From The Hive

Nn noodle day- preschool style

2012-01-30T23:07:00.001-06:00

I'm was going to say Nn noodle day was fun, but I don't really know. Lou was sick and I had to just send in my materials. Lou was happy to work with all of them when I got them home. I'm going to write this as if I was doing it all in the classroom, it's easier that way.

There were few 'noodle' themed books at our library. I liked The Story of Noodles by Ying Chang Compestine best, but will keep an eye out for future years. It was long and needed a bit of condensing for a group reading to peeps this young.

I had paper plates with each of the letters where we've covered to this point, a-n capital and lower case. I set out only a few at a time and changed them frequently.

Each child had a paper take-out box and set of chopsticks. The boxes had several cuts of yarn 'noodles.' I called out a few of the children's names and a letter and those kids brought up their noodles to the plate.

I should have gone to a Chinese restaurant and begged for boxes, instead I cut them all out from a pattern available here. If you copy the image and increase out the size in a word document, it prints out fine. After 10 boxes, I realized cutting was too much but then I too far in.

The idea of using chopsticks and yarn noodles was adapted from Let's Go Fly a Kite. The chopsticks were in my boxes of 'teacher stuff' I store at my in-laws. I got them years ago for a Chinese new years activity. I think another teacher picked them up for me because I can not recall where I got them.

Here are a few things I set out for the kids to work with during arrival time and at the end of the day. The kids love the balance scale. I put nuts, noodles, and the weights for the scale out for them. They do really enjoy working with this.

I made these cards up with n words. There are just a handful of them. We used our letter tiles to spell out the words on scrabble trays. I pulled out only the needed letters so there aren't so many available. I have set this out in the room a few times since this and the kids really haven't used it much. Lou is happy to work with it. This idea is from Our Country Road.

This one was fun. You roll the dice and add that many meatballs to the spaghetti plate. I added chopsticks and a Oriental style cloth to to tie it in with the other activities. Those brown pom poms could be some Chinese meat I suppose.

This idea was adapted from totally tots. Luke enjoyed working with this one, and then he dumped all the meatballs on and pretended to eat them. Just as good.

This nut sorting activity is from Counting Coconuts. I've had the cards since last year and finally got a chance to use them. If there were any nut allergies in the school, obviously I wouldn't have been able to use this.

I used random jars; I didn't have enough wooden bowls.

Here was the craft for the day, which Lou had to work on at home. They glued dyed noodles onto a paper titled 'noodle art.'

I had this noodle activity ready, but they didn't need it. The kids were each given small bowls of dry noodles and a recording sheet. This is from mailbox magazine preschool August/September 2000.

And these next two items were from my teaching partners Nn day and I liked them so much I wanted to share.

Phone number bingo: Each child's phone number was typed out for them. Numbers were called out and they covered up the numbers. When the child had a 'bingo,' then they read off their phone number.

She also had the kids circle number nines in the newspaper. There are a lot of nines on all the add pages I noticed. Cars and grocery mostly.

I used a lot of ideas this week that I gathered online, mostly from pinterest. I can't imagine doing this job without the internet! I know I didn't use online resources very much my first few years, but I had teacher plan books at least.

church at home complete with treats

2012-01-28T03:00:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, Lou was sick and we decided to have church at home (after I got back from taking him to urgent care... again). He's fine now- more ear infections. It's been a hard winter on those ears of his. Bee prepared a reading and bible story and a song, rather enthusiastically, I might add. And then it was decided that we needed doughnuts to complete our church experience. We used this recipe from Pioneer Woman and I will just buy bigger pants. It's a fair trade. Bee's reading was good, but we are looking forward to regular church this weekend. I think we are all healthy enough to go!

chevron scarf is done

2012-01-27T03:30:00.000-06:00

I finally finished this knitted chevron scarf that I've been working on since October. Knitting takes so much more time than crocheting.

It's not as long as I had hoped, but I ran out of yarn and had already used all my yarn budget on it. It's made from MinnowMerino wool, so there's where my money went. It's soft and I love the colors. The colors are bluette, chartreuse and tangerine (although it's very much a pink). I had some grays and blues picked out and then saw these more fun colors close to the register and changed my mind altogether.

Because it's not as long as I had planned, I added a little loop and a big button to help it stay crossed. The pattern was found here at the purl bee, which I found via pinterest. I love the finished look but it did require careful counting. Careful, careful counting. I pulled out as many rows as I stitched in. If you get off count anywhere in the row, it will be evident and must be fixed. But, the finished result is so pretty and reminds me that if I slow down, pay attention to details, and do things carefully and correctly, the results will be better.

The next project is a pair of matching gloves. I have a fingerless pair pattern picked out.... I'm gong to need to be brave and get working with a pair of double pointed needles though.

Have you been curling your hair with a sock too? It's pinned like a million times on pinterest and there are dozens of youtube videos about it so you might be. I'm finally figuring it out and can even do it in the morning while I'm getting ready and still get the same amount of curl in 30 minutes that I get from all night. I can't get into the showering at night thing, so I needed to make this work for my morning routine. This is the youtube video where I learned this method. Bee wishes her hair was straight and I want curls. Go figure.

4 square tic tac toe

2012-01-26T03:30:00.000-06:00

We've learned a new game at our house. It's 4-square tic tac toe. There's more strategy and planning than with regular tic tac toe and we are really into it.

Instead of working with a 3x3 grid, you have a 4x4. You are still using two players; X and O. Play is like regular tic tac toe except that players can win three ways: 4 corners, 4 in a square (anywhere on the board) or 4 in a row (vertical, horizontal, diagonal).

You want to play now don't you? Watch out for my kids though, they are good! When no one wins and it's a draw Lou and Bee have been calling it 'cat's eye' which makes my giggle.

Mm math day -marshmallows and M&Ms- preschool style

2012-01-25T03:00:00.000-06:00

Oh what a fun day we had. M&Ms and marshmallow math day. How could you go wrong with such yummy treats?

I had a book, but we didn't get time to read it at school. The kids and I read it at home and it's cute, just doesn't really happen to go with my activities. This is Marshmallow by Clare Newberry.

First, we looked at how much space M&Ms, mini marshmallows, and regular marshmallows take up. I asked lot of questions about these jars and we made predictions. We counted each and asked more questions and made more predictions.

The kids were pretty good at guessing the marshmallows, we were all way off on the M&Ms. We recorded our information and reread our results. This information was useful in making predictions on our second activity.

Next, we weighed marshmallows and M&Ms. The kids LOVED using the balance scale. I placed a certain number in one side and we made predictions about what it would take to balance it. I also had a few examples written out and we made predictions and then tested to see which was actually heavier.

Then the kids wanted to just pour all of the items in the sides and see what happened. We did. I left the balance scale out when we had some extra time and the kids flocked to it. I will have to find other opportunities to use it.

I did end up making this balance scale. It wasn't hard and cost about $6 in materials. I had the baskets from an old scale. I think that you could use pie pans or some other container in place if needed.

Here's a side view. The main vertical piece is three pieces of thin wood glued together with a space for the arm. The arm is a touch thinner than one of the stem pieces.

My favorite activity was this marshmallow measuring activity. I had several sheets prepared like this one. We did one as a group. I showed how to lay the marshmallows on the line and how to count those up and record it on the appropriate line.

I divided the kids into partners and sent them somewhere in the room to work on their sheet. They worked so well together today. I think we're getting there! Some groups finished early and got to measure the line with M&Ms too.

After the groups were done, we came back to our circle and shared our results. I think this was the most valuable part of this activity, to share the results. This is the first time we've done something like this where the kids discussed their work orally after the activity.

This was our end of the day activity. The kids each had a sheet and a handful of marshmallows. We rolled the dice as a group and we worked on covering the numbers.

Here was the craft today. It is a mountain M to go with all the other letters we've been doing each week.

I sent a M&M graphing activity home. It wouldn't have been fair to do all of these fun things with treats and not get to eat any. The sheet attached just gives the parents some ideas about what questions to ask as they work on this activity with their child. One of my parents emailed me a picture of their child working on the chart. So, I know at least one family did it.

This is something that we display each day at dismissal time on a clipboard by the door. I don't think I've ever shared it before. Lou's classroom does this too. They have a sign that says 'car talk.' I though it was such a good idea, so my class does it too now. It gives the parents some information about what we did in class and helps them guide the conversation in the car or at home. It often says the book we read, a game we played, a song we worked on, something special the leader brought, etc.

I ate more M&Ms this day than a person probably should. Good thing I don't like marshmallows.

It gets better, right?

2012-01-24T03:30:00.000-06:00

I know it won't get better for some time. We're just beginning... Bee is only 6. I thought this clothes drama would wait until she was older. This morning there were at least 6 outfits laid on the floor plus a closet full and drawers full of clothes and still.... "I have nothing to wear!" There were tears. She was upset too.

While we are in her room, check out the mess of a desk she calls her art studio. Mess.

Here is her fish tank from Christmas which we've really been happy with. She bought some more fish with the rest of her Christmas money last week.

My favorite are the big mystery snails. Man, are they cool to watch! Those snails never fought their mother on what to wear. I bet they would have worn whatever she laid out.

art things

2012-01-23T04:00:00.000-06:00

Bee and I have been trying a few things with her new watercolor supplies. We both love art and it's so fun to have something else we can work on together.

We worked on some textured watercolor fruit . Rough shapes are painted on regular drawing paper. Watercolor paper would have been too thick so we used drawing paper.

Ignore the marshmallows on the table. We have a number of projects going on at one time! Bee is working on a strawberry.

When the paper is dry, it is laid over a cheese grater and rubbed with a 'naked' crayon laid on it's side. The paper picks up the texture.

The shapes then get cut out and displayed however. Here are mine:

Here are Bee's:

The second project we worked on were some water color cats. We painted blobs in cat like colors on watercolor paper.

When they were dry, we drew with a fine tip black marker sort of an outline for the blobs to turn them into cats. Nothing is exact, it's all very loose and rough. Here's mine:

Here are Bee's:

I so enjoy that Bee is interested in art right now. It gives us something fun to do together and it's neat to see her spend so much time and effort on something. Does it look like the cat on the right has a mustache? I just noticed that. He looks French.

Penguin math day -preschool style

2012-01-22T03:30:00.000-06:00

It wasn't the letter P, but it was a math day and I had some penguin math I wanted to do so I went with that. It was really the letter L and the craft was the letter L with leaf stickers. We had so much fun that no one minded that I went with my own theme. Who wants to do leaves in January?

I read this book, 365 Penguins but did some editing as the math got a little hard and some paraphrasing as the moral got uber environmental. I kept it friendly and fun and left out the part about illegally smuggling penguins because of melting icecaps. Other than that, it worked. It was funny and I'll use it again.

I left the poster that I used with these numbered penguins at school so it didn't get in the picture. It was just a poster board with a 5x4 grid and velrco pieces which these pieces stuck. The penguin cards are from (I think) 1+1+1=1 but I took some liberties with them to get them to count to 20. I couldn't find the link to these, but found these others, which might have worked even better for me.

It looked like the one I used here with Chrismtas pieces. I had all the pieces on to start. Then we made some observations about the numbers, the direction they went, how we started the next line on the left side, how both 10 and 20 as well as 5 and 15 were on end spots, etc. The kids didn't notice the colored pattern on the penguins, but we did do some work with patterning with the Christmas set. Then I took them all down and passed them out. I had the kids reassemble the chart in order without direction (much anyway) from me. They did great, they love doing hard math work on their own! Finally, with two or three numbers at a time I replaced the number card with their pictures. Then, the child whose picture was in place of a number had to tell what number was missing. Using their pictures allowed me to choose who would have to name what number. I'm sneaky like that.

Then we worked on a class book. This was probably everyone's favorite part of the day. The first five pages talk about specific penguins and their height. All of my penguin clipart and measurements came from the seaworld penguin website.

The rest of the pages read "______is _____ then the ______ penguin." I had five paper penguins drawn to scale and taped on the wall. The kids chose one to stand in front of and we completed a page for them.

Here's my Lou (he comes over after class and helps me clean up- and enjoys a snack). His page would read, Lou is taller than the king penguin." or, Lou is the same size as the emperor penguin." Then, I glued each child's picture to their page and laminated them. That laminator might just be the most used piece of equipment at my house!

Here's another friend, just to show some of the other penguins. (Our leader mom had some things on the counter I should have moved for the pictures. We don't usually have pop sitting out- but we do have to live with those sponge painted walls!)

We also went carpet iceskating on wax paper. They loved it. I don't have a picture of my class doing it, but here's Bee and Lou wax paper skating at our house last year.

I played the song "Hang on Little Tomato" by Pink Martini and the kids have been requesting it since. I enjoy listening to it also, so I oblige. It's instrumental all except for the last few lines. I am not sure what the words are really about but I've listened a few times to make sure it was appropriate and I think it's fine.

We also played this fun game with paper fish with numbers and a hungry toy penguin with a little frying pan. I laid out 2-4 fish with different numbers and had them choose the fish with the largest number. They placed it in the frying pan and the penguin cooked it up. There were lots of cooking sound effects and chef talk from the prnguin. This worked out well since I was able to choose larger numbers for some kids or smaller numbers with fewer choices for the kids who needed it. Just like any classroom, we have kids all over the place academically. The fish shapes are just googled clipart.

I had this 'roll a penguin' just in case we needed it. It's a freebie from Rowdie in First Grade. We did find a few minutes at the end of the day for it. I blew up a larger penguin on the copier so that I would have one to do as well. I also programed our dice with numeral so we had to match it with the dots on the page.

We have a class that really can't handle too much unstructured time without guidance. A handful of our boys seem to be having the 'testosterone surge' that Dr. James Dobson describes in Bringing up Boys. There is this little pocket of time in the day when we come back from playing on the playground or from the gym if it's cold and then parents come to pick up. There's 5 minutes there and then parents come to pick up in about a 10 minute window. The kids need to be on task, but something that they can leave easily from. I like playing a game that they can take with them and finish at home if their parents come in the first wave.

The sensory box has been the least favorite this year. The cotton ball don't seem to be as fun for pouring and stirring. I will go back to beans and things.

The craft for the day was not penguin related since I did this on my own, but there are so many great penguin crafts out there. Pinterest has too many to even choose a favorite!

snow day

2012-01-21T03:00:00.000-06:00

Well, this is last week. This week it's 60 degrees. Edited to add: except I spoke to soon. Today it's 30 degrees. When I typed this two days ago it was warm. You never can tell this winter!

What is up with the weather? I'm enjoying the jacket weather in January, but was so happy that we had some snow to enjoy.

We only got an inch or so at our house, these pictures are from Grandma and Grandpa's house where there were several inches.

I had my snow icecream for the year. Alright, back to light jacket weather.

carrie and carry bag

2012-01-20T03:30:00.000-06:00

I picked up the carrie bag pattern at the fabric shop on a whim. I was looking for a fun easy bag to carry this winter. It ended up being really large, but I'm going with it. I have liked it so much, that I made up a second one as a little thank you gift for a friend. Here's her bag.

I chose a brown and pink wool like fabric from the 'suit fabric' section. My friend is a brand new stay at home mama. She's not a new mama, she's just finally getting the chance to stay home with her kids. This will be a great bag to throw all of the kids things in when they go out.

This pink and brown lining is so her.

Here's my bag. Mine is a gray and pink wool suiting fabric, which I had on hand from a pile that someone passed on to me. The inside is a pink linen also passed onto me from someone. I can't keep all my scores straight anymore.

This is where it usually is, in the car, stuffed full as always, and ready to go. The pattern was easy to use and really straight forward. I think my bag made up in about an hour and a half and my friend's in two hours or so.

It really holds a ton. It was great for travel at Christmastime. I could carry all my regular purse items as well as Bee's chapter book, my book, a few school papers, my knitting project, Lou's DS, etc.

It's ok that hubby has teased me for carrying my 'luggage purse.' I was just getting used to being able to leave the house with a small purse, but I sort of like having a big ol' mom bag again.

I have no affiliation with Sweet Seams of Butterwick patterns. All my thought about the Carrie Bag pattern are my own. Wouldn't it be cool if I had affiliation? That would be a fun one!

L ladybug day -preschool style

2012-01-19T03:00:00.000-06:00

I had not planned on teaching ladybug day, but traded last minute and ended up teaching it with pretty short notice. I felt only so-so about my materials, but we had a great day and the kids were really good listeners, so I guess they worked out. I only ended up with one good book at the library, Ladybugs: Red Firey, and Bright by Mia Posada. I used my ladybug life-cycle models with the book. I think I got them in a set in the 'educational/science' section at Toys R Us.

