Ocean and letter O

We are on our way to the North Pole!What did we pack?Warm clothes and a jacket.We packed a tent and sleeping bags.Also in our back pack we have water and snacks.First we are stopping to discover the Ocean and its sea creatures.Then we will take a plane to Oslo,Norway.

We talked about the top and bottom of the Ocean and habitats like the Coral Reef.For example the Octopus lives in the Coral Reef.Next we saw fish out of our pretend submarine.We even saw Mickey mouse and my Toddler counted 5 fish.Hooray!The baby liked to look at it too.I think he could see his reflection in the glass.

We had fun with music and movement.We moved like octopuses and when an enemy came by we pretended to squirt ink and swim away.Here are a few of the songs and finger plays.
http://childfun.com/index.php/activity-themes/animals/107-octopus-activity-theme.html#sthash.R7ObxmEC.dpbs
We read some books.Guess Who Ocean Friends by Readers Digest has cute peek-a-boo flaps.

We also read online,Ollie The Lucky Octopus who had 7 legs.This is a really cute story!Find out if he gets his last leg here
Next we made Ollie crafts.I got the idea fromhttp://www.preschool-plan-it.com
I didn't have any plates so I re-used cardboard that I cut into a semi-circle and construction paper,googly eyes and 8 streamers.The kids had fun counting his eight legs.

 

Road Map Day and the letter N

Little Bo peep has lost her sheep and we don't know where to find them.Are they North South,East or West?I labeled where North,South and so on.Little Bo's sheep were hidden and the kids had to go find them.I made these cute little sheep with construction paper,cotton balls and q tips.You can find the idea here

Next the kids took turns being the hider and would hide items that started with the letter N.Then they would make a treasure map to help us find it.More pictures to come!

What is road map day without planning a trip?We chose the North Pole.What will we take and need?What will we do when we get there......?Find out next week as we plan our pretend trip and travel over the ocean.It might take a while to get there.How creative will we be?

Where would you go if you could go anywhere in the world?

N is for noses and nature

Yesterday was find a rainbow day.I have been having computer trouble so it is late being posted.We went outside to look for colors but we really could only find green and blue sky.

We talked about noses and smell.How sometimes we use just one a few or all our senses.Isn't that a cute nose!

We played a game where the kids closed their eyes and smelled different things and then wrote down what they thought it was it was really good spelling practice for my Kindergartner.

The line up was as follows peppermint tums,vinegar,bacon bits,vanilla,chocolate chips,basil,hair gel,garlic powder,lotion,peanut butter.

 

 We went outside to see what we could smell.We talked about some of the buds will turn into flowers and then they will have a fragrance.They smelled pine cones,grass,wood and even the baby!

They found a stick with animal trails maybe beetles or termites.

They found some chalk and starting collecting sticks and coloring them.I love when they get creative!

We also made something for the baby we put all our nature findings in a bottle of water.He is really starting to study things and kick his feet.He is also getting stronger and holding his head up longer.We have been doing Little Bo Peep who lost her sheep this week and next week!

Letter of the week N and 11 ways to use your plastic eggs.

We are working on letter N.I made a Nest and using Happy Easter Mouse by Laura Numeroff as my inspiration.Each page has eggs in different color in numerical order.For example the first page has 1 yellow egg.Next,2 red eggs.So I made eggs out of construction paper and put them in the nest.

I made corresponding squares of the same color.

What the kids did next was to pretend like they were the Easter bunny.I put down a mattress so they could hop like one.As you can imagine they had a lot of fun.Then they brought the eggs back to the right color square.

Who doesn't have plastic eggs after Easter.There are so many things that you can use them for year round.
1.Learning- letters,numbers,math,reading
2.Decorating.There are a tom of ideas I have seen all over the Internet.I haven't tried them though.
3.Games-I gave the kids the eggs and had them come up with a few ideas.They called it poppers where they squeeze the bottom and it pops off.

4.They also spun them on the ground to make tops.
5.Another idea was to scoot it on the floor like shuffle board.
6.to put snacks in
7.Music shaker for baby
8.Stack them

 

9.Memory game where you can hide something under it and have the baby find it
10.Color matching
11.I saw these paper bag nests with birds made from birds @blog.kangarooboo.com
We didn't get a chance to make this but hopefully we will.

Egg-stra fun Easter activities

This week has been super busy with a wedding and family stuff but we did manage to squeeze a few activities.The egg experiment with the vinegar turned out fun.I have seen thus all over the blogging world.I don't know who came up with the idea.I found it here

We dyed some eggs.My son kept saying we are going to kill some eggs.

Have you ever done egg wars if not you should.In this game you try to crack some ones egg by tapping it but not break yours.I found this idea @http://www.toddlerapproved.com

So much fun!What are you doing to celebrate Easter?

Review and egg-stra fun

You can never have too many egg hunts.I put letter K,L and M in an egg.When they opened the eggs they would say the letter and the sound it makes.

We took those same plastic eggs and tried to make them crack open when they fell but they didn't.Then we took a real egg.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall........
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall........
He was investigated and smashed some more with plastic eggs.

I set up an art station with crepe paper,tissue paper,pom poms,glue crayons and imagination.Ready go!

I set up a sensory bin with rice,Easter grass,egg carton,plastic eggs and Spring cupcake toppers.My toddler kept saying over and over "this is so fun"

 

 

Tomorrow is more Humpty Dumpty activities and we check on our experiment.We put an egg in a container with a lid and covered it with vinegar.Who has tried this?Hopefully it will be warmer to have some color fun tomorrow!

Rainbow obstacle course-review of colors

Today there is a deeper meaning to our play.We talked about light.The source we depend on for light is the sun.Without light their wouldn't be color.So today we are doing a color obstacle course.
We honored the sun as ancient yogis by doing sun salutations.We used our sun we made and a mountain that looked like an M.I made it from brown construction paper.M for mountain.Yellow means spirituality,Spring,happiness,energy, wisdom,emergency,hazard and cowardice.It is a happy color and can reduce depression.Sometimes we see a red sun.People have different reactions to red.It can mean passion,energy,love,war and anger.Just looking at it can stimulate brain activity.

Then the kids ran on river rocks.Blue means spirituality,calmness,void,cleanliness,fresh air,sadness,cold,trust and intelligence.
I made them so when they stepped on them they would make noise.I filled a plastic bag with newspaper and put different colors on top.

Then we stopped and made a tree pose.This pose is a grounded pose to help us center ourselves.The trees grow up like they are trying to reach the sky.Green is strongly associated with nature.It means growth,cleanliness,health,peace,harmony,relaxation,security,envy,jealousy,illness,and immaturity.

They had to try to jump up and catch the rain.The kids looked up and above them were blue streamers representing rain and clouds.Sometimes in life there is time of darkness where we might have to look more deeply inside to find the light.

The kids helped me fill these bottles as we mixed colors for red,orange,yellow,green,blue and purple.Orange means creative,good health,social,excitement,warm and loud.
We made a bowling game to represent thunder.They practiced their manners by taking turns nicely.

Then they crawled to a rainbow created by draping a sheet over chairs and multi-colored lights.Purple means spirituality,faith,magic,ceremony,subconscious,creativity,imagination,calming,bravery,death,cruelty,wealth,self involvement,instability and luxury.

 
We ended by looking in the mirror.I asked them what they saw.They said "me". I replied that each of us are unique and special.We all have light within us.Let your light shine bright!

Even the baby enjoyed all the color.We are still doing tummy time and our Nursery rhyme,Humpty Dumpty.We will do more nursery rhyme activities next week.

For snack time I gave Lex yogurt and Rowen crackers and they had to share with each other.

Next week will be a review of letters K,L and M,colors,Humpty Dumpty,Tea Party to practice manners and some Easter fun! We still need to do our manners game too.Its coming soon as you can imagine this obstacle course took a while. Phew I am exhausted just thinking about it!

You can find where I found the meanings of different colors @http://www.color-wheel-artist.com/color-meanings.html

color blue activities and letter M

Here is our table of blue.I also included play mail for the letter m.They found the blue grass right away.It went everywhere.It was a salad in a hat.It was a wig and it wad just fun to throw.These trays are so good for fine motor activities.Next they played with the mail and they made a mail box out of a card board box.

 
 

We traced the letter M and talked about words that start with M.They came up with Mom,moo,mouth,mountain,more.I talked about Manners.

I wrote on construction paper  "thank you" and "please".I told them I was going to teach them magic and had them pull the paper out.These are magic words. Abracadabra!

We played a game where we passed a ball.Someone would ask for the ball and the receiver would say thank you.Then we reversed it.

Music and movement-danced with streamers


How will the baby react?It is great at this age to hang things over their head.

As I fed the baby we read lots of books I mean lots!
A great one ti review shapes is The okay book.Written by Todd Parr
 
We talked about shapes and colors because it is such a colorful book.
 
Happy Easter Mouse by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond.It is a book I just bought for Easter.It is also a great review of colors.