Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

What is an alligator theme without a sensory bin?   My idea was to do a swamp sensory bin and I had to use what I had around the house for this one, no extra time to run to the store this week.  I thought about using brownie mix but it always dissolves in the water not giving the kids much time to play in it.  I went with oatmeal.  I would have liked to dye it brown but the kids didn't complain about the color.  I had The Dragons add the water I liked using oatmeal because it doesn't dissolve in the water and it smelt really good. :)   The oatmeal absorbed some of the water making a great swamp texture.   Even though the water wasn't brown the oatmeal did make it kind of murky.   Perfect for alligator hiding The kids kept asking how I snuck milk into the bin because of the color.  Silly kids! I never did tell them my secret.  I went with magic. 

I loved the idea of this craft as soon as I saw it.  I was looking for coloring pages and found a great picture of an alligator. I was looking at the picture and noticed the detail for the hard back scales and thought how fun would it be to do a textured painting for alligators? I found a paint set at Wal-Mart at the beginning of summer for only $10.  Inside were many different paint rollers, shaped sponges, and paint trays.  It was perfect.  The rollers varied in texture too!  Some were smooth others were squared or zig-zag.  I knew the rollers would be perfect for this activity! The Dragons have also been itching to paint with these materials and were tickled to see the tools we were using for this weeks art.  It took a couple tries before The Dragons got the hang of rolling the roller in the paint instead of dipping it.  As the boys painted I set out 1 of our alligator props for a visual of the scales.  Then we hung ...

 Great for fine motor skills practice are the dot pictures from many packets I see online.  There are so many different themes for the dot pictures and there are many different ways to use them.  I have used them a couple different ways and have not found one that The Dragons dislike. This time we used the Letter A is for Alligator themed dot page with pom poms and clothes pins The idea was to clamp a pom pom with the clothespin and release on one of the dots Little Dragon was having some trouble opening the clothes pins But he kept trying and finally got it open and picked up a pom pom!  The picture is blurry but you can see his excitement!  I set two clothespins on the tray just in case someone wanted to help out (like Doll Dragon)  Together they were able to complete the page feeling achieved!   :)

Bible Verse: As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord -Joshua 24:15 I like this verse and have seen it hung in many homes.  I don't have the means to buy a grand piece of art with the verse on it so the study of this verse was the perfect opportunity to create our own art piece! Materials:  5 small craft sticks  painting sharpie glue sticks paint utensils (brushes, rollers, sponges)  card stock paper I knew I wanted the back ground to be a painting, nothing specific, just brush strokes.  I gave the boys materials and said 'Paint!'.   They didn't need any further encouragement.  These boys are not entertained for long periods of time with paint.  Soon their papers were covered in colors and they were ready to move on.   Once the paint dried I gave them each 5 craft sticks and asked them to make a house.  In the beginning this was a bit of a challenge but they both were able to make a house, up...

Bible Verse : Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.     Psalm 51:10 To help encourage memorization of this verse we did a literal interpretation. Materials foam heart washable markers bin of soapy water hands The boys colored their hearts This represented sin on our hearts Then we washed them in water This represented Jesus washing our sins Their hearts came out clean!  This represented our cleansed hearts. We hung the hearts up on our art wall for the week to help remember the verse.  Each student was very proud of their heart and were determined to keep them clean. :)

Creation Day 4 On this day God created the sun, moon, and placed the stars in the sky. Our activity this week made a great addition to our classroom decorations.  Materials:  Black construction paper cut in half horizontally Pictures of stars, sun, and moon tape yarn paint I drew a sun, a moon, and three stars on yellow construction paper and the dragons painted them The Dragons took their time with the project.  They really enjoyed painting these shapes.  They explained the reason for every color to each other while they were painting.  It was adorable.  Once the paint was dry The Dragons cut out their shapes and we taped them onto the yarn pieces.  For some reason they though these would be great hats.  I told them they were meant to be hung up but they insisted.  So on top of the heads they went!  They loved them!  They were great hats for a bit. When they finished playing we hung t...

Creation Day 5 God created the fish in the seas and the birds in the sky on day 5. Our activity for this day focused on birds. Making bird feeders is pretty simple.  Grab a pine cone, peanut butter, and bird seed and you pretty much have a bird feeder. We didn't have a pine cone, nor are there any around outside right now. I had to come up with something else! I remembered briefly seeing that someone made a bird feeder out of a plastic bottle. The Dragons and I went on an adventure to find a plastic bottle suitable for our bird friends. We found one we all liked and I cut a hole in the bottom.  I started small and made it wider on the bottom thinking the birds could use this to stand on while picking at the bird seed. I also totally forgot to take pictures!  We did this activity at the end of the day so I was flustered and my brain was done thinking. As we were filling our bottle bird feeder the bird seed kept flowing out the bottom.  I remembered rea...