Coloring Rice

Inspired by this post, I finally decided to try my hand at dying rice. This is something that I've been wanting to do for quite a while and just never had the guts to do it. Then I remembered reading this post from Spell Outloud. I thought that this would be fun for both Annabelle and Asa. I plan on doing it with numbers for Asa since I have started working on those with him. With Annabelle I plan on using 2-3 letters at a time and she has to find and sort it by phonetic sound. This will also be a fun way to introduce letters to Silas (when that time comes around). I've also seen a few posts (although they escape me right now) that do their own "I Spy" type of boxes and take pictures of the things that they put into the rice and the child then would have to dig in the rice to find it (ex. put red things in red rice and have them find certain red items). Anyway, I was really excited about how my rice turned out so I took pictures of it and decided to post them. lol I wish the blue was a little more saturated, but perhaps that happens when they are dry. So here it is, a post with pictures of rice. :) Happy blogging!

jess_hak

Week in Review: Elijah and the Ravens, Kings and Queens, Kk

Oh my goodness that was a lot of pictures to upload! So beware as you enter this post is picture happy. I'm going to have to learn how to make them go side by side so I can do more than one picture in a row! Well, I will make my talking as brief as possible (which is hard for me because I like to ramble). :)

This week was a short week for us. Zak had a snow day! How cool is it that grown-ups get a snow day? So he was home for a day. Then we had a little friend over to play another day so not much got done those days, but we had fun! To top that all off we moved Silas and Asa into the same room and transformed Silas' old room into a school room!!!!! I'm so very excited to have our own space! :)

For our Bible lessons this week we talked about Elijah and the Ravens that brought him food. This led to discussion about how we do not need to worry about things like food, water, clothing, or shelter. God will supply all of our needs. We had some very fun lessons....including a bird puppet that came to tell us the story of his great, great, great, great etc. grandpa who helped bring food to Elijah.

Here Annabelle is making a Giving Raven (forgot to take finished pictures). It is just a black bird made out of paper plates with a pocket in the front of it. This little guy delivered her snacks in his pocket this week. She really enjoyed that.
This is a little booklet/poem that I got off of Danielle's Place. To access the printables you have to have a membership, but there are some sample lessons with great ideas. I use this site quite a bit to enhance our Bible activities. I set out the pages to this book in random order and Annabelle put them in order. We stapled it together and read the poem it made. She liked this more than I thought that she would. Guess I'll have to find more little printable books.
Finishing up her letter Jj work. This cut and paste sheet can be found here.
Introducing the letter Kk with her file folder game. This one proved a bit difficult because K and k look a lot alike. She thought it was funny how K and C made the same sound. We talked a lot this week about words that start with both letters.
Play-doh time. Annabelle is working on her Kk play-doh mat from here.

I was really excited to try this new pin pushing activity with the kids. I finally found push pins that were big enough. A little smaller than what I would've liked, but big enough for them to be able to use. They really loved doing this. I got the Kk printouts from here. Such cute pictures of them concentrating so hard. :)

I didn't get pictures of them working on these but our secondary theme this week was Kings, Queens, and Castles. They had a great time working on all of the stuff involved in that. It just so happened that our K letter buddy is a King. :) We made some keys for his kingdom.
Here are some really cute sand castles that the made using crushed up yellow and orange fruit loops! I got the fruit loop idea from the Hart 2 Hart blog.
Annabelle and Asa were happy to embellish Burger King crowns with glitter glue and gems.

We also made Jam Tarts (Pillsbury biscuits halved and jelly), and because I cannot cook/bake worth a lick we ruined a cookie sheet. When the recipe says to pinch the sides shut it wasn't kidding. lol
Putting the jelly between the halves.
And of course we had to get out our castles and play with them....a lot! Both Little Tykes and Fisher Price respectfully (both found at garage sales for a bargain price).
Asa surprised me this week when I discovered that he can identify every single letter of the alphabet! Don't tell her I said it, but not even Annabelle can do that! It is amazing to see how kids develop differently right before your eyes. When they say every child is different and learns at a different pace, they aren't joking.

Because I was so amazed at this new found talent, Asa and I did a lot of alphabet activities this week during 'his time'. This is an alphabet puzzle that we have. I would put out a group of letters and ask him to find a specific letter. He would find it and then place it in the puzzle. Yes, I did it in alphabetical order, but he doesn't get that yet. :)

We also played a lot with our Leap Frog fridge phonics (yes, we have two...I bought one at a garage sale so that I would have back up letters when some get misplaced). Here he is going through the lines that he sorted by color and is reciting to me what each letter is.
I made these poster games. I'm really excited about them. I'm sure other people have done this. I bought two copies of a poster (at the Dollar Tree you get two different posters in a package for a dollar), cut one up and laminated the pieces, and then applied velcro to the poster and the pieces. Ta-da....a fun matching game. I had some contact paper laying around so I put that on the posters for extra durability (before the velcro was put on). The kids love these! I have an alphabet, shapes, colors, and number 1-10. I think that I will probably get a numbers 1-20 for Annabelle to work with.
Even little guy loves these. I love the stretching that he is doing here all to match the pictures!
I didn't have many pictures of Silas this week again. Sad! I need to remember to take more pictures of him when we are playing. He is just a little high maintenance and easily distracted by things that flash (the camera) so I don't like to get it out that often during 'his time'.

