stART- Merry Christmas Curious George

A Story + Art = A great stART!

This week we read Merry Christmas, Curious George. It's a cute story featuring Curious George decorating a Christmas Tree in a hospital. For our project, I had the girls paint and decorate a paper Christmas Tree. I mixed glue in with the paint so that the pom poms would stick. I also had them paint with a Popsicle stick...hoping for a "needle" look.... not really so much... next time I would just give them brushes and add the glue later...which is what ended up happening anyway....

Michelle reading the story to the kids

Painting with the sticks...

Putting the pom poms on...

The finished tree.... (only on the blue paper to dry)...

To see other great stART projects head over to A Mommy's Adventures!

Musical Mondays - the babies

After every music class, we have "free play". Some of the babies are now old enough to participate.... soon they will be old enough to participate in the music class itself!

Braeden...with the ladies....

TOT SCHOOL WEEK EIGHT- 30 MONTHS

This week was super busy between Music Class, Tot School, Dance and.....starting to get the basement ready for our new classroom!!!! We are moving Music Class and Tot School downstairs hopefully by the beginning of December....with a completion date of January 1...as far as painting and everything else....so excited...this means a lot more room for the kids...the living room is getting kinda cramped for Music...

For Music this week, the kids started working on chords for the handbells. (Which also helps with color recognition). After passing out the handbells and doing our regular exercises with them, I then held up a card and if they had the color they rang it....we will work on it again :)

Ryleigh (and friends) working on Pom Pom transfers... I need to get smaller pom poms... they are transferring onto the suction cup side of fish...that I think go in the tub... from the $1 store...thank you Michelle...

Working on the stART project...to see the completed project go HERE.

This week, the Letter of the Week was E. I had the girls incorporate an Envelope into the letter E. Then we had them put Ee's inside.

Braeden with Juliette....just chillin....waiting for the girls to finish the projects...hoping not to be trampled when they do....

My grandmother usually comes over once a week...which is a huge help for me...this week she brought Ryleigh magnetic wooden letters that connect and make a train...out of her name...Ryleigh LOVES them!!!! She plays with them all the time and I highly recommend getting them if you need a gift for a little one!

Ryleigh with Braeden

Ryleigh playing with her name train...

To continue with our E letter...and to practice a fine motor skill...Ryleigh glued beans in the shape of an E...she really liked this activity...

Working on her colors from our activity pack from last week

We made some holiday presents....that I will NOT be posting on here... but afterwards...since her hands were already messy...Ryleigh really wanted to paint...

You know Elmo had to make an appearance...here Ryleigh is showing a dressed up Elmo how to string pasta onto a pipe cleaner....this activity has gotten way too easy for her so I switched her to string...apparently Elmo likes the pipe cleaner better...FYI...

Braeden...watching Ryleigh...and Elmo...

Marc...drinking coffee...carrying around one of Ryleigh's babies...who looks a lot like curious george...never a dull moment in this house...

Marc working with Ryleigh over breakfast on letters and names.... made out of beans...

Check out what others are doing for Tot School at 1+1+1=1.

stART- Corduroy's Thanksgiving

A story + Art = A great stART!!!

For this week's stART project I had Ryleigh (and Friends) do Thanksgiving Hand- prints to go with Corduroy's Thanksgiving. The book is about Corduroy preparing for and then enjoying Thanksgiving with his friends.

First I had them glue "leaves" around the edge of the paper...then we did the classic hand print turkeys... I have seen this project on many blogs over the last couple of weeks....must be the season ;) Anyway.... here is our interpretation of it....

Ryleigh gluing the leaves around the edge of the paper...I put the glue in an egg carton and let them use popsicle sticks to spread it around...worked out pretty well...

My friend Michelle painting Ryleigh's hands...while I took pictures...she got the messier end of the deal for sure. We used brown for the body and head (palm and thumb) and different colors for the feathers (fingers)... After the hands were painted, they were printed...

Braeden and Juliette waiting for their sisters to finish their projects...they are so good...and how cute are Juliette's "ears" ?

The projects drying...(tot school continued)....

The finished project...

For more great stART projects check out A Mommy's Adventures

What is she laughing at?

What does Ryleigh find so funny?Oh no!!!! I think it's me!?!?

AHHHHHH!!! It is definitely me..... why -oh -why did Mommy dress me up like a red zebra/elephant/cat? And why does she keep taking pictures and laughing?......

TOT SCHOOL WEEK SEVEN- 30 MONTHS

This week I was sick so Ryleigh's social life and schooling suffered a bit in the beginning... I had to cancel music... and I had to cancel "tot school" for her friends... however, we were able to squeeze some activities in and by the end of the week things were back to schedule. We participated in stART, Friday Art Group, and Dance. We spent some time reviewing the letters that we had already done, as well as shapes and colors....

Who doesn't love a princess? Thank you Aunt Laura....Ryleigh enjoyed some dress up time...

Ryleigh working on alphabet blocks with my Grandmother...Letters, Numbers, Animals.....still in the princess dress.....

Braeden "talking" while Ryleigh works with the alphabet blocks. He is becoming a lot more vocal....

Continuing with last weeks work, Ryleigh worked on shapes and colors. Here she was matching up the colors to the objects.

Working with purple sand...great practice for spooning, pouring, scooping, etc.... quite a mess to clean up...I think I am switching over to rice or the equivelant....this is a favorite for Ryleigh and she worked on this project for about 45 minutes....

Instead of doing a new Letter of the Week this week, we reviewed the four that we had already done. I had Ryleigh paint with the cork to color in the letters.

We also reviewed some shapes...but painted with a regular paint brush... (the cork was losing its appeal after using it in the stART project and the letter review...)

Braeden playing on his gym...grasping his toys...while Ryleigh painted...

Ryleigh wanted to "free paint"...so we did that for a while....

Ryleigh working on her number Winnie the Pooh Puzzel....($1 store)

Braeden extremely excited to go to Art Group... yes he knows he doesn't actually get to do any of the projects, but he gets to see Juliette and she totally relates to him as a peer :)

Ryleigh at Art Group at Michelle's house...they painted with homemade puffy paint that gets dried in the microwave and they also made coffee filter turkeys...

Braeden "resting" at Art Group while the girls did their projects...waiting for playtime....

To see what others are doing this week check out: