Project 52: December 7-13

Colt is learning to drink from a bottle.  He turns one this week, so he moves to whole milk! It's been funny watching him get the hang of the bottle.

 

 

 

I had a special time with Declan at the library this week.  He wore this batman cape all day and I saw no reason to make him take it off for the library:)  He found Fox In Socks by Dr. Suess and was so thrilled because Daddy reads that book to the kids before bed almost every night.  He is so animated while reading it and since it is a book full of tongue twisters it's quite entertaining.  Declan was so excited and he wanted me to take a picture to show daddy the book he found!

 

On the 10th, Colt turned ONE! More details of this in a separate post (which hopefully I can get posted before he turns two! ha)

Eating a birthday breakfast at Joe's Farm Grill

The second Wednesday of the month I take the kids to a "messy play" group. It's a free activity at a local church and the kids seem to like it! It's a bunch of sensory activities and the kids get very messy but it's nice to have no clean up at home:)

playing in "snow"

Colt loves to play too!

 

Colt had his favorite for lunch--avocado! But he was still a bit traumatized from burning his hand on his candle last week that as soon as he saw the candle he cried:(

 

 

 

 

Elliana loves the tricycle.  Only problem is that she cannot pedal it.  Colt can't walk on his own, but loves to push things.....so they were a perfect pair! This was so cute to watch them work together at getting around the house.  Colt would get so frustrated because he would push her right into the wall or couches because she can't quite steer either.

 

I send the kids out to the car when the garage door is closed.  It is nice to be able to do that.  They usually always climb in their seats and some of them can even buckle themselves.  Well, this evening when I sent them out I came out after and this is what I found! I cracked up laughing! I had to take a picture, then proceeded to tell that we don't get in the front seats! hah.  Coming out to this scene was just so funny.

Celebrating Tank's birthday!!

Movies are better when there is a fort to sit in!

 

This week we painted with shaving cream because the kids loved the messy play "snow" painting.  My kitchen table smelled like shaving cream for a few days afterward!

 

 

 

Made: Quiet Book

I added three more pages to the quiet book!

I love the way it is coming together.  SO incredibly easy!!

I have put them in a binder.  Only problem with that is the pages are a little bigger than what a piece of paper would be so it doesn't fit perfect.  I also will have to change to a bigger binder (this one is only a one inch binder) as I add more pages. 


Lacing Page:

 

I cut two rectangles and cut little slits along one side.  Used hot glue to secure on one side and used a lace from another lacing toy we had.

Add caption

Flower Page:

This is an idea I found online.  I pretty much copied it exact.  I eye-balled it and drew my own outline for the flower.  Glued numbers to each petal and then traced around each petal so there is an outline on the white page.

I cut a little curve in the bottom of each petal to help fit around the circle nice and tight.  The pink pot at the bottom is hot glued all around the sides and bottom edges, but the top is open so the petals can go inside.  I later added Velcro to the back of the petals.  The nice thing about this is it doesn't have to go in numerical order for it to still be a fun quiet activity, but it will help the learning of that!

Build an Ice Cream Cone:

I have seen this idea for pages before, so this was a copied one too.  Again, I just eye balled the cone and scoops of ice cream.  Cut, glued, and added Velcro. 
Later, I plan to add numbers to the scoops so they will go in order.  Or I was thinking even little dots so the kids will count the dots and put them in order that way.  But they aren't ready for that yet!

BFIAR: Blueberries for Sal (and tot school: blue and circles)

Book: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

Ages: 19 months, 23 months, 40 months

 

 

This was one of my favorites! Not because the book is all that great (in my opinion) but because the kids loved it so much and there were a lot of fun things to do--all involving blueberries of course:)

 

This was the second week I tried to focus on a color and shape as well as other concepts and involve all three kiddos in the activities.  It went very well!

 

Each morning we would read the book during or after breakfast.  They asked for it every day, which always makes me happy (it was probably because I usually gave them blueberries during or after!)

 

A few days we did different activites and rotated around the table.  I definitely feel like I have a little tot school happening here!

 

I honestly didn't even look in the BFIAR manual this week.  I forgot to because I didn't need any extra ideas.  We didn't get through all the ideas that I had, but it was still a very fun week.

Learning stations that we rotated:

 

1. Putting "blueberries" in a container (blue puff balls)

2. Placing blue poker chips in a container

 

3. Feeding Little Bear

We did a lot of cooking and baking with blueberries!!!