He did have a great time cleaning the chalkboard for me with water and a paintbrush. :) He felt like such a big boy.
Cute little squat.

Without further delay, I present to you the school room! Zak and I worked on this for a couple days this week (and the rest of the house is still in disarray from this transition lol). This is the view from the door and moving clockwise. Our fantastic art easel and school table.
Tot shelves and Annabelle's work boxes.
Entertainment center....lol, it's not hooked up. :) The blue containers I'm using for my storage at the moment. They will eventually be Asa's work boxes. There are books stuffed in all of those cupboards.
Poster center. I will rotate the posters frequently.
Our new calendar area! Hurray!! I have some big plans for the pocket chart hanging next to it. That will come to fruition hopefully soon.
Bookcase with more supplies that we use daily on it.
Well, that's it for last week. This week we are wrapping up the letter K and moving on to the letter L. We are still behind, but making good progress on catching up. Have a great week! Happy blogging.
jess_hak

P.S. Go and check out what others are doing....tons of fabulous ideas floating around out there!

Valentine's Special!

I thought that I would post something different this time. I enjoy seeing other people's activities that they have planned and thought that I would do something similar. So this entire afternoon I've spent putting together our Valentine's trays for the MONTH! These will last us the entire month of February. Please understand that in no way is this only for one week! lol Likewise, it is not the only things that we will accomplish in the month of February. I did not take any pictures of our letter, Bible, math activities or other things that I have planned. Here are some of our wonderful Valentine's activities (I love, love!).

These first three trays can all be found at this wonderful blog: Musings of Me . I love her units that she has available (and looks like there are plenty more to come from her!).

How many Kisses does Valentine bear get? These numbers go from 1-15 (still working on those numbers she actually identified the number 10 the other day by saying TEN and not one and a zero). If I'm feeling especially nice I think that I'll do this activity with real Kisses instead of the laminated paper ones shown here in the picture. That should help motivate Annabelle to get through it!
Sorry for the sideways picture. I'm too lazy to change it right now. This is just a patterning activity. We haven't worked too much on patterns yet this year and it is something that Annabelle needs to work on a little more.
I'm really interested to see how Annabelle does with this activity. She will have to fill in the missing number. I guess I just want to see if she can start counting at the number 5 and know what comes next. This will be something that we will be focusing on this next few months.
I'm excited about this tray, and because I'm excited about it my kids probably won't be...that's how they seem to roll. I will probably mix up the flower colors before I put this out. Annabelle will use the tweezers to pick up the roses and put them on the corresponding color circle. Asa will most likely just use his fingers to do this. His fine motor skills in his hands aren't that advanced yet. These roses are actually soaps and smell lovely. I got them from the Dollar Tree.
I love this tray too! All these cute little boxes I got at the Dollar Tree. I already had the buttons. The kids will love sorting the buttons into these pretty little boxes. There are buttons that are shaped like each of the boxes.
Who doesn't love little pieces of foam sticker backing all over their floor. Well, I don't mind it as long as it keeps Asa busy while I'm working with Annabelle. lol
I've seen similar trays like this from two of my favorite blogs: Counting Coconuts and My Montessori Journey . I really love these blogs. They are stuffed full to the brim of fantastic ideas! These fun jewels came from my mom. I've been really wanting to use them and everyone should have some bling on Valentine's day. :) First the numbers need to laid in numerical order, then the jewels will be sorted by shape/color. Finally the jewels will be counted and placed by the corresponding number.
I put this activity together specifically for Silas. (This idea also came from the wonderful blogs I linked above). I found this cute ice cube tray at a thrift store, and the jewels are more from my mom. Silas has been working on one to one correspondence (one jewel for every heart). He has also been working on using a spoon at the table during meals. I thought that I would give him an activity that would help him work on his coordination so I added a spoon this time around. I'm sure Annabelle and Asa will also really enjoy playing with this.
This is a new one for my kiddos. Another idea that came to from the aforementioned blogs. This is a pouring activity. I will probably gear this more toward the older two. They will simply pour the jewels into the pretty (plastic) glasses.
I have seen this type of activity quite a bit too in the blog world. The cute little red hearts are cupcake toppers that I found thrifting. The others are from the Dollar Tree. Stick the picks into the Styrofoam. I'm not sure that there is any point to this activity other than the kids will enjoy it and it will make a festive decoration to put somewhere in the house.
Another arranging activity. Only this time with fake flowers and heart picks. I cannot believe this, but I have no vases! I won't invest in any until I know that the kids enjoy doing this kind of thing. Until then we'll use glasses. The object is the same as the above tray. Festive Fun! :)
Heart matching. Enough said.
Flower size sorting.

And I got these plastic bracelets from the Dollar Tree. I cannot for the life of me figure out what to do with them. :/ I know Annabelle would love to just wear them around the house (not to mention Asa and Silas too). I was thinking that they would really be great for introducing simple addition and subtraction, but I just don't know if Annabelle is ready for that yet. Stay tuned for what I figure out. Also if anyone has any suggestions I am more than open to hearing them!
Well, as I've said I have spent all afternoon making up these trays and writing this blog. My house is now thoroughly trashed, my husband gets home any minute, and we are leaving directly for a birthday party (that none of us is dressed for at the moment). So I have just about as much or more to get accomplished in the next 10min. than I did all afternoon. Happy blogging.
jess_hak

See what other people are doing this week/month at Preschool Corner: