V is for Valentine

We finally got to celebrate Valentine's 

Day! After all of the snow days, we 

were happy to be together.

Last week, we made our 

Valentine's door decoration collages.

"We love because he first loved us" 

I John 4:19 

We also made our mailboxes and the kiddos got to deliver their mail.

Our science center was all about magnets.  The kiddos sorted items that were magnetic from items that were not by using magnetic wands in our Valentine sensory bin.

We are moving on to Transportation this week and will work with ramps, tunnels and pulleys.  I have a lot planned, so I'm hoping the snow falls elsewhere!

  

Fun with the letter D

I'm sitting here on yet another snow day.  We have had 3 full days and 2 half days in the past two weeks!  I was no where close to caught up with the lessons that I had planned, so I decided to scrap two weeks of lessons and have fun.  I simply chose the objectives that we needed to concentrate on, set out some fun and let the kiddos run with it.

We continued to work on the letter D.  Thus, we had doodle on the moon day.  I think that the kiddos really liked the rocket ship crayons.

I found a great link that you can print off a black and white picture of the moon (here).  I had them cut out the moon and glue it on black paper.  I also had them count the number of stars on their space scene. 

We listened to "Why Does the Sun Shine" and "How Many Planets" by They Might Be Giants.  We sang and danced our way through space.

We read "Mooncake" by Frank Asch.  It's about a bear who longs to taste the moon.  He tries to lasso it and when that doesn't work, he builds a space ship.  It is autumn so he falls asleep.  When he wakes up (in winter), he thinks he's on the moon.  However, it's just snow!  I had intended to make snow ice cream, but just went for full fat ice cream :-)  

Everyone took a turn shaking the bag and were so excited to eat the "moon cake" when the milk solidified. 

Moon Cake

What You Need:

• 1 quart resealable plastic bag
• 1 gallon resealable plastic bag
• ¼ cup of sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of vanilla flavoring
• 1 cup of half and half
• Rock(we used coarse Kosher) salt
• Ice cubes

What You Do:

1. Place the sugar, milk, and vanilla flavoring into a 1-quart plastic bag, securely seal the bag, and mix well.
2. Next, add 2 cups of ice to a 1-gallon plastic bag.
3. Add between 1/2 and 3/4 cups of rock salt to the gallon bag.
4. Place the sealed quart bag into the gallon bag. Close the larger bag securely.
5. Holding the large bag by the top seal, gently rock (we shook) the bag from side to side. 
6. Continue rocking or shaking the bag until the contents of the quart bag have solidified.
7. Have your child remove the frozen contents (ice cream) from the quart bag and place in cups to consume. Yummy!

D is also for dental health.  We read many non fiction books about how to care for your teeth and why.  We used this information to make an anchor chart and then we performed an experiment.

As you can see from our results...drinking tea, cola, and red soda can really stain your teeth (well our eggs).  

For a sensory experience, we made our own toothpaste!  We discussed how the toothpaste smelled and felt.  This was also a math activity.  Each child measured the ingredients.  To bring it all home the kiddos got to brush the eggs to try to remove the stains without cracking them.  

They discovered that it wasn't easy at all.  The stains wouldn't come off, even when they brushed so hard they cracked the eggs.  One child's comment was that he was going to tell his dad not to buy him red soda anymore.  Successful lesson!

Have fun in the snow!  I know that I did.

Oh No! Another Snow day!

A better description is ice day!

I’m sitting here bored (my teenagers are locked in their room) so I thought I’d post some things I used to do with my kids when they were kindergarteners.  I miss the happy noise and chaos.  The grass is always greener on the other side right? 

Go Away...I'm sleeping...even though it is 2 pm.

Go Away...I have important things to do...i.e. NetFlix and Pinterest.

  

I was “pinspired” by Jamie at Hands On: As We Grow

(see link here).

She lists activities such as playing with masking tape, couch cushions and boxes.  These were always favorites.

