Book Basket

Just popping by with a book recommendation!

Joshua borrowed Art Auction Mystery from our local library this week and it is A M A Z I N G!!! It is a game, a book, math and a fine art lesson all in one. The premise is that some art has been stolen and copied and you need to find out who did it. There is a search and find aspect to identify the fake paintings from the originals which is a fun challenge. But I also really love how they incorporate a math lesson by having you figure out how much the theives got paid and graph all the information to solve the crime.

Remember please that Josh is a "special" Kindergartener so I would NOT recommend this book for children so young. Amazon is saying 4-8th grade, I might go down to 2nd with help. Josh can read it just fine but I am helping with the writing aspect of the graph.

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!

How to Draw...

I thought we might enjoy doing some of these How to Draw lessons I have seen lately! As long as I am compiling...

Snake
Christmas Nutcracker
Penguin
Laurel Burch Cat Head
Cat
Buildings
Cow
Lion
Castle
Rooster
House
Scaredy cat
Bear
Interesting step by step online directions

Most of these are from http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/ !

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

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!

Driveway Painting

We had a blast painting

on the driveway with this

paint!

Check out more ideas at We Made it Friday Showcase!

So, What are You Doing Tomorrow?

We are painting! (our driveway!)

All you need is...

Food Coloring
Corn Starch
Water

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
  

Just Josh...

Today while painting Mother's Day gifts for the Grandmothers, Josh says, "so...it does not really matter how I paint, just as long as I do not get any paint on the real table..."

Yep, that about sums it up...

Sassy little bugger!

Dot Art Activity

Josh read Dots, Dots, Dots at the Museum by Francie Alexander which is a really cool book that incorporates art into the simple to read text. Throughout the book we discussed the use of dots in the various paintings.



Then he "practiced" dot art using dot art printouts from Childcareland. He used our Do-A-Dot Rainbow Art Set (Set of 6).







Finally, he created his own Dot Art!

We had a lot of fun with this project and it was nice to see all the different parts come together. He really could see himself as "the artist" when he created his masterpiece at the end. We finished off by going back to the book and looking at the pictures again. I pointed out how the different artists signed their paintings and then he signed his in true josH style!

Writing Workshop/Art Shelves!

So I never did find the shelving I was searching for, but it is always best to just make use of what you already have. Here is my plan http://sjbacb.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-latest-scheme.html

Here is what I did so far...What do you think???

I combined the art and writing shelves together since so many of the materials overlapped. It has been working really well for us so far. This shelf is in the dining room, underneath the bar that we have never used.

TOP SHELF~ Tray with letter stamps and stamp pad, sand tray with black sand, letter tracing with wipeoff pen, basket of assorted paper.

SECOND SHELF~ Stencils, Pencils and Pens, Colored Pencils, Sandpaper letters, Magnetic Drawing Board.

THIRD SHELF~ lowercase wooden pieces for HWT, basket of crayons, scissors and hole punch, markers, ruler.




FOURTH/BOTTOM SHELF~ Perler Beads Bucket and trays, Tackle box with craft items, notebooks on top of junk drawer.


I still have a few more things I want to add but it is sure nice to have it all up and running. When we do our Preschool time, the days we do not go down to the Montessori room, we do work at the dining table. So this set up works really great! SO what do you think? Any suggestions?

Getting Back on Track!

I have so many crazy schemes up my sleeve right now I feel as if I am drowning in half finished projects and not really accomplishing anything! uhhh well, it will get done!

Anyway...thought I would give you a preview of what we have been up to and where we are going. (actual blog entries pending!)

• Science Journal~ Josh and I have started a science journal. We do a science "experiment" and fill out a journal entry with drawings and writings.
• Writing Workshop shelves~ almost finished but have been more of a challenge then expected.
• Art Shelves~ see above
• Cooking Mama and me~ Planning to try to do more of these again, it was such a fun time for us!
• Fine Art inspired learning
• New work on the math shelves!
• Love unit

Stay tuned!

Wednesday's Website

http://www.colormeonline.com/masterpiece/paintings/index.html


Not exactly sure how I plan to use these but thought I would share. They are coloring book style pages of famous masterpieces. It also provides a bit of information about each painting.

Wednesday's Website

http://mrsriley.com

This is an amazing site I just stumbled upon in which you can create your own sets of 3 part cards by just dragging the picture you want onto the format you choose! Super easy. I have already made 3 sets!

Warning: This site is in a beta trial so is free for now! I say use it before we lose it!

Embracing Winter

We are doing a Winter theme right now. I guess I figure if you can not do anything about it you might as well embrace it. (However I did just see it will be a HIGH of 12 next week sooo... we will be embracing it from the indoors!)

Anyway here is what I planned...

