Shape Snowman Scene

M and I made a shape snowman, inspired by DLTK. I chose the star paper to glue the snow man on, because we thought it looked like snow in the background! I cut all the shapes out using my scrapbook tools and M glued it together, following my instructions.

Apples

We have just finished a mini unit on apples. R is 3½ and M is 18 months.

Firstly, I printed some 3 part cards from abcteach, but I do not think they are available anymore, as I was unable to locate them. We used these to complete the apple labelling sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies.

We also used the apple observation sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies. I had a selection of apples to choose from. R chose one apple and we completed the sheet. M just joined in with the eating of the apples. :)

R chose another apple to draw. He placed it on his table and used it for inspiration whilst drawing. The apple card was also on his table, and he decided to write the word 'apple' on his picture. This is the first time he has purposefully written a word. We have had lots of letters come out in his drawings, but they have all been random. So this was exciting for me. I have had it stuck to the fridge ever since and have been proudly showing all the visitors that come to our house!!

We made apple trees from paper plates, toilet rolls and stickers. This was something the M could join in with, and boy, does he love to paint.

Both of the boys are into signing and nursery rhymes at the moment, so we sung "5 Red Apples" several times. I don't know where this came from. I made it a few years ago, and was unable to find it.

I made a little 1-5 counting book for R. He glued apple seeds onto each page to match the numeral on each page. He quite enjoyed this activity, next time I will make the book to go to 10, as he knows the numbers 1-5 well.

I printed the Roll and Colour Apple Tree from Kindergarten Hoppenings. This is a fantastic blog with loads of functional activities...one of my favourites! R is really getting into colouring in these days. He quite often asks for a picture to colour.

R is just beginning to understand patterning so, I made a couple of activities for his to practice this. These are from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Engaging Toddler Activities.

Also from Confessions of a Homeschooler, R did the shape matching and they both did the magnet page with pom poms. R also did the 6 piece puzzle.

R did apple size sequencing from Childcareland. Riley really gets this now, and was able to do this experience independently.

From 1+1+1=1, R did the Aa letter find with dot markers, whilst M did a dot painting. M absolutely loves the dot markers, and uses them almost everyday. Lucky they last forever!!!

We have started doing a few activities from the Ready2Read bundle by The Moffatt Girls. I love this idea and we are slowly working through the first few units. Here R coloured the -at and -an word families on the apple tree. 

Lastly, I made the boys an apple book that they completed with the dot markers. M had only 3 colours, whilst R's book contained a few facts about apples to make it a bit longer. They both loved having their own little books. 

This unit took almost 2 weeks to complete. We did a few other things too, but these were all the photos that I took. You can see my previous apples post here. 

I have just seen a wonderful apple pack from Musings Of Me. Here is the link to purchase the unit. I wish that I had seen this prior to our apple unit, I might just have to extend it another week to squeeze in some of these activities. There is a free apple book which we will do this afternoon. It uses dot markers...so I am sure it will be a hit in this house!!!  You can check out some of Michelle's other cute creations here, you will not be disappointed.

Thanks for reading

Elmer Birthday Cake and Crafts

R has really taken a liking to the 'Elmer' series of books since we borrowed "Elmer and the Rainbow" from the library a few months ago. I asked at the library if they had any others, and the kind librarian put some on 'request' for us, so we have had a steady stream of 'Elmer' books for a while now.

When R was choosing his birthday cake, he asked for Elmer. So I got my husband to sketch a picture of Elmer from the book cover. I made a round cake and used the drawing to cut out the pieces we did not need. I could not make gray icing, so I added plain icing to the cake and made a grid with an icing pen. Then it was a matter of 'simply' colouring in the squares with the different coloured icings. I say simply - because, once I found a method, it was quite simple to do. It was time consuming though, taking about two hours to ice the whole cake.

It turned out quite well, I was really proud of my efforts when it was finally finished.

We have also done a few craft activities:

This is a picture I found on Google and R painted it with Do-A-Dot markers (which R has fallen in love with in recent times)

Another Google picture find, collaged with small coloured squares.

