Exploring Seattle Part One

Okay, I have an announcement....

I'm pregnant with baby number #3!

Aka why I haven't posted for a while.

But now that I'm {mostly} over morning sickness,

I'm ready to get back to work!

We had the chance of a lifetime to take a vacation to Vashon Island, WA.

Which is an island in between Seattle and Tacoma.

Our friends live on a six acres oasis.

One morning while the boys were working out,

we decided to go exploring.

I gave the kids their own baggie with their name on it,

and they could pick anything to put in their bag.

It was such a gorgeous day, I ran and grabbed my camera.

They had a ball picking beautiful things,

and claiming them as their own.

It was a fun activity that used many senses.

We headed back inside,

and they were all thrilled with what they found.

This picture feels like such a time piece.

I can almost imagine all of them in the same pose in 5 years.

We went inside and made some flower art.

Then they exercised, just like their daddy's did.

Just look at H.'s face, he wants one too!

A Home for Hermit Crab

On with our ocean adventures!

Time to learn about Hermit Crabs...

We read the book, A Home for Hermit Crab

by Eric Carle

It is a cute story about a hermit crab who needs a new shell,

but he wants to decorate it,

so he goes around the ocean floor,

collecting things in the ocean that will make his shell more homey.

After we read the book we decided to make our own

 fancy hermit crab shell.

I pulled some colorful pages out of magazines.

and then she cut small pieces out.

I cut a square of contact paper, and taped it sticky side up.

You can see it taped to the blue file folder above.

You can find contact paper at the grocery store next to the shelf liners.

That made it so easy for her to cut out colorful pieces,

and stick them onto the paper to make a mosaic.

Then I painted her hand red,

to make it look like a hermit crab body.

After it dried,

I cut out the hand. 

I added some more contact paper on top,

 cut her magazine mosaic,

and drew a shell shape on top.

I think they turned cute!

Seriously this would be a great classroom craft.

super easy, and easy to make look great.

I know Mother's Day is past,

but this would be an easy way to make into

flower onto a Mom's Day card.

Just sayin'

:)



Weather Unit: Sunshine on my Shoulder

It's sun catcher day today!

An easy fun, no mess craft!

Yay! Spring is here,

so sorry people, we have been playing outside,

and my blog has taken a backseat.

We studied about Sunshine today,

how fitting :)

Have you seen the book Sunshine on My Shoulder?

It illustrates John Denver's song,

and it is such a fun and beautiful book!

We also read Bear in the Sunshine

Which is a really cute book,

and goes through all of the types of weather.

After we read our books we made sun catcher sunshine.

I drew a sun shape on the paper part of some contact paper I had.

Then we taped it to the window,

(putting tape on the non sticky side)

and stuck our tissue paper squares onto it.

Super fun and easy and no mess!

Baby H. loved this activity,

because it was fun and tactile and different.

Don't you love fat baby hands?

Baby H. loved it so much that we sang, Mr. Sun with him.

After they were finished I cut a bigger piece of contact paper,

and stuck it on top of our sun catchers, and cut it out.

Easy peasy!

Last year when we learned about the sun,

we went totally in depth,

we learned about the solar system and everything.

We read, My Place in Space

I don't know if it's because of baby H, or what.

But this year I like things simpler.

Here are my old posts on the sun:

Shinning Sun

Where we made a glowing sun out of paper mache.

Eggshell Mosaic

Where we died eggs and made a fun mosaic.

Here Comes the Sun

Where we learned about the creation.



The Sense of Touch Scavenger Hunt

I think learning about the sense of touch was our most fun day so far in learning about the five senses.

And it also took the most work to get it ready.

Funny how that seems to work!

I started out with these materials:

 

Something scratchy, rough, bumpy, slick, and soft.

And while they watched PBS I cut them into smaller squares.

Then we went down to the classroom and got learning!

We started with the sense of touch book called

Touching By Sharon Gordon.

I had them sit the textured mats while we read,

afterwards I turned on some fun music,

pulled their shoes off and let them feel the different textures with their feet while they danced.

I kept repeating the texture vocabulary words,

Bumpy, rough, scratchy, soft, slick and smooth.

so she would be ready for the scavenger hunt.

They got to play in the texture sensory table.

I had her close her eyes and had her guess what texture she was feeling.

Then they played for about 10 minutes while I set everything up.

We put on blind folds on both of them so they could focus on the textures they were touching.

She couldn't move until I told her what texture to step onto.

The texture scavenger hunt lead up the stairs,

and into the dining room, where we had a bag filled with a little left over Valentines day candy.

We did this twice, so we didn't waste all that square cutting,

I also saved the squares to pull this out on a rainy day.

We went back down and I let them create a texture collage.

They pretty much had free reign to use whatever materials they had played with and glue in onto their paper.

She had so much fun cutting and creating.

Don't you love how it turned out?

I was inspired by Teach Preschool to make a collage.

Go here to see my pinterest board on the 5 Senses.

Here are some of my past posts that would work well with discovering the sense of touch:

Tree Painting
Where we used different tree branches to paint a picture of a tree.


Dinosaur Dig
Where she dug up the letters of her name.
 

Worm Painting
Where we used colored worms (spaghetti noodles) to paint a picture.


Indoor Igloo
Where we brought snow inside to make an igloo.

Here are all of my posts on the Five Senses: