The Letter 'B' - Day 4

We started with MATH:
I pulled out a little bag of buttons and we estimated how many buttons were in there. Collin and I both guessed way too low. We sorted them by colors and counted each color then I added them together and realized we have over 200!!

I wrote down the numbers on the white board and I had Collin put them in numerical order.

Then we used the buttons and worked on patterns.

Science time!! We pulled out bones and Collin and I fit them together with brads. Tons of fun. ;) After we got it together I told him there were two REAL skeletons hidden in the room somewhere. He guess immediately that I meant his and mine. =) We talked about what skeletons do and why they're important.

Just for FUN we made balloon prints on the back of the lapbook. He just dunked a balloon in paint and then patted it around on the paper.

The Letter 'B' - Day 3

This was a fairly easy day. We just played Bobby Bear's B Game. Pretty much the same rules at the A game. I had a bunch of different pictures. If the pic starts w/ a B then you get to move forward 1 space, if you get Bobby Bear then you move forward 1 space. Afterwards, we played a bunch of beanbag games outside. We did thing like... beanbag b/w knees, on head or elbow or shoulder, bend over with beanbag on back...etc. I don't have bean bags so I filled some old socks with beans and tied off the end. ;)

The Letter 'B' - Day 2

We spent most of the day focusing on The Three Bears. I got three different books of The Three Bears and we read them. We also used this interactive story of the Three Bears. It was fun! =-)

After that we made some porridge and put it in a small bowl a medium bowl and large bowl. We then worked on sizes and putting things in order according to size.

Next we worked on some of the worksheets found here. We made a B book and worked on patterns with objects from The Three Bears.

We then printed out little printouts of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Collin colored a little brown paper lunch bag to look like the Three Bears' House. We glued it into the lapbook and put the characters inside the bag. 

Next we rewrote the story. ;) I told Collin that we needed to pretend that the Three Bears came to Goldilocks' house. What happened? He kept going on and on. I finally had to make him stop so it ends a bit abruptly but I was proud of him. Here's the story.

Nana and Goldilocks made some porridge but it was too hot so they went for a walk. While they were gone the 3 bears got in goldilocks’ and Nana’s home and ate all their porridge. They found some games and played them, then threw a block. Then, they came to our house while we were sleeping. They tiptoed into Collin’s room and took away a book from his bookshelf and took it all the way to the Giant. Then the Giant ripped the book into eeny weeny pieces. He grabbed all the pieces and threw them up, up, up into the highest place ever. They went all the way to Arwen’s home which was a little high up in the sky. Then the giant threw our house all over the place. The house was spun around in circles and we got very, very dizzy – even JoJo and Kenzie. All of us, even the three bears went all the way up to the giant’s and asked him to fix Collin’s book with some clear tape. Then we took a picture of Collin’ s best friend, Goldilocks. And then we took another picture and another and another and another and soon a raisin picture. We then slipped away with the Giant. But then the book ripped again and they decided they needed to use glue this time so Collin climbed down the beanstalk, got the glue, went back up the beanstalk, and gave the glue to the giant who then fixed the book again. The giant gave the glue back to Collin but Collin dropped it and it made a hole in the floor and kept falling all the way to our house and made a hole in the roof. Collin just went into the Giant’s home, JoJo and Kenzie came along too. And then we looked for the glue again and again and again. They couldn’t find it so Collin went down the beanstalk, got the glue and then up, up, up to the Giant’s again. They threw it again but soon it fell down and big, big hole but Collin couldn’t reach it. The Giant said, “I will use my long, long hand to get it.” So, he did and he pulled it out with his strong, strong muscles. But it was heavier and he dropped it again. It was very slippery too b/c there was glue on the outside of it. So he went down and down and down and soon the glue was so heavy, so all the friends came to help the Giant. Then everyone went home. THE END

Of course we also did our normal math, handwriting and read aloud.

The Letter 'B' - Day 1

 

Today was mostly just an introduction to the letter B and our mascot, Bobby Bear. ;) First we talked about the letter B and some words that start w/ it then Collin noticed a bear paw print on the floor. (I thought he'd notice it sooner but... oh well. hehe!) I said, "Oh, look! I think our friend, Bobby Bear, left some footprints for us to find something. Let's see where they lead."

We found a Bowl full of items that start w/ B -- Banana, Block, Book, Beans, & Bubbles.

Next I said, "Oh my goodness!! I almost forgot. Today is Bobby Bear's Birthday!" Collin looked at me like I was nuts. Before he could respond I said, "What do you think we should make?"

Without hesitation he said, "Birthday cake!!"

So, of course we made Birthday cake w/ Blue frosting. ;)

I had Collin do everything. He measured out the ingredients and even cracked the eggs. He preheated the oven and greased the pans then iced the cupcakes. I did help with those though b/c there were a lot of them.

Next, I read a poem:

We set our stuffed animals up in a row-- / a chimp and a lion, a bear and a crow./Each one got a hat/and a special balloon,/They each got a plate/ and a cup and a spoon./ The bear ate too much, and the chimp spilled the punch./ but they had a great time at the animal lunch.

Collin then picked out the words that rhymed -- then we talked about how many items each animal had and why they were all the same --- 'one for each'. 

Service

My hubby had the lesson tonight. He based it off an article from The Friend called The Zucchini Bandit. After we read the story we talked about ways that we can serve one another.
Collin had refreshments so he and I made poppy seed muffin tops earlier today... yum yum and then Ronni wanted to play games for the activity... guess what game! Operation.. yeah... haha! We seem to be playing that game a lot lately. ;)

1 Ne 8:12

• 1 Nephi 8:12 "And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit."
• We should have that desire that Lehi felt, to strive to actively share our beliefs with our children, whether we're at home at church or out in public.

The Snowy Day

Amazon.com Review

The Snowy Day, a 1963 Caldecott Medal winner, is the simple tale of a boy waking up to discover that snow has fallen during the night. Keats's illustrations, using cut-outs, watercolors, and collage, are strikingly beautiful in their understated color and composition. The tranquil story mirrors the calm presence of the paintings, and both exude the silence of a freshly snow-covered landscape. The little boy celebrates the snow-draped city with a day of humble adventures--experimenting with footprints, knocking snow from a tree, creating snow angels, and trying to save a snowball for the next day. Awakening to a winter wonderland is an ageless, ever-magical experience, and one made nearly visceral by Keats's gentle tribute.

The Letter 'A' - Day 6

Today was a bit of an odd day. During craftivities, a friend called b/c she needed help so I went to pick her up and take her home. Then... the exciting news... it snowed in South Carolina!!! Who knew!! Not just our normal dusting but there are several INCHES of snow out there and it's still falling. My kids were a bit excited so once the snow started nothing happened except playing in the snow. Here's what we did though:

First, we went on a walk. The main point was to observe ants but since there were no ants on the surface of the ground b/c of the cold, we figured out letters different things started with that we found outside. It was actually fun. Collin enjoyed it.

Next, since we were unable to observe any ants outside we watched some youtube videos on ants. There were some really really neat ones. I'll attach my favorite (it'll be at the very end)... I learned a lot about the colony.

 

Then Collin made a mural that we added to the lapbook. (I'll try to make a video on this lapbook soon so you can see everything we did). The orange is the ant hill and the brown are the ants. Obviously the green is grass, blue sky, and yellow sun. He did it by himself. I was proud of him. =D

The Letter 'A' - Day 5

Yes, I know... I'm a slacker and didn't get this posted yesterday. Sorry!!!

To make this little alligator fact book we got 'several birds with one stone'. First, following oral instructions. I talked him through directions of drawing an alligator. I used the dry erase board and demonstrated as I spoke it. His turned out quite differently from mine but that's okay... it' really cute!
Science: I asked Collin if he could remember what an alligator eats? He drew pictures of animals and a snake (it's on the back of the above book. Then I asked him about the alligator's habitat and he drew a picture of it. Then I asked what the coolest thing was about alligators (of course, he said teeth).

 

Then we made some apple treats. I cut the apples in half and used a melon ball cutter to core out the seeds and put a hole in the middle of the apple half. Then Collin put 5 raisins in each half, a walnut broke into pieces, a dollop of honey, and sprinkled with cinnamon. Then I helped him wrap them in aluminum  foil and place in the oven at 350*F for 45 minutes. 

While it was cooking I read Collin his first chapter book. It's ten chapters long and I thought we could read a chapter a day and finish it sometime next week... well, I was wrong. He didn't want me to put it down so we read the entire book! haha! We curled up on the couch w/ cocoa and popcorn. It was lots of fun!

