Literacy Activities - Big Tracks Little Tracks

Big Tracks Little Tracks
Big Tracks, Little Tracks: Following Animal Prints (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 1)

Whip up some Trail mix to enjoy while searching outside for animal tracks!
Match animals to their tracks with Animal track cards (Look under Zoology- Animal Tracks!)
Advanced track cards here!
Follow the track game from Curious George
Animal track matching game online -- Animal tracks web game
Website to checkout with your child -- http://www.bear-tracker.com/
Make tracks with a Potato stamp like this!

Literacy Activities- A Pair of Socks

A Pair of Socks by Stuart J. Murphy

Make a Silly Sock Puppet !
Play online - Sock It matching Web game
Reading color words Sound out word and color.
Sorting socks - great for visual discrimination.
Counting Spots on socks match sock to proper number.
Have a sock race - The person who puts on the most socks in 60 seconds wins!

Father's Day Round Up!

Father's Day Story Starters

Fill-in the Blank Father's Day Letter

Father's Day Photo Album

Disc Photo Book!

I Love Ewe Sign

Father's Day Crown

Photo Cube Puzzle

Rerun!

Summer Craft ideas - I posted this list last year but wanted it "upfront" to use again this year! The last foamerator craft looks right up Josh's alley. That is if it ever warms up!

Rabbits

Josh is obsessed with Rabbits right now so I am taking advantage of it! Feel free to join us.
Rabbits vs Hares
Rabbit Tangram (scroll down)
Simple Animal Report Idea
Animal Report Graphic Organizers
Rabbit Parts and info
Finish the Sentence writing idea
Peter Rabbit etc activities (scroll down)
Assorted Crafts
Rabbit Lapbook!!!!
Rabbit cardboard tube craft
Geography video

Autumn Ideas

Halloween Ideas-
Halloween Paper Chains Print and assemble!
Halloween Paper Toys
Creepy Witch Banner Sewing required!

Language Ideas-
Halloween Word Ladders Check other links here too!

Math Ideas-
Fall Tree Dice Game Adapted to fit your child (e.g. addition/subtraction problems)

Science Ideas-
Leaf templates
Lifecycle of an Apple tree

Family Project Ideas-
Jack O Lantern Mosaic
Papier Mache pumpkin
Hand tree

Art Ideas-
Scarecrow Paintings
How to draw a Maple Leaf
Tissue Paper Fall Leaves

Decorating Ideas
Pompom Acorns and Felt leaves
Leaf garland Turn down your speakers for this blog!

Wednesday's Websites The Etsy Edition

Science Kit Love that this kit comes in a cute bag and seems to contain any necessary supplies!
Craft Kits Perfect for the Mama who is just not crafty! All supplies included.
Felt Story Sets Love these super cute sets.
Play to Learn -Felt clocks, letters etc...
Beautiful wood puzzles etc... Wow! I love the leaf shape one!
Montessori phonics activities etc... Really great jewelry too!

edited to add: Card Table houses etc... I LOVE THESE!

Summertime Craft Ideas

Wind Chime

Flubber

Fuse beads An easy go to...especially for a rainy day!

God's Eyes

Reverse Tie dye Bought our cool cheap t-shirts for this project yesterday!

Bead Flowers

Bead Dragons

Bead Snakes (We have tons of beads!)

Lantern

Paper Beads

Flip books

Crayon resist

Paper fold and cut chain

Papier mache Bowl I would like to try this with a real bowl instead of a balloon though!

Star wreath Perfect for right before Independence Day!

The Foamerator

Montessori Monday

Between playing with new Christmas toys...

Practical Life
Baking Bread
Easy Embroidering


Tray ideas
Popsicle stick Snowflake
beads/straws Stars
Free explore with Fraction circles

SNOW DAY!!!!

We are having our first real snowday today! Very exciting for sure! So far, we have watched the original Grinch movie, Charlie Brown Christmas, and are starting in on Ichabod and Mr Toad as I type. Of course he has also spent the morning stamping, playing with Lego's, making a "movie" with his Little People Nativity, and building his new lego kit from the Lego City Advent calendar.

Busy Busy Busy!

I personally am exhausted (long night...see yesterday's comments if interested in an update but all is fine!) and have just laid here on the couch all morning watching the flurry of activity!

We do have big plans for the afternoon however! We are making a button wreath from our Advent activities list. (yesterday's activity...good thing I saved it huh?) He has also decided to make puppets with the cutout nativity people. (todays activity!)
http://sjbacb.blogspot.com/2009/11/advent-calendar.html (LAZY LINKAGE TODAY!) Oh yeah, and FINALLY finish decorating the tree!

We are likely to have another snow day tomorrow, they are predicting 2 inches an hour all night. So I think I will gather up the supplies for gift making and try to get some of that knocked out if we are home again. Also, tomorrow should be a bit better for outdoor fun so for sure we will be heading out to enjoy the snow.

Enjoy your families!
Shannon

Celebrate Snow!!!

Well, if you live where it snows there is just nothing you can do about it...so you might as well at least pretend to enjoy it! Here are a few ideas of fun things to do with the kids on a snow day!

• Paper Snowflake patterns (ht-Craft Jr. )
• Wooden/button snowflake
• Sock Snow People
• Snowmen
• Faux Snow!
• Salty snowman picture
• and...wow...build an igloo!

Penguin Unit

Sheesh, I love Penguins! I had so much fun planning this unit. We are going to read Mr. Popper's Penguins and a few other gems. We will also study Antarctica. We live in MI so snow will be here soon. We will launch this unit after the Christmas crazy!

Other Books
The Life Cycle of an Emperor Penguin
Penguins (True Books)
Penguins: Level Four (Usborne First Reading)
Antarctica (True Books: Continents)
Penguins (Animal Information)
Counting Penguins!

Other Penguin Unit
Mr. Poppers Penguins Book study (Funny, I found this after I did the rest of this post...nothing like reinventing the wheel. Oh well!)
Mr Popper's Penguins Lapbook

Science
Penguin Lapbooks Lifecycle and many other amazing resources. (ht- My Montessori Journey)
Penguin Puzzle and cards/book
Antarctica Website
Ice Melt Fun Game

Language Arts
Many Simple Penguin Literacy Ideas Dot to dots, easy reader book, name recognition, abc activities.

Math
Printable Penguin Counting Activity (scroll down for penguin activity link)
Penguin math Ideas Varying levels!

Geography
Penguin cards (Beautiful Cards from A Bit of this and that)
Cool Antarctica Website

Art
How to draw a penguin
Penguin art

Crafts
Penguin puppets
Handprint penguins
Potato print Puppets
Felt Penguin w/ printable directions

Misc...
Penguin song etc... cute ideas!
Penguin Memory Game
Save the Egg game

November Seasonal Activities

We had so much fun last month I thought I would throw together a list of fun activities for us to do again this month. Please note that we have NO INTENTION of doing everything on the list. These are just our options to pick from.

Crafts
Turkey napkin Rings We did these when Josh was 2 or 3 and still use them every year!
Hand & Footprint Turkey
Thanksgiving Story bracelet
Shape turkey
Cornucopia Cute but may be too difficult!

Language Arts
Turkey paper
Thanksgiving Words! Print, hole punch and put on a ring for easy writing!
Thanksgiving 5 senses Book LOVE THIS! It is right where Josh is at!
Thanksgiving fill-them-in Tale

Practical Life
Turkey Sewing- Easy! !!!!!!!

Activities
Thanksgiving Memory Match game

Recipes
Fruit Gobbler Definitely doing this!
Edible Indian Corn How can I do this dye free????
Thanksgiving Blessings Mix
Teeny turkey sandwiches

Misc
Thanksgiving Printables
Activity page Might keep them busy while waiting for pie.

Skull Sewing Idea!

Well, I can at least sew this! We are totally doing this one before Halloween!

http://motherrising.blogspot.com/2009/10/spooky-lacing-skull.html

Sock Skeleton

Oh my gosh, this is adorable! I seriously need to learn to sew!

http://www.juniorsociety.com/2009/10/18/the-martha-report/comment-page-1/#comment-22812

October Seasonal Activities

I was looking for some ideas to make this rainy miserable Fall a little more fun and thought I would share what I found with you! We will not get to even half of these!

