Letters of the week X,Y and Z

X marks the spot where the treasure is.I don't mean Gold and Silver but spiritual. In the scripture Mathew 6:20 it talks about laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven. There is a story of a girl named Christina who lived in Denmark. She saved coins that her Father shared with her from taking their sheep to have their wool sheered off.She didn't know why she was saving them until she met missionaries and traveled to America. She had just enough to join the Saints going to Salt Lake City.

Nursery Rhyme: The Zoo
At does do we saw a bear,he had long dark fuzzy hair.We saw a lion cage he was in an awful rage.We saw the big long necked giraffe,and the silly monkeys made us laugh.But my favorite animal is the elephant- how about you?

We did a little puppet show with finger puppets and made the animal sounds. The kids had fun doing that for the baby.

Letter of the week:Letter X
The kids hid treasures. My oldest even cut out and made coins.He also named the rooms like the jungle of death and skull island.The maps were simple with lines showing where to go and and X where the treasure was.

For my 2nd grader:
I found some down loadable summer packets.I took some of the sentences and changed some.Then my 8 year old would fix the sentences, whether it needed to be a capital, misspelled word or punctuation.Then I wrote up a word problem where he had to figure out how much it cost for 2 adults to go to the Zoo.The decimal point through him off.Both of my oldest wrote about their favorite activity for the week.

For my Kindergartner:
We worked on counting by 2's.She wrote her X.We practiced b and d since she keeps getting them confused. We did some addition practice as well.

For my Tot he practiced drawing diagonal lines and we read books.

Speaking of books we are reading a lot our book worm is getting long.We put a tally mark on one's previously read so we can find out our favorite!

We are counting down to Friday when we go to the Zoo.

For bedtime we had the kids get into their pj's and we made cookies and had them with milk.If you give your kid's milk and cookies they ate going to want to read If you give a Mouse a Cookie.

zoo puppet and a theater

 I found these cute puppets for the kids to do at dltk-kids.com. We did a paper bag tiger .


Here are puppets we did with Popsicle sticks.

Next, I had the idea to do a theater.I took a big cardboard box.Then I cut the desired pattern. At first I wanted it to look like curtains but  then I took a real curtain and stapled it on. Really that is it! Soooo easy.

I took a break from the Zoo for you, Dad!

This week we have been gone more away from the house so we have been playing at the park and going to the Library, while we wait for my daughters dance camp to get over. Here the boys are taking a break to play in the water puddles left by the sprinklers.

The pod activities continue to impress me and give me ideas. I have too much floating in this head of mine and not enough time to blog about it. This pod is about dinosaurs and they had cross word puzzles.This cardboard display was dino's and their shadows.They were velcrowed on so the kids could do it over again and again;which children love!

This week is so full of activities! We have our Zoo trip coming up and Fathers day. I found these cute cards on first-school.ws. Here is the finished product. 

I loved that I could teach shapes, like circles, rectangles and hearts to my youngest.

I added more to my pocket chart. I also had the kids practice writing Z's and the number 2 which we are working on. This is what we are working on this summer so far.

Lex-Trace and write Z

Corb-Write counting by twos.I also introduced the oo sound in ew, and ow.Not too exciting to blog about but important.

I found these cute zoo stickers at the dollar store.They have the animal and them some of them had just the faces. So I took foam paper and put stickers on cards and wrote a number on each for Ro and Lex to practice their numbers.

They can also match colors for the one that have the faces.

Here are some of the fun books that we read for Fathers Day.

What are you doing for Fathers Day?

Letter of the week Z for zoo

Sometimes I feel like I live in a zoo. My kids are my wild monkeys.I let the kids pick from different Zoo animals to carry around with them the whole day. They wrote in their journals about it.So here is what they did.

Rowen's choice

First they read there bed time stories to them and tucked them in.

Corb and Lex chose frogs

The next day we had a picnic with animal crackers.The kids separated the crackers into categories and Corb graphed them. We had our picnic at the library so we went inside..

 Our libraries are involved in early voting so their programs like the magic show aren't happening this month but they do have what they call a pod activity.It consists of a theme,  and some activities to do. I think this is so creative!

Make your own puppet show

There was 3 different ones.We took the frog robot puppet home and made it.I thought it was fitting because both my oldest kids picked frogs for their animals.We talked about frogs and specifically Dart frogs that are at the Hoggle Zoo we will be visiting at the end of this week.

When we got home we read this cute book called Zoozical. It is winter in the Zoo and all the animals are down in the dumps until they join some other animals dancing and they figure out that each animal had something to offer.

The crocodiles led the alphabet song

We sang the songs from the book which were based on real tunes.

Elephants sang do your ears hang low?

Its a tall world after all to the tune of "It's a small world after all. The gorillas sang"For he's a jolly good fellow"

Then we had our won Zoozical. The kids had a blast with it!

My kids have really attacked the craft area of my kid's room.More specifically the pipe cleaners.Corb made his frog a wand.What imaginations they have and I am glad that they can have a place to explore.What do your kids like to do to explore and create?



Letter of the week Z

We are finishing y today and moving on to Z.Not as in Zzzzzzz snoring! We talked about year.It is 2012 and asked what next year will be.I had to give them a hint of what comes after 12?There is 12 months in a year.Each month is broken up in weeks and days. I made a sign that said Yesterday was Tuesday.Today is Wednesday.Tomorrow is Thursday.Last month was April.This month is May.Next month is June. I found this cool little double sided board at Ross to practice writing and to use as my chalk board.Check it out it is sooo cute!

2 more days and school is out!

Are you ready for summer? Better start planning!My summer plans are coming soon to help give you ideas and to  help your kids have fun while learning.The best part is that they will not loose what they studied in school.


We are now working on l-x sounds for Lex and Ro is getting familiar with them.

What is black and white and red all over?

Now onto our letter Z as in Zebra. I found this cute Zebra puppet made from a brown sack lunch bag.It is found @ dltk-kids.com. You need your bag,white construction paper, printer to print template,scissors, glue and crayons.

Here is what you need to do:

• Cover the paper bag with white construction paper (just glue it on and trim) or paint the paper bag white and let dry.Color template whatever they want we used mostly black and red.
• Glue the tongue underneath the flippy tab.
• Glue the stripes (small ones from first template) onto the HEAD.
• Glue the nose (a big oval) onto the HEAD.  It should overlap the body a bit.
• Glue the eyes onto the HEAD above the nose.  If you like, you can use wiggly eyes instead of the paper template pieces.
• Glue the ears onto the HEAD
• Glue the hair tuft onto the HEAD

Water play with squirt guns and then sand.I had to get a new water tub because the other one got broken.

These zebras are wild and vicious as they attack Daddy!

Answer:A zebra with a sunburn!

Letter of the week Y



Sign for letter Y

 

We practiced writing the letter Y.I found these pre-writing sheets at confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com. Ro mostly scribbled on it so we will keep practicing.

Y is for yard.We are studying outside this week.There are trees in the yard.

We looked for things that are yellow in the house. Ro is really starting to learn his colors.

Yoga is a relaxing form of exercise, yet it engages and uses your muscles and core. My kids love to do yoga with me. It is the best exercise for me because of the Chronic fatigue.

Down ward dog is my kids favorite.

X marks the spot where your treasure is Part 2

When Daddy came home we wanted to send him on a treasure hunt for the greatest treasure there is. Hint look at my last post for a hint of what that treasure might be.

If you like these cute cards here is the link: http://familyfun.go.com/printables/treasure-hunt-clue-cards-704846/.

Start where your treasure is going to end up.So I want my husband to go to my friends house across the street.There are 4 clues all together. So I write the clue for the destination.

Then you go to the one before that so you are working backwards to your starting place.

Clues

1.If you can't find us home we are usually at this place.-put clue on the bed

2.My name rhymes with Rex.I don't always want to go here but I need my________.- put clue in the fridge

3._n th_ fr_dg_- take out letters to have them figure it out-put clue on the computer

4.I have lots of keys and a green for a face.Take out the g and put an sc: screen.I also cut this one up so he had to do a puzzle.This is where we will have Daddy start.I handed it to him.

Nate figuring out a clue
Any guesses on what the treasure might be?

To be continued..........



Alright we can"t end like that can we so here is one more picture. It is of my sweet Lex's dance recital.

X marks the spot where your treasure is Part 1

This is kinda a crazy mixed match page of fun. Every mom knows how special each child is.They are the real treasure. Their laughter can brighten up any day. Today I just wanted them to be creative.I like to use Friday as a day to get ready for Saturday. We wipe down walls which kids love to do. We vacuum. This day the vacuum strayed to the lovely locks of my children. I think that my lense was dirty not as good pictures sorry.

I have all these lids for cups from a summer party I did a few years ago I was thinking what I could do with them and then I saw this cute package of Alphabet stickers.

                     I decided to put the stickers on each lid. Lex was excited to help me put them on.

Then I took an old can, those oatmeal ones are great but I didn't have any. I cute a slit in the lid big enough to fit the lids.

Then all Ro has to do is drop it in the can. With the Alphabet letters on there the possibilities to use them are numerous.

Then I decided to decorate it. I am not the best crafter but I had fun and here is how it turned out! 

The kids also played with play dough I am so full from all the pretend food I ate! Lex made bread sticks yummy. I Love how creative they can be.