Professor Athena Playing in Her Lab

This weeks activities review.

Thursday we made fathers day cards.  I gave the kids some stencils and markers to use. 

Earlier in the morning the boys did wax paper painting. 

 I used different patterns then the first time and placed the paint closer together hoping to see more of a design.

 Liam asked for his paint to be in different shapes so he had a circle a square and triangle on his paper. 

After the paint dried I cut the extra wax paper from around the sides and hung it up on the window.  You can't see in this picture but when the sun shines through you can see hand prints in the paint.  It looks really cool! 

Friday we played stuck in the mud!  

It started because Spencer found a toy wand under the couch and tapped me with and told me I was stuck.  I played along and the other kids caught on quickly and wanted to play.  We soon got very roudy and ended up taking the game off the couch and adding running/chasing.  

In the game you had to tag both arms and both legs and then that person was stuck in the mud.  Once everyone had been tagged they person with the wand created the way they wanted to free everyone.  

We played for an hour or so.  There were many giggles, some screaming, and lots of running! 

We were a little worn out from our game and went upstairs to take a break.   Athena grabbed a pen and paper went under the desk and told everyone she was in her 'lab'.  

I was catching the boys as they ran and throwing them on the bed until Professor Athena came out of her lab and requested silence because Liam needed to come and see her. 

Unfortunately there was not enough room under the desk for both of them :(. They were a little disappointed.   I looked around the room and saw the perfect place to make a couple of labs out of our laundry baskets.  They started playing and pretending to give each other mail.  

I bought some envelopes and mini notepads from the dollar store a month ago knowing I could use them for some sort of pretend play and thought this was the perfect time to bring them out.  

I gave each of them a pen and some stickers too. 

I also brought up a collapsible box for the 'mail box' and we played 'Lab'.  

I sent the kids some mail to.  It worked out great for reading practice and handwriting practice. :)

Later in the evening Athena requested to play on the computer.  She gets bored with Nick Jr. games (I think they are to easy) and needed something new but educational to play.  I found ABC Mouse and signed up for our first month free.  She loves it!  I love it! There are lesson plans, tons of different games/activities, and she learns with each one.  I can also track her progress and change the level if it is to easy or to hard for her.  I can add Spencer on to for no extra charge and they have lessons for his age (2) as well!  

While Athena played her game Spencer and I had a Monster Truck Race! 

I  made a ramp with pillows.  I thought it was silly but Spencer loved it and that's what counts :).
It was simple rules: Whoever's car went the farthest won.

Spencer ended up winning most of the time because he had this throwing/pushing thing going on with his cars.  

Overall it was a good week.  I did a good job at completed at least one if not more activities each day with the kids.  

I do have to say I have not been reading my bible as much as I should or praying with the kids each morning and know that it will help my days go better if I do. 

My current goal is to teach and learn more about God with the kids this summer.  To start the habit of morning stretches and prayer. 

Have a good fathers day everyone! 

Tuberific Tube Racing

For this summer I have been trying to do an activity a day then letting the kids play the rest of the day.  :)

I downloaded a calendar from Motherhood on a Dime with ideas that I have been referencing when I don't have any. Mostly I only have to substitute the days there are outdoor activities because it has been raining and grey for a week.  :/

Monday we played with story cards for over an hour!

I found this picture on google images to give you idea of
what the cards look like

Story cards are double sided picture cards.  You can play the game in a variety of ways.  We played this two different ways.

First I dealt each person 5 cards.  1 player starts the story and then everyone takes a turn laying down a card using it in the story.  
I allowed a couple sentences per card for the kids.

Second we put the stack of cards in the middle of the table.  Each turn we would pick up the top card and have to add what we pulled to the story.  Thus eliminating the choice to use what works easiest in your hand and allowing more room for creativity.

The second way ended up working better and the story was more elaborate because the kids had to create a way for the object to come into the story.

This game was also great for the kids to learn to accept others ideas.  Usually between the ages of 4-6 kids want to pretend 'their way' and have a hard time combining different ideas.  With this game  each child had to wait their turn to insert their ideas and listen to others tell their stories without inserting or interrupting.  

We also had pom pom races with tubes on the walls. 

 I set up an easy 'track' and hard 'track'.  The easy track had a bigger container to catch the pom poms, where the hard track had a small container.

There was giggling, running, and cheering with this activity.  It was also something the kids could continue to come back to for the remainder of the day. 

