February Sensory Box

 

1. read beans
2. heart shapes
3. rice
4. cookie cutters
5. spoons and scoops
6. pipe cleaners to string hearts
7. pom-poms

Linking to:

Snowflake Bentley and Snowflake Fun

We are in the process of making snowflake crystals. 

We used 2 chopsticks, 5 pipe cleaners cut in half to twist into snowflakes, 2 glasses, boiling water, food coloring, and enough borax to saturate the water. Leave your pipe cleaner snowflakes in the water for about 20 hours. To see how pretty these snowflakes get, go to Tired, Need Sleep.  We'll be posting ours this weekend.

Today we read Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Martin with excitement, due to all the snow our family received up North.

 We used this magnifying snowflake activity from My Montessori Journey .

We finally learned how to make pretty snowflakes from this post found here.  I cut them out of coffee filters and then we used watercolors to decorate. Here is a special little craft Olive made for me today after we read the book.

Math: We learned that the snow belt receives about 120 inches of snow a year. We estimated how much that would be and then measured it out.

We don't have any snow here, but if you are enjoying a snow day, we are thinking of you, and please make a snow angel for us!

Word Family Fun

I put together these word family cards for Olive to help her realize how many words she now knows. This activity also gave her confidence with learning how to spell.

Word Family Fun:
op, ight, unny, ing, ut, un, ow, it, ip, oy, old, uck, en,  et, eat, ed
Even if the word is spelling incorrectly like "hunny," I did not correct her.  I believe it's better to learn the sound of the word and then later learn the spelling rules. What suggestions do you have?

Valentine's Day Scrap Wreath

Here is an easy scrap fabric Valentine's Day wreath that I made this weekend.

I used a hard foam craft ring and cut one inch wide by ten inch long fabric strips out of some Valentine's Day scrap material. Then I simple knotted the fabric strips around the ring. Enjoy!


Today is also my birthday...I'll be eating a big piece of cake for all of you!

Barbie Pajama Party

My baby turned 6 this week and we celebrated with a Barbie Pajama Party.

 This cake was fun to make and decorate. I used a bake and fill pan, but you can also use a pyrex bowl to make the dress.

 Since it was a pajama party they woke up ready to have fun. They also woke up to sleet and a bit of snow flurries, which is so unusual in the South.

Each Barbie had their own special party seat made out of play-dough. We also painted nails, played pin the candle on the cupcake, ate yummy food, and ended with a Barbie movie. Happy 6th Birthday my dear Olive!

It's in the Box

We had a really great school day. Here are some activities that were placed in Jem and Olive's workbox this week.

 This was are first time using Geo Boards, Jem really enjoyed this activity.

 Kumon cut and paste workbook.

 Linking cubes for Math.

 Egg carton counting with beans.

 100 easy lesson in reading for Olive.

 Chopsticks and pom-poms.

 Color matching with buttons and pom-poms.

 Word color matching.

 Olive's pipe cleaner and bead party mask.

A little blue paint goes a long way....have a great week.

Hand Peace Dove's for MLK Day

We had a lovely conversation this evening about peace and ways that we can show peace to the world. We talked about Martin Luther King and how he wanted all colors to come together.

 Olive: Peace is....
Sharing and caring with others, being helpful, helping someone when they get hurt,  and praying about nature and loving animals.

Jem: Peace is...
Helping others and being kind to your dogs, helping friends get up when they get hurt, and being nice to your family and friends.

I must say that I am a true believer in Classical Conversations as Olive said, "you mean Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation." I am impressed with the knowledge that she has picked up from her History timeline.  I explained the difference between the two Martin Luthers.

Baby news: I felt the baby kick for the first time this evening! I am right at 17 weeks and I have a big smile on my face as I type this.

Linking this post with:

Featured on ABC & 123

Today I am featured on ABC & 123, it's a wonderful blog full of so many great teaching ideas.  Dictate, Draw, and Drama is all about creating, telling, illustrating, and then acting out a story.

To read my full post just click here and be sure to head on over to ABC & 123 to check out their blog.

Arctic and Antarctic

It's a major freeze around here this week.  The cold weather prompted us to start learning more about our two polar regions- "Arctic is for polar bears and Antarctica is for penguins."

I started by saying polar bears live up there (pointing up) and penguins live down there (pointing down.) O says, "you mean they live way under the ground." How confusing can one mom be? Then I got out our world map rug and they got it.

Olive and Jem enjoyed making these adorable paper penquins. We made them last year as well, they were easy to make and the idea came from Kidssoup.

Little One Books Winner

  Thank-you to everyone who participated in the Little One Books giveaway!

Congrats to Amanda over at Mommy of Two Little Monkeys
She said...
I would love to get a few of their books such as the Bear feels Sick and the little engine that could :) Cute books on their site! Thanks for the giveaway :)

Stay tuned for more giveaways in the near future!

Hooter Hider Tutorial

If you are expecting or know someone who is, here is an easy gift you can make that will benefit any nursing mother.
Hooter Hider:

Here is the finished product, thank-you friend for modeling the hooter hider. Your baby can hide inside and discreetly get the job done.
1. Start with a yard of fabric and fold it in half.
2. Cut out a half circle for your head, but big enough to peak at the baby.
3. Surge or zig-zag stitch around the head circle.

 4. Next surge or stitch around the outside of the fabric.

 5. You have essentially made a big bib to nurse your child under.
Happy Nursing!
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