School Daze... Happy Fall Y'all.... more specifically apples...

Starting Wednesday October 5th, I am hosting a Linky for Baking/Cooking with children... called Watcha Making Wednesdays... Come back and Link Up!!

This week we started our Fall theme...specifically apples... I made our new Fall Sensory Bin... I purchased a theme pack from Time For Tots and supplemented in the rest...as I like them a bit bigger and to fit in an under the bed bin...

Our Bin....

In Tot School, they practiced sorting bears by color...

I made a secret message for both classes to uncover while painting with watercolor... (it was a fall tree with leaves...)

Ryleigh had fun blending the colors...

Braeden working on a puzzle... and yes that is paint all over his face...

Playing with the sensory bin...

Having fun with Play dough...I had the girls in K4 make their letters with it...

The girls practiced sharpening their pencils (and then practiced handwriting...)

They were each so proud of themselves when they got it sharpened...and such a great fine motor skill practice!

They used these table top pocket charts to practice putting their numbers 1-20 in order...

K4 used oil pastels to blend together colors for their fall trees....

We did Apple Prints in both classes...

Braeden pushing down on his apple...for a bolder print....

Two of the Books that we Read for our Apple (Fall) theme this week were:

• Edward Lear's A Was Once An Apple Pie by Suse MacDonald
• Up, Up, Up! It's Apple Picking Time by Jody Fickes Shapiro
  

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.

Wordless Wednesday... New York's Newest Power Couple...

Out for a stroll after some shopping at the Aquarium Gift Shop...Attempting to dodge the Paparazzi....

stART - A Was Once an Apple Pie

We have finished up our farm theme and transitioned into Apple (fall)... We read Edward Lear's A Was Once an Apple Pie adapted by Suse MacDonald.... it is very colorful and goes through the alphabet in a tongue twister sort of way...fun to read and fun to listen to...

I went with the obvious choice this week when planning our project...we made mini apple pies...the girls really look forward to Wednesdays (Baking/Cooking day in K4)...

Putting the pie crust in the pan... I got the girls miniature pie plates for baking this year to make it even more fun ....

Pouring in the apples... I had the girls mix their "filling" in a ziplock bag... less mess...and the apples get coated really well..

Adding Crumb Topping...

For more great stART posts check out A Mommy's Adventures!
For more fun projects check out Red Ted Art and JDaniel4's Mom
For more fun science projects go check out Adventures in Mommydom.....

School Daze.... We begin again..... The Farm....

Ryleigh is 4 years and Braeden is 25 months

At the beginning of September we officially started our year... we began with a farm theme in both classes... I have 4 students in Tot School (ages 2&3) and 5 in K4 (ages 3&4)... we have moved downstairs to our new schoolroom...which is not done yet... and will be a work in progress for a little while....so right now school is in one corner of the basement...

Right now for Tot School...we are just working on getting into a schedule... of playing projects... around the beginning of October I plan to start the Letter/Color/Shape/Number of the week...

Some things that we are doing in K4 that are most likely not portrayed in the pictures.... the girls worked with the sight words: A, And, The, See.... they focused on getting familiar with map of our Country including being able to pick out our State...Handwriting (without tears)...and baking... they made Peach Cobbler the first week and Pudding Pie the second.... we will be baking as a class on Wednesdays... (unless that doesn't work out...)

Our Farm Themed Sensory Bin...

4 out of the 5 girls in the K4 class...
the out-takes for this first day of school picture are hilarious...

Some of the girls doing the Pledge of Allegiance...

They made "Shape" Barns.... a good review of shapes...and following directions...The girls working on baking their peach cobbler...

I got cute tiny pie pans...which they used for the cobbler...

To enhance the farm theme, I organized a Farm field trip with both classes (and some friends 17 in all)... so that we had a tour guide and wagon ride around a farm... the kids had a great time on the wagon and checking out the animals... Braeden would still like to ride a cow/goat...

Ryleigh and Friends before the tour began...

Ryleigh and M on the wagon...

Braeden did great and didn't even try to jump overboard!

Braeden was SO all about the animals...Tot School had fun playing with these Nuts and Bolts that I found in the Target Dollar Spot...

Both Classes did a surprise capsule that turned into a farm animal once put in warm water project... and then used them as sponges for water transfers...

Playing with the Farm Sensory Bin...

Practicing handwriting on our little chalk boards...

Geography...

Ryleigh and L working on the water transfer...

This year in K4, the girls get independent work time...where they get to go pick a project out of their work-box to do (so they may all be working on different projects)... here V is working on an alphabet foam turtle puzzle...

Braeden practicing tracing the items to the barn....I made this in Word...
he Loved it for the tractor...

In K4 they worked on circling animals that were NOT farm animals...
worksheet available below...

In Tot School we used these peg boards for fine motor...building, stacking....playing...

In K4 we used them to build different Letters....

4 out of 5 K4 girls... I have a feeling it may be a bit challenging to get all 5 in a picture together... but hey... there is always next week...

If you would like to download the farm page I made...click here: (or go to Printables at top of page)


Some of the Books that we read for this theme were:

• Giggle Giggle Quack by Doreen Cronin
• Look who's talking on the Farm by Danny Tepper
• The Cow Buzzed by Andrea Zimmerman and David Clemesha
• Millie Moo by Camilla Moody
• The Noisy Farm by Marni McGee
• Barn Dance by Patch Hutchins

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.

Wordless Wednesday.... It's a Cow...no it's a Goat....It's a Puppy...no...it's a goat..

We have been studying "The Farm" over the last couple of weeks... so I have brought the kids on a couple of field trips to see the farm and farm animals, tractors, crops, etc. ... Braeden would really like to be able to ride/wrestle/play with a cow, sheep, horse or goat... below is our latest adventure...

Braeden's conversation with the Goat:
Braeden: Hi Cow!!!
Me: Braeden, it's a Goat honey... can you say goat?
Braeden: Moooooo! Ha Ha Ha!
Me: Braeden...it's a goat...it says 'baaaaa'
Braeden: Ha Ha Ha ....Hi Cow!!!! Mooooooo... Baaaaa Baaaa Baaaa
Me: It is a Goat......Ugh!
Braeden (as we move on to the next animal): Bye Puppy!!!!
Me: ???????? (I think he won that one)....

So Excited to be so close to them...he is seriously shrieking with excitement....

For more fun science projects go check out Adventures in Mommydom.....

stART - Reverse Barn Shadows

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!

We have been reading many Farm Themed books over the last two weeks... the book we did this particular day was Barn Dance! by Pat Hutchins..... it is about a Pig, a Cow and a Sheep that get up in the middle of the night to dance while their babies are sleeping... for one reason or another they go back to bed... at which time... the babies decide to dance... my kids really like the rhyming in this...

For our project this week...we did reverse barn shadows...or...I put some painter's tape down on some paper...in what I thought may resemble a barn... the kids painted all over the paper...then we removed the tape...

Braeden loved doing this project...
and was so proud to show his picture to Daddy when he came home!

The girls also did this project in K4... the projects in general came out very similar.. however...it was actually much more messy with the older kids...

Everyone was excited to use the rollers to apply the paint...

The papers eventually got completely (more or less) covered with the paint...

Some of the finished barns...in reverse shadow... after the tape had been removed... you can see it, right? :-)

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