LANGUAGE

• Winter clothes book http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Monthly%20Centers/January/downloads/winterclotheswritingfillin.doc

http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Monthly%20Centers/January/downloads/winterclotheswritinghatscarf.doc

http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Monthly%20Centers/January/downloads/winterclotheswritingcoatboots.doc

• Mitten reading puzzle http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/phonics/downloads/mittenpuzzleCVC.doc
• Shelf work

MATH

• Symmetrical snowflakes http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Monthly%20Centers/January/downloads/symmetrical%20snowflakes.doc


• Bit more symmetry work http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/lines-of-symmetry/


• Snowman Grid Game http://www.prekinders.com/gridgames/snowman20.pdf


• Snowman addition fun http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/SnowmanAdditionFun.htm


• Calendar activity http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Monthly%20Centers/January/downloads/Fill%20in%20Calendar.doc
• Shelf work(present tens and teens boards finally!)

CULTURE

• Animal Tracks http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Monthly%20Centers/January/downloads/Animal%20Tracks.doc


• Astronomy Cards http://www.sherriallen.com/learningcentral/


• Snow info http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/
• Shelf work
• Experiment with melting snow

ART/CRAFTS

• Tealight holder


• Complete the snowflake http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/SnowflakeCompletetheDrawingPages.htm
• Watercolor work! (http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/07/watercolor-resist-snowflakes.html)

SENSORIAL

• Fake snow!


• Sequencing cards http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/SnowmanEaselArt.htm


• Visual Discrimination Cards http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Monthly%20Centers/January/downloads/snowflakememory.doc
• Shelf work
  

PRACTICAL LIFE

• Tracing practice ~great for developing fine motor!http://www.makinglearningfun.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.makinglearningfun.com/Activities/snow/SnowmanTraceandColor.gif


• Of course other trays that are already on shelves and maybe a few snow/winter themed for fun!

MORE IDEAS

• http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/topic/season/winter.html


• http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/SnowSnowmen.htm


• http://www.prekinders.com/winter.htm

We will work on this for probably the next couple of weeks or until our interest is gone. We will also continue to use our basket of workbooks that he is real "INTO" right now!

Watercolor 101

Thanks to those who left advice! I have also been researching on my own and figures I might as well share some of what I have found!

An entire watercolor tutorial! We will be doing this as soon as I buy new watercolor paints
Cool watercolor activity. Stay tuned for info on an entire snow theme we are doing!
A watercolor techniques lesson.
The only recommendation for what type to buy was for this brand! So expensive though...
color mixing with watercolor

Watercolor must haves...
any watercolor paper (this is just the type I found in my stash!)
watercolor paint (I would like to try something other than these caketype paints!)
...and what I am most lacking...

Training Tuesday

This past week we worked on using watercolor. But frankly, I am really frustrated! The paints we have are cheap and light and somewhat useless. So I found watercolor pencils and thought we would give those a try. I seriously do not understand how to use these.

We tried painting over a drawing with water but it does not do much. Anyone else have any suggestions? I am willing to buy different paints but any ideas what?

So for this Training Tuesday, I beg all of you to train me! Watercolor 101...

Organizing Craft Supplies

I have a TON of art/craft supplies and was incredibly overwhelmed with them last year. So this year I knew I had to come up with a solution. Finally, I broke down and bought 2 Five drawer plastic stackable systems. I just have them stacked on top of each other and now my supplies are sorted into different drawers. They are easy to find and easier to put away. (and yes...that top drawer is filled up with Pompoms...pathetic...but I got a huge bag at a yard sale. Any ideas on what I can do with them?)

Our Current Schedule

Subtitled...How we are making it all work with Little C. (That is...before we start school in a few weeks!)

8:00 Josh wakes up and C arrives (ish)

8:15 Breakfast for everyone

8:45 Playtime

10:00 C's bottle and nap

10:10 Joshua and Mommy's art/crafts time (we have painted, done fuse beads, strung cereal O's for the birds, etc...)

11:30 C wakes~~Playtime

12:30 Lunch for everyone

1:00 Playtime often outside (weather permitting)

2:00 C's bottle and both boys nap (I read to Josh while I give C his bottle)

3:30-4 C is picked up and Josh wakes

When school begins I foresee the only change being...
8:45 Shelf choice for Josh/Playtime for C (we are setting up 2 rooms that are open to each other)

10:00 Bottle/nap for C ~~ Any needed lessons for Josh and one on one time.

I think it is all going to work out, eventually. I do think the first several weeks will be most difficult for Josh who will want more of my time. He will eventually adjust and really it is not so very different than me just sitting there observing him work.

Stay tuned for rearranged classroom pictures and C's room/our rec room redo pictures.
I am also planning to post pictures of any new trays/works I have added!

Stop what you are doing...

...and go here now!

I just found this amazing blog called Art Projects for Kids filled with WONDERFUL art projects and broken up into "grade" and medium. I think I bookmarked all the grade 0 stuff. And several of the stuff for older kids. The directions are step by step and VERY understandable...even for the art challenged like me!