Alphabet Crafts.... and some other fun activities...

Here we are....back from break... I am not really sure where the year has gone... I seem to have skipped blogging about the majority of our school projects... between teaching the two grades, Music and private lessons, Sunday School.... and running a full time business... blogging seems to be suffering... hopefully this year I catch up... but if not... you can always check in on my facebook page.... (become a fan today!- click the button on the side of the blog)....

Tot School has been working on the Letter of the week crafts.... and adding their Letter to the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree... For the most part, these crafts are very similar to the ones that Ryleigh did when she was in Tot school....

A is for Alligator...
Gluing on Stripes...

B is for Bee....

K4 using erasers (yes this picture is from October).... for patterns and more than/less than....

C is for Clock...

Sorting money....

K4 getting ready for story-time... I will have to do a separate post showing our new school room and some of our routines this year...

D is for Dog...

Tot School working with some big tweezers to transfer into ice cube trays...

Gluing pieces of his E...

E is for Envelope....

Checking out some slides under the microscope...

F is for Fingerprints...

Gluing beans, lentils, tissue paper, etc.... onto his G...

G is for Garden.....

One of Braeden's favorite activities.... building with blocks...any kind of blocks....

Where I am linking up:

For more fun projects check out ABC and 123.... and
To see what others did this week check out Tot School at 1+1+1=1; Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations; Mom 2 lil Posh Divas and the Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

stART- The Alpha Flower...I named it myself...

A story + art = a great stART!!!

We have finished doing our alphabet crafts for both the Capital and Lowercase letters... so I wanted to do something fun to review... I came up with The Alpha Flower... I wrote the alphabet on the petals and the girls had to put them in order to create the flower. For fun I put the numbers 1-5 on the leaves and stem...

Books we have read to go along with this craft:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Dr. Suess's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! by Dr. Suess
Rainbow Fish, A,B,C by Marcus Pfister
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert


Ryleigh putting the petals in alphabetical order...
The finished "flowers"....

For more great stART posts check out A Mommy's Adventures!
For more fun projects check out ABC and 123... Red Ted Art and JDaniel4's Mom

School Daze- Ee is for Earth, Elmo and Elephant....

Ryleigh is 41 Months and Braeden is 13 Months

TOT SCHOOL
Braeden had lots of fun this week...he put his sister in a box...tipped things over....learned the word banana "nanna"... practiced his walking...he also learned some of our gestures to some of our songs that I teach at Mommy and Me Music (Musical Mondays...)

Braeden playing piano...he was very gentle with the keys...all things considered...

Braeden playing with this pop up toy...every time a part popped up...he was surprised....

Placing his favorite object (or one of them anyway...) on the bench...hoping that it will stay safe there...

Looking back just to make sure that the phone is still there...second guessing whether it will be ok...

FYI- not only did he decide that he needed to move the phone...but opted to move the whole bench and flip over the wagon...for good measure... and then focus on his get away car...

We gave Braeden a crayon to try and color...he liked it...for a little while...and then tossed it and several others off the high-chair....he did use them for a little bit first...

PRESCHOOL
We start off each "session" with our Calendar Routine....this week we covered Ee, 3, "We"and "Will"....and Blue Square....we also talked more indepth about God creating light (called Day)...I am using a fun bible song cd that the girls seem to really like for our song of the week...

Some fun Ee crafts that we did include our shape Elmo and Hand Print Elephant...and of course our Letter of the week craft....e is for earth....

The girls pasted in their "e" objects into their alphabet books...

Every Month (well this is only Month 2...so hopefully every month)...
we do a page in our alphabet book for the Month...

The girls worked on their sight word books for "We" and "Will"...

Ryleigh practicing writing her E's...

We used bingo markers to find the letter "e"....

We did shape Elmos...great for recognizing shapes...and who doesn't love Elmo?...

From making learning fun, I printed Scarecrow Alphabet assessment sheets...I had the girls find and color in the letter after I pulled the magnetic letter out of a bag and put it on the board...

We did hand-print elephants...nice and messy....none of the girls minded having their hands painted...

Our finished stART project...

From Homeschool Creations, I printed these do-a-dot pages...we used bingo markers...

From Confessions of a Homeschooler, I downloaded this 1 to 1 correspondence sheet.... we did 1-10 and the girls put cubes in the correct boxes...and then counted them...

I had the girls use kid- chopsticks and transfer pom poms into muffin tins...they really liked this project and actually did it a couple of times this week...a fun fine motor skill activity...

