Shadows Day 3

Today we had some guests w/ us. ;) It was pretty fun. My sister is visiting w/ us this week so her girls joined us. Since Monday is Groundhog Day we focused on that and the groundhog seeing his shadow... get where I was headed this week? ;)

Here's a pic of the four of them w/ their homemade groundhogs.
Here's a close up of Collin's. The groundhogs are attached to a popsicle stick and a hole poked in the bottom so they can push them up and down. Then we let the kids cut the paper so it looks like grass and we stuck it in the cups. The kids had fun. Oh! No judging on the groundhogs... I drew them b/c we are out of ink cartridge so I couldn't print any out online. =(

This is a close up of Jordyn's groundhog.

And this one is McKenzie's

Afterwards we went outside and played w/ our shadows, sang and danced. Our neighbors were out and I'm sure they really think I'm crazy now. hehe!

Shadows Day 2

Movement/Direction: we pretended to be shadow partners. Each of us took turns moving while the other pretended to be the shadow.
Craft: We made animal puppets on posicle sticks.

Science: We learned about shadows and how to make them big and small.

Language Arts: We made up stories w/ the animals. They were very simple stories but Collin had fun. =D

Shadows Day 1

Craft: We traced a shadow of the tulip. There wasn't a lot of sun today so it was a little tough.
Language Arts: We learned a poem and the first letter of each line spelled SHADOW. I put them on the flannel board as we read them. Don't make fun of my board. It is made from an *unused* pizza box. That way I have storage space inside. ;)

Movement: We set up a lamp and turned on some music and made our shadows dance on the wall. LOL!!

FHE

We didn't do any "craftivities" today but I thought I'd post what we did for FHE. I felt that it went really well tonight. For those of you who don't know FHE stands for Family Home Evening. In our religion we are asked to set aside one night a week (normally Mondays) and be together as a family. Normally we have a song, prayer, lesson, snack and activity. It's pretty fun!

We got our lesson from the February Friend but it isn't posted yet... I guess since it's still January but we did get it in the mail. LOL! Here's the web site to see the Friend Magazines.
We did the "For Little Friends" section on pg 32. It was about the creation and for each day something was created there was a small picture to represent it. The only problem was there was only half a picture so we drew the rest of the picture in. Collin seemed to love it and didn't want it to end. I had to explain to him that the seventh day They rested so there was nothing else to draw. LOL!

For snack we had apple sandwiches which sounds nasty but they were actually really yummy. The recipe is in the February issue of The Friend as well. yum yum! Ronni ate two sandwiches!

Circles Day 3

Today was such a beautiful day in the south we decided to go outside.

Following directions: This game we are supposed to do w/ a hula-hoop but we don't own one so we made a circle on the ground w/ a tie down of Dad's. =D One thing kids are supposed to know before entering kindergarten is how to follow directions. We worked on that. I told Collin to do different things. Jump in the circle, walk around the circle on the outside/inside/one foot in one foot out... etc. Afterwards we played the hokey pokey w/ the circle. I'm sure our neighbors thought that was pretty entertaining. lol!

Math: He had to put the circles in order by size.

This is it for this week! Next week we'll be learning about shadows and the groundhog in prep for Feb 2 (Groundhog Day ;).

Circles Day 2

Math: We learned about patterns. We stuck w/ simple patters since he's only 3. I was surprised at how well he caught on. The purple one I did all but the last two on my own and he watched. By the red one he did it all by himself and by the yellow one he was even taking the stickers off the sheet for it. I was proud of him. *proud mommy blushing*

We also discussed the seasons. I cut out the tree (remember I'm not an artist) and glued it on and cut the grass and glued it on and had the paper divided into fourths. Then I labeled each one the name of a season and we discussed them. I used a hole punch to make the decorations since the theme is circles. The first one is winter so it has white ones for snow. The next one is spring w/ pink circles for flowers. The third one is summer so green ones for the leaves. The fourth one is fall w/ orange ones for the falling leaves. =D I just smeared the glue around and he put the circles in place.

We also sang a song about circles being our favorite shape and Collin had to think about something that was a circle and we incorporated it and what it did into the song. I would put the lyrics on here so this made more sense but I don't know if it's copyrighted or anything so I don't know if I'm allowed to post it since I didn't make it up. Sorry. You'll just have to take my word for it. ;)

Comments

I don't know what's up w/ the comment feature on this page but I had to take off all the "security" features... like identifying the letters and allowing anonymous users to leave comments so... now you can leave comments. =) I had to play around w/ it for a while so I expect comments to be left!! hehe! Look forward to reading them!

Circles Day 1

So... I'm a slacker and didn't get this up here yesterday. Sorry. I only planned 3 days this week so we're taking a break today, which is good b/c it's actually snowing here -- not sticking, but Collin sure thinks it's cool! =D

Above, I took index cards and put a certain number of circles on one end and the numeral written on the other end. Then I cut the index cards in half and Collin matched the numbers to the circles. =D
I had the circles cut out already but Collin glued them on each other slightly overlapping. I did the glue but Collin placed them all by himself. He also drew the legs, face and antennae. I don't know why this poor thing has such long ones but Collin drew them and I let him. hehe!

Also, I don't have a picture, but Collin played a game w/ Dad while I went to work for a little while. I cut out circles and we played sort of a musical chairs game except all the circles were out there. He just had to sit on one. He thought it was fun. =D

Balloons Day 4

I only had four days planned out for this week so we took yesterday off and got back into it today.

Science: We let the balloons "sing". We squeezed the mouth tight so it made that annoying squeaky noise and talked about why it does that.

Math: We "fished" for balloons. We had balloons in a big bowl of water and Collin fished them out w/ a big spoon. I had numbers on each balloon and he told me the numbers they were and put them in order. We started w/ five balloons and worked our way up to ten.

Movement: We pretended to be balloons. We were limp like a balloon before it has any air and then we expanded as I blew up a balloon. Then I let the air out and we went limp again.

Song: We did a song ever day this week that had to do w/ balloons.

Check us out next week -- we're doing circles.

Balloons - Day 3

Craft: The kids made balloon puppets-- see their hair?? hehe! It's ribbon and we used hole reinforcements for their faces. lol!!

Language Arts: Afterwards Collin made up a story about his balloon boy. He was telling me as I was writing it.

His name is Blue. Blue is 3 like Collin. Blue likes to fly. When he flies he flies, flies, flies up to the giant's living room. He builds a fire then he sleeps for the night. At breakfast he finds the baby giant, Ronni and the big giant, Collin. Ronni, Collin, and Blue all fly away together.

The End by Collin Smith (age 3)

Science: We blew the balloons up then released them before tying the knot so they would fly around the room. Then we talked about what causes that. I've been blowing balloons up all day now just to watch my kids let out all my air and fly around the room so I can blow them up again. haha!

Movement: We bounced the balloon in the air trying not to let it touch the ground while singing a balloon song.

That was our day. I have to say that Collin has behaved so much better since we've been doing this!

Balloons - Day 2

Movement: He has to use his elbows and knees to pop the balloons -- nothing else. It's set up and waiting for Ronni to wake up. I was pretty sure the balloon popping would wake her up. ;)
Math: This is a matching game. Don't judge by the artwork. I have never claimed to be good at drawing. I divided the paper into six squares and drew balloons on them w/ different patters then I drew the same pattern on a square piece of paper and Collin had to match them.

Craft: Balloon Painting... yes we painted w/ balloons. =D

See?? Told ya so! =D

I just think he looks so cute in his paint shirt. hehe! It's an old one of mine... Paul's were just WAY too big!

Monday Jan 12

Our first day of our Balloon Week! We do a theme a week and then I try to get activities going in different subjects for that theme. Collin is only 3 and Ronni is just 1 so nothing is too complex and it's always fun. =D Ronni does 1 activity w/ us a day then we eat lunch and she takes a nap and then Collin does the others.

Science: We learned about static electricity. We rubbed the balloons on our shirts and heads and stuck them to the wall or made our hair stick up. Collin and Ronni both had tons of fun w/ this one. As the static was wearing off the balloons the kids would laugh as the balloon "crawled" down the wall.

Movement: We tied balloons to the ceiling and Collin had to jump and stretch to knock them around. He really seemed to enjoy this.


Crafts: We used fingerprints for balloons...

then added the strings. =D

The beginning

Well, my kids are only 3 & 1 but I thought I'd start them now. Besides, haven't you heard that kindergarten is the new first grade? Yeah, I called the school we are zoned for and talked to them about what a kindergartener has to know. Most of the kids already know how to sound out words and recognize site words.Different schools/states have different guidelines. Some schools require kindergarteners to take an assessment test!!! HELLO! The kid is 5!! Anyways... it frustrates me. Collin likes to learn and he'll learn when he's ready. I will encourage it all I can but I want him to continue to enjoy it. I don't want him to feel like it's being forced on him and then end up hating it. Anyways. I thought I'd use this blog to keep up w/ what we're doing. Other people may find it useful or funny... you may just think I'm crazy.I don't care. We have fun and enjoy learning and that's what matters.