatever she wants. There's her hand on top (umm whats left of it). She tried it on before we finished the nose. I love her face.

Finished mask and we sung a song that goes with it

Sung to are you sleeping?

Macaroni

Penguin, Penguin,

You have orange feathers,

on your head

Livy woke up and had to try the mask-She's so silly

Lunch Time!

2010-01-11T15:08:00.000-08:00

For lunch today we made mini pizzas. We've done this a few times before and my girls love it! We just use bread for the crust, pizza sauce, and any topping we have at home. I let the girls spread the sauce, add whatever toppings they want, eat toppings as they go, and then we play a game while it bakes in the oven. (350 for about 5-6 minutes). Then we enjoy our yummy food and a good conversation.
Its a much better alternative then frozen pizza and I think it tastes pretty good-my kids eat it with out complaining. What fun lunch ideas do you have?

Shape Penguin

2010-01-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

I cut out 4 ovals (1 white for the middle, 3 black for the body and the wings) 3 circles (1 black for head, 2 white for the eyes) 1 triangle (orange for beak), and 2 hearts (orange for feet). Aubrey named and sorted the different shapes. She then counted the different shapes. (You can also go over colors too).

She then glued everything together to make a penguin. I told her what each shape was suppose to be and let her put it where she thought it would go.

Umm I think we need a table cloth or even better a preschool table! Her finished project and she took the picture! Isn't he cute?

this is a super easy project and can be used for any theme.

number sequence

2010-01-07T21:58:00.000-08:00

We didn't do much with our theme today. I had some activities planned but most didn't happen because Aubrey just wanted to make cookies-so we did.

I used 10 index cards and drew an igloo on each one and wrote the numbers 1-10 on them. (Have I ever mentioned I can't draw, don't look too close please). I mixed them up and had her locate and then put them in numerical order. She is doing really well with counting and recognizing her numbers but sometimes forgets the number 7 so we are still working on this. I have another activity planned using these cards-maybe we will get to it tomorrow.

Hand and foot print penguin

2010-01-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

I traced Aubrey foot 3 times (1 white and 2 on black). I traced both hands in a fist on orange. Cut them out. The idea for the foot part came from here. Glue the two black prints overlapping and the white in the middle. glue on the orange feet (they are a little big but look cute).
Add a face and a scarf if you want. Add glue to the bottom of your page.

Pull cotton balls apart and stick in glue for snow.

A cute Wintry Penguin

waddle like a penguin

2010-01-05T17:42:00.000-08:00

Place a ball between there legs and have them try to walk. Its so cute to see them waddle. It was a little difficult for them to keep the ball between their legs but they kept trying and had fun.

Penguin songs

2010-01-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

Here are two cute song we sang today. They were both a lot of fun and have great actions. I found these here (as well as many of our activities we will be doing)

Penguin Family

One royal penguin . .feeling very blue (hold up one finger)

Called for his brother then there were two (hold up two fingers)

Two royal penguins. . .swimming in the sea (swimming motion)

Called for their sister then there were three (hold up three fingers)

Three royal penguins waddle on the shore (waddle)

Call for their mother, then there were four (hold up four fingers)

Four royal penguins learning how to dive (Make diving motion)

Call for their father, then there were five (hold up five fingers)

Aubrey caught on quickly to the words with this one. Also we acted out all of the lines and the girls thought it was hilarious. (while I am typing this I can hear Aubrey singing this song)

Have You Ever Seen A Penguin? (sung to have you ever seen a lassie)

Have you ever seen a penguin?

A penguin. . .a penguin!

Have you ever seen a penguin swim this way and that way?

Swim this way and that way . . . and this way and that way?

Have you ever seen a penguin swim this way and that?

Have you ever seen a penguin?

A penguin. . .a penguin!

Have you ever seen a penguin slide this way and that way?

Slide this way and that way . . . and this way and that way?

Have you ever seen a penguin slide this way and that?

Have you ever seen a penguin?

A penguin. . .a penguin!

Have you ever seen a penguin waddle this way and that way?

Waddle this way and that way . . . and this way and that way?

Have you ever seen a penguin waddle this way and that?

igloo building with ice

2010-01-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

I set out a bunch of ice cubes and we tried to stack them on top of each other. Of course they slip right off. We then sprinkled a little salt on top of each cube and then we were able to stack them and make an igloo. It was really fun to see what the salt did to the ice. After Aubrey played for a long time with the salt and the ice cubes. (I don't remember where I saw this idea)

Ice science project

2010-01-05T17:26:00.001-08:00

Alright this is so simple but my girls thought it was awesome.

I just took two cup and put hot water in one (not too hot so they could touch it) and cold in the other.

I gave them each a piece of ice and let them hold it. (make sure you talk about what feels hot and cold).

We then put the ice into the cups and watched them. I kept pointing out that the one in the hot water was melting or getting smaller and the one in the cold stayed the same

We compared it to the snow and how the snow melts in the sun. We then talked about igloos and that they are only where its cold or else it will melt.

I is for igloo

2010-01-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

We are starting our new letter and theme-I for Igloo and an arctic theme. I have a ton of fun ideas I hope to get to. Before I would focus on each letter for one week however, I am not going to put a time table on our themes for a while and see how it goes. To start we made an I igloo. It turned out pretty cute (I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull this one off). We practiced a few different skills so I thought I would share some of the other learning that went on.

First I told Aubrey what an igloo was. She thought it would be very cold (I love when I can see her put thoughts and ideas together)

I cut out our igloo shape. I asked her what letter it was. I had lines drawn on the igloo with pencil and her practice tracing the lines.

We worked on gluing the snow UNDER the igloo and the Penguins ON the snow or the igloo.we worked on the difference between "a little and a lot" of glue.

We also counted the penguins. One thing that she has learned is making sure things are going the right direction. This is one of the first projects that she has really tried to do that. Also she was very concerned that the penguins were cold and said they needed jackets.

upcoming theme!

2010-01-03T18:44:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we are starting our Letter I (for igloo) and arctic theme. If you have any fun activities or ideas please let me know either in the comments or email me. We would love to try them! Thanks

Plastic bag snowman

2009-12-30T11:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a fun craft we did last year. I found the idea here. You just need a few plastic bags, a marker, two elastic band, and ribbon. Stuff one bag with plastic bags. Use your elastics to make three sections of the snowman. Tie ribbon around the top one to make a scarf. Use a maker and add a face. She LOVED it and we will probably make some more this year.
*We are starting up our preschool stuff next week.

Hand and foot print reindeer

2009-12-19T15:59:00.000-08:00

Our cute little reindeer. Livy's is green and Aubrey's is red. I think these are my favorite Christmas craft we've made so far. They are just adorable.Painting hands Aubrey took this picture of me painting Livy's foot.