We are getting caught up on our
school units. There are so many fun activities, it's hard not to do them all but I had to do some picking and choosing this week since we also had to shopping, cleaning and other necessary things around the house.
On Saturday Miss M and Littlest needed something to do so I slightly adapted another art project from our lesson book from the tree week. I taped off a tree shape onto a piece of paper and let Miss M paint the whole paper, then peeled it off when it was dry. It's somewhat noticeable. Littlest was given crayons but really wanted to paint like her sister so she managed to dip the crayon in the paint and use it to stamp her paper. She was actually pretty careful with it, not trying to decorate the wall, table or herself, so I stood nearby while she had fun. Miss M thought that was pretty neat and started doing it, too. I am working on controlling that part of me that wants to make sure everything happens the way it "should" and let things happens the way they will (within reason, of course).
On Monday we had a great time with our friends learning about air and the fun things it can do. This month's theme poster is a big hit with all the kids, they love looking for new things during circle time. We looked for things that float, fly and make colors in the air. We talked about hot air balloons (one of friends got to go up in one in June during our town's annual festival) and made the adorable craft. During snack I found a Mr. Wizard clip on YouTube that teaches about hot air balloons so we watched that. The kids were mesmerized.
The feathers were fun, the kids waved them in the air to feel the way the air moved and then we had feather races, blowing them across the floor. They were a little giddy and took off, pretending to be birds or I would have contrasted how the feathers moved with trying to blow on something heavier.
Our last "structured" activity was coloring rainbows. I showed them the daily poster with the rainbow picture and we talked about the recent rainbow that had appeared in our neighborhood during the last rainstorm. The kids could name the colors and kind of tried to follow the pattern for their coloring pages but Miss M especially liked using whatever colors suited her fancy.
This morning found us friendless (due to other plans, not because they no longer like us) so we did some school with just the three of us. I had planned a lot of different activities from the water week but the Puddle Jumping activity proved to be quite fun and then we modified it a bit so that was the only one we got to today. Miss M liked seeing how far she could jump and then counting her steps to see if she could jump as far as Mommy. When it got too hot to hop outside, we brought the puddle pieces inside and I made a trail of letters from the start to the finish. Miss M hopped from one letter to another until she reached the end, naming them as she went. Another modification could be to make more puddle pieces, number them on one side and put letters on the back. Kiddos have to hop from puddle to puddle in order and then identify the letter on the back before hopping to the next one. I think we might try this tomorrow, since we are starting potty training and will be housebound for several days with hours and hours of time to fill close to the powder room. I really want to do the Eyedropper Art project (dripping watery paint down an umbrella cut out) and hope that Miss M will be amenable to it tomorrow (she just wanted to hop today). I'll post the finished product if I can get her to do it.
On Saturday Miss M and Littlest needed something to do so I slightly adapted another art project from our lesson book from the tree week. I taped off a tree shape onto a piece of paper and let Miss M paint the whole paper, then peeled it off when it was dry. It's somewhat noticeable. Littlest was given crayons but really wanted to paint like her sister so she managed to dip the crayon in the paint and use it to stamp her paper. She was actually pretty careful with it, not trying to decorate the wall, table or herself, so I stood nearby while she had fun. Miss M thought that was pretty neat and started doing it, too. I am working on controlling that part of me that wants to make sure everything happens the way it "should" and let things happens the way they will (within reason, of course). 
On Monday we had a great time with our friends learning about air and the fun things it can do. This month's theme poster is a big hit with all the kids, they love looking for new things during circle time. We looked for things that float, fly and make colors in the air. We talked about hot air balloons (one of friends got to go up in one in June during our town's annual festival) and made the adorable craft. During snack I found a Mr. Wizard clip on YouTube that teaches about hot air balloons so we watched that. The kids were mesmerized.
The feathers were fun, the kids waved them in the air to feel the way the air moved and then we had feather races, blowing them across the floor. They were a little giddy and took off, pretending to be birds or I would have contrasted how the feathers moved with trying to blow on something heavier. 
Our last "structured" activity was coloring rainbows. I showed them the daily poster with the rainbow picture and we talked about the recent rainbow that had appeared in our neighborhood during the last rainstorm. The kids could name the colors and kind of tried to follow the pattern for their coloring pages but Miss M especially liked using whatever colors suited her fancy.
This morning found us friendless (due to other plans, not because they no longer like us) so we did some school with just the three of us. I had planned a lot of different activities from the water week but the Puddle Jumping activity proved to be quite fun and then we modified it a bit so that was the only one we got to today. Miss M liked seeing how far she could jump and then counting her steps to see if she could jump as far as Mommy. When it got too hot to hop outside, we brought the puddle pieces inside and I made a trail of letters from the start to the finish. Miss M hopped from one letter to another until she reached the end, naming them as she went. Another modification could be to make more puddle pieces, number them on one side and put letters on the back. Kiddos have to hop from puddle to puddle in order and then identify the letter on the back before hopping to the next one. I think we might try this tomorrow, since we are starting potty training and will be housebound for several days with hours and hours of time to fill close to the powder room. I really want to do the Eyedropper Art project (dripping watery paint down an umbrella cut out) and hope that Miss M will be amenable to it tomorrow (she just wanted to hop today). I'll post the finished product if I can get her to do it.
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