Community Helpers

Our theme for the week was Community Helpers,

which can be a pretty broad subject!

 It can mean anything from teachers, to firemen, to crossing guards.

It is basically a way to learn about different adults

children interact with,

and how that shapes what occupation

they want to have in the future.

So I love changing up the pointer sticks,

Which we use every morning as part of our circle time routine.

I found this picture on-line and printed it, and glued it to a stick.

It was fun and it changed it up a bit for them.

Day one they all fought over having girls,

because 5 out of 6 of the children in preschool are girls.

So day two I made a three more girls.

We read When I Grow Up,

By Al Yankovic

Weird Al? I know, but this book is really cute.

Its a silly book about all the things Sam could be when he grows up.

I also had a book basket filled with Community Helper books like: A Day in the Life of a Police Officer, a Doctor, a Teacher, a Construction Worker,  and a Vetranarian.

Which they could go and read when they finished their work.

For playtime,

I set up a big Community Helper neighborhood in the back yard.

Here's the construction zone:

Here is the post office:

Here is the Grocery Store:

Which doesn't look like much,

but they had the most fun lining up the play food,

and selling it, and buying it.

And here again is the fire truck

This pretend play was a really effective way for them to practice what they learned.

So even though it was a little time intensive to set up,

they used it for both days, so it was worth it!

For a Community Helper Snack,

You could try this fun idea from a Teaching Heart

For math time we went inside to practice patterning skills.

In the past I have been a little apprehensive about pattern worksheets, but this one was very engaging and cute.

{And super effective.}

This Police printable comes from Homeschool Creations,

and it is part of a whole pack!



Princess Week Wrap-up

We had a fun time having princess fun during princess week!

To finish up the week,

we headed over to the library for their Princesses and Pirates day.

It was so fun!

Everyone was invited to dress up,

so you better believe we did!

So here are some of my favorite princess posts from people I follow:

 Inspirations Surrounds always comes up with great ideas!

This time she had her children decorating princess dresses made out of play dough.

I can't even stand how much fun this looks.

The next rainy day we are totally doing this!

Go here to see how she did it.

I thought this idea from the Tutuzone was a fun one.

They used a sucker to create a fairy princess.

What a fun idea, we have all made ghosts out of suckers,

But a fairy princess would be so much more fun!

This idea is from Come Together Kids

She came up with this fun idea and created it before they went to see the movie Mirror Mirror.



The idea is that kids look at their reflection and see the crown upon their head.

This would also be a great way to talk about self worth.

Go here to see the great DIY.

This idea is from Casa Camacho

This is a really cute blog that I just started following.

She has lots of fun craft ideas, as well as practical home management ideas and printables.

Here she had a princess muffin tin tea party.

She had things like: Unicorn Calzones, and a Fruit Wand.

Go here to see the details.

How to Princess-ify Your Play Set

On with Princess Week!

In preparation for our princess puppet show,

I hung some curtains on our play set.

And it looked so cute,

so I went to town and hung some more!

I found this fuzzy pink material at the thrift store,

It was a big curtain I think, but for 6 yards, it was $2 total.

So I don't mind using it for fun random projects.

I hung the material with the Quilter's Tacker.

Which is a super easy way to hang tacks.

I also hung a piece of thick butcher paper,

and she started acting out Sleeping Beauty.

Playing with puppets helps children personalize their vocabulary,

improve recall, and can motivate children to read.

Makes sense right? :)

We used the puppets that she made when we studied,

There's A Wocket in my Pocket.

I glued on eyes and sticks on all of them,

to make them puppet friendly.

Another side benefit for Sweetie Pie,

Is that by me saving her creations,

and telling her these are good enough for a puppet show,

it validates her creativity.

After the puppet show,

she cleaned up,

and you can see how I tacked the butcher paper onto the beams.

The paper will probably come down,

but I think I will leave up the curtains this summer,

We'll see what the hubby says...:)

In the mean time,

here are some of the great books we have been reading during princess week:

Pirates and Princesses

By Jill & Sadie Kargman

This is a cute coming of age book,

when two best friends go to Kindergarten

they have a hard time staying best friends.

It was a sweet book that had a princess spin on real life.

Ella Bella Ballerina

and Sleeping Beauty

by James Mayhew

 

This is my FAVORITE! {And M's too!}
We just discovered these books, and they are great.
It incorporates ballet into the Sleeping Beauty story,
because it is already a famous ballet,
and does a great job of educating and entertaining.

The Very Fairy Princess
By Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton

Written by Mary Poppins and her daughter.

This book is another real life book with a princess spin.

A little girl who loves princesses does not get cast as the main princess in the ballet.

However, she comes to the rescue in the major way.

Princess Week Ideas

We jumped into Princess Week early

Here are some of the fun things we did this week!

We started by talking about being a princess for a day...

Aka getting married!

We talked about how fun it is to get married,

and about how important it is!

Why not right?

Have you noticed how more and more people choose not to get married? 

I decided to keep stressing the importance of it to her, starting when she is young.

We watched my wedding video, and read a book about my wedding.

Then we made princess cup cakes.

We flipped over a cup cake pulled out the frosting, and got decorating.

It was a fun way to talk about the importance of getting married!

Next, we played Disney on Ice.

We froze some princess figurines,

And put a cookie sheet with water in the freezer.

It was a great outside activity.

To make the "ice skating rink" pink,

I just mixed some tempera paint in, and added glitter on top.

To easily get the princess ice cubes out of the tray,

I dipped the bottom of the muffin tin

into some hot water in the sink for a couple of seconds.

After they were finished playing,

I just popped everything back into the freezer,

And on the next hot day we'll pull it back out!

Thanks to Time for Play for this great activity!

Happy Princess Week!

Here are some of our other princess ideas from our unit last year:

Create Your Own Princess

Where I gave her card board cutouts,

and lots of fun materials, and she made her own princess.

I can't wait to do this again,

to see what she comes up with now!

Let them Eat Cake

We learned about Marie Antoinette,

and made and decorated a cake.



How to Help Your Kids Play Independently

I love having my little Miss Sweetie Pie & Baby Handsome around,

but sometimes it is nice to let them play independently.

It's good for them, and good for me!

It could sound like a pie in the sky,

but there are actual things that you can do to

Train them to play by themselves.

It's true! (Would I lie to you?)

Step One: Teach them how to play with their own toys.
Sometimes it can be frustrating, (like after a birthday, or Christmas.) when you feel like your kids have a million toys,
but they still don't know how to play by themselves.

So you have to sit down and show them the fun things they can do with their toys.  Don't be afraid to tie their old favorites in with new toys.  Like in this picture, baby H. is exploring his trains, but I also gave him a block which he could use as a slide for his trains. I sat and played with him for 20-30 minutes.



Think of training them as an investment. It takes some of your time to sit and play with them, but it is so enriching for them, and they will eventually learn how to play alone!

Step Two: Walk away.
After you have showed them how to play with their toys, during the next playing session (on a subsequent day) let them play alone.
If your children are really dependent on you for entertainment, this step will take some time.  

You might try setting a timer and giving them a goal of five minutes of playtime. Then each subsequent play session extend that time, so they can eventually play alone for at least 20 min.

You might have to tiptoe {or silently crawl} out of the room,
but eventually they will be able to play independently.  You can start playing with them, and when they are absorbed in their toys, walk away!


I tried this with Miss Sweetie when she was about 9 mo. old.
She was mad when I left the room,
but she started to play with her farm animals,
and eventually I could walk in and out of a room and I would hear her gibber jabber talking with her animals.

Step Three: Set Up Regions of Play.
It is okay for children to play in their room, or downstairs, and be limited to that area.

Did your mother ever say to you "play downstairs or outside!"
Mine did, and being restricted to those areas gave our imaginations flight. We would make whole villages outside with sticks and water an mud. 

Setting regions can encourage children to think outside the box,
and be more creative.  Rather than having the whole house be open game all of the time, it also trains them to focus on the things in that room.  Great for lengthening attention span.

Step Four: Also let them have free time.

Where they can pick any toy anywhere in the house. That way they will know that although they are restricted for a few minutes, later on they are free to play anywhere (within your house rule's limits).

Other Ideas:

Play music while your child is playing alone.  This lengthens their playing time and stimulates their brain.

Rotate toys. If your children start to get bored of their old toys, try swapping them with toys in other areas of your house.

Use a schedule.

This really helped my little girl when I quit teaching school, and she quit going to daycare. 

 Using cards made her feel like I wasn't just making it up as I go.  It was as if the cards had their own authority.  "Well, I know you want to watch T.V.  right now, but the cards said that it's time to go to the grocery store."  I just flipped through them like flash cards each morning, but you could have them in pocket chart too. I bought these word strip cards at All a Dollar.

V is for Volcanoes

Today we learned all about the letter V.

Here are our upside down V volcanoes.

We painted the V with brown paint,

and the hot lava with gel paint.

Last night I prepared a little volcano science experiment.

The best way to spice up school is with science.

I used 1/3 c. Baking Soda

and reserved 1/3 c. white vinegar (and red food coloring) for the experiment.

Ready, aim, blast off!! 

 For the five seconds that it was happening,

it was totally worth it!

We watched a you tube video of a real volcano erupting,

and we went upstairs to make our own edible volcano.

This idea comes from Craft Interrupted

We did it the same way.

Put chocolate pudding into an ice cream cone,

flipped it over fast,

put pudding around it a little bit,

then made the molten lava flow from it,

we used jelly belly brand cherry ice cream topping.

We also put dinosaur gummy bears on it,

(To link into our unit on animals)

Delicious and nutritious.

Um maybe not so much nutritious.

We then made our own human volcano.

The all had red, yellow, and orange scarves,

and pretended they were lava.

They hid under the blanket

(giggling)

until I said, "The volcano is erupting!"

And erupt it did!

And the lava filled the whole room.

 

We did it about three times,

because it was so fun and silly. 

{And educational, but don't tell them that!} 

Next we read a dinosaur book,

and did some dinosaur math.

The printable is found here.

Because their minds were so excited about volcanoes,

and dinosaurs,

they thought this was the best activity ever. 

 

I paired two children together,

an older one and a younger one,

so they could work on their numbers together.

This was great for team work, one on one correspondence,

fine motor skills, and thematic integration.

Then they played in the sand table with dinosaurs.

For more letter v ideas check out my pin board here.