Name Hunt

Look how much the caterpillars have grown!  The left photo is from Monday.  The one on the right is from this morning.  They have more than doubled in size.

Yesterday we played a game of "Find Your Name".  I just wrote each child's name on a sticky note and hid them around the house.  The kids had a fun time finding them.  We played it for about half an hour.  Smudge followed me around all morning.

The kids would wait in the playroom.  They were released!  Kids love to find things.

They got pretty good at keeping it a secret if they found someone elses name, too. :)

We have all been enjoying pretty mild Spring weather lately.  It's raining again this morning, with rain in thr forecast for the next five or six days.

As I wandered past one of the many antique malls here in Snohomish last night with my handsome hubby- this pretty thing was on the sidewalk for $22.  I couldn't believe my luck-- it was practically screaming at me. 

It's the perfect piece for this spot near the front door.  Have a great weekend!

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Spirals

Paper plates are such a wonderful art supply!  This time we began with a spiral on each plate.

We each colored the plate completely.  I loved the bright colors.

Oil pastels are my favorite.  The only thing that bugs me is that the pastels get all over the kids' fingers and we have to wash hands afterward.

Most of the kids colored both sides of the plate.  That is the best way to create our project: 

paper plate spirals.

Once the coloring is complete, we cut along the spiral that was drawn on the plate before we began.

Tape to the ceiling and you have a paper plate spiral!

If the kids are getting bored on a long afternoon, bring out something from the inside.  For some reason this just grabs their attention to see something they associate with indoor play time brought OUTSIDE.  They spent a good half hour reading books.  That's right-- one of my preschoolers can READ!  I can't take any credit for that, though.  

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Nineteen & Fishing

Once we get up into the teen numbers, it can be easy for the kids to lose interest.  They are always so energetic about counting from 1-10.  I find that it helps to lay items down and count them with the kids when we get into the larger numbers.  They have something to see, touch and counting becomes a little bit easier for them.  We counted out 19 blocks, and attempted to make a tower.  They kept falling after 14!  That was the best part, of course.

Off we went to the table to color our 19's.

 I love when they use lots of colors, but I don't suggest that they do it any certain way. 

We used the paint dotters to count out 19 dots. 

It is hard to stop-- "We only get to dot 19 dots?"  I suppose I should give them paper and let them dot until their hearts are content next time.  We'll go crazy.

The kids like to see their art being displayed.  I see them pause and take it all in, quite often!  They are proud of their creations. :)

Need something to do?  Ethan told me this morning that he and a friend spent some time trying to drop tp tubes in a certain way to get them to stand up on edge.  He said that you must hold it sideways for it to work.  It usually bounces, does a flip, and will sometimes land... on it's edge.  Who knew?

We did it!  This would keep preschoolers busy.  Hey- it would keep me busy too.

This amazing thing happened at the bus stop.  Our youngest son seems to be a bit of a contortionist.  Ouch!! 

Adam bought this little fishing boat.  We had a very similar one but it was so heavy.  This one is much lighter and fits in our van for easy transporting.  I'm telling you-- I LOVE my mini van.  It is so useful!  I was glad to be able to sit in a chair to fish again because my bad knee can't take a raft for very long.

Our catch last night.  Dinner tonight! I thank God for this. 

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday that I keep thinking is Thursday..♥♥♥

Caterpillars Everywhere

Our caterpillars have arrived!  They sit on the little table for the kids to look at.  They came with a small tri-fold full of information and photos so the kids can visualize what will happen.  They will cocoon in seven to ten days, and move to the large butterfly garden.  (Purchased separately.)  If you would like to purchase your own larvae and butterfly garden, visit Insect Lore and order them.  They arrive in a timely fashion!

We have five caterpillars inside to watch.

They have food in the bottom of the cup, so all we need to do is not handle the cup, watch and wait.

When we had the apple tree pruned, it disturbed hundreds of tent caterpillars.  I hate these creatures.  They destroy the tree year after year.  Because of the pruning, the caterpillars that weren't destroyed are popping up around the yard.

I thought that this might be a good opportunity for the kids to play with a caterpillar since they can't touch the ones we have inside.  We found a leaf and offered it to one.

It started chomping down immediately!

This was a great opportunity to teach one child who is scared of bugs that caterpillars are friendly creatures.  (When they aren't killing my tree.)  He discovered that this furry guy wasn't so scary after all.

We are powering on through the letter Ww.  

Even if the kids draw something resembling the letter, it's a great success!

W is a good letter for this week, we are waiting for the caterpillars to have wings.

♥♥♥Happy Taco Tuesday!♥♥♥

Volcano

We finished up last week with the letter Vv.  I cannot believe that preschool will be winding down!  We created volcanos!

The kids added some tissue paper strips for a little bit of 3D grass. 

Offering supplies like that keeps the kids interested.  They were glad to be creating volcanos.

For fun, we added some dinosaurs.  I don't know why I always associate volcanos with dinosaurs. 

They each painted some lava coming out of the volcano.  Good, busy fun!

 I have really been enjoying the gardens lately.  I have done more planting and rearranging this year than I have the past several years.  I've been scoring lots of fun containers at yard sales and look forward to planting in those as well.  Yesterday I noticed a few of the newly planted Mammoth Sunflower seeds have sprouted.  I am so thankful for these giants! The kids look forward to them each year, too. 

http://vevo.ly/0sLMnl

Click the link above to watch the amazing Holograph performance of one of Michael Jackson's posthumously released songs.  This aired last night at the Billboard Music Awards.  It was awesome!  I'm sad that I will never have the chance to see Michael Jackson live, I suppose a hologram will do.  I will always remember rocking out to "Bad" as a kid.

♥♥♥Happy Music Monday!♥♥♥

Caterpillar

For story exploring Thursday we used The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We read the story.  A good way to keep kids interested in group time is to involve them in the story.  The kids had a job to count the foods that the caterpillar ate through, and to say it with me when the story read,"but he was STILL hungry!".  This keeps them engaged. 

We created our own hungry caterpillar.  This is really all in anticipation of our own caterpillars arriving.  

Lately I have been on a binge of letting the creativity flow naturally when the kids pick up a paint brush, but this time we were very organized, and worked together step by step to create a caterpillar like the one in the book.  Preschoolers are very good at following instructions!

They each created a beautiful caterpillar!

They each told me what their caterpillar eats.

Watch out for this one-- it eats butterflies.

It was a simple and fun project.

We hopped down to the Snohomish Farmer's Market last night for some $5 flower bouquets.  I like to split them up and place them everywhere.  We got a new (used) fishing boat yesterday-- hopefully we will take it out tonight and catch some fish. I'm a happy lady!

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