Animal Unit

Due to going to two different farms last week K wanted to concentrate this week on different types of Animals.  Which is right up my alley, I love everything that has to do with animals.  It's a joy to see how K's love for animals has grown.  If it was up to her she would have our house full of animals.  

BOOKS

These are some of the books we read and studied this week.  

MATCHING

Bought these when I used to sell AVON.  They are made for the bath tub, but the kid like to take them everywhere with them.  

LEAP FROG

Bought this game at the Dollar Tree and we have had a lot of fun with it.  K actually beat her dad and me.  She's got some good aim.

ANIMAL GROUPS

Here I asked her to divide the animals with ones that are in the water, land, and air.  She even divided the ones that go in a farm, and both in and out of water.

PUZZLE

We love puzzles and really love this floor puzzle from Melissa and Doug.  This puzzle shows where different animals live around the world.  

LACE & TRACE

We have many different types of lace and trace cards.  She never gets tired of them, they are awesome for hand eye coordination.  

STENCIL

Stencil art is always an all time favorite.  

FUN ACTIVITIES

The blocks have 6 different types of pictures that the kids need to build, it's almost like a puzzle.  The other are stamps of different animals.  Third is a puzzle where the child needs to match the shapes with animal.  Fourth is a see and spell game, the kids see the picture and spell out the word.  This has helped her identify words in different stories we read.  3 of 4 of these are by Melissa and Doug, love their products.  Wish I had some pictures of her using these items but we were a bit busy having fun.  

These are just some of the things we did for this week.  

Kinetic Sand

K got a kit with Kinetic Sand inside for her birthday.  We've been meaning to get some just never got around to it.  It's our new favorite sensory play.  We will be adding more colors, it's awesome.  

Ice Cream fun

She loves the feel 

Really into it

Ice Cream anyone

It's so soft and not as messy as regular sand or sticky.  

Modable sand without the mess

Easter Unit

This week we will be going over the Resurrection and doing some Easter activities.  

RESURRECTION EGGS

We decided to start our lesson early, Sunday, instead of Monday.  Bought these at Lifeway Christian Store, but you can pretty much buy them anywhere. Each egg contains a symbol of Jesus' journey to the cross. It has an illustrated bilingual storybook and a set of stickers.  

As R read the story she open an egg that went with the section being read.  After we were done reading the story we asked her to tell us what each symbol representative.  We were so proud that she remembered the whole story. 

EASTER EGG HUNT

We decided to do our Easter egg hunt indoor since it was so cold outside and I have a cold.  As you can tell the kids are pretty excited.  Plus it's little D's first Easter egg hunt and daddy wanted to be there for his first hunt. 

I hid the eggs in different areas of the multi-purpose room.  K was so excited she ran around trying to find as many eggs as she could.  D was too busy playing with one of the eggs he opened to look for more eggs.  

️SALT PAINTING CROSS

First outline the cross with glue, then sprinkle salt on the glue.  After you sprinkled the salt get some water colors and start painting.  All you need to do is dip the brush on the salt and watch the colors spread.  K wanted to draw Jesus since He died on the cross for our sins. 

THE STORY OF EASTER

After reading "The story of Easter", little D grabbed the book and started looking through the pages.  I hope to instill in him the love of reading.  

CARROT FOOTPRINTS

How cute are these!

WEST REGIONAL LIBRARY

Went to the library for Easter fun, first was story time then craft.  She did an amazing job on her egg necklace.  

After story time we went Easter egg hunting in the library.  She had so much fun searching for the all the eggs.  

SENSORY PLAY

Put together different Easter items in a bin full of rainbow pasta.  As soon as I placed the bin down the kids dove right in.  Of course Little D couldn't resist to climb right into the bin.

CROSS PAPER PLATE

We looked at several pictures of sunsets before painting the plate.  I love the way she blended the colors.  Then she glued the crosses on her paper, the result was amazing.  One of our favorite ones so far.  

EASTER PARTY

Today we had an Easter party at our wonderful co-op, to the right of the picture everyone was singing the kids Happy Birthday.  

The kids are enjoying some crafts before snack time and Easter egg hunting, of course I had to feed little man in between all the fun.

