We Are Back!!

Tuesday
February 23, 2010

YEAH! We are back to blogging after a hiatus due to an injury. The day after Thanksgiving my family and I went to Gatlinburg to stay in a cabin for four days. While waiting for our cabin to be ready we decided to spend some time on the playground. In an attempt to cast away the fears of my five-year-old over the "scary" big green slide I slammed into the first curve of the slide stopping dead in my tracks and ended up with what turned out to be a fourth degree sprained ankle. Needless to say our vacation was spent inside the cabin with my foot up in bed. I was on crutches for six weeks and had two months of physical therapy. Thankfully I am almost back to my old self aside from running and jumping. Ahh...the price to pay for being a BIG KID! ;-)

Build a Pizza Game

Tuesday

November 3, 2009

We have been playing games with dice and number cards as recognition practice. Yesterday, we went to Walmart and picked out felt colors for our pizza toppings and created our new game.

*UPDATE* I realized the instructions didn't match the die. I fixed the document...sorry to those of you who printed a copy already! ;-)

Click on images below to print templates.

Rag Quilt Letters w/ Bag Giveaway

Monday

November 2, 2009

One of my MOST FAVORITE websites is http://www.makinglearningfun.com/. I have found so many really cute and creative activities to use in our classroom there. Some of them I have blogged about in the past. The creator of that site, Jo is giving away these cute rag quilt letters and bag in celebration of her 100th post. Check out her blog and enter to win here.

Happy Halloween

Saturday

October 31, 2009

I have fond memories of Halloween as a little girl. My favorite costume was a gypsy that my mom pieced together with items we had around the house. She let me use her shaw and costume jewelry and gave me a special makeup mole on my cheek. Even as a child I felt the sense of community, neighbors caring for other people's children and their kindness in giving all of us candy. I pray Meara has fond wholesome memories of Halloween like I do.

Paper Bag Pumpkin With a Special Meaning

Tuesday
October 27, 2009

We created this craft with our 4-year-old sunday school class also. We told them then and Meara today how we are a lot like pumpkins. Jesus picks us out like pumpkins in a field. He "washes" all the dirt off and removes all the "yucky stuff" called sin from the inside. He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love. His light is placed in our hearts to shine for the whole world to see just like a candle inside a pumpkin.

Practicing Tally Marks

Tuesday
October 27, 2009

Meara likes to play games, she likes playing with dice also. We decided to practice how to write tally marks using the dice. She rolled the dice and put a mark in the appropriate column. I LOVE how little things make her happy and she learns while having FUN!!

Number Matching

Thursday
October 22, 2009

We like to have the lights off in our learning room/classroom as long as there is enough light. We save on electricity and it's FUN!! So, I apologize if it's a little hard to see the pictures. A while ago, I found these incredible number cards that Jolanthe made at Homeschool Creations. The set includes numbers, roman numerals, dots, and number words. We laminated them to last longer. Meara LOVES to ring a service bell. Today, we pulled out our magnets, cards, cookie sheet, and the service bell. She practiced counting the dotted cards, reading the number cards and matching the correct magnet number on the cookie sheet. If she got it wrong I made a buzzer sound (which she found very amusing). If she got it right she was able to ring the service bell herself (which she also found very amusing).