This was the kids favorite page. They loved the larva! They were pretty gross.

The book was a rhyming one so I went with a rhyming activities. We haven't done much with rhyming. I said the picture on the lead as I laid them out in the center of our circle rug. Then as we took turns, I passed out the lady bugs. The kiddos matched them up.

My sweet hubby helped me do a lot of cutting and gluing to get these gals ready.

The pictures I used on the leaves and bugs are from The best of Mailbox learning centers preschool/kindergarten 1996, the same place the first letter pictures came from with the kangaroos.

The ladybugs made up pretty quickly. They are just little black circles (heads) glued on a larger black circle (body). Then a red circle the same size as the black body is cut in half and glued on for wings.

I used some thick black string for the antennas. They stuck in place when I laminated them.

We snuck in this eye-spy page during this little 8-10ish minute pocket in the day. I made the pictures a little bit bigger than an Hh page I had used several weeks ago and the kids did find it easier. I also added the words so that perhaps my sister would find some use for it in her 1st grade room. (I can't share this document with a link since I don't own the copyright for the pictures, but I'd be happy to email you a copy if you'd like to see it better. Just leave me a note in the comments section.)

Here's Lou's craft. the construction was pretty much the same as my smaller ones. The kids stamped the dots on with a round sponge stick stamper thing.

I had this activity ready just in case we had time and we did end up needing it. We've done this before with colored rugs and a little bug and a rhyme that says, "Little bug, little bug, are you under the ___red___ rug?" That was last year when they were 3 and 4.

For this day, we used the rhyme, "Ladybug ladybug, are you under the _____ rug?" The kids took turns naming a letter and flipping the letter. It's funny, sometimes the kids enjoy such a simple activity. You never know.

I've been sending home each week the little letter booklets from Musing of Me. I don't know if her printables are available right now or not, she had some trouble with copyright issues with the images lately and had to pull her printable. Sad day, but I think she's got the trouble resolved now.

and then there were the bananas

2012-01-18T03:00:00.000-06:00

It's pretty much confirmed that we love dried apples and they are a staple at our house. They are great for snacks, easy to pack in a lunch box and fantastic for road trips.

And then there were the bananas.

We were packing for a road trip and I was getting ready to dry a batch of apples. There was a banana on the counter that needed eaten, so I cut it up and threw it in with the apples. We are on our third batch of all bananas now! They are great. They have a banana flavor, but it's different. It reminds me of the grilled plantains that we used to get in Florida. They're lovely and I can't get enough. We've been drying them the same style but for 11-12 hours at 170 degrees instead of the 13-14 for the apples.

We've tried apples , pears, apple-pears, tomatoes, zucchini and now bananas. Apples and bananas are most worth the oven space! So far the least enjoyable was the zucchini. We may try some strawberries this Spring, but we usually eat them as fast as we pick them. I wonder what else we could throw in there?

not so much mother of the year

2012-01-15T18:00:00.000-06:00

I may have earned a few mom points for carting Lou all over Tarnation to see the Monster Jam trucks that were in town, but I lost any and all points and went negative for the lessons I taught the kids the next day.

First, let's enjoy Lou, enjoying the trucks. Bee was at school, although she didn't seem to care that she missed them.

We went with a buddy which makes everything more fun. Plus, I enjoy his mama, so it was more fun for me too.

The drivers were signing photos of the trucks. Lou wanted the pictures and autographs, but wouldn't get close to the drivers. His buddy lacked that fear.

Onto the next truck at the next random business in town.

I did 'encourage' Lou to grab the signed photo from the driver himself to be polite, but... oh no, too close..... retreat. retreat!

So, the Monster trucks came to our town. I got a hold of three passes to the pit party before the show. Hubby was to take the kids, I was going to ~~clean, grocery shop~~, sew. Then, he had to work. Here's where the problem started. The pit party was from 11-12:30, the show was at 2:30. Surely you could leave between so I packed lunches. We had plans to walk to the downtown library inbetween and nicely pass the time then walk back over for the show.

We went to the pit party right at the start of it (11:00) so we would not be rushed on our library picnic, I parked nice and close in the two hour slots. As the ticket gal scanned our tickets, I asked, "When we leave for lunch, we just get our tickets scanned again?" She looked at me puzzled and answered, "Oh Honey, you can't leave." crap. crap. crap.

I explained that we had parked in the two hour spots (I wondered why there were so many free spots so close to the building!) and what was I to do. I told her I was pretty desperate here. I was without my husband, had spent all of our money on the tickets and was now going to get towed (Not to mention that our lunches were in the car and we had 3 1/2 hours to kill). She must have seen the desperation in my eyes because she took me aside and explained that all hope was not lost. She said that if I 'needed a smoke break' in an hour or so that there was a slightly secret door between sections 112 and 113 and if I talked to a gal names Linda she would let me out that door. Then I had to walk down three flights of stairs and there would be a gentleman named Paul who would let me outside to smoke. From there I could hike the few blocks to get back to the front gates and pass through the line of police cars blocking the road and find my car. Then I just had to make sure I entered back in those same back doors, show my tickets to Paul and then to Linda. If security stopped me along the way I was not to say that Sandy had said this was ok. I pretty much started feeling nervous and antsy and like somewhere between Linda and Paul and the security guard we were getting kicked out.

We went to the pit party, saw the trucks up close and made posters at the kids tables. Then we found our seats. It was 11:40. Crap. We still had a lot of time to kill and the car to move and lunches to find. I explained to Bee and Lou that we had a secret mission. We might have to be a little sneaky and mommy might have to fib a little, but we were in a bind. Gosh, I rock as a mom. Lesson taught: It's ok to lie, if you are in a bind.

On our way to sections 112 and 113 for my 'smoke break,' I checked out the concession stands. $8.00 for a hotdog. $15.00 for a snow cone (I kid you not!). Oh my, now I had to sneak our lunches in too! We made our way to 112/113 door, and found Linda. She asked if I needed to get out to smoke. I answered "Yes." I am not a good liar. Bee looked right up at me and smiled. Crap. lesson taught: Lying is fun if you are in on a secret.

We made out way through the back part of the building and found Paul at the door which was being held open by a safety cone. Paul asked if he could help me find my way. I explained that I was looking for the smokers door. Not as much a lie. That was the door I needed. We stood there with a few other smokers until Paul closed the door. As soon as Paul went back in, the kids and I took off. I wasn't sure how long a smoke break should take, but I figured we couldn't be faster than 10 minutes, even if we were lucky. We booked it two blocks or so to the front entrance. We made our way through the the police cars and ambulances.

(I'm going to continue telling the story, but also show photos of the later show- so obviously we made it back)

I threw the kids in the car and buckled them up in record time. I drove all over about a five block radius. No parking anywhere. I drove through the only parking garage I know about. Full. Crap. How many cigarettes should I be smoking on this break? I hated to do this, but I parked in the library parking garage. I went to the basement of the parking garage where I think only the staff parks. No one should notice me there. I threw our lunches in my large purse and we hiked it back to the truck show building. We went to the back of the building. Paul was no where to be seen, but now a security guard stood there with a few random smokers. Crap. He clearly saw us walk the two blocks along the backside of the building. I whispered to the kids, "I need to both to be very quiet as we get back to our seats, don't do any talking." I think they sensed the slightly crazy tone to my voice. Thankfully, the security guard turned and walked over to a police officer a few yards in the other direction. As long as he didn't turn around we would be fine. As we approached the door, I slightly more louder than necessary said to the kids (really to all the smokers), "Let's go back in the SAME door we left from." ~~We ran~~, I dragged the kids up the three flights of stairs and through the scary back hallway. I was pretty sure the security guard was following us or the smokers at the door had ratted us out. Lesson: run! There was Linda. She asked how my smoke break was. I just smiled and said "thank you." We were back in.

It was a long 'smoke break,' but we still had some time to kill. Like 2 hours. We also had our lunches. There were signs everywhere that said, "no outside food or drink.' There were very few people seated still, only the ushers everywhere I looked. I was pretty sure we would get busted. So I did what every good mother would do. I took the kids to the ladies restroom and we sat on the floor of the handicap bathroom stall and had our picnic- sandwiches and oranges at least. No shame there. It was a pretty clean stall and it's not like we touched anything. Lesson taught: Rules don't apply to us. We will eat whatever food and drink we want. Also: When you want to do something sneaky, just hide and do it.