EASTER EGG HUNTING

So much fun Easter egg hunting, little man decided he was more interested in what was inside the egg then searching for eggs.

What better way to spend this amazing day then with wonderful friends.

POTATO STAMPING

Got a couple of potatoes and tired to cut a design in them, let her pick out some paint and let her at it.

She really enjoyed stamping with the potatoes and her Easter stamps.  

WRITING LETTERS

Put a letter into a plastic egg and put out a dry erase board.  When she opened an egg she would write the letter she found.  K was very excited to do this activity.  Love finding new ways to keep her interested in writing.  

Moon Unit

This week we studied the moon.  Learned the lunar phases and that the moon is the earth's only natural satellite.  It's the 5th largest moon in the solar system.  The moon orbits the earth every 27.3 days.

LUNAR PHASES

Learned the parts of the moon that we see at night is where the sun is shining or reflecting off it.  

BOOK: PAPA, PLEASE GET THE MOON FOR ME

Kanani really likes this book so she made a moon with a face on it (the craters on the moon looked like a face).  She made circles with glue and then we let it dry overnight.  

MOON PHASE

Made a plate of the lunar phases so we could use it at night to look at the moon.  Forget to take a picture of her using it.  

MOON SAND

We made moon sand to go with our unit for the week.  Very easy to make and lots of fun playing with it afterwards, it's really soft too.

Ingredients:  4 cups of play sand

                      2 cups of corn starch powder

                      1 cup of water

                      a couple drops of food coloring or 

                     2 tbsp of colored powder paint

Mix the sand and the corn starch in a large bowl until combined.

Then add the water very slowly, mixing it in as you go.  By the end it should be well combined  and the consistency is like a crumbly pastry mix.  If it doesn't hold together when forming a ball then add a little bit more water until its to your liking.  Once this is done add the food coloring and mix.  The only downfall with using food coloring is getting your hands stained by it, which will wash off.  You could always substitute the food coloring with colored powder paint, we used what we had on hand.

MOON JOURNAL

We looked at the moon every night and documented what phases the moon was every day.  

This was really a interesting lesson and we learned a lot of things about the moon we never knew.  

Rescue Class

Today we went to Lake Rim Rec Center to learn about different topics of rescue.  

Walking around waiting for the class to start.  

These guys were so sweet and patient with the kids.  Answering all their questions and making sure they understood what they do.  They are the ones that communicate the old fashion way if the light were to go out by using radios and Morse code.  Then they demonstrated how an old radio used to work, which was everyone's favorite part.  

She taught the kids what Red Cross does and how they help in times of crisis.  Told us what steps to take in case of a fire.  How we should have a meeting place in case of a fire and to always check our smoke detectors at least once a month.  Two of the top sources that cause fire is unattended pot on a stove and candles.  She also discussed different programs the Red Cross offers.  

A volunteer mom showed the kids how earthquakes are measured and how to make a wind mill. 

Ms. Marlene taught the kids about Rescue 911.  She told them about her job as a dispatcher and read them a new book that just got published.  The book was written by a former dispatcher.  The kids got to watch a movie teaching them when they should dial 911 and when they shouldn't.  Afterwards Mr. Fox came out and tested the kids to see if they knew when they should or shouldn't dial 911.  Before they left they have each child a bag that contained a coloring book about Rescue 911, a pencil, a tattoo sticker, a lollipop, and a fold out fan.  

Tie-dye Shirt

We are pretty excited that we get to Tie-dye shirts today at our home school co-op.  

Here is a before picture of the shirt 



Shirt is ready to be dyed

Kanani is yelling "GOOD MORNING!" to get everyone's attention.

The 5-9 year old watching Big Hero 6 while they wait patiently for their turn to dye their shirts.

Finally getting to dye her shirt, of course the first color she picked was pink.

Love her chooses in color: PINK, PURPLE, YELLOW, and BLUE.

We left the shirt like this and in the bag for 8 hours before rinsing it out with hot water.

Here are the results, which we are very happy about.

Now we have the dying bug, going to buy more tie-dye kits to do more.

We are not only going to do shirts but probably some cloth bags.  

The possibilities are endless.