Preschool - Week 20 - We're Going on a Bear Hunt

This week we rowed "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen.  This story has a motions that go with it and we had fun beating the rhythm on on laps and acting out the bear hunt all week.  After several weeks of slacking low-key preschool, we made another lapbook, which made E very excited.

E colored in the title page for our lapbook, making sure to copy the book cover as closely as possible:

 Our lapbook activities came from homeschoolshare.com - where else?  E drew a family portrait, which includes all of our family celebrating "mommy's purple party":

Another fun element asked the question "What would you like to hunt for?"  E decided she wanted to go on an ostrich hunt:

We printed out the sequence cards for E to cut out and then put in the order that they appeared in the story:

Following the story we made these sight word cards which self-store in the little cave:

We continued our math workbook, doing a page each day. The novelty has worn off for her, but it is still so good for her to do.  She writes some of the numbers herself and some I draw dotted lines for her to trace:

Our finished lapbook (with a lift-the-flap book of bears and their habitats):

We also watched a YouTube video of Michael Rosen doing a reading of his book:

Hot off the Press...

My first printed digital scrapbook pages arrived in the mail today! I have been so curious to see how they would look on paper.  They are even better than I hoped for!!! I am SUPER excited and this just confirms that I will be doing most of my scrapbooking this way.

I ordered one-sided 12x12 prints from VioVio.com.  It was a little confusing to figure out how to order loose prints. You need to create a 12x12 photo book with at least 10 pages, then choose the loose page option at the end.  I think I chose "photo paper" as the paper type.  They are beautiful - not think like a standard photo, but more like a poster. The total with shipping was $14.47, so they were about $1.45 a page. Not too bad. I'm not sure if they ever have a sale? The shipping was $5.02 and it took almost two weeks to arrive.

When I created my pages, I didn't really think about the edges of them and whether things would get "cut off" when printed.  C's birthday pages are the only ones where this is evident, but it's not really that noticeable. In the future, I will need to make sure I keep that outer margin free of necessary elements.

Digital page:

Printed page:

They fit perfectly into my 12x12 drop-in album and I can't wait to order some more! :)  It's a good day.

A Green Thumb

In the past, we've done a "garden" with marginal success. I never kept up with the weeding and watering and it seemed like half of the plants never turned out well, anyway.

This year, I am determined to make it a success. I've been reading up on vegetable gardening and hitting up my gardener friends for advice.  I have big plans to create a new raised bed in a prime location in the yard and fill it with a ton of vegetables and herbs.  Doug is skeptical about the whole thing, but I really want to put my best efforts into this.

Part One of my grand plan is to start some seeds indoors. I have three varieties of lettuce, green onion and tomatoes going.  I have been told that tomatoes are very difficult to have success from seed, but it's worth a try!

March 19, 2011

So far I have some sprouts!  I'll try to keep track of my progress (or lack thereof) on the blog so I can remember what I did right/wrong for next year. Any advice is welcome! Wish me luck...

March 25, 2011

Preschool - Week 19 - I Am An Artist

This week we read "I am an Artist."  It is a story about seeing beauty in nature that is often overlooked. How to look at our world through an artist's eyes.  The illustrations are lovely and we enjoyed noting the details in each page.  This book lends itself well to discussing the five senses.  We also talked about how God is creative - the ultimate artist.  By observing the beauty in our world, we can learn more about that aspect of God and thank Him for creating such an amazing world for us to live in!

This was a low-key week, activity-wise. We continued with a page from our math workbook each day.  One day we made a nature-hunt wheel from homeschoolshare.com:

The idea was to take an actual nature walk and look for the things on the wheel. However, mud, cold and wind prevented us from doing this. :( She had fun making the wheel, anywho! And we can use it next time we have a nice day and get out.

The girls took a class from our local Parks and Rec called, "Come to Your Senses."  Very timely to go along with our BFIAR book...  They did a fun activity for each of the five senses:

1. Touch - the kids each got a "touchy board" to take home, which has many different textures for feeling.

2. Sound - they played an animal sounds game, where the kids had to listen to sounds and guess which animal made them.
3. Sight - a look-and-find hunt for items around the room.
4. Smell - the kids took turns smelling different containers and guessing what was inside (i.e. onion, cinnamon).
5. Taste - snack time! The kids tried tart (lemon), salty (pretzels), bitter (bitter chocolate) and sweet (gummy bears).

They each came home with a Five Senses puzzle as well! LOVE these classes - so well done and it's a drop-off! Woo-hoo! :) All these activities would be easily replicated at home, of course, but it's so nice to have a kid-free hour and a half to go to Meijer.

Preschool - Week 18 - Play with Me

This is a short, sweet story about a little girl who wants to play with the animals by the pond. However, she inadvertently scares each one away. She discovers that by sitting very still and quiet, the animals each come back.  We used an activity guide to help our discussions, found at LiveOakMedia.com.



This week we were low-key and did not lapbook. We continued to do a page from her math workbook each day, which is working out well. E needs things in brief intervals, unlike C who could sit for 30 minutes working on a single worksheet.

We did a little drawing lesson one day. I pointed out the artist's style of illustrating the story using only a black pencil and then lightly coloring the main characters of each page. We each made a simple drawing of a tree, rocks and turtle using the same technique. Here is E with her cute little picture:

I also printed out an insect box activity, which I found online at Kizclub.com. E enjoyed cutting out and coloring the bugs while I assembled the box. We made the labels into stickers to attach to the box, but left the bugs loose so she could play with them.