B is for . . .

. . . block towers. The kids picked a numbered card, identified the number and then built a tower that tall. 

. . . balancing. We practiced balancing on a beam while picking up letter Bs.

. . . bee balancer. We made balancing bees. Each bee was made from a file folder with two pennies attached to the wings. The kids added stripes and a face to their bee and then practiced balancing it across the balance beam.

Simply Awesome Q-tip Skeleton

Skeletons are inspiring us this season and helping us get into the Halloween spirit. For letter B week we learned about our bones and what they do for our body. We learned that bones give us shape and protect us. Without them we would be a mushy puddle on the floor.  Here's a simple skeleton we made using long and short q-tips. 

Here's What You Need: 5 long q-tips 8 half q-tips black paper paper cut out skull liquid glue Here's What You Do: (for younger kids do steps 1 and 2 for them to help them get started) 1. Glue 1 long q-tip to the middle of your page 2. Glue the skull at the top of that q-tip 3. Use the short q-tips to glue ribs on each side of the back bone. 4. Add legs and arms. Easy peasy lemon squezzy!

Easter Activities

For Easter this year, we painted Easter eggs (of the paper variety), we made some Easter bunny masks and played some bunny games. Mostly relay races with eggs. Unfortunately, it rained today so our games were brought inside. The kids had fun having permission to run in the house. : ) We tried to hold the eggs on spoons

and hopped like bunnies to deliver the eggs to a basket. 

Here's how we made our bunny mask, 

Cut a paper plate in half. 

Cut out a spot for the nose and eyes. 

Punch a hole on each side and tie yarn on each hole to be able tie it around the back of their head to stay on. 

Add a pink puff ball above the nose.

Add paper ears.

Here's how we made our painted eggs.

We spread some shaving cream into a shallow tray (a cookie sheet would also work for this).

Then we added a variety of paint colors

Using a skewer we marbled the paint by dragging it along the paint from top to bottom, then bottom to top. You could also try dragging it in swirl patterns, waves, whatever your imagination thinks would look pretty. 

Next we pressed a paper egg onto the swirled paint. We made sure to press down on all sides and parts of the egg so that paint got on every inch. Then pulled it out of the paint. 

We let the painted shaving cream sit on the eggs for a few minutes, then used a squeegee to scrap the excess off. 

After that you are left with a beautiful painted marble egg. 

Clear as mud? Feel free to ask if you have any questions!

Happy Easter and spring break everybody!

 

Spring Time Song with Finger Puppets

 Spring is upon us and summer is fast approaching. In our neck of the woods, everyone is planting their gardens and the roses are starting to bloom. Here is a fun spring time song with finger puppets for the kids to play along while you sing. 

It is titled In the Leafy Tree Tops. It is from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints children's songbook. The song can be listened to or downloaded at lds.org. Or you can go directly to the song here.

When we sing this each child has a flower on a popsicle stick and a bird finger puppet. Cut out the circles where the beak should be and their thumb and pointer finger become the beak. My holes are a little small, so you might have to cut a little bigger than what is drawn. I printed the bird to be about 5 inches tall.

In the Leafy Tree Tops

 In the leafy treetops, the birds sing "Good morning."

They're first to see the sun.

They must tell ev'ryone.

In the leafy treetops, the birds sing "Good morning."

In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.

"How do you do?" they say.

"How do you do today?"

In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.

I hope you have a great spring and that the birds sing and flowers bloom in your garden!

Letter B

 B is for . . . .

. . .bubble art (We had a fun time blowing bubbles, watching the colors mix, and talking about what you get when you mix two colors) (Click here for a more detailed post on how to create bubble art.)

Bubbles + paint= cool medium for making patterned paper

Even the mess is pretty!

. . .block towers (Click here for a detailed tutorial)

. . .balancing (Can you pick up the letter B while balancing on a board?)

. . .bowling

. . .bug snack (we made bugs using celery, peanut butter, and straight/regular pretzels)

B is for Block Towers

 Block towers were a huge hit during center time this week! 

On the table there were number cards and a bunch of blocks. Each child identified what number was on the card and then built a tower with the right number of blocks. 

We got this activity from http://fumblingthroughparenthood.blogspot.com/. Thanks for the fun idea!

Handprint Bird in Nest

 Spring is such a fickle time. Yesterday was 70 degrees here and today it snowed. Oh, sun we want you to come and stay. Sigh. At least we get to see the sun more often and it's fun to see the buds on the trees. We were so excited to find out that the previous owners of our house planted daffodils around our front window. It is also fun to hear birds chirping in the morning. (Except maybe not this morning because we were having a crazy storm - snow & hail & wind) 

   

Speaking of birds, here is a great bird project to do with your little ones. I must subconsciously like birds because looking back, this is the 3rd bird project we've done. 

This one is pretty simple. Make the bird's body with a painted handprint. Add an eye and beak. Give the bird a place to roost using ripped paper art. Glue on ripped brown paper pieces to add interesting depth to your picture. 

Easy Peasy!

If you are interested in a more intensive spring project, try our bobble head chicks. This link also has a great tutorial for easy 3-D bird nests.

Or, for a more whimsical bird, try our balloon birds. 

Halloween Ideas

I'm baaack. Life sure is crazy with another little one needing love and attention, but we are starting to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully, as things smooth out, I will be able to post regularly again. I'm finding the hardest thing is that as Anya and I do preschool together, half the time I am holding a baby. That makes taking pictures a little more complicated! Anyway, here are some Halloween fun activities and songs we have been doing the last couple of days:

The Skeleton Dance - This is awesome because it is catchy and fun. It is also great because the moves are mirrored so the kids are moving in the right direction. I just wish I would have had it when we studied bones recently.

 

The Improved Frankenstein - Last year we did this fun Frankenstein, but it kind of looked Shrek-ish. You can see the instructions and picture  here. 

So, we changed the golf tees and screwed in some screws instead.  Once I got the screw started, it was easy for her to keep going. I like it much better! 

 

Of course we had to read our favorite monster story to go with it:

Candy Corn Mosaic -  I have seen this idea on a couple of different websites.  Here is our version. 

 

To begin we looked at, tasted, and talked about candy corn. We talked about color and shape, but I really wanted to focus on the words - top, middle, and bottom. This activity is great for color sorting, scissors practice and practicing vocab: top, middle, and bottom. We started with strips of white, orange, and yellow.  Then cut those strips into squares. We put the white on top, the orange in the middle and the yellow on bottom. Pretty easy, but a lot of fun!