Having Fun With Games, Etc.

Our first sensory bin.  It's been a big hit!  I tried to keep it to a theme of "Spring", so we have birdseed sunflower seeds, fake flowers, old spice containers, measuring spoons, and a little ladybug.  I had hoped to add plastic insects, but have had no luck finding any.  Both kiddos really enjoy it when the bin comes out, and they play really well together (mostly).  We tried it on the carpet first, then when that was more mess than we wanted, we moved to the kitchen, where the broom made for easy clean-up.  I'm already planning our Easter bin.  I don't know why I haven't done these before!

 N and I played with Triominoes one day for school.  Our job was to match 2 of the 3 numbers.  She had a really good time with this, which was a little surprising to me.  I figured she'd want to make designs and skip the matching.  But I was wrong!  We matched until there were no more matches.

 My favorite was when she matched just 1 of the 3 numbers, and asked if we could make a bow instead of diamond.  Of course I said YES!

No pictures, but we also used the tiles from Upwords.  A used them for stacking and practicing words - up, down, off, on.  N used them for making word families.  It was a very visual way to see that the ending stays the same, only the first letter(s)/sound(s) change.

St. Patrick's Day 2011

 Green pancakes - they were better received by the kiddos than the green eggs from March 2, Dr. Seuss' birthday.

 Green Muffin Tin {Thursday} - Graham Cracker Cookies (graham crackers with leftover frosting sandwiched in the middle), Green Beans, Green cottage cheese, green apples, green salad and milk, in a green cup (I contemplated turning the milk green, but decided not to [A has a tendency to spill his milk])

We did a found art collage on contact paper.  This was a great activity for spanning the age and skill difference of my kiddos (2 and almost 4).  I pulled all of my green art supplies (tissue paper, ribbon, foam shapes and abc's, pom-poms, paper, material, buttons, etc) out and they decorated their pieces of contact paper to their hearts content.  When they were finished, I put a piece of black construction paper on the back and folded the contact paper over.  They look really good (sadly, I haven't yet taken a picture).

Other St. Patrick-y things we've done:

• Word search
• Ordinal Numbers
• Number Order
• Make a Leprechaun
• Write (dictate) a story about a leprechaun

Valentine Art

Here's a super-easy art project that my almost 2-year-old succeeded at just as much as my almost 4-year-old.  We dipped heart cookie cutters in paint, then printed them onto construction paper.  Wa-la!  Doesn't it look fancy?

our first stART

We read Corduroy, by Don Freeman.  It's a favorite of N's.  For our ART, I cut out overalls from construction paper (I used blue, not even thinking to make them green until N pointed out that Corduroy's were green).  Then N and A glued on Corduroy's lost button, and lots of other buttons!

To see other great ideas using books and art, click the button [below:)].

Still Schoolin'

Though it's been a while since I've blogged about school, we're still going!  I've been working with N on writing/reading lessons that I used with my first graders.  She's currently on lesson #3, and is loving it!  Each list has 5-7 words.  With N we've been spending a week (or more) on each list.  The first day we read the words, then write them in some way.  We've used the white board and magnetic letters, so far.  One of the activities we do weekly is "See, Spell, Write".  I write the word in the first column, then she makes the word with letters and glue, then she writes it in the word in the last column.  I've introduced her to word searches, which she loves, mostly I think because I let her use highlighters for the words.  Here is the link to Lesson 1's word search.  This week she's going to rainbow color the words, using a different color for each letter.  We've used cards (lessons 1&2, lessons 3&4).  One week we played "Hide and Seek" with them.  Another week N jumped to the word that I called out.  I'm planning on putting them on a ring, so that she can practice reading them in the car, etc, but I haven't bought a ring yet.

We've been playing a lot of games.  Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Number Bingo, puzzles of all kinds (sequence, numbers, etc).

One day each week we go to story time at the library.  Another morning is running errands.  I've been trying to plan an intentional activity for the other mornings that both kiddos can participate in.  We've painted, played with beads, put together a cat.  This week, on Tuesday, it's Winnie the Pooh day, (according to this website) so we'll be watching a Winnie the Pooh movie.

Lesson 1 - a, and, at, am, as
Lesson 2 - it, is, in, me, mom
Lesson 3 - go, got, get, can, cat, be, but

Thanksgiving 2010

I printed out a turkey and cut off the feathers.  Then I cut feathers out of construction paper, one for every day until Thanksgiving.  On the back of the feathers I wrote craft, activity, song, snack or paper.  N gets to choose a feather every day, and we do whatever is on the back.  Here is a compilation:

Crafts:

• Indian vest
• pilgrim collars
• pine cone turkeys
• popcorn corn
• colored popcorn kernels

Activities:

• Turkey strut - masking tape turkey foot prints on the floor.  Turn on music.  When the music stops, children choose a turkey print to stand on.
• Find the turkey - hide paper turkeys around the room.  Children find them.

Snack:

• cornucopia - ice cream cone and fruit snacks
• Peanut butter turkeys
• apple turkeys - apple body, toothpick filled with raisins for feathers, and something for eyes and mouth.

Song:

• My Delicious Ambiguity has a Thanksgiving songbook that has tons of songs!

Paper:

• Thanksgiving themed worksheets that can be found online.  

Muffin Tin Monday - Circus

In our muffin tins we had:

• Homemade corn dog, with ketchup (not homemade!)
• Grapes (seals balance beach balls)
• Cheese people (because people go to the circus)
• Popcorn
• Peanuts

It was fun!  I'm excited to try it again next week.