For our Letter of the Week Craft, we did "e" is for earth... I had the girls first glue on the lowercase "e" to a light blue circle (making the earth)....

Then they had paint on paper towels...which they laid over their "e"'s ....to make the atmosphere...

Our final project..."e" is for earth!

To see what others did this week check out Tot School at 1+1+1=1; Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations; and the Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
To find more Ee projects check out the Attached Mama...

SCHOOL DAZE - Week Twenty-Two

Ryleigh is 35 Months and Braeden is 8 Months

This week we had Music Class, Dance Class (I stood inline to get recital tickets...almost Black Friday like....except is was warm, I was fully awake and people were friendly...), had some friends over for "playing projects" and did a stART project...

Also this week...I began making printables to download...and found that they can be quite addicting to make...now all I have to do is find the time...

THE ALPHABET
We have been doing the Letter of the Week which has helped Ryleigh learn her letters...but what really did it was the Leap Frog DVD's...Letter Factory and Word Factory....(and the Math ones have helped too...in the number department...but this is the alphabet section....)...anyway...she knows her Letters and the Sounds that they make...she is VERY into reading letters off of anything and everything...first she says the letter and then she says the sound...and then sometimes she says things like "U is for UP"... so at the moment I am trying to capitalize on it and do a lot of letter activities... This Week we did R is for Rabbit-from Totally Tots...

I found some fun Alphabet stickers at the Target Dollar Spot...I took the sticky off the back (so they are not stickers anymore)...but a fun alphabet matching game...

Ryleigh with her Melissa and Doug Alphabet Train Puzzle....

I made a Find the Letter Printable...we used our Bingo Markers to Find the Letter R...(I made all 26 Letters though...so Ryleigh has been having lots of fun with these)

Working on the R is for Rabbit...

The Finished Rabbit...we used a cotton ball for the tail, a pom pom for the nose and felt for the ears....

PRE-WRITING

I made some traceable shapes...I put them in a page protector and had the girls use dry- erase markers to trace the lines...We will be doing a lot of tracing practice.....

PRE-MATH

Numbers, Patterns & Puzzles

Ryleigh using her number flash cards...she totally loves these!

Some Melissa and Doug Puzzles....

I made a Number Match Printable....Ryleigh loved this one because she loves to count most things these days...

The girls played Duck Duck 1-2-3....It was very cute to see them play this now because they played it in the fall...and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! They can recognize numbers and count now...also they are really good about taking turns....

I had the girls use the felt board for some sequencing and pattern work...

Michelle brought over these fun roll a number printables that she made (also available on her blog A Mommy's Adventures)... The girls had fun rolling the dice and coloring the number on the frog...
SCIENCE/BAKING

We made butter...I recently found a recipe for this in a Mommy's Helper Cookbook...however, this project I took from Counting Coconuts...We took Heavy Cream...added a touch of salt...whisked it...and then shook it....I think because we used the whisk (me-the girls put the whisk in it)...it really didn't take so long to get into a solid mass...

Tasting the butter on a cracker... Emily is posing for her Mommy's Blog...

sometimes it is a little like the paparazzi at my house....

LIFE

This week Ryleigh got her "Big Girl Bed"... she will proudly tell you that she has one...but as of yet...not so interested in actually sleeping in it...and opts for the floor instead....

Ryleigh standing next to her Big Girl Bed

Ryleigh burping her baby...her baby is VERY special to her...

not quite as special as the Elmo's...but a close 2nd...

My Favorite Picture of Ryleigh this week...she loves to be outdoors...

TINY TOT SCHOOL

This week Braeden turned 8 Months Old... He is becoming more mobile by the day...He has discovered that he can bounce on his bottom across the floor...instead of crawling...also...he loves to play with Ryleigh...his whole face lights up...I think their favorite activity together right now is laughing...one will start and the other will join in...it usually ends up with both getting hiccups...and I have no idea what it is that they are laughing at...hopefully it is not me... :)

Spending some time outside...

getting some fresh spring air and watching Ryleigh run...

Braeden playing with the Drum...

Contemplative...

Coy...

Bouncing across the floor...

Playing with Juliette while the girls do their projects...

Happy...

In sister's room...he pulled off Pooh Bear off her rocker...
I do not think she was amused...

Tummy Time....

My Favorite picture of Braeden this week...his grumpy...actually... I think he is trying to figure out why I keep taking his picture...

To see what others are doing for their school time check out 1+1+1=1 and Homeschool Creations