The show was great. It was loud and smelly, but we enjoyed ourselves. After about an hour and 20 minutes the music stopped, the lights turned to normal and we gathered our things and stood up. Then the announcer said, "It's time for out intermission- go get some cotton candy." Crap again. It was 3:20, we had been here since 11am and it was only half over! Lou said, "Is it time to go home now?" I answered, "I guess so!" Hannah asked, "What's intermission?" Crap, I'm pretty sure she knows. I look at her and said, "It's time to get cotton candy on our way home." Except when we got out there, cotton candy was $15 a bag! Thankfully Bee and Lou both said, "Seriously? That's crazy!"

We were so far from the front gates and had parked closer to the smokers door, plus we'd already been so naughty this day, so we decided to leave through the smokers door again. Linda let us out for another smoke break and we walked back to the library. We checked out a few books to feel legit about parking there.

To top this day off with my good mom skills, I ended up teaching the kids the words to the "Mama Mia, Papa Pia" song that kids sing. When I told hubby this story later, his biggest issue was our bathroom picnic. "That's gross," he said, "Gross!"

husband in training

2012-01-12T03:30:00.000-06:00

He's a good husband in training.

He bakes. (He woke asking for pizza and was happy to help make it)

He cleans. (I had to rewash everything) Plus he has those pretty curls.

Caution: He does like to pick out his own clothes and sometimes knocks over chairs when he's angry... but we're working on that.

mending

2012-01-10T03:30:00.000-06:00

Lou's poor "new owl blankey" went in for repairs this week. Again. Poor blanks. The orange ribbon is the favorite and that poor corner gets the wear. Poor blanks, hopefully he'll hold out much longer. I don't think we're done needing him yet.

good deal on snowflakes

2012-01-09T03:30:00.000-06:00

This one isn't just a good buy. Even better than good buy... this was all free! All of these winter decorations for my little sister's first grade classroom were free courtesy of Target. We scored these when we were up visiting my sister for Christmas.

Can you believe that Target was just tossing all these nice decorations in the trash? They are a super sturdy, really thick, sort of plasticy paper and will be great decorations in her classroom for years. When I saw them in a shopping cart by the registers I asked our cashier if they were going up or coming down. She said they were coming down, but not to bother asking for them though because there is always a waiting list. I asked. We got them all! My sister may have winked at the boy helping us, I can't be certain.

There were a few big 3D snowflakes.

A couple of spiraly springy hangy snowflakes.

And sheets and sheets of what must be 3 foot by 4 or 5 foot snowflakes. Those are actually what I saw first. I knew that she had the perfect windows in her room for them. There were so many that we also covered a huge currently empty bulletin board in the hallway too.

There are even several sheets more of these snowflakes that are red and purply saved for me someday. Hubby was doing a lot of groaning about unpacking the car to fit them in, so we'll just wait for another trip!

Kk kangaroo day -preschool style

2012-01-08T03:30:00.000-06:00

Kangaroo day was such a fun day! I searched hard for a great book and found two. I squeezed them both in and the kids agreed that they were both really good ones.

We talked about some things that begin with the letter Kk and ended up talking about kangaroos. We looked at pictures of them and talked about how the mama kangaroos carry their baby verse how people mama's carry their babies. We talked about this picture: We talked about what this kangaroo is doing, why he is resting, where he has been jumping. The kids had some good ideas.

I read Katy No-Pockets by Emmy Payne. It's a long one so I paraphrased it mostly. The kids thought it was funny. Poor Katy has no pocket to carry her joey in and ends up getting an apron with lots of pockets.

I passed out these little fabric pockets that I sewed up in about 20 minutes the night before. They are rough, no finished edges, mostly uneven, but the kids didn't notice. We stuck in a laminated joey so we could carry our baby kangaroo just like Katy did.

Before getting to any work, we jumped around the room to this song:

I have a little Joey (tune: Have you ever seen a lassie)

I have a little Joey, a Joey, a Joey

I have a little Joey, he lives in my pouch.

I jump up and jump down,

he bounces up and bounces down.

I have a little Joey who lives in my pouch.

(repeat with: I jump right, I jump left, he bounces right, he bounces left)

and we jumped those little joeys all around.

Then we took out our Joeys and put them to bed. Each Joey had a picture of an item that started with a letter a-k.

The kids put their Joeys in the right bed. They were so tired after all that bouncing. They did surprisingly well. If anyone got stuck, I reminded them of the sound from our phonics song. The kangaroo outlines are from Mailbox magazine preschool August/September 1997. The item pictures are from The best of Mailbox learning centers preschool/kindergarten 1996. (It's probably not surprising that I have saved such random copies of papers I might someday use.) I drew the beds by looking off a clipart I found online.

After our time in 'the big room' (which is our room with all the play areas -blocks, doll house, kitchen, office, baby area, etc) We stopped in the hall and did some jumping. A grown kangaroo can jump 30 feet on average. I measured out 30 feet in the hall as well as 1 foot increments from the start to about 6 feet.

As the kids jumped I recorded their distance on a page that will go in a class book about how far we jumped. The kiddos love the books that we've made together. They choose them before others in the classroom.

Here was our craft. The kids cut out the pieces and assembled. Our crafts are not exactly 'process over product' but they are always cute.

After our time playing in the gym, as parents arrived, I squeezed in the other book, Baa! Moo! What Will We Do? by A.H. Benkamin. This is a great one if you like to read with voices. The animals hear a kangaroo is coming to the farm and each is worried that the kangaroo will be able to do his farm job. The kangaroo of course doesn't want their jobs, she actually is a babysitter.

Here is something Lou brought home this same day. I thought it was cute and will save it for another time for myself. The kids were given little baggies with kisses and letter k cut outs in them with this little saying:

I found this on my bed after school, Lou had helped me make my bed this morning, so he left me the K treat.

snow- review day -preschool style

2012-01-07T03:30:00.000-06:00

The first day back at school was a 'review' day. I wanted to do something wintery, since most of our days are themed, and don't involve snow. I missed my little friends and was ready to get back to school.

We read S is for Snowman: God's Wintertime Alphabet by Kathy-Jo Wargin. It's a cute book that I bought last year right after winter, so this was the first time I have read it to a class.

As I read it, I put cards with uppercase letters on them on the board. I only did this up through Jj, which was our last letter to work on before break. After the story, I laid out some laminated snowflakes (here are directions to making 6 pointed snowflakes). The kids took turns matching the snowflakes with the uppercase letters.

Each snowflake had a lowercase letter on the backside of the snowflake. I didn't want to ruin the appearance of the front of my flakes. I might use them for something else someday.

I was good to get back to our class. The kids seem to have mellowed out a bit over break. What a happy surprise.

Christmas games -preschool style

2012-01-06T03:30:00.000-06:00

Clearly this post is dated. I've been meaning to get to it, but just haven't. Here's a Christmas lesson that we worked on the week before the holidays. It's mostly a mash of random Christmas activities, some from last year, but the kids didn't mind repeating them. I have about 80% the same kids as last year.

We read Night Tree by Eve Bunting. It's a sweet sweet story about a family going to visit the tree they decorate each Christmas as a gift to the animals. I asked bunches of questions as we read. Its one of those stories that some of my 4 year olds needed a little guiding through in order to understand the whole story.

We played some Christmas bingo. I had a felt tree and pieces and from last year that we used again.

The kids each had a sheet with the pictures. They were to watch as I decorated the tree. No one said the item, they just watched and then covered the item on their own sheet. It was so quiet, which makes me laugh to see them all so serious.

The meat of the lesson this day was this math activity. It looks like there are a lot of pieces on here, goodness. The big wreath and big berries are the items I used to demonstrate and let the kids look to if they needed help. The little paper wreaths and little cup of berries are the ones each child used.

We rolled one dice with red numbers and added that many red berries to our wreath, then we rolled the dice with green numbers and added that many green berries to the wreath. Then we made the number sentence. Red berries + green berries. I tried using the sheet of paper that has the green and red berries taped down. It was easier without.

The kids really liked the sensory tub this season. This isn't a good picture of it. In addition to the regular dried beans, there were red, green and white pom poms, plastic candy canes, little wrapped present decorations, little wooden manger pieces, jingle bells, Christmas cookie cutters, etc. I made a sheet that had pictures of some of the items for the kids to search for. You can sort of see it leaning against the wall. They seem to like the sensory tub best when there is an eye spy sheet to go with it.

special sounds- A Beka

2012-01-04T03:43:00.000-06:00

I wrote recently about my inability to figure out Bee's 'special sounds' homework. Actually, we were correcting work from class because Bee apparently had an inability in figuring it out too. I asked Bee's teacher to share with me what these special sounds were so I could have a list. She sent home a book with charts and practice pages and I copied all of them down. I had searched online with no luck (perhaps there is a real name other than 'special sounds). Regardless, here they are. Hopefully some other desperate parent can use them to help with homework.

To the best of my knowledge and copying ability these are the 'special sounds' that go with the A Beka language materials. All 131 of them.

a adopt
a asleep
a banana
air hair
al also
alk walk
all ball
ang bang
ank bank
ar dollar
ar stars
are care
arr carry
ay pray
au faucet
aught caught
aw saw
be because
bl block
br bride
c city
ch chorus
ch church
ck duck
cl clock
cr crab
dge fudge
dr drum
e me
ea leaf
ea steak
ea thread
ear ear
ear earth
ear pear
ed wanted, looked, played
eigh eight
en enjoy
en sharpen
er bigger
er verse
err cherry
es peaches
est biggest
ew few
ew flew
ey key
ey obey
fl flake
fr frog
ful beautiful
g giant
gl glue
gn gnat
gr grin
igh night
ild child
ind kind
ing king
ing pointing
ink wink
ir bird
ie brownie
ire fire
kn knot
le little
ly slowly
mb lamb
o go
o shovel
oi choir
old gold
ong long
onk honk
oo book
oo tooth
or morning
or sailor
ou country
ou out
ough enough
ought thought
ould could
ow bowl
owl owl
oy boy
ph phone
pl plane
pr pray
sc scat
scr scream
sh ship
sion missionary
sion television
sk skate
sl sleep
sm smoke
sn snack
sp spade
spl splash
spr sprain
squ squeak
st stop
str stream
sw swim
tain mountain
tch patch
th thick
thr three
tion nation
tr train
ture pasture
tw twins
u push
un unbutton
ung strung
unk trunk
ur nurse
ure pure
wa wash
war warm
wh whale
wh who
wor worms
wr wrinkle
y baby
y crystal
y fly
y rainy

penguins and friends

2012-01-03T03:30:00.000-06:00

I have nothing ready of my own today, but thought I'd share this cute cheese ball that a friend of mine made. There are little olive penguins and an igloo cheese ball. The feet and beaks are carrots and he's stuffed with cream cheese. A college friend of mine brought this to a Christmas get-together. I just did a quick search and here's a site with step by step directions for the penguins (although it doesn't look like theirs have eyes). Upon further looking, here's Betty Crocker's version.

These college friends of mine are a fun group to visit. There were 8 or so of us who got stuck together in the dorm our freshman year of college and have been buddies for the past 14ish years (gulp! That can't be right...), all of us ending up roommates in different combination all through college. We are spread across the country now and most of us are married and have little people of our own now. Five of us (and some hubby's and some kids) were able to get together this time. A few of the girls live closer and are able to get together more frequently, but there are at least two organized gatherings each year and usually a wedding or baby shower thrown in there too. Here are some of us, not everyone would get in the picture, mostly the husbands and pouty little brothers (ahem), and sleeping babies would not be photographed.

giggle

2012-01-02T03:30:00.000-06:00

This made me giggle when we picked Lou up from Sunday school today. Hmmmm...

Also, on the way home he looked out the window and said, "Look! a squawk of black birds!" Bee corrected him with the word "flock," but we've been laughing about it all day. It was one of those large flocks, like 5,000 birds. My nightmare!

I actually do have some things I want to write about. We are back from our travels and ready to start school up on Monday. I thought I'd have time on Sunday, but hubby made me move furniture around in two rooms, which means cleaning and reorganizing. I had school plans and such left them to cram in once the kids were in bed. We have some 'New Years resolutions' that should be freeing up some extra time, but I'll have to share about that later.

quick ruffle bags

2011-12-27T03:30:00.000-06:00

In the two weeks before Christmas we had four birthday parities to go to. They were good ones too; mini golf place, gymnastic place, pottery studio, frozen yogurt place.

One was a boy in Bee's class and we had something in the present box for him, the others were girls and Bee had strong opinions on what to give them. I set her budget a little lower this time since it's December and frankly, I wanted to spend that money on gifts for family.

Each girl got a small gift that Bee chose and a little lined ruffle bag that I made up using fabric on hand. My favorite was the purple. It's made from an old skirt that I loved and tried to remake as another skirt, but failed. The first is fabric my littlest sister gave me at Thanksgiving.

Bee's favorite is this brown Hawaiian floral. We seem to have very different taste in fabrics. It's leftover from a large order of matching coffee cozies. They were bridal shower favors or something. The ruffle is fabric from my sister at Thanksgiving. This was a great budget saver and a nice way to use up fabric on hand. Plus, these bags are so easy and quick to make. It was a win-win for us.

snowflakes with 6 points

2011-12-26T03:30:00.000-06:00

I mentioned making 6 pointed snowflakes the other day. Here's a bit more about that. You may become addicted and just want to cut and cut and cut snowflakes all day though. Fair warning.

We used origami paper because it's already square and is a very thin paper. We tried other paper with some luck, but origami paper worked the best. Scrapbook paper was a little too thick. Copy paper seemed the next best thing to origami paper.

Here we go. 1. Start with a square piece of paper. (I did step 2 before I took a photo, so it has a crease already- ignore)

2. Fold in half on the diagonal, one corner to the opposite. Crease.

3. Bring the two bottom corners up and together. Don't crease.

4. Hold those two corners together.

5. Crease the bottom, just to mark half way. Unfold back to the triangle.

6. You are folding it into thirds now. Using the little crease that marked half way along the bottom edge, bring one corner up. Fold and Crease.

7. Bring the other point across and fold and crease as well.

8. You may need to go back and adjust the first wing-like fold over to get these two folds equal.

9. Now fold this shape in half again.

10. Crease.

11. Cut off those uneven tails.

12. make cuts in the folded shape. unfold.

13. make a mess.

14. decorate your house.

We found that if you cut low on one edge and higher on the other, it created a flake with higher 6 points and 6 lower point; a more defined snowflake.

15. Repeat

Merry Christmas to you

2011-12-25T03:30:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Lou wore his Christmas sweater without bribe. Be insisted on a shirt on under her dress since it was itchy.

Bee was insisting on her penguin being in the photos and was grumpy when I said he would sit on the table and watch.

Lou was just a happy camper because he didn't have to go to Sunday school on Christmas Eve. He got to sit in big church with us. He was pretty pumped when he found out there would be candles too.

In case you wanted to be grossed out a little.

Or scared a little.

After church on Christmas Eve, we let the kids open their presents to each other. Lou was overjoyed with his present from Bee- hot wheel cars. I don't get it; he has about 80. Why would he want more?

He got Bee a makeup kit, so of course she was pretty happy too.

We hope you are enjoying your Christmas!

those clip boards

2011-12-24T03:30:00.000-06:00

In the recent big pick, there were five old clipboards. Bee and I had just been talking about picking up some clipboards for her to display her artwork on. She's been quiet the artist lately. I've even unpacked my artist watercolors, chalks and charcoals for her. We set up the easel on her desk and she's been producing art like a mad woman.

We've done this remake with clipboards before, but we just traced some scrapbook paper and modge podged it on.

We hung all five on the wall above her desk (which she keeps pushing closer to her window so she can draw things outside). You could use these to hang photos or art work or notes, whatever you need displayed. They hang right under her photo canvas artwork.

Bee received some Christmas money from my Grandma and what a proud and happy mama I was, she asked me to take her to the art store and she spent almost all her money on more watercolor paper and a nice set of watercolor pencils. I got out my good watercolor brushes and she's a happy artist. I was almost as proud as the day she said she wanted to learn to sew!

picking and a whole day of fun

2011-12-23T03:30:00.001-06:00

I'm done using the word 'hoarding.' These items came to me via a really good 'pick.' After our teacher Christmas party, one of the girls announced that they had cleaned out some Sunday school closets and had craft items to give away. It all had to go and we should go through it first. YES! We were like crazy ladies at 4am on black Friday. We spent an hour going through it all and calling dibs on things. I brought home all of this.... 1 large tub mostly full of felt, two cardboard boxes and a smaller tub full of random craft supplies, baby food jars, bells, beads, lacing lanyard, foam balls, sand dollars, shells, glitter, clipboards, die cut paper pieces, origami paper, electric pencil sharpeners, baskets, cigar boxes, clay pots, etc.

Here's one of my favorite finds. I've been scouring garage sales for an old-school style pencil sharpener with no luck. I just found a brand new one! It's already installed in the basement.

The next morning, the kids and I spent a good while going through all the goodies and then spent the whole day playing with them. One thing in the lot was a bucket of instant snow. We had to try it right away.

It starts as a powder and then when you add water, it expands and expands and fluffs up like snow. It's fluffy and soft and does feel a lot like snow. If you put it in the fridge for a little bit, it really feels like snow.

It keeps for weeks, the box says. We've gotten it out several times and have really enjoyed it so far.

We even tricked daddy! He was away on business for a few days and we convinced him that he missed a big- but short lived snowfall. We saved some snow for him in the freezer. He was tricked.

There was a bag of sand dollars. The kids are always wanting to break open my sand dollars to find the 'doves' inside, but I don't want to break the sand dollars we collected when we lived in Florida, so now they had their chance.

Bee and Lou each broke one in half and collected the 'doves.'

I guess there are five in each although I told them they would find 7. Guess I was wrong.

There was a roll of paper, which promptly was unrolled and drawn into a car racetrack and a castle scene. Those go together, right?

There was a pack of origami paper, which we cut into snowflakes. It took some practice, but we finally figured out the 6 pointed snowflakes.

Bee, Lou and I must have cut 40 snowflakes.

We hung them on every window and bare wall.

We got better and better the more we made and as we figured out what cuts made the prettiest finished product.

Then we made more and hung more.

We ran out of origami paper and went out and bought more!

We tried scrapbook paper, but the thickness was bit too much for the six pointed snowflakes. We made several, but they were harder to cut and the detail was lacking.

We also did a bunch of beading and stringing bells as well as a project with the clipboards. This was the most fun that we've had from a 'pick.'

Christmas presents- how to break your leg

2011-12-23T03:30:00.000-06:00

We got two pretty fun gifts this week. We may break our legs! (also- take note.... it's soooo not a white Christmas! We aren't even wearing jackets this day!)

Yeah, so, you get inside this ball... then we roll it down the hill.

There is room for two, but other than me with one of the kids, we've decided it's an accident waiting to happen.

We have the perfect hill in our back yard for this. It's great for sledding, and now for big ball rolling.

This is the best present and best part is that it's mine. My in-laws got me a tightrope! It's really a slackline, which I have since learned is a hobby of sorts of the skate board, hacky sack crowd. There are competitions for tricks and professional people.

The first day I walked two steps max without falling. By the third day I could go 8. Maybe next summer I'll be doing tricks! Probably not. It goes in our front yard and is about 2 feet off the ground. The kids are using sticks like ski poles, but I'm trying to do it without. Just about every day we've been out with it a car of high school boys has pulled over and asked about it and wanted to try it out. Who knew? I should have gotten one of these in high school!

I might break my leg, but this is a fun gift!

Christmas treats

2011-12-22T02:30:00.000-06:00

Here are a couple of Christmas treats that we've made and/or consumed recently. I saw the cutest reindeer snacks on pinterest but the link wasn't one you could follow back so I didn't really know how they were made, except that they are nutter butter cookies dipped in chocolate.

There were all kinds of difficulties because the pretzel antlers and the sticks didn't allow the nutter butters to go back together enough to hold them in a sandwich. They were a little messy, but a chocolate mess is never a bad mess.

The eyes are white chocolate chips with a little dot of chocolate on the tips. The noses are red m&ms.

I put them in the fridge for the night. When I pulled them off the tray the next morning, they fell apart. The sandwiches fell apart and the antlers broke. The sticks fell out and they were a mess. I made 30 or so and got about 18 that were half way presentable, mostly because they were near others that looked alright.

I took the reindeer to Lou's class Christmas party. A mom brought these pretty cake balls to my room's party. They have candy cane sticks and crushed candy canes on the tops. They were prettier than my reindeer for sure.

This is the snack we brought to Lou's leader day. It doesn't fit the normal 'healthy' standards that they like to have for preschool snack, but it was the last day before break and it does involve a fruit. They are little strawberry Santa hats. I saw them on Sweet Tooth via pinterest. They used brownies but we went with store bought chocolate chip cookies. The white is just cool whip.

Lou's teacher brought these adorable chocolate covered cherry mice to our teacher Christmas party. I brought Lou and Bee home one each in a little cup. One mouse lost his nose and the other has a chipped ear. They were tasty just the same. Don't tell anyone, but the kids ate them for breakfast.

My students sent me home with a few tins of Christmas goodies. I'm all set with the sweets this year. I think I'm going to need to be a little more conscientiousness about my sweets next year. Lets wait until next year.

Christmas program and Santa

2011-12-21T03:30:00.000-06:00

Just a post for the grandparents mostly. Lou had his Christmas program last week. His little preschool class sang two songs together and then all of our classes sang one together. He practiced and practiced at home and despite his normal shyness, he sang and did the signs.

He even wore his Christmas sweater for me (and for the $1 bribe!).

Let's see if this video works:

nope....

We also went to visit Santa last week. We don't "do" Santa at our house, but we do go visit for the fun program that they put together at the library. Plus, this Santa is the nicest Santa ever. He is so kind to the children and sings and tells stories and reads and then takes lots of time with each visiting kiddo. The last two years we have been, he has read a Jan Brett book, Twas the Night Before Christmas. Last year, we stayed after and talked to him about his program and how much we enjoyed it and such. He and hubby talked for 15 minutes about books and such. We had just seen Jan Brett maybe the month before and had one extra signed book plate. We decided that we'd save it for him and take it this year.

It was a long time to wait, but we did remember to bring it this year and he was thrilled. He said he doesn't often get on anyone's Christmas list. He was so appreciative.

He put it right into his book.

Bee asked before hand if we would tell him that we 'didn't do Santa' and we decided that it wouldn't be kind of us and we should play along. She told him she wanted a fish tank. Full of water and fish. He seemed surprised and said he didn't know how it would travel on the sled, but he would see what he could do. He looked to me to see how to proceed.

Santa doesn't know that there is a full of water and full of fish- fish tank in my sewing room closet ready to go. I can't wait to give it to her, there are a bunch of ghost shrimp in the bottom of the tank and a couple pregnant guppy mamas ready to give birth.

christmas potholders

2011-12-20T03:00:00.000-06:00

At Thanksgiving I gave my sister a little pre-hosting hostest gift. She is hosting us at Christmas this year, but we are really going up after Christmas, so I thought she'd like her gift early so she gets a bit more use out of it. She liked the potholders and thought they'd make a nice gift for a few people on her list.

They are on their way to her, but I thought I'd go ahead and share them so she can see them.

6 extra large pot holders (that's how I like them) in three sets of two. She asked for red with white dots and a light sage green worked in. The sage doesn't look like it matches, but I think it looks better in person. I like how how blue got in there too.

Potholders like this make up pretty quickly, It's the binding that takes awhile. I tried using store bought binding, but that didn't look nice and I tried machine sewing the binding, but that also didn't look nice. I went back to doing it by hand and just carried one in my purse pretty much everywhere I went for a week. People that I see regularly kept saying, "Are you still working on that?"

Not working on it anymore! It's shipped and I'm getting to do some sewing for myself this week!

Here's her set:

thumb print reindeer

2011-12-19T03:30:00.000-06:00

Just a short today. We didn't make this, but it's construction looks easy enough. Bee received this little thumb print reindeer tag on a little bag of 'reindeer feed' (oatmeal and glitter) as a little favor from her school Christmas party. I love how simple and sweet it is.

If we had a brown ink pad I think we'd make a bunch up. But, I'm not going shopping this week if I have any control over the situation! I went out Saturday and was in the most frustrating traffic mess. Even Bee's road rage was coming out! She threatened to get out and spank every one of the driver's bottoms if they didn't move!

farm day

2011-12-18T03:30:00.000-06:00

Last weekend was a farm day. We got to go out to the farm where we get our meat and get to know the animals. Or get to know dinner.

