2 Books and a Garden

With Baby no. 4 due any day I realized I needed to get these posts up!  So here is a combined post from the past few weeks.

A few weeks ago, we were discussing what to do at Easter for school.  My friend Audra found a Resurrection Garden on one of the homeschool websites.  We all loved the idea and decided to duplicate it. 
For our Resurrection Garden I used the following: 
One 9" teracota pot bottom
One 1-1/2" terracota mini flower pot
Potting soil
Grass seed
Rocks
Sticks
Rope for the crosses
Glue

Fill the pot bottom with soil and position the mini pot in the middle.  Cover the mini pot with soil as well to make a hill.  Sprinkle the grass seed on top and lightly cover with more dirt.  Use the rope and glue to make 3 crosses. Put the crosses in the hill and position the rocks somewhere near the mini pot or tomb. Love the way this came out! My only suggestion is do not start your garden one month before Easter.  Ours is currently so overgrown I have had to cut the grass multiple times.  

I Am an Artist, by Pat Lowery Collins was our next book.  I feel as though this is the type of book I can revisit again. The whole story is about looking at nature and all of its beauty, which presents the perfect opportunity to discuss God's creation.  

"So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom"

Psalm 90:12

Our first project was making imprints into clay with different object from nature.

We used pinecones, dried flowers, anise seeds, sticks, rocks and pine tree clippings. 

After making imprints in the clay I baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  We ended up with a bunch of these...

Next we used glue, yarn and construction paper and let the kids glue the yarn on the paper. 

We attempted to get the kids to glue on yarn on the page in straight lines.

Apparently straight lines are boring for preschoolers so our little artists created pictures like this:

Later on in the week I decided to let my kids paint.  I got out the sparkly finger paint so they could paint some clouds.  I have been saving egg cartons to use as paint cups and they worked great.  We used clothes pins and rolled up bath tissue as brushes.

Then I got brave and let them paint with Q-tips. Much messier than the clothes pin and tissue.

Their pictures came out great though!

Our last book was The Little Rabbit by Judy Dunn.  A very sweet book about a little girl named Sarah who gets a white bunny in her Easter basket. Sarah names the bunny Buttercup and real photos tell the story of the two.  Unfortunately life got in the way and we only used this book for co-op day.  My friend Kathleen taught and came up with an adorable bunny project for the kids to work on!

Snack was "rabbit food" with ants on a log, cheerios, carrots and dried banana chips. The banana chips were so good! Here is the recipe: Baked Banana Chips

The End! We are on recess until after our new little one is born.

Week 12: Ask Mr. Bear

Another great story written by Marjorie Flack! "Ask Mr. Bear"
Basically this book is about a little boy looking for a birthday present for his mother. He asks all of the animals on his farm for ideas. The little boy ends up going into the forest to "Ask Mr. Bear" what present he should give his mother. Mr. Bear says he should give her a big bear hug! 

Here are all the kids sitting nicely waiting for the show to begin! My friend Audra taught this week and created a puppet show to act out the book.  The first thing the kids had to do was sit quietly with their hands on their lap.  I find with 3 kids so little you need to take every opportunity you can to teach them when to pay attention and sit still. Ok well I guess that applies to all kids!

Little People glued to popsicle sticks worked wonderfully as the characters.  

After the show the kids decorated cupcakes for the "un-birthday party".  In "Ask Mr. Bear" the main character asks all the animals on his farm what he should get his mother for her birthday.  Since none of the kids had a birthday on this day we had the "un-birthday party" instead. Preschoolers are really into birthdays so decorating cupcakes and singing was a huge hit.

Later on that week I made a farm animal sensory bin for the kids. Sensory bins can be quite messy but I usually find they are worth it.  This is the perfect way to get the 18-month old involved in school and the 3-year olds usually love it as well.  My sensory bin was composed of the top from a tote box.  Rice, pretzels, dried veggie sticks.  

 Yes, I am still vacuuming up rice from my shag run! My fault, should have put down a sheet.  

Here we are working on holding a pencil correctly. My daughter, for example is very good at tracing letters and shapes.  She can hold a pen and pencil perfectly without a problem. Her twin brother on the other hand has a much harder time and needs instruction each time we practice writing. I find it so interesting to compare the two 3 year olds and the level they are at with each skill we work on.  The worksheets used here are from www.homeschoolcreations.net.

Here is a game sorting Farm Animals Vs. Forest Animals.  Glue was involved, of course making this a fun activity.

Last but not least, the kids practiced eye hand coordination with a Melissa and Doug Lace and Trace Farm set.  

  

Another successful week of teaching my kiddos at home!

Week 11: The Angus Books

In Week 11 we read Angus and the Ducks by Marjorie Flack. Our Before Five In A Row curriculum recommended we read Angus Lost.  When I bought all of my books in the beginning of the year I did not realize I was shipped a few of the wrong books! Thanks to Amazon Prime I ended up ordering and quickly receiving the Angus Lost book after hearing from a friend there is a great looking Collie in the story. 

Angus is a Scottie dog who is very curious about the world outside his home.  Like all dogs he becomes bored with : "The SAME THINGS" and needs a change so he wanders outside and underneath the fence in his yard.  Both stories are based on Angus leaving his yard and encountering the outside world.  

Our letter of the week was D and we had fun with some sheets from www.homeschoolcreations.com.  For Christmas I bought the kids a Dot and Dashes paint set.  We opened it and used it to dot the letter D. They loved this activity! A fun new way for them to paint. If you are not familiar with this type of paint set think bingo dabbers. 

Next we made "cookies" for a few of our Doggie friends.  Here is the recipe we used:

Peanut Butter Dog Cookies

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

3 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup quick oats

Blend the wet ingredients together. Mix the dry ingredients together then add to the wet mixture to form a ball of dough.  Roll out and shape into round cookies (or use a cookie cutter).  Put on a greased cookie tray and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  The cookies should be hard and crispy. Store in an airtight container.

Liberty LOVED her home made cookies! So did Torrey, and Willow other Collie's in our family. I tasted one too and they weren't too bad. Yes, we do have a little obsession with Collie's.  Since we had a dog theme going on this week we also read a Lassie book that I had on our book shelf.  

In Angus and the Ducks, Angus the dog crawls under a large green hedge in order to get on the other side of the garden in his yard. So one day I constructed a make believe hedge in our living room with large green blanket. The kids played under it forever. On a boring day inside you can NEVER go wrong building your child a tunnel, tent or fort! 

 Here is my oldest son flapping his wings like a duck from Angus and the Ducks.

The End