Tuesday the kids played with play dough.  

I didn't plan for this as the activity but the kids asked to play with it and I thought, why not?

Later in the day Athena and Vera were bored and asked me if they could do another activity.  I thought this was the perfect time to pull out the file folders.

File Folder Games

Vera chose Nutrition and sorted the food according to their food groups. 

 Athena chose Animals.  She sorted the animals by types.  She also sorted the plants from the animals. 

I am happy I had these on hand.  




Wednesday we did not do an activity because we spent the majority of the afternoon at the grocery store.


As the summer continues so will our activities.  
Stop by again to see more! :)

Paint and Picinics

The weather has been nice and we have been trying to spend more time outside.
While at the library I thumbed through a children's science book and saw a wonderful idea.  After we read In The Tall Tall Grass I thought of this science activity.

Observing what lives in our grass. 

The kids picked a spot on the grass and we made a circle of rocks around that area. 

 Then we all lay on our tummies and grabbed the magnifying glass to observe.

We saw a centipede first. 
It was quick.  

 They both tried to pick it up between their fingers. 
*shakes head* 
My kids love bugs :)

We took a moment to talk about this being the bugs home why we don't kill bugs outside. 

"We are just observing."

We also saw potato bugs or rolly pollies and ants.  

Of course they still tried to pick them up.

Later that day we had a picinic.  It was very spur of the moment but wonderful.  The weather was so nice.  

After lunch the kids ran around while we listened to some music.  Then there was some spring rain that pushed us inside. 

You can see my Cayenne Pepper in the back ground :)

Monday of this week Athena and Isaiah did wax paper painting. 

Simply put some paint on wax paper in desired design and then place a second piece of wax paper on top.  Then using different tools make designs in the paint. 

The coolest thing was you could feel the coolness of the paint smoosh and move under your fingers and there was no mess! 

 Isaiah would push the paint and then look at his fingers over and over surprised there was nothing there. 

I originally planned to do this activity with Spencer as well but he was picked up early Monday and did not have a chance to participate.  Athena did enjoy it and I did enjoy the no mess clean up so I think it will be something we repeat. 

Tuesday it was just the boys.  They were not really interested in painting for catch up.  Instead we practiced drawing and making triangles with different mediums. 

• Pencils
• Play dough
• Chocolate Chips
• Lego's
• Stickers

The cool thing about using the Lego's is that they could build a 3-D triangle.

Thursday it was pouring rain outside!  A nice good rain storm.  My plan was to paint a picture of the rain and the glue on glitter as the falling rain.  

It looked nice in my head. 

After breakfast though I got caught up in laundry and the kids were playing.  I put off the painting for an hour.  By the time I had all the supplies set up and the kids in front of a window to paint the rain was not falling as hard.  There was a sprinkle. 

I put on some rain sounds to help set a calming mood and they painted.  

And painted!  They made two pictures. 

I asked them to paint the rain outside.  The older kids painted what they saw outside in surprisingly good detail (to me).  This was the first time I asked them to do this an I also don't know what is the normal level for this type of activity. 

The above is Athena's painting.  

I was impressed when I asked her what the black triangle was and she said it was the truck.  She apologized it wasn't the whole truck and that she tried.  I told her it was wonderful and very smart that she used shapes to paint.  It was perfect! 

Yesterday we played a ball game with the kids in the basement, duck duck goose, and had a dance party!  

My plan for a summer full of activities has gone well so far I just need to keep up on it.  

I have been having a hard time sleeping so my feet are dragging a lot in the morning.  I tried going to bed earlier but it isn't helping I just can't sleep.  

The kids are also waking up earlier.  I think they are waking with the sun.  They are also so so hungry!  I don't know if it's a growing spurt or all the time we are spending running around but it is almost constant eating! 

I am loving this summer :)

M&M's Counting

I am feeling back on schedule after almost 3 weeks of down time.
Jerry was laid off and it changed the schedule for awhile.

I am behind on blog posts :/.

We finished the letter G activities last week and I told the kids we preschool was over until August.  All of their cousins and friends are out of school for the summer and I want the kids to have that 'summer' feeling.

Instead of doing our daily preschool schedule we are going to be doing activities I didn't have time to do during the school year.
I hope to get in more art and pretend play with the kids this summer.

Last week:
 M&M's

I found this book at the library thumbed through it and thought it was great for the kids.  Not only was it math it was also a treat! 

