Pop Ups, Paint & Playdough

I recently acquired this book from a friend who cleaned out her classroom.  I love this book!!  Anytime I get my hands on a pop up book, it stays in a safe place away from the kids so that we can enjoy it forever.  The saddest thing about pop up books is the way they get destroyed.  I think they are works of art. 

The kids LOVE the bug book, too!

The anticipation of what scary bug is going to pop out on the next page gets them giggling and hiding!

A loopy little lavender bug!

Aaaaaahhhhh!!!

We got out some paint to paint our names yesterday.  

They love to paint!  I love that they love it.

Once again, that Crayola paint is the BEST.

A little close up looks like a piece of art that I would hang up on the wall.  The colors are sure a welcome sight in the dark wet month of January.

Speaking of paint- this tree is about to disappear.  Bye bye tree!  This happens to me every year.  It's cold outside, I need a project to do.  Our daughter Stephanie is an amazing artist.  I am giving her free reign of this wall once I have the paint purchased.  She's going to paint something along the lines of this.  (The left page.)

Can you tell that I am feeling about 98% better?  This morning I cooked up some fresh cinnamon playdough. 

In a large pot, add the following:

5 1/2 cups flour

2 cups salt

8 teaspoons cream of tartar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

A pile of cinnamon(You can never add too much)

Food Coloring if desired

4 cups water

Mix it up, you will give your arm a small workout.  It will be lumpy and heavy.  Cook over medium heat until most of the moisture is gone.  I think it took 10 minutes.  Stir constantly.

When you think it's ready, flip it out of the pot onto a hard surface and when it's cool enough for you to stand it, knead it smooth.

I broke it into thirds for kneading.  It smelled AMAZING!!!

I popped it into large ziplock bags to cool the rest of the way.  Even if it is warm, it helps to contain the moisture if you put it in.  Just don't seal it up right away.

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Day Or Night

We cut up another worksheet yesterday.  Wednesdays are our days to work on different concepts.  Yesterday we talked about daytime and nighttime.  I asked the kids how they know it is daytime.  "The sun is shining!"  "We get dressed!"  "We wake up!"

To run this concept home, we glued some black construction paper onto half of a blue piece.  The colors represent day and night. 

They glued the daytime chart onto the daytime side, and the same for the nighttime side.

They added clouds to the daytime sky, and stars to the nighttime sky.

They worked on sorting the pictures of activities into the correct category.  

Time to color! I am trying to teach the kids about coloring individual parts of the picture instead of coloring the whole thing one color.  It's tough!   My OCD mind is convinced that they will take that skill with them and use it for the rest of their lives.  Just like I'm trying to convince my teenager that she'll use algebra.  RIGHT?  (LOL)

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Nine

On with our learning schedule we go!  Tuesdays are our number days.  We are counting to nine!

A couple of the kids can count much higher than 9, but we try to spend at least two weeks on each number throughout the course of our preschool year.  The goal is to get them to recognize the number out of order, and count to it. 

 Whatever this illness is that has gripped our household since Friday is a MONSTER.  I don't believe it's the flu, but now Ethan is home with a fever.  I survived yesterday barely, thanks to excessive cold medicine.  I feel much better this morning.  One day at a time, I suppose!  We are trying very hard to get rid of this thing. 

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Busy Work

A few days back we got out the geometrical shapes and shape boards.  The bright colors alone are enough to keep a child busy and interested.

This activity is great for ages 2 and up!

I can decipher why the pieces were placed where they were.  She was really trying!  The two year olds in this house are very smart.

He was proud of his work!  Look- a Smudge photo bomb.  I think he was jealous of the attention.

We are working on recognizing the letter Ii.  I cut up the worksheet and used bits of it on the paper.  Using colored paper is a sneaky way to add interest. 

Glue and color!  Easy!

We continuously stopped to point out the letter Ii.

This was happening.  Smudge has been attacking coats lately.  I don't know why that is so exciting.

He likes to get up in there and knock the coats off of the hooks.

He occasionally gets stuck...

But if he is successful, he then continues to play with the coat.  He has always liked large prey.

What a good boy.  He's been hanging around inside more because it is cold and rainy.

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Whale Songs

I love when children's questions direct the course of our activities.  We read this story for no reason in group time.  They wanted to know how much of the earth is ocean.  We get out the globe often.  When any of the kids travel, we usually look on the globe where they are going.  This time we looked at the globe to see how much ocean there is.  The book is great!  We began to talk about whales.  That prompted a talk about whale songs.

That, in turn, promted an internet search for some whale song recordings.  Everyone took a turn with the headphones.

How exciting it was to actually hear what a whale "says"!

Meanwhile, a little bit of color sorting for skill building.  Kids like the act of just gluing papers together. 

They all worked very well, no help needed.

She is learning, even though the papers are not in the correct place.  She is developing crucial fine motor skills and having a wonderful time!♥

I love to see them proud of their accomplishments. :)  The kids are back at school this morning!  Our household was sick over the weekend.  By some sort of miracle, I am well this morning.  Thank you God that I did not have to close down.  Phew!

♥♥♥Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Winter

We are learning about winter.  It is fun to talk about the differences that each season brings.  One of the kids had an epiphany yesterday when he realized that he knew exactly why the winter trees have no leaves!  A little cause and effect lesson ensued.  All of that talk about the leaves changing and falling down came back to him.  It was wonderful!  We created winter trees for art yesterday.  I cut out a tree shape for each child.

I got out the Elmer's Glue and I was thinking that this guy would know how to use it because I assumed that they usually use this glue in school.  Wrong!  He knows how to use it, but the school tends to stick with glue sticks just like I do.  Less mess.  50% of my kids showed up very late yesterday and I only had two kids for art, so I figured we would get out the messy glue and use it since I could monitor more effectively.

We are still dreaming of snow, so the kids added some cotton ball snow to their trees.

It can be a bit challenging because the unrolled cotton ball likes to stick to fingers. 

To create icicles, add a generous line of glitter glue.

Using a toothpick, drag the glue downward.

Brrrr!

I love the simplistic beauty of a winter tree! 

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

On With It

Aaaaah, I miss the warm sunshine!  I am so thankful that it is January.  I've been reflecting about the obstacles we dealt with last year.   While it was a rough one for our family, there was so much to be thankful for.  We stopped working with the youth at church and Adam had to get a "real" job, which caused me to have to downsize my business considerably.  We still see the good that has come from those obstacles.  We learned that parenting a teenager is actually difficult!  Who knew? The second car died, I had a record year of doctor visits for myself,  we ultimately left our church and are still healing from that. These are so minimal compared to what is going on with others around us, but they do not affect us any less.  What is important to know is that God is in control of all of these things and I do thank him for what it is he is teaching us.

It's time to get on with it! 

There will always be obstacles in the path ahead.  How we choose to view them and handle them is up to us.

The past year was also full of blessings!  Far too many to list, and how easily we forget the good things.  It was good for our family to sit down and read the good things from 2013 that we had stored in a jar all year.  Some of those things were so small, so easily forgotten.  Each one was a gift from God.  We trust that we can barrel on through no matter what as long as we keep God at the center of our lives.

Happy January!  I am really glad that the crazy of Christmas is over.  It's time to plow right back into preschool at full force.  Is anyone else cookied out?

♥♥♥Happy Thursday that feels like Monday!♥♥♥