Wednesday, March 16, 2011

stART - Shamrocks

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

This week instead of doing a project to a story, we did it to a song (that we read as a poem). It is called Five Little Shamrocks (lyrics listed below). I found it HERE, although if you "google" it you can find it on many a website...

Five Little Shamrocks

One green shamrock, in the morning dew;
Another one sprouted;
And then there were two.
Two green shamrocks, growing 'neath the tree,
Another one sprouted;
And then there were three.
Three green shamrocks, by the cottage door,
Another one sprouted;
And then there were four.
Four green shamrocks, near a beehive;
Another one sprouted;
And then there were five.
Five little shamrocks, bright and emerald
Five little shamrocks, bright and emerald green,
Think of all the luck these shamrocks will bring.

Tot School Beginnings Project (age 1 1/2): We painted their hands and made a Shamrock out of their handprints. We then used a paint brush to add the stem... I had them glue on the lyrics of the song to complete the project.

Preschool Project (age 3 1/2- 4): The girls glued the lyrics onto their papers... then they used their thumbs to make 5 Shamrocks..(Then we used a marker for the stems)...

Braeden and Juliette painting their hands (after the project was over)... as much as I would have loved to get a picture of Braeden doing his handprint...there was no way I was leaving his side and picking up the camera...even for me that is too brave... so instead... after the project was done, the kids painted with green paint... and Juliette started painting her hand right away...so Braeden followed suite....

Ryleigh doing her thumbprints....
The finished projects from the girls....
Braeden's finished Shamrock...

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

Thursday, March 10, 2011

School Daze... Up to Uu

The kids loved the new sensory bin... and it was so much easier to clean up....Braeden playing with some playdough...
I had both classes make pot o' golds this week...in Tot School the Kids colored their pots and then glued (with assistance) "gold" (orange and yellow circles) onto them...
Braeden liked to dunk his gold into the glue...not so much with the actual sticking it on the paper...
Braeden putting straws into a big grated cheese container...a fantastic fine motor activity....
Having fun with markers...
Braeden was so excited to do a project with Ryleigh... I had gotten some "grow capsules" a while ago from the target dollar spot...they had lots of fun watching them in the water...
Braeden LOVED this project...
Braeden kept taking them out of the water before they were fully done...and Ryleigh kept putting them back in...
This kept them entertained for awhile...
We then did water transfers with sponges...dipping the sponge into the water and wringing it out in the next dish...Ryleigh really liked do the project... as described... Braeden really enjoyed splashing in the water and squeezing the sponge over the floor...
Working on the alpha book...
We made carrot fish for our stART project this week...
Working on the sight word "can" this week...with the little book from Hubbards Cupboard..
I found a great hot/cold game from file folder fun... the girls did great with this... I have to look for something more challenging...
Working on the find the letter from Confessions of a Homeschooler...
I came up with some objects for them to measure...to the nearest inch... they did really well with this...
The girls continue to love the I Spy alphabet tubes....

Playing with some playdough...
I had the girls do a similar pot of gold project but instead of gluing on "gold coins" they used glitter glue to create the gold...
Pot O' Gold....
This week I had the girls do "u" is for universe... I used the leftover "gold" from Tot School for planets/moon and let them paint with star shaped foam stamps...
The finished Letter of the Week Craft....

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 Rr activities check out The Attached Mama.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

stART - One Lonely Sea Horse

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!
This week we read One Lonely Sea Horse by Joost Elffers and Saxton Freymann. We love this book... the story itself is simple... the lonely sea horse finds out they are not alone... but the pictures in this book are amazing!!! All of the sea creatures and and sea life are food (Mushrooms, bananas, peppers, potatoes, etc.) I knew from the time I first read the book that a fun project would be to "recreate" a scene ... here's the thing though... A- food, especially some of the exotic stuff...is expensive... B- although very pretty...might not be a lot of fun for the kids to "create"... SO...

Our project this week (and my scaled down) interpretation of this book is the Carrot Fish... Oh yes... the carrot fish.... I sliced a carrot...had the girls layer them (for scales) on wax paper...and then we added a dried bean for the eye...

I outlined a fish (well...it sort of looked like a fish)... and let the girls get to work...
Ryleigh...almost done with the layers... she stuck with it until it was done (it didn't take too terribly long)...
The girls' finished fish...
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
I am also so excited to be participating in:


Thursday, March 3, 2011

School Daze ... Rr is for Rainbows...and Ryleigh...

This week in both classes we celebrated Dr. Seuss's Birthday...by making a fun craft, reading some Dr. Seuss Books...and... eating cupcakes...

In Tot School Beginnings I switched over the sensory bin for more of a St. Patrick's Day theme... I think I am going to re-vamp it again for next week... I kind of ran out of time this week so I didn't get a chance to make it what I actually wanted it to be... They also built with big blocks, played playdough, made an art project by using rollers to paint, and did parachute (with bubbles)...

New in Braeden's world this week: His vocabulary is exploding....also he is getting more teeth - he has had the 7 for the longest time but now is getting 10 all at once...

Braeden with some of his friends at the sensory tub... he is getting much better about not throwing the rice... its still pretty frequent... but I see progress...Playing Playdough... he made his friend a "cupcake"...
The kids painting... for a full explanation of this project- check out my stART post...
The TOTS enjoying the cupcakes (I made them minis) in honor of Dr. Seuss....
After preschool one afternoon the girls were playing with a miniature dollhouse...then Braeden got up from his nap...and I thought it was going to be mass chaos...but he played right along with them... I truly envisioned the doll house being picked up and thrown....
Our stART project this week Ryleigh's finished hat has 4 stripes and Braeden's has 3....
In Preschool this week for Calendar time we did the letter Rr, number 15, sight words "can" and "some", reviewed our Spanish colors and numbers (we are learning the Spanish numbers 1-20), and started learning the US States in alphabetical order... so far we are up to Connecticut..
We also worked on telling time to the hour, our Letter of the Week Craft, and I Spy bottles...I have included some highlights from our week:

The girls all ate lunch together after Music class before school started... they had a very giggly time...
Working on her alpha book...
The girls enjoyed doing Roll a Rainbow and a Color by Number Rainbow from Confessions of a Homeschooler...
Completing the rainbow...
Color by number is always a hit...
Ryleigh working on telling time...she caught right on to the nearest hour...
The girls had fun with our new oil pastels and created a color wheel...it was very cute to see their expressions when they made new colors...
One of my favorite blogs is Counting Coconuts... recently she put up a tutorial of how to make homemade I Spy Bottles... so very helpful. I have made 3....so far...I used some of the rice from last months sensory bin...test tube like bottles from A.C.Moore and alphabet beads (each bottle has a different type)... I then hot glued the tops on... These were a huge hit... I made an ABC sheet to go with them, so they could cross off the letters as they found them. The picture isn't great...but you get the idea...
Ryleigh had the rainbow bead bottle....here she is crossing off the letters as she finds them...
Ryleigh enjoying a cupcake...for Dr. Suess...
For our Letter of the Week Craft we did "r" is for rainbow! To make this I made an "r" template...and then cut it down for each color....
The finished "r" is for rainbow!

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 Rr activities check out The Attached Mama.