Letter Fun

I set up a sensory activity for Kanani to do on the floor: searching for the letters, matching the letters, and then writing the letters down.

Hid all the letters in our Rainbow Rice, once found she would then place the letter on the matching letter on the paper, and then write the letter on the chalk board. 

Searching for the letters 

Once she found the letter she would write it down.

She was having fun searching for all the letters.

Searching for the last couple of letters.

Kanani was very excited to have found all the letters. Every time she would find a letter she would make the letter sound. Once she was done with this activity she took it upon herself to try to spell out words on her own.  Wish I would of taken some pictures of her doing that.  

Cat Unit

This week Kanani wanted to learn about cats.  Here are a few of the things we did for cat week. 

WASH & CLEAN 

This has been her favorite activity to do.  She loves washing her toys, such a wonderful sensory activity. 

SPELLING

Each week we learn how to spell a new word (the word of the week), whatever unit we are doing. For example the word for this week is C-A-T. 

WRITING

Just like with the spelling we practice writing the word of the week. 

CAT IN THE HAT

Of course we had to incorporate Cat in the Hat into our unit this week.  What is cat week without The Cat in the Hat?!  We love all things Dr. Seuss. First we made a mask of the Cat in the Hat.  Then we counted how many Pom poms it would take to cover the white parts of the hat.  Good motor and math practice skills since I had her grab the Pom poms with twizzers and then had her count them. 

LACE & TRACE

Great motor skill activity lace and trace.  

DRAWING

This was a Christmas gift given to her a couple of years ago.  It has several different pictures that she can learn how to draw.

IDENTIFICATION

Found this on Regina Davis' blog: Fairytalesandfictionby2.blogspot.com.  She has so many great ideas.  It helped with identifying the cat parts and reading.  Had Kanani read each label first then glue them in the correct section. She has done so good learning how to read I'm so proud of how far she has come.  

Tapioca Pearl Fun

A friend of mine had posted pictures of her kids playing with Tapioca Pearls, it looked like fun.  So I asked her where she got it from and we tried some out.  Found them at the Asian market, all we used was one bag and it was more than enough.  For bigger groups than two I would use more bags.  

Great sensory play for the kids at a great price for only $1.29.  

First I boiled the bag till the white pearls looked clear, then I drained the pearls.  

Once I had drained them I divided them into six different containers.  I put a couple of drops of food coloring in each one (red, orange (yellow + red), yellow, green, blue, and purple (red + blue), and had Kanani help me stir till all were covered.  

We loved how bright the colors came out.

Then I poured each one into a large plastic container and poured about 6 cups of water into the container.

Placed the container on top of some towels and had the kids go at it.  Dartainan was actually the first one to quickly go and touch the pearls, Kanani was more hesitate.  

He really enjoyed getting his hands in the pearls.  They felt all squishy and smooth.  

Kanani finally began to explore the pearls, she thought it was going to be sticker.  

Kanani wanted to add more water, she said she wanted the pearls to float.  

I grabbed a hand full of the pearls and Dartanian quickly grabbed some out of my hand. 

The kids mixed all the colors together, to our surprise it didn't stick together.  

After they finished playing with the pearls in the container we moved them to the water table.

They really enjoyed them more once we moved them to the water table, even Kanani got really into it.  

The best part of this experience is that it's all natural and safe in case the kids put some in their mouths.  

Dog Unit

Kanani wanted to learn about dogs this week.  She is so much like me, her love for animals only grows more each day.  We went around the house looking for all the dogs we could find, we soon realized we had a lot more than we imagined.  

Placed a couple of things that deal with dogs in a bucket for her.  When she woke up she went straight to the bucket and got excited.  She quickly knew that we were dedicating the week to dogs just like she wanted.  

WASH & CLEAN

We had done this water and clean sensory play in our horse unit and it was a big hit.  She requested that this be one of the things she gets to do in this unit.  I'm so happy she has enjoyed this. 

WORD PUZZLES

I always like finding things for her to do that involves the family.  She really loves placing these puzzles correctly, and it helps with her learning to read.

FEED & WATER

One of Kanani's responsibilites is to make sure that Zeus is always feed and has plenty of water.  Most of the time she does it on her own and proceeds to give him a treat right after she is done.  Like how Zeus waits patiently watching for Kanani to finish.

BOOKS

We all love books and especially the ones that come with a toy or stuffed animal with it.  

PLAY-DOH

I set a tray of play-doh and some cookie cutters and utensils.  We used the left over play-doh we had saved from our Earth Unit.  I love how much she concentrates when she gets involved in a project.  She was very happy with her finished work.  

PLAY-DOH AND SPELLING

Since we already had the play-doh out we decided to practice our spelling.  She was so happy to find out that she could also spell GOD by switching two letters.  Couldn't wait to tell daddy about it once he got home. 

BLOCK PUZZLES

I bought this block puzzle from Avon when Kanani was younger.  Even though it's made for babies she still enjoys playing with it.

PUZZLE

I also bought this puzzle from Avon, it actually comes with 3 other animal puzzles and in a mesh bag.  These are actually Puzzle Tiles to be used in the bath tub.  

KINETIC SAND

A very dear friend of mine whom I consider family got me this Kinetic Sand kit for my birthday.  Even though it's made for younger kids I enjoy playing with it just as much.  I definitely enjoy it more with my kids.  

This was Dartanian's first time touching Kinetic Sand, he didn't know what to make it of it at first.  

BOOK GAMES

I always enjoy being able to incorporate games with books.  Makes learning so much fun.  

TRACE AND LACE 

Now that Kanani is older he has enjoyed the lace and trace by Melissa and Doug more.  She used to play with it but would get frustrated when she couldn't get it right.  It's a great hand eye coordination game.

BABY-SITTING

It so happens that this is the week we were in charge of baby-sitting three loving babies.  The kids really enjoyed helping me care for them, especially Dartanian.  He loved petting them and getting puppy kisses.

Our name

K has been working on learning her last name, she already knows her first and middle name.  Poor thing has a very long name.  I believe in her and know she will learn it in no time.  

SPELLING

Divided our last name and she actually was able to spell the first half of her last name with no help.  She then matched the letters on the paper I made her, almost like a puzzle.  

BANANAGRAMS

We love using our Bananagrams tiles, they are so useful.  Use them to spell all sorts of words.  

LITTLE HELPER

Our little helper wanted to clean the chalk board after we were done with the day's lesson.  

Horse Unit

This week Kanani has asked to learn about Horses.  To be honest I actually thought we were done with the unit lessons for the summer, but she asked so of course I was more than happy to continue with our lesson plans.  She's even picked the topics she wants for the rest of the month.  As long as she has the desire to learn I am more than willing to help keep alive any way possible.  

Here is our HORSE UNIT of the week.

Love the bond these two have, just looking at this picture you can see and feel the love.

COWGIRL KANANI AND COWBOY DARTANIAN

Kanani used to say that she wanted to be a Cowgirl when she grows up, now she wants to be a veterinarian.  

OBSERVATION

Love how whenever he gets something new to look at he will observe from inch to inch.

PLAY TIME

At times they play nice together.

IDENTIFICATION

Taped several different cards to a horse so when Kanani woke up she could learn the horse parts.

She was very excited when she saw the horse waiting for her on the table.  We quickly dove right in identifying the different parts.  Once we identified each part I took the cards off then read them to her and she would place them where she believe they went, got to say she did outstanding.  She got 14 out of 16 right.

  

PUZZLE BLOCKS

We always enjoy our Melissa & Doug block puzzles.  I scrambled the blocks then had her arrange them correctly.  She did it faster than I thought.  

POOL NOODLE HORSE

I saw online a picture of a pool noodle horse and figured to give it a try since I had an extra pool noodle.  Got to say it came out pretty good for something I made at the last minute.  

SERIOUS COWGIRL

She has enjoyed her pool noodle horse, hasn't stopped thanking me for making it for her.  Tried to get her to smile but she said she couldn't because she was chasing some bad guys.

SPELLING

I spelled out the word H-O-R-S-E on the dry erase board and then scrambled our Leap Frog magnetic letters.  Once I scrambled the letters I went ahead and took the spelling down and had her place it in correct order.  She got it the first try and then took the letters I took of the board and placed them under the ones she spelled out.  Little man couldn't help himself, something about the Leap Frog letters he loves.  He kept placing in the container to hear the sound of each letter.

WASH & CLEAN HORSE STATION

I placed a wash and clean water station on the floor while little man took his nap.  Kanani was so excited to quickly begin.  She first dipped the horses in a bowl of soapy water and then used a sponge to clean the horse.  Afterwards she used a toothbrush to get in the hard to reach areas, and then sprayed them with water to get most of the soap off before placing it into the bowl of water.  Last step she dried them off with the towel I provided for her.

SIZING HORSES

We went around her room and grabbed all the horses we could find, as you can tell Kanani loves horses.  I asked to please line them up from either smallest to biggest or biggest to smallest.  

DRAWING

Last thing we did for Horse week was follow instructions on how to draw a horse.  I love her version of a horse, it's so cute.  She also used some stencils we had of horses.  This has been a very fun and informative week learning all about horses.