Measuring with Pennies

Friday
January 30, 2009

I found this great idea for measurement from Scholastic. Meara really enjoyed it especially because she was able to use pennies for the measuring tool (she LOVES Abraham Lincoln). It was fun to pick items from around the house to find out how many pennies it took to measure each item.

We subscribe to Scholastic's Let's Find Out and Clifford. I remember these sheets from when I was a kid. They are little mini paper magazines with educational material included. This worksheet came from the January edition.

I found this great book Let's Fold! at Target. Meara has had a lot of fun learning to fold on the dotted line. The sunday school curriculum at church has a lot of folding on the worksheets they do. So far she really enjoys it and asks if she can do it often.

Our School Day Today

Friday
January 23, 2009

These are the things we did today. Our day goes much more smoothly when we have activities to do. It's amazing to me how much a little mind can absorb. Meara is very curious by nature and very talkative just like her mommy. ;-)

Math:
Counting practice and number recognition with felt pieces
Recognition of coins; quarter, dime, nickel and penny

This is Mat Man from Handwriting Without Tears. Meara uses curved and straight wooden shapes to create a man. He has bottle cap eyes, a milk carton safety ring for a nose and a construction paper body. This activity is used to assist children in learning to draw people. We also use these wooden pieces to create letters. My dad used the pattern from the HWOT book and made them out of laminent flooring.

Drawing a person with at least six parts.

Practiced pointing out what states all of our family live in, including us.

She asked if I would read the ten commandments to her.

We talked about matter. Specifically, we talked about solids. We discussed what a solid is and Meara showed me examples of solids in our house.

We read about Rebekah and Isaac. I love to see the look on her face when she realizes the amazing things God has done in the Bible.

Reading:

The Lion StoryTeller Bedtime Book - Tiger Tries to Cheat: A story about being grateful when someone helps you and not treating them unfairly or unjustly.

Eric Carle's Animals...A bird is sad because he is stuck in a cage watching the butterflies fly freely.

A Treasury of Mother Goose- The Owl (I have to share this one with you)

A wise old owl sat in an oak,

The more he heard the less he spoke;

The less he spoke the more he heard.

Why aren't we all like that wise old bird?

I LOVE this...rhyme!

Physical Activity:

She practiced standing on one foot for 10 seconds. She is almost there today she made it to 8 seconds.

She also practiced hopping on one foot five times and galloping.

Art:

We made a snow globe...in next post

Making A Snow Globe

Friday
January 23, 2009

Materials we used:
clean washed jar(we used a plastic peanut butter and jelly jar)
forest clay or some type of small recycled container
figurine and extra decorations...make sure you use items that are water resistant
hot glue gun and hot glue
glitter
teaspoon
water

You could use florist clay on the bottom to build up the spot where you will be placing your figurine. We recycled a small Play-Doh container attaching it to the top w/ hot glue.


Before glueing figurine place the jar on top of figurine to make sure it looks the way you desire.
Attach your figurine to the lid and any other greenery or decorative items with a hot glue gun. We kept ours simple.

Add water to within 1/2" from the top.

Add one teaspoon of glitter to the water.

Place the lid inside the jar and screw on tightly.

Hot glue around the lid . I used a generous amount to stop the water from leaking out.

In hindsight, I didn't need anything for the doll to stand on. She was tall enough. We also used two teaspons of glitter. One was probably good enough. Meara likes it...and seeing her smile makes my heart melt, so it's ok! ;-)

Bottle Top Letters and Word Cards

January 22, 2009

We have been collecting coke bottle tops for the reward codes. I wished I had some way of recycling them. Thanks to 1+1+1=1 blog http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/ I found this great idea. I decided to make some for Meara. Below are the complete instructions and pictures to show you how to make your own cards and bottle tops.

Using Microsoft Publisher

Name cards:

Click File-New-Blank Publications-Blank Publications-Tent Card

The program may ask you if you want to automatically insert pages? Click yes

Click Insert picture-from file
Resize photo by clicking the corner and dragging toward the middle
Place the photo in the corner of the blue box using the box to align photo

Click on oval tool then drag a circle next to picture
Double click on circle
Format AutoShape box will appear
Click on size tab- change height and width to 1.3” click ok
Right click on circle and select copy
Right click on page and paste the desired number of circles to complete word

Click on text box
Click on page and drag to create box
Click on arrow then double click on the text box you just created
Click on size tab- change height and width to 1.251” click ok
Right click on text box and click copy
Paste the number of text boxes necessary for the number of circles
Move boxes over circles
Click inside first square

Change font size to 72- type letter inside box
Click center
You may need to move text box on circle to center more accurately
Repeat for each additional letter

Top of Bottle Cap:

Click on a circle then right click and copy
At the bottom of the program click on page 2
Right click and paste circle
Dbl click on circle and change height and width to 1”
Paste the amount needed for corresponding word
Go back to page 1
Click on first text box and paste over circle on page 2
Continue with each text box until all circles are completed w/ their corresponding
letter

Cut the individual circles out and decoupage to bottle cap

The Crafty Cow

Monday
January 19, 2008

I really like the Crafty Crow Blog. She has crafts for a wide range of ages.

She has some giveaways today to include 5 books with beautiful illustrations. http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/

Check it out! ;-)

Planting a Tree

December 27, 2008

We bought an oak tree back in October when they were put on clearance at Lowes. Yes, I know...it's December and we are just getting around to planting it. The weather had been nasty, we were sick and Thanksgiving happened then Christmas. You know how life goes. We decided this was a month that ended in "r". As long as we got it in the ground this month it should be ok. It was unusually warm and very windy for a December day so we took advantage of it.



You may be asking yourself, is Meara wearing Dorothy's ruby red slippers?! Yes, you would be right. She is being beautiful in her shoes while she helps daddy dig a muddy hole. ;-)

Meara decided she needed her own shovel. Later on she decided she needed daddy's big shovel.

The ground around here is full of rocks and very difficult to dig up.

She really enjoys doing "big people" things. Michael is very patient with her and lets her do as much of anything they are doing by herself.

Making Christmas Trees

December 2008

Christmas Tree craft. For this craft all you need are sugar ice cream cones, icing (tinted green), and m&m's. I got this craft from The Adventure of Christmas by Lisa Welchel. It is a mom's guide for helping children find Jesus in our holiday traditions. I used this craft as an opportunity to talk about the importance of the Christmas tree. In this lovely book it states that the Christmas tree is a reminder of why Jesus was born in the first place-to die for you and me. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sins and live for righteousness." 1 Peter 2:24.

Making a gingerbread house

December 17, 2008

This was our first gingerbread house assembly. It was fun putting it together and decorating it. I bought it on sale for $5 on black friday at a craft store.

Michael was the engineer with Meara's assitance of course.

Mom, I can help daddy better ON the table. ;-)

Now, on to my FAVORITE part, decorating.

Not too shabby for our first time! FUN, FUN!