stART- Handprint Menorah

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!

This week for our project we read The Hanukkah Trike, as Hanukkah starts tomorrow... I thought it would be a good idea to expose the girls to some of the culture behind this holiday... and this book does just that...in a cute relate-able way...

For our project this week, we made Hand Print Menorah's. I actually had Ryleigh do this project last year as well... since I love hand print activities... I have been waiting patiently to do this one again... even though it is very simple, it is one of my favorites!

The girls used white paint to make their handprints.... I had the thumbs almost overlapping to create the illusion of one candle...

I had the girls do fingerprints in yellow and then in red to create the flames....

Teagan adding some flames to her Menorah...

Ryleigh's finished project...

For more great stART posts check out A Mommy's Adventures!
For more fun projects check out My Delicious Ambiguity , ABC and 123... and JDaniel4's Mom

The one in which Braeden has his first haircut...

Wednesday Braeden had his first haircut... he was so good...he just sat in the chair and let Beth cut it... he didn't even try and climb out...

The Before...Another before picture...big sister Ryleigh came for support...and wanted to know if Beth was going to braid Braeden's hair like she did when she cut hers...

Braeden...curious as to why I am frantically snapping pictures while he is sitting in the chair....also...wondering if he is getting lunch anytime soon...

Beth gave him a game to look at while she cut his bangs...it worked...he didn't notice....

Completely unaware that he is even get his hair cut...

Braeden's new look....still perplexed why the paparazzi followed him to the hair salon....

School Daze... Ll is for laughter...love... and ladybugs...

Ryleigh is 42 Months and Braeden is 15 Months...

TOT SCHOOL
Braeden remains hard to photograph lately...he is very busy running around... his favorite game is running around the house with a blanket over his head crashing into things...this stresses me out beyond belief and I am constantly removing the blankets...
He has learned two new signs this week- "No" and "Yes", as well has the words Bump (as in fist bump) and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (as in Mickey).

Here is Braeden...too busy for a photograph on the phone and using his sister's pajama bottoms as a blanket (since I took his others)...

A quiet minute where Braeden wanted to do a puzzle....

Moments later he started throwing the pieces and puzzle time was then over...

Next favorite activity... flipping things over...notice the table in the background... here he flipped the chair and then decided to carry it around...it is as big as he is...

PRESCHOOL

This week we did Ll is for ladybug... some of the things that we worked on not pictured below were patterns, sequencing, upper and lower case matching...
Ryleigh has been playing with her Bitty Twins...(Twin...and Twin)... and also with her imaginary friend...Grover (don't worry he already knows Elmo)...

Ryleigh working on her alphabet book...printable found here...

For the last two weeks we have been doing Noah's Ark during Bible Time (right after calendar time each day)... this week we did a storyboard on my felt board and then had the girls put the story in order... I got the sequencing cards from here...

We did 1 to 1 correspondence with numbers/ stickers 0-10... download the printable here....
After the girls counted the numbers, we then went over the numbers in Spanish to help re-enforce what they have already learned...

On cardstock with white crayon I wrote a secret message for the girls "Ll is for leaf"...(and drew a fantastical picture of a leaf)... then they used watercolor to reveal the message... we did this a few weeks ago for Halloween as well...

For our stART project this week, we did hand-print turkeys...you know it had to be done at some point during the season... here are the final turkeys...

I had the girls do a water transfer with a pipet...yellow water and blue water...(making green)... this is a great fine motor skill practice...and a great art/science lesson...

This week I had the girls make l is for ladybug... Here is Ryleigh working on gluing...

The finished ladybug...

My favorite picture... Ryleigh.. literally hanging around with my Grandfather (he is 90)... on the tree in the front yard...

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 Ll projects check out the Attached Mama...

stART - The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!!

This week we read The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks... Great book with a good message... also Sister Bear acquires a pet turkey....who was supposed to be Thanksgiving Dinner... for our project we did hand-print turkeys...and added silk leaves for garnishment... we did hand-print turkeys last year (and we will most likely do them next year and many more years to come...)... it was fun to see the difference between last year and this year... and who doesn't love a good hand-print craft?

Miss Janet putting Ryleigh's painted hand down on the paper...

Adding some glue for the leaves...

Adding the leaves...

Ryleigh's finished hand-print turkey...

