stART - Marble Painting....with Garbled Marbles...

One of the books we read this week was Care Bears The Great Big Pumpkin... they dressed up for Halloween... very cute...Our project this week was Marble Painting... pretty much the only tie in between the book and project... pumpkins are round...as are the marbles... also.. the carebears are very colorful...like the paint.. too much of a stretch? :-)

For a science project we did Garbled Marbles...
and I didn't want to waste them so we used them for painting...
I put some different colors of paint on everyone's paper...
and the girls picked 5 marbles from their experiment to use for the project...
Ryleigh picked 5 pink...

FYI... because these are not "real" marbles.. they tended to stick in the paint a bit more...

Rolling the Garbled Marbles in the paint....

Almost done...

2 of the finished pictures...

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

stART - The Noisy Farm.... painting with tractors...

A story + Art = a great stART!!!

Last week was our first official week of school.... for Tot School and K4... we have been working with a Farm theme in both classes...so I thought painting with tractors would be fun for them to do...I picked up the tractors 4 for a dollar in walmart...We read The Noisy Farm... a very descriptive book about the different noises found on the farm...

The kids in K4 listening to the story... please excuse the school room... it is a construction work in progress... :-)

Ryleigh had a great time with this activity...

It was neat to see all the different patterns that were made by the tractors....

Braeden painting with his tractor in his Tot School Class... he was very neat... and Loved Painting with it!

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

stART- puffer fish

A Story + Art = A great stART!!

This week we read Rainbow Fish Hide and Seek- Ryleigh loves this book because she likes to try and identify the fish before they are found... one of the fish is a puffer fish...which went right along with our curriculum for last week (more on that in a later post this week).... so I had the girls make Puffer Fish out of paper plates and paint....and googly eyes of course!

I attached some "fins" to the plates (with other plates)...and had the girls sponge on some blue paint...the sponging gave the fish a great texture...

Using some gray accents to give the fish some dimension....

The finished Puffers.... even more cute in person!

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

stART - painting with straws

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!

We read Pooh's Easter Basket...which Ryleigh has had since she was Braeden's age... anything Winnie the Pooh is great with her... she still loves carrying around this book...anyway..the book is about identifying what color Easter Egg is on the Page... I have started asking Ryleigh to say the colors in Spanish...since we have done them in school...to make the book a little more thought provoking for her.... :-)

For our project this week, I had the girls use straws to decorate Easter Eggs (that I cut out of Poster Board)... they used the straws to blow paint around on their eggs... I added a tiny amount of water to the paint to make for easier movement...

Opening their straws (I cut them in half for easier use)...
they were not quite sure what they would be doing yet....

They had a lot of fun...and giggles with this project...

The girls' finished eggs...

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

stART- Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss...

In honor of Dr. Seuss's Birthday I had both the kids at Preschool and Tot School Beginnings make a hat. Both classes read The Foot Book... one of my favorites... for the project I cut out the hat shape from posterboard and then used tape to make the stripes.... the kids painted with red using rollers...when they were finished we removed the tape... so simple...and so cute!!!

The hat...pre-paint...

Ryleigh painting.... she loves loves loves the rollers to paint with...

Braeden painting... he just loves paint!!! I gave the younger kids the option of using rollers, paint brushes or sponge shapes... Braeden used the roller...

The finished hats...Ryleigh's has 4 stripes and Braeden's has 3... I really like these type of projects because even if the kids (especially the little ones) paint all over the trays the projects still come out looking neat and tidy...

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

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

stART - Fancy Nancy

a story + art = a great stART !!!!This week we read Fancy Nancy written by Jane O'Connor. Ryleigh just received an autographed copy from Grandma Sue....and LOVES it... I have read it several times a day to her...she is a big fan of being fancy... I really like the book because it is introducing new vocabulary as well as the word's meaning... and it is super cute....

For our project this week, we did Fancy Painting...Fancy Painting...as used for this project...which may be renamed in the future if we are not reading Fancy Nancy when painting...is when you use an oatmeal container (or something similar), some rocks (a.k.a jems) and some paint... the girls really liked this project and actually did it twice....


Ryleigh putting the paper into the canister....

Ryleigh dropping the rocks (jems) into the canister...I then added the girls' choice of paint color into it...the first time around, they only chose one color each, the second time they each did two....

They girls rolling the containers on the floor so that the rocks would mix the paint up...creating a "fancy" design on the paper...

Ryleigh's finished pictures....very fancy!!!

*The Ramblings and Adventures of a SAHM is now on facebook---also fancy!!! :)

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

School Daze- A Week of Play....

Ryleigh is 39 Months and Braeden is 12 Months

This week we did a watercolor stART project, musical mondays, dance class and lots of playdates...Lately Braeden has been really into wrestling...and Ryleigh really likes tumbling...so there is usually a lot of rolling around going on...

Braeden wrestling with Ryleigh...

Braeden successfully pounced....

Braeden...."I didn't do anything...." and Ryleigh laughing hysterically...

Ryleigh working on a huge floor puzzle to help practice numbers...

Braeden loves his farm animal block toy...great for fine motor skills

I had the girls transfer beans with the ice cream dollar spot finds...
(next time I set the trays up I will have them do the activity from left to right...
to help with pre-reading)

I used the math counting dot cards (from Confessions of a Homeschooler)and had the girls first count the dots, look at the number on the card...and then put the 3-D cylinder shape over the dot to help re-enforce the quantity of the number...
At target I picked up 2 of the magnetic alphabets from the dollar spot...so love the dollar spot... and had the girls each pick 8 letters from the first set...and then I drew letters from the second...and they had to "match" the letter...it kept them all entertained and focused...because they needed to see if they had the letter that was picked...

Then I used some of our Kumon tracing pages in page protectors for the girls to practice their pre-writing skills...

Ryleigh LOVES puzzles...and really liked doing these Melissa and Doug Jigsaws in a box when Granny came over this week....

During Braeden's afternoon nap...Ryleigh and I worked on Numbers with our Eric Carle number flashcards....they are so pretty!!

On a playdate with her cousin Sari, Ryleigh experienced the WII for the first time...did I spell that right?...they played bowling and dancing...and she LOVED it...the girls were so cute together..

During another Braeden nap, Ryleigh and I played Crazy 8's (which is what we normally do at some point during nappy time)...and Pooh's Go Together Game...which is great for a different kind of logic thinking...you match up cards that should go together, i.e. hammer and nail, wind and kite...etc.... and they are self checking....if you turn a match over they should line up to make a picture...

At another playdate, Braeden had fun exploring new toys...

and trying to yank the rug out from his friends....*sigh*....
he is cute when he is destructing...

To see what others are doing this week check out 1+1+1=1 for tot school; Homeschool Creations for Preschool Corner; and Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for the weekly wrap-up...

stART- Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!For our story this week we read Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert... in which they plant many different flowers (and plants) that make up the colors of the rainbow. The book starts with seeds and ends with a beautiful garden rainbow. Ryleigh loves rainbows....so this book was an instant hit with her.

For our project I had the girls use star stickers of many different colors to represent the "seeds" of the garden/rainbow. Then they used watercolors to make the garden grow. At the end they had beautiful rainbow gardens (pictures)...

Ryleigh peeling the stickers off (a great fine motor activity)

Starting to paint her garden...

She was very meticulous and made sure that she painted all of the stars....

Ryleigh has been practicing writing her letters lately...
if you look closely you will see a "H" at the top of her painting...

The finished painting...a rainbow of colors...

For more great stART projects check out A Mommys Adventures!

For more toddler activities visit