Glue and Bead Suncatchers

Another light week here in our house. You would think that with the rain and cold weather we would've gotten a lot accomplished. Instead it made us (....me) really sluggish and unmotivated. I'm pretty sure that I'm just going to quick finish up the letters for Annabelle (V,X,Y,Z). She already knows them and instead of taking our time with it I feel like we should just move on. Plus we are both really excited about starting her K curriculum. The little guys will continue to get some fun theme work and we will finish out their letters before we start Hubbard's Cupboard in beginning/mid Julyish (yes, I said Julyish lol). We did manage to get up some new decorations in our window and cross something off our Summer Bucket List.

I was again inspired by Melissa at the Chocolate Muffin Tree when I saw how her bead and glue suncatchers turned out. She has some really great art activities she does with her little girl. Stop by and take a look. Promise you'll come away wanting to do a couple (or 20) of her ideas. We did modify it a little. In her post she says to use clear plastic lids. We didn't have any of those on hand so I just used wax paper and made and filled in a circle with glue. When the glue dries you simply peel it off the wax paper and ta-da....a really pretty suncatcher.

Annabelle loved this and worked really hard on it.
Glitterizing it. :)
Asa shaking the glitter.
Silas even enjoyed it.
Digging for gems.
The finished product. We did these Wednesday, and I was able to hang them up on Saturday. So it does take a while to dry, but they are quite pretty! This picture really doesn't do them justice.
On another note they have been doing construction on the road. I would like to thank the construction workers for entertaining my kiddos for all of 35 min. There is fire coming out of one of the machines that they used. This just really enthralled all three of them. They pulled up their own chairs and sat down to watch. Annabelle even asked for a snack. lol
I hope that everyone else had a productive week (cause mine was not!). Happy blogging.

jess_hak

Linking up to Preschool Corner and 1+1+1=1. Head on over if you have some time and check them out.

Checking off the Bucket List

Just thought I would post a little Summer Bucket List update.

Last weekend we were able to cross out one item. Painting with our feet. It was a cooler day because of the breeze, and it was supposed to rain (as it has been this entire week so far) but the kids still had fun. Well, all except Silas. This wasn't his idea of a good time so he played in the yard with Zak and the dog (Amos).

Finished. They got their little hands in there too. On a side note I should have been forward thinking and not let them wear decent clothing.
Something else exciting got done this weekend. Phase one of building a firepit! We had to make a better clearing in the trees in our yard so Zak got to work and cut several limbs off a couple trees (and looked pretty good doing it). Bonus: Between these limbs and the huge branch (small tree) that fell on our house right before Easter we have firewood to last us well into August/September.

To finish the firepit we (and by we I mean Zak....I'm just going to watch him look good doing manual labor, and maybe provide some lemonade) need to dig a hole and insert the metal rim given to us (thanks Carefelle's!!) and get some pavers (stones I think...this is just a fancy word Zak used) to outline the pit. Pretty exciting! Hoping to have our first fire next week sometime. If this rain ever STOPS!!!

Happy blogging. :)

jess_hak

Tot School: Umbrellas, Weather, and Watermelon

We had a pretty full week here. As we're nearing toward the end of the alphabet I find myself getting anxious to be done with this and move onto something new. I have to breathe and remind myself that I can be just as excited about these next couple wrap up weeks as I can about the material I'm planning on starting in July. We are going to be using Hubbard's Cupboard as our main outline. It should be fun...it is a great guideline. First things first....we need to finish up this year!

Umbrella fun
Asa decorated coffee filters with markers and then sprayed them with water. We used the Uu for the handles.
The finished piece. Asa added glue dots and glitter to make raindrops. I think it turned out cute. (I have got to buy some white coffee filters...this would've turned out better if I had them).
Sorting uppercase and lowercase Us. These are from Confessions of a Homeschooler. He is very over these. He will do them to humor me, but it takes him all of 15sec. before he's done. He is ready to move onto something more difficult. He may just jump right in and learn how to read alongside Annabelle!
We talked about how umbrellas aren't only used in the rain, but can also keep the sun off of you. I made play-doh, left it the natural color and added in some vanilla extract. Then I gave him an umbrella and shells to create a beach scene. What a ham. :)
This is another fun activity from the Confessions link. Count the raindrops and match the number. This boy not only knows all his letters and their sounds....he also knows all his numbers 1-10! He is a sponge for knowledge and never ceases to amaze me.
He does really well with one-to-one correspondence too.
Fun with weather
One Tuesday we talked about clouds. I got some really cute ideas from a blog that I read and now can't remember. If these activities look familiar to you let me know so that I can link back to you! We read It Looked Like Spilt Milk. Afterwards we made our own cloud pictures with white paint and blue paper folded in half. I instructed Asa to only paint on the one side and then fold it in half and pound on it. Then when we opened it back up we tried to figure out what it looked like. This was really a lot of fun....even though most of our pictures resembled.....spilt milk.
This is one that we decided was a butterfly.
We then talked about how wind blows the clouds and had a cloud blowing race.
Poor Asa.....he could only blow his cloud backwards.
This says pre-writing, but I thought it would be more fun for Asa to practice cutting. You can print this out from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Toward the end of the week we got sidetracked by watermelon. I cut out a rough looking watermelon and laminated it. Set out some letters and black beans. Asa counted out the correct amount of 'seeds'.
Working on his watermelon for the letter Ww.
The finished masterpiece.
SILAS
Silas had a great time with this tray and played with it many times this week.