I bought enough packages of m&m's for Jerry to participate in the project with the kids. 

Athena, Liam, and Jerry followed along with the book.  
It was difficult for Spencer to follow along so I had him sort his colors and count how many he had in each pile.  He also identified the shapes he saw in the book but I didn't have him make the shapes with the m&m's.  The older kids were having a hard time with that. 
When we finished the book the kids put all their extra m&m's in a lunch bag to have as a treat for the remainder of the week. 

When Spencer was coming down the stairs after going potty he saw the rice I keep on top of the speaker.  He asked if he could play with his cars in the rice. 

I thought....why not? 

We don't have preschool and this is an activity.  This is the kind of stuff I want the kids to enjoy this summer.  I don't want to clean it but I told myself and the kids we would do activities and, let me tell you, they have plenty of ideas :). 

I gave them each a tray, rice, and some tools to play.  

Game Nite

Jerry and I usually have friends over Saturday nights for games but this Saturday we did not make plans and planned to have a game night with the kids.

The kids know what game night is: snacks, drinks, games, music, and laughing. 

We had it all for them and they got to stay up past bed time! 

After the game there was a little playing and the kids slept very well :)

Experimenting In The Kitchen

I saw the May challenge-Kitchen Chemistry- from Inspiration Laboratories online about 3 weeks ago.
I thought this was such a great idea!
I did not have any great inspiration until I discovered something myself.
I was preparing dinner: I put the noodles in the pan to boil and started gathering the rest of the ingredients.

I double checked my recipe and.....I was short 2 cups of cheese!

Ugh!

I was going to walk to the grocery store but that would have added 20 minutes to meal time and Jerry and I were Hungry.

I picked up Arby's.

When I finished eating I went in the kitchen to clean up the pans and put away the noodles.  I did turn off the heat but left the noodles in the water.  I poured the noodles into the strainer and I was surprised to see they weren't noodles it was dough.  They hadn't even been sitting for an hour.  I immediately thought of the challenge and put the dough in a container and stuck it in the fridge for later use.

Finally we had time to get out hands dirty. 

I gave each child a small pile of dough. 

It was really sticky! 

Next we added flour talking about how it helps dry the dough which makes it less sticky. 

I grabbed a bunch of spices out of the cupboard and the kids were able to smell each spice before deciding if they wanted to add it to their dough. 

I had no idea what we were going to make I let the kids choose what they were going to do with it. 

We added: 

• Ginger
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla
• Baking Powder
•  Sugar

Of course there was a taste test before they all decided they wanted to make cupcakes.  We spooned it into the pan and I baked them. 

While playing with the extra dough left one their wax paper Athena created a game 'sticky hands'.  She tried to get the boys to play with her by slapping their sticky hands together and singing a song.  Neither was very interested :/. 

When the cupcakes were done the kids tried them. 

They didn't like them very much.

I think it's because it wasn't crumby or 'fluffy'.  It was moist but not bread like. 

They had a great time experimenting with flavors and seeing the dough change from really sticky to something they could shape. 

Thank you Inspiration Laboratories for the challenge! 

Garbage Truck Legos

Whew!
My days have seemed so busy to me but when I sit down to blog and write it all down it seems like less.
Silly how putting things into words doesn't always capture the events in the day.

For this post I am going to combine yesterday's and today's preschool lessons.

Stations
Reading station: With new library books the kids haven't seen.  I have been keeping them pretty busy so they have not had a lot of time to spend reading. 
Rock counting: I pulled out the bag of rocks I bought months ago and haven't used and decided I was going to figure out a way to use them as a station.  I put them in the red tray and set out two 10 spot tiki green ice trays next to it.  I wrote the numbers 10 and 20 on papers and taped them in front of the trays.  The instructions were to sort or group the rocks into these numbers using the ice trays or the red tray. 
Rubber Band Geo Board:This came with this weeks discovery pack from our local library.  My little dragons are very intrigued with this board.  Even though they keep snapping their little fingers with the bands trying to connect them they keep trying! 
Legos:A new found love for an old toy. 
Coloring:I haven't had a simple coloring station for awhile and the kids always favor it.


Circle Time
Depending on the daily activities I have planned I conduct circle time in the morning or after lunch.  I don't have a complete 'set' schedule.  I have the kids moods and my mood to consider daily and that is what I usually gauge our activities by.