Crafts (mostly Halloween)
Paper Strip Pumpkins We did this! It turned out great and was fun and easy!
Tissue ghosts We made these and strung them on a plastic glow lace!
Color, cut & glue Jack O'lantern or Cut & glue Jack O'lantern or Jack O'lantern person (not scary!)
Lantern Orange or Black would look cool!
Bat Mobile
Cute paper Bats I would like to use these bats to make the above mobile!
Adorable Craft stick Mummy
2 liter bottle ghost
Fall Ideas
Felt Board Pumpkin Faces Thanks Melissa!
Fall Silly Putty
Easy yarn Apples and Pumpkins!
Spider Web Spin Painting
Fall Window Hangings We did this last year with wax paper, leaves, crayon and an iron!

Misc. Activities
Printable Halloween Games
Halloween Color Pages

Art
Line Art Leaves

Online Activity
Build your own Jack O'lantern

Recipes
Pumpkin Shakes
Ghost Sandwiches
Spider Pizzas
Ritz Spider
Witches Hat

Language Arts
Pumpkin Book
Several Links to Fall Poetry

Science
Fall Window
Skeleton from bottles Plan ahead for next year?

Math
Fall Tree Dice game

Pumpkin Ideas
Star Wars Pumpkin Stencils Links to other themes too!

Wednesday's Website

Some cool ideas for crafts for a culture study but definitely a "work in progress"!

http://www.culturecottage.com/index.html

Make sure you check it out though and bookmark for future use!

Wednesday's Websites

• Continent Map Demo
• Addition Snake game Directions! ~ I need to read through this everyday until I can actually remember it. Me and math are not friends!
• Fine motor tree craft ~ Josh would have LOVED this a year or so ago... may still!
• Recipe for Homemade NUTTERBUTTERS!!!! ~ ooooooh!
• Solar System book
• Paper plate stegosaurus
• Bacon Bowls ~ hmmm, sounds fun!

Butterfly Study

Josh received a Live Butterfly Garden for his 4th Birthday and somehow I am just now, about a week before his 5th, getting around to ordering the caterpillars!

So I want to be ready for their arrival! I plan to just drop everything and totally do everything Butterfly as soon as we get the package.

General Information, Lapbooks and Activities

• Insect Lore
• Kid's Butterfly
• Kinderteacher Butterfly activities
• Monarch Information and activities
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Tots lapbook VERY COOL!
• Butterfly Lapbook LOTS HERE!
• Butterfly wings info.

ART/Craft Ideas

• Watercolor Caterpillar!!!
• Tissuepaper butterfly
• Dryer sheet butterflies
• Handprint butterflies TOO CUTE!
• Caterpillar crafts
• Butterfly craft ideas
• Clothespin butterfly with beads!
• Hungry caterpillar Ideas
• Butterfly ideas

Lifecycle/Science

• Lifecycle
• Lifecycle
• Lifecycle Cards!!!! YIPPPEEEE!
• Feeding butterflies!

Practical Life/Fine Motor

• How to draw butterflies! Loving these right now!
• Maze
• Butterfly recipe
• Button Caterpillar
• Do a dot butterfly stamping
• Eric Carle Color Page

Culture

• Days of the Week activity

Math

• Roll a caterpillar game
• Butterfly Math Ideas
• Butterfly symmetry painting

Language Arts

• Butterfly Language Ideas
• Felt Board Idea
• Sequencing activity
  

Mother's Day Mania

We generally make gifts for the Grandmother's for Mother's day and just buy them a little something to go with it. This year we made them little trinket boxes. They are just wooden jewelry boxes that we bought at the dollar store.


We painted them (with acrylic paint) and glued on painted popsicle sticks to look like fences. They turned out pretty cute!

This was a nice project to do with Josh because he could actually paint it and it still turned out "as planned!"


The second picture is really blurry (sorry...) but you can kind of see the clouds Josh sponge painted on the lid.


Well, I have a cake to frost and a house to "spruce up!" Hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!
Shannon