School Daze... Yy is for Yippi....or Yarn...

Ryleigh is 47 Months and Braeden is 19 Months

In Tot School Beginnings they continued to use their St. Patrick's Day themed Sensory Bin.

In Preschool, I did not take pictures of all of their work...like cutting, coloring, connect the dots, stamping, counting, etc.... I have found that when I actually take pictures of everything...I have like 300 photos to go through for the school post... YIKES! So... here are the highlights....

Braeden putting the straws in the container
(you can also see there was a button sort activity)...Playing Play dough...

The little ones did water transferring this week... I had them use a sponge, an empty container and a water filled container (all over trays)... it went really well...Braeden is the only one who went splashing when he was done...BUT...he did the activity first...

Ryleigh playing with the alphabet box...wearing my hat...she likes to be accessorized at all times...

Ryleigh and Elmo... can you tell who is who?

Ryleigh and Teagan making Brownies... I love this picture because they are so synchronized with their cooking...

Playing with the aquadoodle... they each took a third of it (more or less) and there were no issues of sharing... the girls each used paint brushes but Braeden loved using the "magic pen"... an excellent activity to do while waiting for the brownies to cook...

Working on her alpha book...

For Science the next couple of weeks we will be focusing on Spring and planting/gardening... Along with some other crafts/ideas we are using this Garden Pack from Homeschool Creations... I am adding the activities little by little into their folders... so far they love it!

March is out like a lamb...except not really...because this weather is awful...but anyway...I had the girls do Hand Print Lambs... We painted their palms and middle 3 fingers black, the pinky and thumb white and then added googly eyes...

The finished Hand Print Lambs...

To practice their Spanish the girls played Bingo...one day we did the numbers- the other day we did the colors...I called out either the number or color in Spanish and they marked their card with the bead...

To celebrate spring...the girls decorated some butterfly wands...

For our Letter of the Week Craft, the girls made "y" is for yarn... and had fun gluing different colors of yarn to a paper ball for the background...

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 see more Yy activities check out The Attached Mama.

School Daze...Xx is for X-ray...as in Braeden's...

Ryleigh is 46 Months and Braeden is 19 Months...

I did not take pictures of all our activities this week, but here are some highlights...

This week Braeden kept to the "Xx" theme and got his very first X-rays.... he ran into a doorway and hurt his leg. He is fine and did not break anything... he is going to give me a run for my money for sure.... the next day he acquired a fat lip from throwing his stuffed animals into his crib...needless to say I have gained several gray hairs this week...with a feeling that there will be many more to come....

Here is Braeden...by the doorway that he ran into...(not while I was taking the picture)At the beginning of the week we had some company from across the sea (England)... the kids had a great time and it was fun to catch up!!! We miss you already!

This week one of my friends let me know about a 4 year old boy who has been diagnosed with Cancer... here the girls are making him cards...Our prayers are with him and his family...

The girls worked on their alpha books...

A fun fine motor activity- beads and pipe-cleaners...into cheese shakers...

This week for our stART projects we did Coffee filter butterflies... in both classes...
Braeden getting some help spraying his filter...

The girls with their butterflies... they were very entertained by these...

We have started doing a "work" book activity with the girls... each week we give them a task to do in their "work" books (notebooks)...so that we can track their progress... i.e.. write your name, draw specific shapes...

Ryleigh drawing shapes...

For both classes I had a mini-felt board set up with a picture of a flower on it. In the Preschool class I wanted the girls to copy the picture. In the Tot School Beginnings Class, it was more about the texture of the felt and that the pieces could stick on the felt board without adhesive.... I was happy with the outcome of both classes...(goal achieved!)

The mini felt board.... made out of frames from the dollar store..without the glass... the kids love these personal boards!

The tots liked putting the felt onto the frame...
and I like prepping one project for both classes....The girls working to copy the picture onto their mini-felt boards....

For our Letter of the Week Craft I had the girls do a xylophone...but I also turned the craft into a brief math project...yeah for multi-tasking! ... I had them put the "notes" in size order before gluing them on...Letter of the Week Craft... "x" is for xylophone...

* I have been nominated for Babbles Top 50 Mom Blogs...if you get a chance please vote for me...I am currently #80....

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 see more Xx activities check out The Attached Mama.

stART- Coffee Filter Butterflies

A story + Art = A great stART!!!

To celebrate the start of spring we read some Butterfly books...(unfortunately the weather did not get the memo...and actually snowed here in NY )... This week one of the Butterfly books we read was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle... the caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly...

For this weeks project, I had both classes make Coffee Filter Butterflies.... We have done coffee filter crafts quite a bit and I love how fun they are! The kids colored with WASHABLE markers on the white coffee filters, then they sprayed (misted) them to make the colors run... When the filters where mostly dried we gently folded them and put the clothespin and pipe-cleaner on them...

The Tot School Beginnings kids seemed to enjoy the project...but the Preschoolers really liked it and loved flying around the room with them after class..

Braeden coloring his coffee filter...

After they finished coloring, they liked using the spray bottle to mist them...

Braeden misting his project...

Braeden with his finished Butterfly...

The girls coloring their filters...

Ryleigh starting to mist her project... you can see from the picture how the markers look before they got wet....

After the colors started to run...

Ready to attach her clothespin and pipe-cleaner....

The girls' finished butterflies...* I have been nominated for Babbles Top 50 Mom Blogs...if you get a chance please vote for me...I am currently #83....

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

School Daze...Wonderful Ww...

BRAEDEN is 19 Months

RYLEIGH is 46 Months

Braeden...hanging out in the tunnel...playing with the blocks...he was using it like a fort.... and would not let his sister go through it...Braeden working with this Month's Sensory Bin.... he really likes to throw pretty much all the items out of the bin...

Braeden feels that if he throws items over babygates and whatnot then he will be able to go get them... he really wanted to see what the older girls were working on...

After having their hand prints done the kids still wanted to paint.... it's one of Braeden's most fun things to do... he loves the messy...

Braeden's stART project this week... a handprint Shamrock...

Ryleigh showing Braeden how to do his letters on the chalkboard...

One of Ryleigh's favorite activities next to dancing and singing is baking... here we made Carrot Cake Cupcakes...

Working on her alpha book...

I made this worksheet and used it with the girls to practice following directions..and directions in multiple steps...

I had the girls use tiny shamrock stickers to outline "Ww"...a great fine motor activity...

We practiced sequencing... this was the life cycle of an apple that I got from here...

Coloring by number that I found at 1+1+1=1...

Working with the alphabet I Spy Tube....she loves these...I am definitely going to be making more of these!

Ryleigh's stART project- thumbprint shamrocks...

Playing play dough during TSB... most of the time Ryleigh prefers to have her own special projects during Braeden's school time...but once in awhile she likes to play with what they are doing...

Practicing writing letters and drawing shapes with Paint in a Bag... I had made a few for TSB and thought the older girls would like to play with them too...

Our sight word this week was "there"...here Ryleigh is underlining it in her St. Patrick's Day book from Hubbards Cupboard...

Ryleigh lacing....I found these last fall at the target dollar spot...

I had the girls make whipped cream...by pouring some heavy cream, vanilla and a little confectionery sugar into a container...and having them shake it... they got to see it go from a liquid to a solid (ish)... then we served with strawberries...

Our Letter of the Week Craft was "w" is for wave!

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 see more Ww activities check out The Attached Mama.