Heart (Toddler)

• Heart Hop: Today, I cut hearts out and taped them to the floor. I put some children's songs on and we hopped from heart to heart. It was fun! My preschooler joined in on the fun as well.
• Hearts Everywhere: Recite poem as you walk around looking for hearts
• Hearts on the cake/Hearts on the box/Hearts on the shoes/Hearts on the socks?hearts on the table/Hearts on the chair/Hearts on the wall/Hearts everywhere!
• Heart Lineup: Cut hearts out in different sizes and have child line them up by size.
• Pass the Heart: Cut a heart shape out of red construction paper. Sit dwn and pass it back and forth as you name people/things you love.
• Valentine Heart: Decorate a red heart with red ink/finger paints/stickers or whatever you have.

         

The Letter 'A' - Day 4

Craft: I know this isn't an A but I told him to pick a letter (of course he chose C b/c that's what his name starts with) and draw it and then we'd decorate it. Here is what he did.

 

Math: We learned about estimating. I put a few apples in a small box and had Collin glance in the box quickly and then estimate how many he saw. He estimated 5 and then counted. He was close. After that we estimated how much it would weigh. I estimated 2 lbs and then he estimated 100lbs (WOW!). It was 2 lbs.  Of course, he decided he should eat one when we were done.

Science: We talked about alligators. How do they see underwater? We discussed the alligators' third eyelid called a nictitating membrane.

Then, I got a bowl of luke-warm water and Collin stuck his face in and opened his eyes. I asked him what he saw and he said things were fuzzy. Then I had him put on his goggles and I explained that nictitating membranes are similar to goggles. They protect the eye and help the alligator see. Then he put his head in the bowl to see what things looked like. He thought it was pretty cool.

Then we read "Who Lives in an Alligator Hole?" and talked about reptiles being cold-blooded and how they lay eggs, habitat, food...etc. It was fun. 

I really wanted to read this book but I couldn't find it at our library so if you're library has it then you may want to check out this one.

After the book we went to youtube and watched a bunch of alligator videos and found pictures online. It was pretty fun.

Prayer - Daniel in the Lion's Den

Tonight was Ronni's turn to do the lesson. She's two so I asked her what she wanted me to talk about. She said cats so I asked her if lions were okay and she excitedly said yes. So.... I planned to mainly just talk about the importance of prayer and show a movie on Daniel in the Lion's Den.

We sang a song and then Collin (4 yo) said the opening prayer. Well, he said it really fast and short and then seemed proud of that so I ad-libbed. I started talking about how Heavenly Father is the father of our spirits and that prayer is how we communicate to our Father in Heaven. Then I grabbed my cell phone and flipped it open and asked Collin to demonstrate how he starts a conversation with Daddy.
He said, "Hi Dad."
Then I asked him how he starts a conversation with Heavenly Father. He said "Dear Heavenly Father." Then we went over the steps of praying like that.
After we discussed prayer and the importance for him I asked him if he wanted to see a movie about a prophet who loved the Lord and wanted to obey Him so much that he didn't want to stop talking to Him, even when he may die for doing it. That sure got his attention.
Then we watched Daniel in the Lion's Den.
We talked a bit about the story then said closing prayer and did a coloring page before refreshments of fruit and homemade whipped cream.

Have I Done Any Good In the World Today?

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

 

 

From Publishers Weekly

"Apple to Zucchini, / come take a look. / Start eating your way / through this alphabet book." So begins this delectable feast of fruits and vegetables, in a diverse and plentiful array. Each turn of the page reveals a mouth-watering arrangement of foods: Indian corn, jalapeno, jicama, kumquat, kiwifruit and kohlrabi. The words are shown in capital and lowercase letters set in bold type for easy reading. At the end of the book, Ehlert provides a detailed glossary that includes pronunciation, botanical information, the origin and history of the particular plant and occasional mythological references, with a small watercolor picture to remind the reader of what the plant looks like. Ehlert's glorious watercolor collages are lively and enticing; as in her Growing Vegetable Soup , she presents the plant world in an appealing and easily accessible manner. Both parents and children will be encouraged to sample exotic new foods at mealtime. Ages 3-5.

The Letter 'A' - Day 3

 

Language Arts: This is The A Game. It's just a basic game board. I colored it then covered it w/ contact paper. Then I printed out pictures of different objects. There are about 12 pictures total. Turn them face down and if you pic one that starts with an A then you get to move 1 space (our game pieces were coins). If it starts with something different, you don't get to move. If you get "Alligator Ann" then you get to move two spaces and if you get "Amy Ape" you have to move back 1 space. Collin loved it! I glued this one to one of the large flaps in the lapbook.

