Nighttime Birds

I wanted to do something with markers.  Maybe it's the winter blues that has me craving bright colors, I don't know.  Anyone else suffer from winter blues?  Praise the Lord God for sending us sunshine the past three days!!  I have not taken it for granted-- we have been enjoying it immensely.  I looked on Pinterest for something bright to create for no reason at all. 

Each child had four birds.  Ahead of time, I used Sharpie markers to draw a colorful pattern on each bird.

I think it was smart to use Sharpies, because the kids would then choose a contrasting color to complete the bird.  The Sharpie marker doesn't bleed or blend. 

The kids handled the markers well.  They had to learn that if you hold a marker in one place for too long it might cause a hole. 

They worked on through coloring each bird.

I love when I capture someone with their tongue out in concentration. ♥

The kids glued the birds onto a branch.

The next step was to add eyes and feather tails. 

Aren't these wonderful?  The kids drew some stars in the nighttime sky. 

The art wall looks great right now!

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

"Nighttime Birds" by The Gathering.  I used to listen to this album while working a swing shift in the back of the bakery as a cake decorator.  They let me work that swing shift to keep Stephanie out of daycare for an extra day each week when she was two years old.  I'd often work until 2AM- music really kept me going.  ♫

Enhance The Worksheet

We worked on the concept of "bottom" yesterday.  I was pleasantly surprised that we didn't have even ONE butt reference. :)  Maybe I'm the only preschooler?  (Chuckle)  Anyway-- I had a worksheet for them that I felt was worth using.  To enhance the learning experience, we got out some boxes from our Post Office and stacked them up. 

"Which box is on the bottom?"

"Please show me a cubby that is on the bottom!"

"Can you locate the bottom of the chair?"

"Which part of the door is at the bottom?"

We retreated back to the table to color the shelf and the instruments on the shelf.

The goal was for them to glue the drum onto the bottom shelf.  We glued our worksheet to a piece of blue paper for fun.

We took advantage of the extra space by implementing a simple name writing exercise.  I find that the lines help the kids to understand that when they place the letters next to each other in order, it then becomes a word.  Without the lines, they might draw the letters, but they are usually in strange places or not next to each other at all.

Look at those letters!!  I don't feel bad about using a worksheet when we enhance it with small activities.  This type of learning is great for preschoolers.

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

12 Dinosaurs

Things felt pretty back to normal yesterday as far as preschool goes.  We are counting to twelve right now.  

We used foam dinosaur stickers.

The kids glued the number twelve onto their papers and colored it.  They each took their own turn counting out twelve stickers to use.  

These stickers require a little bit of work.  The kids have to take the time to peel the back off.

I was happy that because of that, the project took a full 30 minutes.  They were busy the entire time!

I like the colors. :)  Several of the kids stopped at the art wall throughout the day to recount the dinosaurs.

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday!  We were so happy to get outside and it was kind of warm.

22 days until Spring... 22 days until Spring...  Or is it 23?  I am ready.

They are waiting in line for the bathroom.  Smudge was following everyone everywhere yesterday when he wasn't checking on Aiden.  By the way, Aiden is feeling much better today.  I kept him home for observation just to make sure.

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Smudge Is Amazing

This is what happened yesterday at Henle House- NOTHING.   All of the kids have been fighting the final effects of the horrible stomach bug that is going around.  The kids were not happy.  They were tired, moody, crying  and no amount of pep from me was going to solve the issue for them.   I gave up early on.  When you don't feel good- sometimes the couch and a blanket is the only thing that helps.  That is what we all did.  Couch- Beauty and The Beast and blankets.  It was necessary.  After all, this is part of their childhood.  Noone wants to go to school when they are feeling cruddy.

Prison visit, here.  Smudge was in one of his moods where he didn't want to come in because he didn't want to be touched by Zuko, and Zuko just wants to get his paw on the great and powerful Smudge. Even though Smudge is a cranky cat at times when he is forced to be sociable, he is an amazing beast.  I think that he thinks he is a dog.  He gets the paper with me every morning. 

The most amazing thing about Smudge is that even though he is unsociable to the rest of my family, he will go and rest by anyone who is sick.  Aiden has caught the awful thing that is being passed around.  Smudge hasn't left his side this morning. He is the most amazing cat I have ever had.  I have heard of animals doing this before, it just really surprises me with Smudge because he likes to be alone.  

Please pray that we can get rid of this awful virus!  It has been passed around for almost two weeks now. 

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

Llama/ Guitar

I got out my guitar on Friday.  I have to confess- I don't play it as often as I would like to be.  It's a beauty, right?  My dad put some new strings on it for me in December. 

I have stacks of songs that I can play.  In fact- when I get it out, it consumes me. 

This time I was a dork and hit my forehead on it as I was lifting the strap over my head.  If you click the photo you can maybe see my huge bump beginning to swell.  I didn't take a photo of the final result, but I felt silly. OUCH!  We had a great guitar session of "Head Shoulders Knees And Toes."

Ll is for llama! I found this project on Pinterest.  Llamas are really funny creatures. 

We used some yarn for the unruly llama hair.

I don't think the kids realized that the body and neck was a capital L. 

Piecing everything together was a breeze.

I loved this!!

♥♥♥Happy Monday!!♥♥♥

P.S.  If you need some theme music to help you feel like you are winning- listen to this:

Training Montage from Rocky IV soundtrack.  I'm feeling strong right now.

We Escaped

Unfortunately, several of my Henle House kids have been suffering from the 24 hour bug that I gave them.  (Guilty.)  Two were home yesterday, one is home today.  Please pray that everyone can get healthy again!  Because of my low numbers yesterday, we escaped.  I've been waiting for an excuse to go to Jump Rattle & Roll for a while.  

It was so easy to keep my eyes on the two kids that I had.  I got to play, too.

I have to admit, when I scaled this thing, my feet were dieing.  Those little green things are torture devices for adult feet.  I was determined to have fun though, and the kids were happy to see me sliding with them. 

If I could just fit one of these things into my playroom-- how cool!

 A little bit of toy envy was happening.  I had read an article about the man who makes these beautiful sturdy play kitchens. 

Here is the info, you can look him up.  

Amazing to me- this little guy loves trains.  We have trains at my house, he has trains at his house.  We do not, however, have bouncy houses at our houses.  He still chose to play with trains. :)

Look at all of these kids climbing over each other.  All I could do was stand back and wait for one of my kiddos to tumble backward.  They were resilient, they powered on with the best of them.  It wasn't as busy as this photo suggests. 

Weeeeeeeee!

Weee--- aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!  (Laughing..)

Some cars to play with..  Really, this place was FULL of awesome toys.

More kitchen envy.  This is coming from me who just removed the kitchen from our playroom.  It needed to happen.

More jumping...

Some racing....

At the stoplight on the way home, there was a train stopped.  The kids were pretty excited to look at it for an extended period of time. 

We ended with the lunch of champions-- McDonalds.  They deserved it!!

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