Indoor Igloo

We are not snowed out yet!

but I actually don't like getting cold,

so we improvised...

We brought the snow inside.

We put our hats and gloves, which got them super excited!

The only problem was, I gave them spoons for digging,

but they used them for eating.

{Why would they do that?}

We used our handy dandy sprayers,

with fresh water.

Check out this awesome idea,

perfect for older kids!

Isn't that cool!

 

Caught ya with snow in your mouth!

I hurried and pulled out some little dinosaurs to distract him from chowing down on snow.

 

When the snow got a little sparce,

I pulled out ice cubes to build an igloo.

 

We built it up, and left a door.

And put it in the freezer.

 

Then, two days later, I soaked the bowl in hot water,

and it came right out.

We added more snow,

Our on hand supply of penguins, snow princesses, and abdominal snow men.

 

Sweet! Don't you love when they play together!

(They do it better when their brains are engaged!)

 

Then when their fingers got cold,

We snuggled and read

 

Watch me Grow Penguin,

 

And Tacky the Penguin,

By Helen Lester

Which is one of my favorites!

 

Happy January!

Easy Halloween Craft

I like Halloween,

But my little girl LOVES Halloween.

She likes the thrill of seeing something a little scary,

The fun of seeing all of the Halloween characters,

And, of course, all the yummy treats!
Here is last year's picture with her grandma.

I truly wish I would get into it a little more,

maybe it's because this time of year gets a little crazy,

with friends, family, and harvesting gardens.

But this was our quick Halloween Art pickup.

First we read Jamie's Pumpkin Seed.

Which is a simple book about the life cycle of a pumpkin.

I love me a good life cycle!

It's about a little boy, Jamie, who plants a pumpkin seed,

and watches it grow and grow.

We used my old teaching standby that I had in my files,
That has a seed, sprout, flower, and three sizes of pumpkins.
Here is a printable book if you want to extend this activity.

They enjoyed looking at each picture.

We then read Five Little Pumpkins

It is the old poem illustrated.

"Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate,

The first one said, 'Oh my it's getting late',

The second one said, 'There are witches in the air,'

The third one said, 'Well we don't care,'

The fourth one said, 'Let's run and run and run,'

The fifth one said, 'I'm ready for some fun,'

Ooohooh went the wind, and out went the light,

The five little pumpkins rolled out of sight."

When I taught First Grade, I had them paint the whole fence,

Pumpkins which they cut out,

And the moon.

(Too much!! I found orange paint around my room for two years!)

So I decided to simplify a lot!

I glued on Popsicle sticks to look like a gate,

And she painted on circle pumpkins.

When it was dry she drew on some fun faces.

It was great! Everything was set up enough for her,

That she could do everything on her own.

She even drew a witch and the wind.

How to adapt this for a toddler:

Read them the book Five Little Pumpkins,

Touch their finger to each pumpkin when you say "the first one...etc."

Then pull out some orange finger paint,

(Put your toddler in their high chair with a paint smock)

and say the poem with your toddler again,

as you place their finger down.

(Do this quick enough that your little one won't get board.)

Then let them play with the finger paint.

If you prefer to do this without paint,

grab an old glove and put some orange stickers on it.

(Like I did for the Five Little Ducks Poem)

Repeat the poem with the glove on your toddlers fingers.

Dino Days

We couldn't learn about reptiles,

and not learn about Dinosaurs!

We started out by learning how Dinosaurs com from eggs.

We read Dinosaur Babies.

It is great because it shows how the dinosaurs come from eggs.

We then got out our paper mache,

and balloons,

We made our own dinosaur eggs.

She didn't actually love getting her fingers messy,

so I had to finish making her egg.

We let them dry,

And secretly I put some of our dinosaurs inside.

Then I patched up the hole with paper mache.

Then she pretended she was a mama dinosaur,

and I was the predator.

She went and hid her eggs in the sand.

Then she pretended that they hatched,
so she could see what was inside.

Then she played in the sandbox by herself for a while.
(Isn't alone playing time the best?)

Here are the other Dinosaur Books we are reading this week:

First Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Pre-historic life.

The title is a little long and boring,
but this book rocks!
It is full of facts and right on a preschoolers level.

Ten Little Dinosaurs
(with the wiggly eyes)

This book is really fun,
if you can get past pronouncing all of the names.
It is good for talking about how dinos became extinct.

No T-Rex in the Library

is nonfiction, but really fun to realize
how huge dinosaurs really were.

Dinosaur Roar!

Is really great for little boys
aka Baby H.
All of the dinosaurs dance and walk,
and most of the words in the book are different sounds a dinosaur makes.

Swimming Sea Turtles

We are moving on to the world of Reptiles!

We started by learning about turtles.

And their life cycle...

We loved the book One Tiny Turtle

By Nicola Davies

It shows beautifully how a sea turtle lives,

and eventually lays her eggs in the sand.

It's great because it doesn't start at the "beginning".

So it's perfect way to learn a life cycle differently.

We decided to make sequencing cards to learn

about the sea turtles life cycle.

We started by painting glue on for our sand.

I love how Baby H. helps out lately.

We did an egg mosaic for the turtles egg,

And did tear art for the grown turtle.

Although it is a fairly simply project,

I had to work really hard to keep her attention to the end.

I promised her she could dance afterwards.

Here she is pretending to be a turtle in an egg,

She danced while I clapped my hands

and sang about a turtle growing up.

Later she pretended to hide the turtle eggs in the sand.

Dancing is a fun way to reinforce concepts,

and it works for preschoolers through sixth graders.

Here are the reptile books we are reading this week:

The Mixed-Up Chameleons

Chameleon's Colors

Fun Facts about Turtles

Franklin Goes to the Hospital