About Me

I'm a mom, a teacher, a student, a wife, and a scout leader. I am actually an education major currently working on my practicum in a 2nd grade classroom. I also home school my two children. I'm also a cub scout leader, a girl scout leader, and at church I'm the children's music leader. ;) I tend to stay a little busy. My state requires homeschoolers to keep a portfolio. I am going to use this blog as my portfolio.

What am I?

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Hearts Day 2

First we painted hearts. We put little dollops of paint on one side then folded it in half to make cool designs.

Afterwards, we did heart puzzles.
CLOSE-UP


Then we did a song about hearts on our fingers so we stuck heart stickers to our fingers.



For a snack we had heart jello jigglers but not made w/ sugar. they were made w/ apple juice, water, no sugar cool-aid and unflavored gelatin. They were really yummy!







Hearts Day 1

I am a little behind and should have posted this one yesterday ... sorry! =D

I drew hearts on papertowels in different colors. The kids then painted them with water and watched which colors bled out of the heart.


Here is Collin concentrating hard. ;)

The green bled blue and yellow.


The black bled all kinds of colors.



Afterwards we played a rhyming games. I had hearts in a paper bag w/ different pictures on them. The kids took turns pulling out a heart and they had to come up w/ words that rhymed w/ the picture. It was fun and challenging.
We also sang a heart song and had waffles cut into heart shapes for a snack.




Friday, February 6, 2009

Bears Day 4

Our last day or bears... what on earth could we do now?? =D

Let's see, for a snack we had peanut butter bears.
Then all the kids got a box (of course we had plenty of diaper boxes around here ;) and decorated them for their parade "floats". LOL! Then they had to find a teddy bear and we went outside for a parade.

Believe it or not, all these boxes have at least one bear in it. We even threw out candy for our parade. hehe
Finally, I laid out alphabet cards and the kids had to put them in order. We sang the ABCs a lot but they got them. YAY!!!



Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Bears Day 3

The kids made bear puppets out of paper bags. Notice Collin has two on his hands -- that's b/c one of them was Ronni's but she was napping. ;)




We also made bear shaped cookies. Here are the kids using the cookie cutter to make the bear shapes. Some of the shapes didn't turn out quite right but they were close. Sometimes they didn't roll out the dough enough so the bear was missing legs or an ear but it was okay. They were their cookies.



The cookies have been baked and now we're decorating them!! We used chocolate icing and then chocolate chips and marshmallows for decorations.

Now the best part.... eating!



Collin



Jordyn



McKenzie
Finally: for math/language arts I told the story of the three bears w/ props. Afterwards we went through the house and compared big, medium, and small sizes. ;)





Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Bears Day 2

For language arts we made a book of bear stories. My nieces are still visiting so we have three stories in this little book. The kids told us the stories and we wrote them down. Afterwards they illistrated. ;) The best part about the stories was watching the kids tell them. Collin liked to act them out... especially the jumping. hehe! I'll add the stories after the picture... enjoy... =D

The Bears by Collin (age 3): Once there were five bears. They ate food that was on the wall. After they ate the two little bears went on a walk to see Arwen, the dog. They all ran around the yard. They went this way and that way. Then they climbed and climbed the trees and jumped down. They caught themselves when they jumped. They caught themselves witht their feet. Then they all jumped in the pool on the other side of the fence. They had fun splashing each other. They liked to jump and run in the water. They got out and Arwent jumped up over the fence and down tot he ground to go home. The bears stayed at the pool until it got dark and dark. They decided to go home and go to bed. The end.
The Bear Book by McKenzie (age 3): Once upon a time there was a one year old bear. This little girl bear loved to run. She ran tot he piano and this way and that way. One day she ran into a cat named Baker. From then on the little girl bear and Baker ran everywhere together. They were best friends. Still, to this day, they are running together. The End.
The Bear Book by Jordyn (age 4): Once upon a time there were three bears. It was a sunny day so they went for a walk. Whil they were walking they saw a big balloon. A little girl had let go of the balloon and it was floating away. The bears saw that the little girl was sad so they quickly jumped up and caught the balloon. Then they gave it back to the little girl and she was happy again. The three bears went home very happy to have helped someone. They all went home and took a nap. The End.
This is one of the bears from the "bear picnic". I drew bears sitting down and cut them out of construction paper. Then we smeared them w/ glue and the kids sprinkled coffee grounds on them.

This was actually very interesting when we went shopping for coffee b/c my sis nor I have ever had coffee... we almost bought creamer thinking it was coffee. hehe! We finally figured it out. ;)


While the bears were drying the kids drew food on paper plates. In the middle is a picnic basket w/ cutouts of food inside it. We spoke about what foods are healthy and which ones are just yummy. It was really fun! We stuck them all on a cheapo table cloth and it's now hanging on my wall. =D




Monday, February 2, 2009

Bears Day 1

We started off w/ our craft today. It also helps with fine motor skills. I cut out bear shapes from posterboard (don't look too closely, one ear is larger than the other). Then we let the kids color them. I say "we" b/c my sis and her kids are still in town and we did it together. I didn't take the picture until after they left though so I only got a pic of Collin and Ronni's. Ronni's is on the left (I colored the head and she did the rest) and Collin's is on the right. He says the green circles on the face are the eyes and one is a really big eye. hehe! Then we did the clear contact paper on it to make them a little more durable. Then we punched holes all around it. The kids now have an activity to weave yarn in and out of the holes... hopefully keep them entertained during church.



We also did a couple of poems w/ actions to go w/ them. It was fun! After all that we decided to do the math activity. I had the kids go to Collin's room and find all the teddy bears they could. There was a dragon and a monkey in there too but it was okay. I had them arrange them from largest to smallest and then we sorted them by color and counted them. =D That was today... stay tuned and see what type of exciting things happen tomorrow. ;) I know, you just can't wait!