Shadows/Circus- March 15-20

We all needed a little break from school this week, so we didn't do much formal school work. We did talk about the letter x and finished our dot paint pictures of xylophones. We read a few books about shadows and reflections and had fun looking for shadows during lots of outside time this week. We had lots of picnics and took lots of games outside to play. We did our reading time outside too.

On Saturday Caleb and Hannah went to the circus for the first time. We all enjoyed it.

Here are a few of our shadow pictures.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish: March 8-12

I think it was Wednesday before we really got rolling on our activities for this week, but once we got started we had a lot of fun. It was a crafty week and I am always amazed at how many skills you can squeeze into a craft project. Almost all of our activities this week came from our Itty Bitty Bookworm curriculum. The theme book for this week was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss so we did lots of fish activities.

I gave them a word then they had to erase the picture that rhymed with the word I said.

They colored red fish/blue fish then painted over the picture with watercolors.

Lacing practice with fish cards. Caleb usually refuses to do these types of activities, but actually enjoyed it today.

I love this picture of Caleb for many reasons. First of all, because he actually let me take a cute picture of him. Secondly, because he had just finished yet another activity that he usual doesn't like to do. I have seen this activity on several different blogs. I used paint samples to make matching clips. I like this one because they have to choose the right shade and color. This is also good fine motor skills using the clothespins.

Matching rhyming pictures

Dot paint sprayed with water then dried to make really cool colors.

They painted over tissue paper with liquid starch to make more fish from paper plates.

The kids LOVED these new math sheets that I found here. Hannah's is Princess and the Frog. She rolls her big dice which I got from The Dollar Tree. She circles the number on her paper that matches the dice and keeps going until a princess wins the race.

and this one is a car race for Caleb from the same blog here. This blog also has a bug race.

We made a fish snack. They used blue food coloring to color cream cheese. They spread the cream cheese (water) onto a graham cracker then stuck on colored goldfish.

Caleb didn't like this. I tried to tell him it was icing, but he thought the cream cheese was nasty.

This is a special picture to me for many reasons, it is my sweet baby girl holding my wrinkles put that I have had since I was a young girl which is wearing a baby dress that my mother-in-law bought for Hannah when she was born.

We also had fun with our marble racing toy this week.

Green Eggs and Ham: March 1-5

BOOKS

Our Itty Bitty Bookworm Theme Book this week was:

Green Eggs and Ham

Other books we read along with this theme were:

Fox in Socks

Hop on Pop (Caleb was able to read this one by himself and he was thrilled! Hannah thought it was pretty cool that he was reading it too!)

LETTER OF THE WEEK

Vv

Dot Paint Pictures:

Mommy: Vv is for Valentine

Caleb: Vv is for Veteran

Hannah: Vv is for Vegetables

Itty Bitty Bookworm Activities

We made a list of things that are green. The first thing Hannah named was "zucchini"! Not sure where that came from since we have never eaten zucchini here. I had to get the dictionary out just to spell it!

Next, they each chose something green to paint a picture of. This is Hannah's green apple.

Caleb painted green grass and a green tree. I love that he is into drawing pictures for me right now.

I gave each of them a page of pictures to color and cut out. Then they matched the pictures with rhyming names and glued the rhyming pairs onto plates. Hannah loves rhyming words right now so this was a very timely lesson for her.

We also made a list of -am words. We planned on making green eggs and ham but we didn't get around to it. We have done that before though so it wasn't necessarily a missed experience.

It seemed like a rushed week and was cut short by a visit from Granny and Caleb's surgery for a hernia repair. We still had lots of fun with Dr. Seuss this week though.

I Went Walking- Feb 22-26

BOOKS

Our Itty Bitty Bookworm Theme Book this week was:

I Went Walking

Other books we read along with this theme were:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

LETTER OF THE WEEK

Uu

Dot Paint Pictures:

Mommy: Uu is for Umbrella

Caleb: Uu is for Us

Hannah: Uu is for Us

BIBLE LESSON

The Good Samaritan

We still haven't gotten back into a good rhythm with our Bible time. I can't seem to find planning time right now. One change I hope to incorporate next week is to move all of our Bible lessons to the dining room where I can read them to the kids while they finish breakfast. This will separate Bible time from school a little which I think could be very helpful. Getting through our Bible lesson tends to be one of the hardest parts of our school time.

Caleb was playing with his magnadoodle while he was suppose to be going to sleep. He brought me this picture which he explained is a family portrait. His pictures are VERY FEW AND FAR BETWEEN so this was precious to me!

Itty Bitty Bookworm Activities

They used magnets to see which item on this tray were magnetic. The only prediction they got wrong was the nickel.

After reading the book several times they had to recall what color each animal was in the story, color the picture correctly, then sequence the animals in the order they appeared in the story.

We played pet shop. They came to my pet store, chose an animal, then they had to pay me the correct amount based on the value printed on the picture. They always love these types of activities and really get into acting out the parts!

They each colored a "Color Words" book.

They each used markers to color two coffee filters each. Then they sprayed water on them to make the colors run. I was amazed by how different and how pretty they looked when they dried. This was a fun activity.

We made a list of things they saw while out walking this week. While making our list I required them to describe each item using a color word. We also talked about punctuation while I wrote their responses on the board. Then they chose a sentence (or three in Hannah's case) to illustrate. Hannah wrote the word "car" by herself.

Caleb's is suppose to say "I saw a black car." He actually wrote all the words correctly, but he ran out of room so he stared back at the left of the page so it says "car I saw a black" :)

This is the first time Caleb had seen this book. Just wanted to share a good example of how well he is reading. I give him one new book a week and each week we review four books.