Butterfly Week

N is REALLY, INCREDIBLY interested in butterflies.  So I planned a Butterfly Unit.  We did a lapbook for the first time and I was impressed.  I really liked having it all in one place.  Not everything we did went into the lapbook, but a lot of it did.  And I've seen her looking through it still, even though we're done with the unit.  I originally planned it for one week, but she was having such a good time and loving school so much, that we did it for two weeks.  N could have done more, but I was out of ideas!  So we've moved on.

We checked out a million some books from the library about butterflies.  Some were books for N to read, and others were Mommy Read books.  The titles don't really matter, but having a lot of books does!  See what your library has and use them.

We did our art projects in the morning, while A could do them with us.  Then we did our school activities while he and J were napping.  It was the first time that I incorporated A in N's school, and I really liked how it worked out.  He didn't learn nearly what N did, but he was exposed to a lot of it.  Maybe something will stick.

Homeschool Share had a lot of material.  We used the Butterflies Eat Shape Book, Butterfly Math, Butterfly Defenses, Butterfly Shape book, and Butterfly Diagram.

Rhyming Butterflies - Download and print this file, cut the butterflies out (I did squares around them with my paper cutter.  It was incredibly easier than cutting out each one), then cut in half.  N had fun finding the rhymes, then we played a "Catch a Butterfly" (A butterfly version of "Go Fish").  Then we put them inside a pocket in her lapbook, so that she could have them when she wanted them.

I used the amazing handwriting worksheet maker to write some butterfly words (butterfly, caterpillar, egg, life cycle, chrysalis, legs, wings), then N traced them.

We did a painting activity.  I cut out butterflies, and N was instructed to only paint them on one side, then fold it in half (it was already scored, since I folded them in half to cut them out) and rub it to get the paint onto the other side.  We called it, "making it symmetrical".  We learned that you really have to blob the paint onto the first side, or there won't be any to rub onto the other side.  

We watercolored "butterfly" pasta, then let it dry.  Then, we glued our butterflies onto blue paper to let them fly in the sky.  I was impressed with how well the pasta took watercolors.

Butterfly Life Cycle - I couldn't find a fill-in-able Butterfly Life Cycle that I liked, so I made this one.  The words are there, but N drew the pictures.  We glued it inside her Butterfly Folder.

We made a handprint butterfly.  It also had a TP tube chrysalis, but the chrysalis didn't really work.  So we took our butterflies and flew!

Tool Time

We had a great week talking about TOOLS.  It all started when I found Turtle and Snake Fix It and the library, and, having absolutely no plan for school, I crash planned around this book.

The first day N read the book and I helped her.  I was surprised to see how little I had to help.  She has become an amazing reader!

The next day, after reading the book, she did a worksheet that I made (which has since disappeared from the computer!), that had pictures of the five different tools used across the middle, with the sound they made in a line across the top and the tools names in a line across the bottom (I hope that makes sense!  I'm still looking for the file.  If I find it, I'll add it).  She drew a line from each tool to it's sound and it's name.

The next day we read the book again.  Then, I had made tool picture cards, which included all sorts of tools - a stove, a screwdriver, a vacuum, a blender, a loofa, a blowdryer, lawn mower, etc.  I covered them in contact paper and we sorted them, using yarn circles.  We actually ended up doing a Venn Diagram, because she thought that few needed to be in both circles.  Our sorts were used a lot/not used much, inside/outside.  N isn't much of a sorter (she does well, but has zero fun.  And school's supposed to be fun).

Our final day on tools, we read the book (of course), then used our tool pictures to play Tool Charades.  N and I took turns pulling a tool picture of a container and pantomimed using it.  N loved it!  We need to work on her skills (it's good that I knew what all the tools were!), but she had a lot of fun.

I'm really sorry that I can't find my pages.  I'll add them if I find them.  Here is another book that we read during our week of tools.

Happy Tooling!

And the Winner is...

Shana!  Who said, "Besides his first Bible my faves to read to Blaze are Apples Up on Top, Go Dog Go and Clip Clop" .  Congratulations!  These 3 books are some of our favorites, also (though that's not why she won.  Random.org decided that she won).

Curriculum Clean-out

Eat, Nap, Play is a great book with a lot of fun ideas (click the link to read more about it on Amazon).  There are ideas for littles and not-so-littles.  If you'd like to win, leave a comment below, telling me your favorite book to read aloud to your kiddos, by midnight on May 1st.  (Shipping within the US only).  Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win!

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?