For math we talked about graphs. We discussed different ways to eat apples (whole, applesauce, juice, and pie). Then we made a bar graph on ppl's favorites -- we used our family and then talked about some of Collin's friends. He got it. I was excited at how quickly he caught on.

For the lapbook we used this 

The one on the right was still drying but the one on the left, I will attach with a brad later. I put this inside the right flap of the lapbook.

Lapbook -- the basics

Okay... I recorded this on day 1 but didn't get a chance to put it on youtube until today so it just has the stuff on it from day 1. Here is a basic way of making a lapbook. There are lots of ways and you can get very creative. I hope the video makes sense.

The Letter 'A' - Day 2

 

First we read this book. (Side note: Collin loved it -- I read it twice and he's been quoting it all day.)

Next, Collin and I cut out letters and glued them to paper. This gave him a chance to work with letters AND scissors which he really needs to get better with. He's left handed and I just bought him left handed scissors two days ago so it's all new for him. ;)

Once the glue is dry we'll put these together to make a letter book. The cover of this book (upper right hand by Ronni) says "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! Will there be enough room for...?"

While the glue was drying we went outside -

and did the Alligator Crawl

the Bunny hop

the Crab crawl

the Duck waddle (this is done by bending your knees and "waddling" that way -- it's hard to tell in this pic but Ronni was just so cute trying to do it.)

and the Elephant walk.

After a bit of playing outside we went back in to check out letters.

And made a book. ;)

Lapbook addition came from here.

 

This is the coconut tree for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! He wrote the letters by himself so they could climb the tree. He kinda covered up the coconuts w/ the letters and he made the leaves into stairs for the letters so they wouldn't fall. haha!! I thought it was pretty funny! I glued this to the back of the pocket on the lapbook. ;)

Red - toddler

Day 1: This week we are doing different things for the kids. What I was doing before was too simple for Collin and too difficult for Ronni so I just quit doing that and now they're each doing separate things. Ronni still hasn't learned her colors. She doesn't have the desire to learn like Collin did. That's okay though -- she's more talented other ways, for example, she already knows how to cut well. It took Collin forever to get the hang of that (we're still working on that one). Anyways.... today we all had to wear something red. We ran through the house, searching for anything red and we went for a drive (it would have been a walk but it was a wet and rainy day) and looked for things that were red.

Day 3: (For some reason, it won't let me type under the pictures so pretend that's where this is;) Today, I put a red sticker on Ronni's finger and we walked around touching anything red. 
Afterwards we sang a song: I Love Red (sung to Farmer in the Dell) I love the color red/I love the color red/ red, red, my shoes are red/ I love the color red. 
You can name different things that are red for the third line. Have fun!

Day 2: Continuing our red theme we made a red collage today. I just used any craft supplies I could find that were red. Then I smeared glue all over a piece of paper and Ronni got busy. I kept asking her what color the different items were. She would reply "red". Hopefully, she's catching on. ;)

The Letter 'A' - Day 1

 

First, we made a list of words that start with the letter A. I had Collin go through and underline all the 'a's he could find. 

Then we made an "A" book. We took all of those items that he had just named and turned them into a book. We wrote one of the words he came up with on one side and then he illustrated it on the other side.

Then he colored a picture of Alligator Ann. She is the mascot for this unit of study. ;) Then he was supposed to cover the A's with rice and he sure covered them. haha! You can use pasta or beans or whatever you want. ;)

For this unit of study we are making a lapbook. The left picture is the front and the one on the right is the 

inside of the first flap.  I have a writing section... I covered it with tape so he can write the answers. The next part is identifying upper case and lower case but they're all in different fonts so there is the computer a and the regular written a w/o the cap. He just sticks them in the proper baskets. This template can be found here. We are going to start doing lapbooks. They're pretty fun.

For instructions on making a basic lapbook watch this video. This is very basic. You can get creative and have flaps and pages everywhere if you want. ;) I used scrapbook paper to decorate mine. HAVE FUN and BE CREATIVE!

FHE - Light of the World

Ronni (the 2 year old) had the song and she picked "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes"

When the kids are in charge of the lesson they choose an item from the "30 Fast and Easy Family Home Evening Lessons" Box. haha! Was that a mouth-full? Each item has a number on it that corresponds w/ a lesson. Last night, Collin picked the candle. I gave each child a candle coloring sheet (found at above link) and then my husband and Collin taught the lesson together.

Hubby had the refreshments and he made brownies --- yum yum!

I had the activity so we play the game Operation. =o)