For more great stART posts check out A Mommy's Adventures!
For more fun projects check out My Delicious Ambiguity , ABC and 123... and JDaniel4's Mom

The one in which elmo acquires some siblings...

On Thursday, Ryleigh and I went to American Girl in NYC with my Aunt (Grandma Sue) and Cousin for a girls day out...it was Ryleigh's first time on a train...but not her first time in the city... she loved the train... Ryleigh was so excited to go to American Girl (as was I!!!)... and she (and I) loved every minute of it...it was such a fun day... Thank you Grandma Sue!!!! :)

Ryleigh with her cousin Kayleigh outside American Girl...

Ryleigh deciding which twins to adopt...there were lots to choose from!!! She decided on a blond boy and a dark haired girl... She named them...wait for it....Twin...and Twin...(as they are bitty twins)...no worries...they know which one she is calling and talking about....even if you don't....

Ryleigh got to take one of the dolls right out of the box to carry throughout the store...

Ryleigh switched out the Twins while waiting for lunch...Apparently the boy Twin was tired and needed a nappy...

Grandma Sue took us all to lunch...Ryleigh was so excited that Twin got to join us...and they even served her tea...Twin...not Ryleigh...

Ryleigh...so happy to have her twins home...they are ready for bed...

Daddy...babysitting the twins before bedtime...they changed outfits many times before falling asleep....

* No worries....Elmo has met and accepted the twins... and remains an integral part of the bedtime routine...

School Daze... Kk is for Key... and Sink...

Braeden is 14 Months and Ryleigh is 42 Months

This week seemed very busy... however we only had two scheduled days of school...Ryleigh would play projects all day most days if she could though... here is a sample of some of the projects that we worked on this week...

Tot School
Braeden has been building a lot with our mega blocks...it is very hard to get a good picture of him doing it though... he will either get up and come over to the camera or start throwing them... he continues to pick up speed and at times I feel like he is almost running...

Preschool

This week we did Kk, started incorporating seasons into our calendar time, and started learning about Noah's Ark...we will continue next week... Also this week we play float or sink...a game that kept the girls busy for awhile...(We slowly put random objects into a bucket of water...after guessing if they would float or sink... the girls each had their own...they liked it so much they did it twice)....

Ryleigh building with the pegs and peg board...

Braeden practicing his fine motor skills...by picking the wicker off the bottom of my laundry basket....

Ryleigh working on her alphabet book...

Ryleigh painting with packing peanuts...to see the whole project go here....

I made Ryleigh a bunch of file folder and envelope games...(that I downloaded from various places)... Here she is playing with the paintbrush color match from Confessions of a Homeschooler and the Acorn Counting Game from Teena's Teacher Tidbits...(she has lots of free download-able games...)

Braeden LOVES his music in his crib... the other day the battery completely died... I did not have enough batteries to fix it...Luckily my friend Dawn did...and she was so nice to drive over here so Braeden could have his music for nighty-nights... here he is right after I put it back up... he wanted to play with it immediately so I put him in the crib for a bit...

Ryleigh watching some of the objects in sink or float...

The girls put turkey stickers on Kk...for fine motor practice...

Ryleigh and Emily working on k is for key...

Our finished Skeleton Keys....

I put out some of our silk leaves and Ryleigh matched them up...

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 Kk projects check out the Attached Mama...

stART - Packing Peanut Painting... with My Friends Tigger and Pooh

A Story + Art = a great stART!!For our story this week we read My Friends Tigger and Pooh...All Year Long... it is a cute board book that I picked up at the dollar store a couple of years ago... it goes through the seasons (briefly) and for fall the picture shows lots of fallen leaves... Ryleigh picked this book for this week....I think because Braeden has been carrying it around... ;)

For our project, I had the girls use packing peanuts to dip in paint and stamp onto the paper (for leaves...).... it made some great texture prints.... Ryleigh had a lot of fun doing the project...

Ryleigh putting glue on the "tree" so she could glue it to the paper...

Ryleigh using the packing peanut as a stamp... occasionally they would break...but over all they held up well...

Ryleigh deep in thought painting...

The girls' finished fall trees...

For more great stART posts check out A Mommy's Adventures!
For more fun projects check out My Delicious Ambiguity , ABC and 123... and JDaniel4's Mom