Bee seems over her vegetarian-ism, unless she doesn't like dinner. Regardless, I think it's important they know where our food comes from- other than the grocery store.

At the farmers market, there is a stand that's sponsored by some farmers council or something. They have a spinner that kids can spin and each slot has a picture of some item that comes from a farm. The kids have to explain the farm connection. Bee can explain all of the pictures! For example, one is pizza. She told them pizza is made from dough that is made from flour. Flour comes from wheat, which grows in a farmers field. She also told them that the sauce is made from tomatoes that we grow in the garden, but she prefers sauce from a jar.

It was a nice cool day, but we wore our long underwear and bundled up. We all even felt warm enough to go on a nice long hike.

It was so good for Lou to get out and move around. He's been inside a lot lately, but he really needs to be out.

Bee and Lou tried to pet each animal. The sheep dog and the sows were the only animals wanting some attention. The animals are all free range (except the sheepdog- which we all think is funny) so they come and go as they please.

The sheep did not want to be pet.

But the friendly pig wanted to play. We suggested that she find a smart little spider and make friends right away.

The kids really wanted to hold a baby pig. I told them they could try but I didn't think they would not have any luck. They did not.

The mama pigs are very used to people since they were bottle fed as babies (their mama had died), but their babies had a natural slight fear of people. I wouldn't want two running kids to hold me either.

We ended our visit in the hen house. Bee and Lou love gathering eggs. It's like a little treasure hunt for them. A dirty little stinky treasure hunt.

it's not hoarding

2011-12-17T03:30:00.000-06:00

The last of the Christmas orders were shipped Friday, the last day of school and the kid's Christmas parties, and Lou's leader day were Friday as well..... which means I can get back to regular things now. Like sleep and a normal level of sanity and snack preparation. We just have two birthday parties and a few last minute gifts to pick up this weekend to fit in. I only had to pull a few late nights to get all the orders done on time! Unfortunately I had to turn down about a dozen last minute order wanna-bes. This was my fourth year on Etsy, and the best so far.

(snow day... it snowed like 2 inches in a few hours in the morning. Lou and I sledded and built a snowman. The snow was all gone by the time Bee got home from school. She missed it all. It's been so warm this week, we only needed jackets!)

Back to the hoarding issue. I am not a true hoarder, it's just a running joke with several people that I must be a hoarder. Whenever someone says, "I need to find a little ___ for a project." or "Can you pick up ____ at the craft store?" I usually have some on hand. Saved from an old project, picked up a garage sale, or sent to be by someone else who knows I collect items. I'm also often given little sacks of random left over craft items or fabric scraps (because everyday is Christmas) because they know that I will save it and use it at some point. I say it's not hoarding if you keep it organized and tidy.

Recently, a girl I teach with brought me 15 of these plastic caddies. She said, I thought you could use these. "Because I'm a hoarder?" "You'll use them," she said. I knew that every person in my family would get pretty excited about these boxes. Bee had claimed the most. Her polly pocket clothes and accessories are organized in three boxes, her pet shop accessories are in a fourth. Lou's mighty guys pieces are in a box and another holds random marbles and string. The best news is that there are 10 more to fill up.

beginning measuring- preschool style

2011-12-14T03:30:00.000-06:00

We did such a fun measuring activity the other day. It was one of those activities that I had planned months ago and didn't get time to do so I kept it in my basket and carried it to school many many days before it finally fit in my plans again. It was also one of those activities that is pretty basic, and you really don't know if it will be a dud or lots of fun. Thankfully, we enjoyed it.

I used the book Actual Size by Steve Jenkins. As I read it, I had our leader for the day up with me to compare her eyeball to the ostriches and her tongue to the ant eaters, etc. We did a lot of comparing as I read. This was the first time we have done any measuring.

One page in the book has a gorilla's hand and a Pygmy Lemur's hand. I traced them both as well as my hand. As a whole class, we measured all three using unifex cubes. We did more comparing and ordering of the size of these.

I had (weeks ago when I thought we'd be doing this activity) traced each child's hand on a half sheet of paper. After demonstrating what to do on their sheet, I had them measure their own hand with the blocks and record the number. They laid them all out and counted them up. We all also recorded the number for the gorilla's hand.

I gathered all of these up and made a little class book with them. Some friends had hands 6 blocks tall, others 7. Some of the kids asked if they could measure more things, so I turned them all loose in the classroom with blocks to measure more things. Several kids got together to measure the long counter top in our room. It was something like 187 blocks long. They built and built and then started counting. They would count and then mess up and start again. Two little friends worked on it after everyone else gave up and finally got a number close to the actual count.

new to me abc phonic song

2011-12-13T03:30:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to tell you about a phonics song that I downloaded last week that I LOVE! I stumbled on AJ Jenkins downloadable Mp3s here at KidsTV123. The songs are just a few dollars and totally worth it if you have little people learning letter sounds. I have been working on letter sounds with Lou pretty hard since the summer and it's just been with the singing of these phonic songs that he's gotten it all of a sudden.

I made up some visuals to go with the song I like best. It is a simple song that says, A is for apple, /a/ /a/ apple, then goes on to the next letter and sound. The cards just add a visual element to reinforce letter recognition. I played it for my preschoolers and they too were able to sing along with my cards after the first few letters. Lou and Bee have both been requesting this song at home and Lou is able to tell me the sounds when he and I sing it without the music. I am going to be playing this song a lot more at preschool. Maybe everyday.

(This is not an official endorsement. I got no cool deal from them, I just love the songs)

Christmas Advent pieces

2011-12-11T03:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I shared that I used some advent pieces in a Christmas lesson at preschool. Here are all the pieces in the activity. This is totally based off an activity I saw on pinterest from How Sweet it is. She has hers broken down into 25 boxes so that she can use it with her kids as an advent calendar each day in December until Christmas. I was thinking more about having it work in the classroom and each child getting one bag. I made our set have 18.

You could easily alter it too with the pieces you have available at home. I only had to buy one piece and everything else I had on hand. Granted, most people aren't the.... uhhh... collectors of things.... that I am. I have $1 in this project. It could easily be condensed to 12-15 as well. Here they are: The scriptures to go with each are listed at the end of the post.

#1 Mary and an angel

#2 Music note

#3 Joseph

#4 Cross

#5 numbers

#6 donkey

#7 animals

#8 baby Jesus

#9 soft blanket

#10 peace sign

#11 shepard and sheep

#12 Stable and baby Jesus

#13 Mary and Joseph

#14 heart

#15 three kings

#16 crown

#17 star

#18 three gifts

I printed and laminated the scriptures and bound them on a binder ring so they would all stay nicely with the pieces in a bigger drawstring bag.

All of the pieces went in little drawstring bags that I made up using muslin on hand and the leftover string from Lou's birthday.

Here are the scriptures:

1. Angel andMary
Luke 1:26-28, 31
“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you whoare highly favored! The Lord is with you… You will be with child and give birth to a son,and you are to give him the name Jesus.’”

2. Musicnotes
Luke 1:46-55
“And Mary said:
‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices inGod my Savior…

3. Joseph

Matthew 1:20
“…an angelof the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, donot be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in heris from the Holy Spirit.’

4. Cross (Salvationthrough Jesus’ sacrifice)
Matthew 1:21
“‘[Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,because he will save his people from their sins.’”

5. Numbers (Joseph’s lineage)
Luke 2:4
“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, toBethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to house and line of David.”

6. Donkey orhorse (Journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem)
Luke 2:5
“[Joseph] went [to Bethlehem] to register with Mary, who was pledged to bemarried to him and was expecting a child.”

7. Cow

Luke 2:7

…Therewas no room for them in the inn…

8. Baby (BabyJesus)
Luke 2:6-7
“While they were [in Bethlehem], the time came for the baby to be born, and[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn, a son…”

9. Piece ofsoft cloth (Swaddling blanket)
Luke 2:7
“…[Mary]wrapped [Jesus] in cloths and placed him in a manger…”

10. Peace sign(Jesusis Prince of Peace)
Isaiah 9:6
“For to us a child is born, to us a sonis given,
and the government will be on his shoulders. And he willbe called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, EverlastingFather, Prince of Peace.”

11. Sheep and shepherds
Luke 2:8-11
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch overtheir flocks at night. An angel of Lord appeared to them, and the glory of theLord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them,‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all thepeople. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christthe Lord.’”