Pancakes:

Muffins:


Blueberry Jam:


  

We also made blue rice! It was my first time dying rice and turned out to be VERY easy!
In a plastic dish, we mixed about 2.5 cups of rice and 2 T vinegar with the food coloring.  Shake it around and laid it on cookie sheet to dry.  It was ready by the time they were up from nap. 

 

 

 

My kids have been doing rice sensory bins for a long long time.  It's amazing how colored rice captures their attention so much more! 

Declan had learned the color blue by the time he was done playing.  He LOVED it!

I love when they have something they can all do together:) They played with this every single day this week.



Printables:

 

 

For snack one day I quickly drew this "blueberry bush" and they had fun putting their blueberries in their "bucket" like Sal.

Another learning station rotation day:

1. Gluing blue circles on the bush

2. Stamping blue thumbprints on the bush

3. Using the dot marker (Raelynn actually is gluing here, but you can see her dots!) as blueberries on the bush.

Another idea that is currently in the freezer is having the kids break the bears and blueberries out of ice! I put them in a plastic dish and filled with water.  I plan to give them some "tools" and they have to break free the bear.  I figure if they don't have much interest in breaking free the plastic bear, they will definitly want the blueberries! :)

 

BFIAR: We're Going on a Bear Hunt



Book: "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen

Age: 36 months and 19 months

Verse: Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

 

This is SUCH a fun book!!! So many activities to go along with the book and it is a fun book to read with all the repetition and sound effects.  We read the book each day and did the following activities:

 

Sensory Bin:

Grass: paper, River: blue paint in sandwich bag, Mud: playdough, Forrest: sticks stuck in playdough, Snow: cotton balls and white paper shreds, Cave: big rocks and an oatmeal container covered in paper

And of course there had to be a bear for the bear hunt!!! (I think it might be a dog? It came with the Little People Farm set I got from a consignment shop last year...I think it looks like a bear!)

      

I had the beans out on the table the day before I set up the bin.  Declan started playing with them and dropping them in an empty wipes container.  :)

Another sensory bin--shredded brown and white paper (on sale everywhere right now for Easter basket stuffing)
I hid Teddy Graham bears in the paper for them to find and eat

We started out the week with a trip to the zoo on Monday!!! So happy the bears were out so we could see them.

Feed the Bear:

Lakeshore Learning has cute activities like this with a monkey and bananas--but I figured I could just make a bear out of an old cereal box! We left this out on the table all week and they all liked it a lot and played with it on their own.

A Real Bear Hunt: (not a lot of pictures because I was busy hunting with them)

bear claws from Homeschool Creations

long, wavy grass (green crate paper)

a deep, cold river (water with blue food color)

Thick, oozy mud (MUD!)

Deep, dark forrest (branches--and we have no trees, so it looks pretty pathetic.  I cut some from a bush in the front yard!)

Swirly, Whirly snowstorm (play tunnel with white sheet over and I blew bubbles at them as they came out the end of the tunnel)

No bear hunt is complete without some toilet paper binoculars!

We even ran all the way upstairs into the bed and under the covers. I put a tent over our kitchen table with a teddy bear and that was the cave.  Declan was a little confused and followed us slowly around, but Raelynn was totally into it.  It was a lot of fun!

Long, Wavy Grass:

Raelynn planted grass seed from another project that fell at the perfect time of this book! We watched it grow all week and it is definitely long and wavy! (and she is really into 'silly face' right now because of her teenage boy uncles!)

Felt Story Board:

I cut out some pieces to go along with the story.  A couple times while I read it they put the pieces up and did great.  I was hoping they'd play more to retell the story themselves during their play time but didn't really do that much.

Fun Food:

Sandwiches, pear, and chocolate chips (would have used banana but we were out!)
Another fun idea would be to make chocolate pudding for mud, sprouts for grass, cottage cheese for snowstorm, water for river and celery for forrest.  I just didn't get to being that creative this week!

Tot Time with notebook and games:
(All from Homeschool Creations)

Hide the bear (number recognition and order)

a fun board game (we used teddy grahams as our board characters)

Ordering small to large--she did this perfect!

Letter B dot page from 3 Dinosaurs (and a baby photo bomb)



 

Learning about different types of bears

        

I made a cutting practice page in a Word document.  Just different bears with thick outlines for her to cut.

Yes, they are bears--though maybe they don't look like it.  Paper plate craft with elastic band in back.

Declan is loving stickers right now.  He likes to just pile them all on top of each other but is getting better at one to one correspondence if I make marks on the paper first. It keep him occupied for quite a while!

Another funny face.  Such a goof ball! :)