How about just drawing on paper?  The trick is to find a different way to present it.  Tape paper under the table and let them color above them.  Tape wrapping paper blank side out on the wall and give them washable markers to create a mural.

Bonus:  You get a great cardboard tube to play with when the wrapping paper is all gone.

My floor is now clean under my table and my sweater is dirty :-) / :-(

and my ab workout is done for the day. 

We sometimes feel limited because we aren’t “crafty or artsy.”  Believe me, you don’t have to be.  Kids are best served when you provide them with an “invitation” to create, then you just step back.  You’d be surprised how they (and you) can think outside the box. 

This type of invitation tends to lead to 3D art.

Make home-made finger paint with them.

I made bathtub finger paint.

It cleaned right off after drying for an hour.  

The recipe that I used...

6-7 teaspoons baby shampoo (probably any liquid soap)

3-4 T corn starch

a few drops of food coloring

I made my colors really bright so the paint stained my fingers a bit (came off after 2-3 washes) so I suggest going light on the 

food coloring.  I was so excited that I called my daughter in to see my picture...she just said "really mom?"

Give them props to play...

Post office...mail box out of an old shoe box; envelopes, paper, markers, etc. to write letters; old junk mail

Animal hospital…play doctor kit, stuffed animals, band-aides, ace bandages or ripped pieces of cloth, clip board and

 pencils to write down vitals

Grocery store…empty recycle bin for “groceries”, play money (or real change), play cash register (make one out of a shoe box or use a calculator), apron, grocery bags

Shoe store…shoes and shoe boxes…need I say more

Office/Teacher…paper, folders, clip boards, paper clips, rubber bands, envelopes…any office supplies that you don’t need back

The list goes on

Cook or bake…let them measure, mix and most importantly clean!  My kids always liked to play in water, most kids do.  However, that changes! 

Almost everything in the pictures today came from the dollar store.  I tried to brainstorm ideas that you can do with them and some that you can set up and let them play on their own.  When I was a stay at home mom, I would much rather spend 10 minutes cleaning up after they played (pretty much on their own) for 30.  That’s me though.  Just set limits so you aren’t cleaning up pudding off the ceiling (happened to me once).  

Snow and Ice

Before I talk about all of our happenings this week, I wanted to take a few minutes to let everyone know that most of my ideas are inspired by many wonderful educators and homeschooling moms on Pinterest.  I am going to try to give credit where credit is due after today's post.  I thank all that have inspired me :-)

We did a great lesson on Dr. King.  We read several books and reviewed a Weekly Reader poster about what it means to be fair.  Children this age need connections to their own life when learning about abstract concepts.  We also talked about the color of our skin and the fact that even though we may have differences on the outside, we are the same on the inside.  A great object lesson followed our discussion.  We brainstormed and came up with ideas for an anchor chart listing all the ways that the eggs were the same and all the ways that they were different just by observing the eggs on the outside.  We then cracked the eggs open.

Our science lessons this week were all about ice.  Our first experiment was about what best makes ice melt.  We had four chunks of ice.  We left one alone (the control), put water on one, salt on one and sugar on the fourth.  After some time passed, the kiddos discovered that salt was the best substance to melt the ice.  Most of the kiddos made the connection with their experiences at home.  Many mentioned that their parents put salt on the sidewalk.  A few said that they'd rather have sugar on their sidewalks because it would taste better.  Hopefully no one is tasting their side walk!!!

After our experiment concluded the kiddos had a great time chipping away at the ice to find the hidden treasures (arctic animals).  They used safety knives and a squirt bottle with warm salt water.  They were required to wear safety goggles.  Everyone agreed that it was important to be safe.

We painted snow.  A few asked for water for the water color paint, but after some prompting they figured it out.

We finished up counting by tens.  During the week, we counted pennies, cups, fingerprints and jumping jacks by tens.  We kept track of the jumping jacks by using tally marks which opened to door to counting by fives.

One of my favorite snowman activities is reading "Snowballs" by Lois Ehlert then making our own with salt dough.