We have done a couple of other things, but I cannot find the photo's. I will update if/when I locate them.

Thanks for reading.

Contact Collage

This is one of my favourite art activities for both of my boys (aged 1 and 3) to do. I cut up a square (or any other shape) of book covering contact and give them some flat items from the collage box. This time it was some stars and crepe paper. When he was finished sticking things on his collage, I gave him the glitter to shake onto his art work. R loves glitter!!!

When he is finished, I just stick it into his art scrapbook. This is a really easy open-ended craft with little preparation or mess.

Letter Gg and Grey

R is 35 months old.

We had a really fun week this week.

Craft
R made a giraffe from his footprint. He finger painted the dots onto the pieces when I cut them out. This idea came from Busy Bee Kids Crafts. This turned out unbelievably cute! R also snipped at the green paper on the bottom.

R did an easel painting with grey paint. To make grey paint we mixed a drop of black paint into the white paint.

R also did some drawing with all our grey pencils, markers and crayons.

R collaged a goldfish with gold circles. I used a circle punch to make the circles and R simply stick them on the fish along with a googly eye. Sorry, but the picture is not very clear.

R worked on a water colour picture of a goat from a purchased book. He really enjoyed this!


Letters and Language
I cut out a letter G and R added some glue and glitter. Another bad picture, sorry.

R sorted out the capital G’s and the lowercase g’s on the sorting mat from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

He also loves the Gg tracing. Anything that involves markers is much loved!

At his request, R also traced on the main letter page from Tot School Printables. He did really well at this activity.

R stamped with Gg stamps on a goat, from Tot School Printables.


Colours and Shapes
I sent R on a grey colour hut. This is what he found:

R sorted out pom poms, placing all the grey pom poms into a bowl.

I cut some shapes from alfoil for R to explore. He was not really interested in this activity.

Fine Motor and Sensory Skills
R explored some golf balls, rolling then and feeling the dimples in them.

R did a few of the Tot School Printables. He did the lacing card.

R played for quite a while, making sausages to cover the letter Gg and using the G cookie cutter.

R easily did the 3 piece puzzle.

R put some M&M’s on the Gg magnet page from Confessions of a Homeschooler. The M&M’s were a real motivator for this activity.

I made a simple sensory tub with green split peas, some measuring cups, spoons and a plastic muffin tray. R played with this for a long time.


Maths
More Tot School Printables. R did the goat ordering.

R sorted some cutlery that I set out for him. He also explored some coins, before posting them into a money box.

Science
I put some shaving cream and a blob of black paint into a zip-loc bag. R manipulated the bag until the shaving cream hat turned grey.

He then did finger painting with the grey shaving cream. We have done this many times and R never gets tired of it!!


Gross Motor Skills
We did the Gorilla Dance from an old CD from when I was working.

R got out his mini golf set and we hit the ball around the backyard.

I showed R how to gallop and we pretended to be galloping horses.

Cooking
We made our own garlic bread with home made garlic butter and a French Stick. It was yummy!

Next Program: Hh and Heart.
Thanks for reading!

Mrs Wishy Washy

We borrowed Mrs Wishy Washy from the library this week. I had ordered it and had to wait for it to come in from another library. When we went to collect it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a "big book". We had loads of fun reading it, and the size of it was a bit of a novelty for R. The book inspired some of our activities this week.

I put out some dark brown playdough (for mud) and the animals from the book; a pig, a duck and a cow. R loved putting them into the playdough. We talked about the animals 'getting dirty' like in the story.

After playing with the animals in the playdough, I suggested to R that we give them a bath. He was all for this, because he absolutely loves water play. I set out a tub of water with bubbles in it. I also gave him a nail brush and a pig, cow and duck.

He scrubbed the animals clean with the nail brush.

We also did a craft for each of the animals in the book. R collaged splotches onto the cow.

He fingerpainted pink paint onto a pig.

Finally, he collaged feathers onto a duck after decorating it with a yellow Do-A-Dot marker.

We really had a lot of learning opportunities this week from one simple book.