Monday we started circle time reading My 'g' Sound Box .  This time every time I said g I asked the kids to say /g/ (the g sound).
Next we read Abram and Lot again so next time they can tell the story on their own.

The kids were very attentive and just wanted to keep reading books this morning.  Usually we read only two, but what the heck if they are eager I want to engage them in their interests.

Lastly we read Beep Beep Vroom Vroom.  This book was in the math discover pack from the library and the kids and I really liked it.  I knew it would be a hit with the two younger boys.

I had planned a Lego activity before reading this book and was pleased to see that the activity I planned went well with this book.

Athena has been doing well with patterns so this was simply practice. 

I asked her to mimic and continue the patterns in the book. 

While she worked on that I took one boy at a time and played 'garbage truck sorting'. 

I gave each child a pile of garbage (Lego's) they had to put in their individual garbage trucks.  

Then they drove their garbage trucks to the factory and dumped their load. 

Athena helped Spencer to start his sorting.  Then he finished the last of it. 

We will work on this again.  

Isaiah was quick to sort the garbage.  

I would continue to add the garbage they he dumped as he sorted and he would get flustered when he would see another of a color he had just finished sorting.  

I love seeing different personalities with activities.

Each child was able to build while they waited or after their turn.  We played with this activity for at least an hour if not more. 

Tuesday circle time was in the afternoon and we read In The Tall Tall Grass.  

Before joining circle time the kids made an their own prop for the book. 

While reading the book the kids looked to see if they could find the same insect/bird in their grass as they saw in the book. 

Thursday the kids will color their grass and draw the missing insects/birds on their pages. 

Next we read the famous Giraffes Can't Dance book.  

There are 5 different dance styles in the book that we watched being performed on YouTube. 

Then we listened to the sounds of nature, just like the Gerald the giraffe. 

After we discussed our favorites and why we liked them the kids tried each of the dances together.  

This was so stinking cute! 

They even held a flower between their teeth.  I wish I would have taken a picture. 

Preschool

After snacks we made sheep cut outs for our bible story and will use them in the next telling to illustrate a herd. 

After the three books in circle time the kids were having a hard time sitting down.  

I was getting frustrated. 

I turned on some worship music while I prepared lunch to calm myself and get some of the bottled energy out of the kids. 

This ended up working out well.  After a few worship songs a Baby Einstein video came on (I was using YouTube).  The kids giggled and laughed the whole time. 

After lunch the boys went to sleep and after many trips up and down the stairs, spraining my knee, straining my back, two spills, a couple fits and a couple accidents I was on the verge of tears.  I took Athena and spent some time in the garden and prayed. 

You can't get closer to God then working in the earth harvesting the food and pulling the weeds out of your garden. (Both literal and figurative.)

Of course this was the cure.  In no time at all I was feeling better. 

The two of us went inside and worked on a phonics packet Jerry printed for Athena so she could have some undivided attention working on something solely her level while the boys napped. 

When they woke we sang and danced to our favorite kids songs before getting our hands messy! 

I had some extra dough sitting in the fridge and no use for it.  I saw  the challenge posted by Inspiration Laboratories and saw the perfect opportunity to use it. 

I will be writing a separate post about this activity later. 

Tuesday we started our day playing outside.  The weather forecast said it was to be rainy later in the afternoon so we got our outside play in early.

When we came inside we had talked about the number 3. 

I have nothing that starts with the G (or at least nothing I could think of) for this activity so we used erasers. 

Of course I fret over this and the kids are happy to have something physical and colorful in front of them. 

We estimated how many there were then added and subtracted to get three then wrote out the equations in the jars.  

Spencer grouped his erasers into piles of three. 

There was handwriting practice on the sheet too! 

The song we have been singing for the letter G is Glorias Garden which you can find here. 

I had a picture of a garden printed for a coloring page and decided it would be perfect for the spur of the  moment lesson plan that hit me today. 

There were 5 different types of flowers on the picture. 

First I asked the kids how many different types they saw.  They immediately just started counting flowers.  To help them see the differences I encouraged them to color each type a different color.  

As Athena colored them she would try and name the flowers.  She got a couple of them correct and was eager to know the names of the rest.  

When they were all colored I sat with each little dragon and helped them write a short story about their Garden.  I vouched for songs but they wanted stories. :(. 

It ended up working well.  They had handwriting practice and each created their own garden scene. 

To read their stories click here!