He also had a lot of fun drawing. I asked him, "Silas, what are you drawing?" And he said....
"CARS!" I couldn't believe he was actually practicing his still life drawings. lol
Putting beads into the container. Another activity that was played with a lot this week.

He also made a couple of 'spilt milk' pictures.
.....and participated in our cloud race.
We had extreme weather here in Michigan this week ranging from the upper 40s one day to the upper 60s the next....and I really hope that we get that 80 degree day tomorrow. So it was fun to talk about the different weather every day. I thought I would end with a few pictures of the different activities we did in different weather.

On our cold day we played Hungry Hippos (really, very, loud annoying game lol).
On our warm day we played outside. My little artist at work....
....he was practicing his still life again. He said, "Mommy....flower." He's a genius. ;) lol
Asa picking me a bouquet of flowers. (I rather like dandelions...they're so cheerful).
I hope that everyone else had a great week! Happy blogging!

jess_hak

Hop on over to 1+1+1=1 to see what other tots have been up to this week!

Week in Review: Umbrellas and Weather (and Watermelon too)

We had a good time talking about weather this week and learning about the letters U and W. We are really, really close to completing the alphabet. I'm looking forward to starting our new kindergarten curriculum! :)

Umbrella Fun
Fill in the missing number. Annabelle is getting more and more consistent with recognizing numbers 11-15 (thank you Starfall!). This cute printable can be found at Musings of Me.

Annabelle made umbrellas for the letter wall. She colored on coffee filters then squirted them with water (note to self...buy white coffee filters!). Then she dotted on some glue and glittered them to make raindrops. It turned out pretty cute (would've been cuter if we had white coffee filters lol).
On Friday we talked about how umbrellas aren't just used when it's raining. Annabelle looked at me funny. Then I told her you could use them at the beach to stay out of the sun. I made playdoh, left it the natural color and added some vanilla (yummm). She enjoyed playing with it and making a beach scene with shells and little paper umbrellas.
Looks pretty relaxing to me!
Fun with weather
On Tuesday we had fun talking about clouds. We read It Looked Like Spilt Milk. I got inspiration for these ideas at a wonderful blog that I read recently....and now have no idea who it was (I really need to organize those ideas a little better!). If it was you let me know so I can link back to you. :)

We made 'spilt milk' creations using white paint and blue construction paper folded in half. I told Annabelle to only paint on one side of the fold. Then she would fold it in half, open it back up and figure out what it looked like. This was fun. We did quite a few of them. We only got a couple of distinct pictures though.
She said this one is a castle....but I think it looks similar to the Parthenon. :)
This one was a fence.
Then we talked about why it rains. We went briefly over the cycle of water (there is a great Blue's Clues episode for that too), and then did a fun experiment from 2 Teaching Mommies. She was thrilled that she predicted the experiment correctly. lol
We talked about how the wind moves the clouds. We had fun having a cloud race using straws and cotton balls. Asa kept blowing his backwards, so Annabelle finished first.

This is also from 2 Teaching Mommies. I set this out for Annabelle to review her letters A-Z. She did great. Not one mistake!

These cute little cards are from the Musings of Me link. I set out some pony beads to represent raindrops and Annabelle put the correct amount of drops on each number.

We went off on a rabbit trail at the end of the week to do some watermelon activities. Annabelle made a Ww watermelon for her letter wall.
The finished piece. I really like it!
I made a quick cut out of a watermelon and laminated it. Then I set out some number cards (from the Musings of Me link) and some beans. Annabelle put the correct number of 'seeds' on the melon slice. She had fun with this (more than the rain drops).
We had some crazy Michigan weather this week. Upper 40s one day and upper 60s the next (supposed to be 80 tomorrow!). I thought I would include a couple fun pictures of the different things that we did during different types of weather.

In cold weather they all enjoyed the Hungry Hippos game (this is a very, very loud game).
During our warmer day they enjoyed playing outside and picking a beautiful bouquet for mommy. (I think dandelions are one of the most cheery flowers...and I don't have to take care of them).
I hope that everyone else had a great week! Happy blogging.

jess_hak

Pop on in to Homeschool Creations to see what other preschoolers did this week.