12. Jesus andthe stable

Luke 2:12
“‘This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lyingin a manger.’”

13. Mary and Joseph (to add to the stable with Jesus)

Luke 2:15-18
“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to oneanother, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which theLord has told us about.’ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and thebaby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the wordconcerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it wereamazed at what the shepherds said to them.”

14. Heart (Theemotions of Mary as Jesus' earthly mother)
Luke 2:19-20, 33-35
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart… “The child’s father and mothermarveled at what was said about [Jesus].

15. 3 kings

Matthew 2:1
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod,Magi from the east came to Jerusalem.”

16. Crown (Jesusis King of Kings)
Matthew 2:1-2
“…(they)asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star inthe east and have come to worship him.’”

17. Star (Star thatthe Magi followed)
Matthew 2:9-10
“After [the Magi] had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star theyhad seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place wherethe child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”

18. Three giftboxes (Gifts from the Magi to Jesus)
Matthew 2:11
“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and theybowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presentedhim with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”

J is for Jesus- preschool style

2011-12-10T03:30:00.000-06:00

This week was Jj week. I had Jj math day. We had already done some things the day before with candy canes and the letter Jj, so I just kept it Christmas related and I'm needing to keep things really easy with all the Christmas song practice. Flexible and easy.

Here was the craft. The kiddos used a wooden block to stamp red stripes on a J shaped candy cane piece of poster board. Then they glued a star and baby Jesus in a little paper manger. Jesus is a little wooden spoon (pre) wrapped in fabric.

I read this book, The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister. It was a good book, but the wordage was a little advanced for the kids. It's a 4.3 AR level. I used it over other Christmas books because it used the words Lord or Lords and King of Kings and Prince of Peace, which are all words from one of the songs we are singing for our parents.

I printed and laminated these number cards which I printed from a mystery source. I either didn't pin it or I accidental pinned it in a random category and don't see it. I am sure I'll come across it again someday and will be sure to cite it. Anyway, I velcroed them onto a poster board. I showed the kids this poster and we counted with them, we talked about how 1 was at the top left and 20 at the bottom right. I pointed out how, just like our calendar, when one line was done, we started the next row at the left again and counted to the right.

Then I took them all off and passed them out randomly. I told the kiddos I wanted to see if they could work together with as little help from me as possible. They came up and added their piece when it was their turn. They did do it pretty much on their own, which was neat. They helped each other and called out the next number when someone didn't step right up. We have had most of these kids for 2 years now so there is so much growth to be seen.

After we were all reassembled, we counted again to check our work. Then we paid attention to the pattern. I took some off and we decided what numbers were missing and what shape the piece was.

Later in the day I had them work with partners. I passed out the number cards and asked them to make towers as tall as the number on their card with the unifex blocks. When they had it right, I switched cards with them and they worked on another one. This was the end of the day, so several boys ended up using their blocks to make some type of 'shooter' -something we clearly discourage.

We also retold the Christmas story using the advent pieces that I assembled. I used it as a counting activity as well. I kids did seem to like it and noticed that it was sort of like the resurrection eggs, but with the birth of Jesus. I'll share this activity tomorrow.

Ii icecream - preschool style

2011-12-08T04:00:00.000-06:00

I'm skipping my Hh is for houses lesson, frankly it was a bust. pretty much. Some days are like that. Anyway, we did some fun work for Ii is for ice cream. I read a big book that we had in the classroom about how ice cream is made. It was a great non fiction with real photos (although the photos were a bit dated). I'll have to try to remember to look for it and note the title.

Here are a few things I did with the kids. I had all different ice cream 'flavors' cut out of random fabric and glued to poster board. I had the kids name the flavors and stack it on the cones.

They made up names like fuzzy moss swamp and sparkly stars. I think the black and white stripes was a zebra flavor. I love using random scraps because I get to remember all the fun projects they came from. The stripes, the cupcakes, the red mesh, the blue sparkle, the apples ...

Here's the craft the kiddos made. There were other 'topping' but Lou chose none.

I passed out ice cream scoops and had the kids come up and sort them on to the right cone. I, i, or other. If they had an other, they needed to tell us what it was. They are still (as a whole) struggling with b and d. I'll have to work on some other activities for that.

I had these ice cream related activities setting out for before class started. They are all from Our Little Monkeys.

We've been doing a lot of practicing for our Christmas program so all of my activities have been a little short or condensed lately. I love to see the kids sing, but goodness, I'll be glad when it's all over.

Thanksgiving Story

2011-12-07T03:30:00.000-06:00

This is a little 'old news' now, but at least it will be ready for next year. Two years ago, I had my kiddos work on Christmas story book while we were traveling for Thanksgiving. This year, I thought we make one for the Thanksgiving story.

Here are Bee and Lou's books. I printed each one of them up a book and had them bound at Office Max. It cost more there than it has in the past at Staples. But it was under $5 for both. Here are what the pages read; feel free to use my text in a book for your little ones. (not in your for-purchase downloads though). I don't use sell-able or share-able clipart, so I can't even really share the files, but if you want, I'd be happy to e-mail you it, so you can 'see it better.'

ThePilgrims wanted to worship God in the way they thought the Bible told them to,not the way the law made them. (Kids color and write their favorite bible verse on the pages) Hannah's favorite is 1 John 4:6. Lou's favorite is Psalm 118:1.

102 set sail on the Mayflower with 32 crewmen. It was cold and cramped for the Pilgrimsbelow the deck. Many were sick from therocking waves. (we painted with watercolor paints, the rocking waves.)

They continued to pray and thank God for their safety. ( I traced their hands 2 times on peachish paper and we glued them on like praying hands.)

They landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. It was winter and there were no houses. They lived aboard the ship while some menbuilt a few homes. (They glued cut pieces of brown paper and thinner pieces of cut tan for the logs and thatching. They also added some black squares from another page for the chimney.)

The first winter was rough on the Pilgrims. Many were sick and half of them died. (They cut out paper snowflakes -with glitter- and taped them in place.)

An Indian named Squanto came tostay with the Pilgrims. He taught themabout local plants and animals. (They colored a coloring sheet page here... Bee passed, Lou protested by painting a mess.)

He taught them about growing corn. The Indians placed a fish in the hole withthe corn seeds. The corn grew tall andhealthy. (the kids glued on paper fish and paper corn seeds in the first box. In the second box, they colored and added big yellow corns to the healthy plants.)

The Pilgrims grew a hearty garden and had more than enoughfood for the next winter. (they stamped circles using our paint lid for the orange pumpkins and used a marker lid to make yellow squash. The squash plants were tomatoes, but them I remembers that they weren't eating tomatoes at the time.... so we have staked squash on our pages. )

In 1621 the remaining Pilgrims, half of them children, planneda harvest feast. About 90 Indians joinedthem in the feast. They played games,shared music, and shared food. They atedeer, turkey, pheasant, fish, lobster, squash, onions, pumpkins, and corn. There was no pie or potatoes. (I thought the kids would draw Pilgrim food on the plates, but they wanted to draw their own favorite foods.)

In 1863 Abe Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a holiday. (The kids glued black paper squares mosaic style on an outline of abe's hat.)

Today, we celebrate by getting totogether with family, eating delicious food, and giving thanks to God for allof our blessings. (Lou only has one family member in the portrait too.)

I think this would make a fun project for a class to work on in those random spare minutes during the day but was also a fun activity to pull out here and there when the kids needed to settle themselves... or the aunts and uncles needed a break from playing 'horse' with the kids. Their poor backs.

growing wheat- in the classroom

2011-12-05T03:36:00.000-06:00

Here's something Bee brought home from school last week. They are doing a science unit on plants. This follows their unit on rocks, sand, and silt.I thought it was a clever way to start seeds in the classroom. No more moldy bags taped to the windows.

This is wheat, there are few seeds that this would work well with, maybe other tall grasses. I think wheat grows fast, so it makes a great one to use. The teacher marked a line 1/3rd of the way up. The kids rolled up paper towel and stuffed it in to the line. Then they dropped a seed in the top end and stuck them in a vase of water. From a teacher stand point, I liked that all of these projects were contained in one small area and are easily sent home when done.

The roots grow out the bottom and the stem and leaves grow out the top. The straw is clear so it's easy to see what's going on. Bee's teacher didn't label them with the kids' names, but that could easily be done too. Bee is suggesting we grow wheat in the garden next year. If the raccoons won't mess with it, maybe we could.