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!

Seed Art

Today we learned about plants and seeds.
A little late, but better late than never!

So I'm really lucky because my mother-in-law gave me tons of seeds that she used in teaching.
We sorted seeds,
and Miss Sweetie made the cheesiest smile in the world.

 

I picked out the seeds that they would be familiar with,
{pumpkin, peas, and corn}

Then we did some seed art,
she chose the design,
and I helped her squeeze the bottle.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture,
but this was really great for her fine motor skills.
She really had to concentrate to put them in the right places.

So doing activities like this is like cross training children's writing skills.  Is great to do so young, so that when children are required to write a lot, they are not frustrated by their lack of the small muscles in their hand.

We had baby H. make one as well,
and he experimented with the tweezers,
if it's a tool, he wants to use it.

This was one of the best things my mother in law gave me,

When she student taught she made these sticks with the seed glued to it, and the seed pack.

This is M. studying the seeds and the sticks,

then we mixed them up, and she had a fun time matching them.



Weather Unit: Let's Go Fly A Kite

We learned about wind by flying kites and making kites.

We had a blast flying kites!

The wind was crazy!

Lucky me, because Mr. Handsome is great with kids!

Miss Sweetie Pie was getting a tad bored,

but when he flew the kite low and she could catch it,

and help throw it back in the air,

she LOVED it! 

Then we went home and made some kites.

First, I hot glued some Popsicle sticks together.

Then she picked out the fabric she wanted to use,

and decorated it.

Baby H. was having a ball as well.

Right here he is singing.

I also let her decorate it with glitter glue and fabric paint.

Which got on her brand new dress :(

But I ripped it off of her and ran it in the bath faucet under HOT water, it seems to have come out fine. (few!)

Making kites made me think about shapes,

so I had her sort shapes,

showing her that a rhombus and a parallelogram look like kites.

I also let her play with my pattern block stamps.

I made a quick picture first so she could get the idea.

Mine is on the right.

She had a BLAST with these! 

Her imagination just took off. 

It was so much better giving her an example,

If I would have just told her what to do,

she would have used them for 2 minutes and not had very much fun.

There are two Rapunzels each holding a kite,

next to them is a tower.

 Hers turned out WAY better than mine!

 This are our old posts that we did about the wind:

The Wind is Blowing

Sid the Science Kid Wind Experiments

Just Dust in the Wind

Weather Unit: Melted Crayon Rainbows

This is day one of our Weather Unit.

March is the BEST time to study weather because the weather is so versatile in March.

Ever since I saw these hearts I knew I wanted to make my own wax paper/melted crayon project.

We read the darling book, What Will the Weather Be Like Today?

By Paul Rogers.

This book is a MUST for weather units,

the pictures are great and each page is filled with cute rhymes.

We were lucky enough to inherit this book from my mother-in-law who is an AMAZING Kindergarten teacher. 
Right now this book is listed on Amazon for $85, so if I were you I would check it out from the library, or try to snag it at a Thrift Store or library book sale.

The book ends in a beautiful rainbow with the rhyme,
"And sometimes the rain and the sun come out to play,
and make a beautiful rainbow in the sky that day."

We talked about rainbows and then we practiced the sequence of rainbows, which was a new concept for M.

Then we got out our less used cheese grater and grated some crayons in rainbow order.

Then I used our iron placed old rags on top and on bottom to iron the crayon and wax paper together.
(If you do this use old rags, because the rags get stained and waxy.)

Here's what they looked like!
We did not iron them on the ground. :)

Then I cut them out into arches and let M. practice rainbow sequence again.

Then I taped them onto a string and hung it in our window.

I'm hoping our cheese grater will make a full recovery...
But if not it looks kinda pretty like this.

Here are some old posts about

Rainbows from our weather unit last year:

Taste the Rainbow

  

Let's Build A Rainbow

 

And Edible Finger Paint

Field Trip: Duck Park

To Finish Up Our Duck Theme

We Went to Feed the Ducks!

We went to a duck park I went to as a child.

We got a close look at the ducks!

We fed them until our bread was gone!
(The ducks are hiding from the strong current right next to the bank.)

I'd been saving stale bread for weeks.

We also found some "fluff" from the cotton trees.

We collected it because it looked and felt

Just like real feathers.
(I may or may not have claimed they were actual feathers.)

Scratch and Sniff Book

To go along with our Duck Theme,

We made our own scratch and sniff book.

I got this idea from A Teacher At Heart

Who made tactile letters out of dirt.

First we read Watch as I Grow: Duck

To learn about the life cycle of a duck.

With Miss Sassy's help we came up

With what to draw in our own book.

I let her illustrate with glue.

And then pour on Peach Jell-O

It was amazing to watch it turn orange.

We actually just used sugar for the Egg stage.

We let it dry, and drew on a beak or two

And then we read it.

This is an organic moment (aka not instigated by mom)

Where she sat down and read her book to baby H.

She loved smelling the pages.

Although, I don't think ducks smell like Peach Jell-O.

Minor Detail

Sharing At: Saturday Artist