Aa is for Apple

Now that KID 1 is spending his days in his Kindergarten classroom, it's up to KID 2 and me to keep the alphabet soup bubblin'!



This week was "Apple Week" here. I only wish we had apple orchards nearby where we could go and pick fresh apples! We studied an apple and all its many colors, then filled in a big apple outline with colored tissue paper. KID 2 had fun tearing the tissue into little pieces for gluing. I watered down some Elmer's and gave her a paintbrush to apply her glue. She really enjoyed this project!





This one is MY apple project. I want to make a banner for each month so we can hang it on the mantle to mark the beginning of the new month. Here is September's banner:

How do you celebrate the month of September?

An Easy Easter Project and Fun New Resource!

We recently opened a fresh new stack of colored construction paper (a BIG event around here!) and KID 1 was anxious to make something. I did a search for "construction paper crafts" online and came up with a cool site with alphabetized paper crafts:

http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/paper.htm

They also offer thematic materials, such as the Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? link with printable templates for coloring or making feltboard characters (there's a brown bear, red bird, yellow duck, etc.). They call this collection of resources the Book Breaks. Check out the Nursery Rhymes section, too! I wish I had known about this site sooner!

For those of you working on letters or numbers of the week, this could be a great resource for hands-on projects!

We started with the Easter Chick and added some fluffy yellow feathers to his wings. KID 1 liked cutting all the basic shapes and then putting them together to make something new. I wonder what we'll make next...hmmmmm...

Having a "Tt" Party!

I took a new perspective on blogging recently: I only do it when I am not completely stressed, or sick, or have a sick child...you get the idea. When I have a great idea to share, I will share it (as long as I can do it without detracting from my time with the kids).

Anyway, two weeks ago when I wasn't posting, the kids and I spent the morning spontaneously preparing a "Tt" party luncheon to surprise Paul when he came home for lunch. I had recently acquired a train cake pan at a terrific yard sale, so the kids helped make pumpkin muffins shaped like a train (our table centerpiece).

I cut up some leftover seasoned chicken breasts, mixed in some chopped celery and mayo and voila! Chicken salad "Tt" sandwiches were born! I just cut off the crusts of the bread, cut the sandwiches into 4 sections, and arranged them in an Uppercase T on their plates.

The kids helped wash and set the table, and we were ready to go! Lunch never looked so good here!

A Good Day

Yesterday was KID 2's birthday. She turned 2. Unfortunately, she and I have both been sick. Her party should have been Saturday, but we had to postpone it.

Monday was her official day, and so in honor of her birthday and Letter Dd week, we walked to the park by the lake and read Make Way for Ducklings (a Caldecott classic). Then we loaded those little ducklings up with stale homemade bread.

This one was not my idea: I was inspired by the leader of our Children's Lit. forum who just loves book adventures, or turning a beloved book into an activity/adventure.

A few friends met us there, and afterwards we played......Duck, Duck, Goose! Of course!

Happy Birthday, Little One!

You're beautiful, inside and out.

MapQuest for Letter Mm

We printed out a map of our neighborhood on MapQuest.com and have been using it all week to plan our route:

• to the park


• to our church


• to the library

KID 1 loves being the map reader, marking our route before we step out the door, map in hand. Along the way, we make a note of everything we see that starts with "Mm." I will turn our word search into word cards for him to glue corresponding pictures from magazines on the back.

Some "Mm" words we found:

• mailbox
• magnolia seeds
• moss
• moth
• mower
• month (printed on a "Yard of the Month" sign)
• movers (on the side of the moving truck that delivered our piano!)

For more frugal tips and tricks, go here.

Musical Murals

We're learning about letter "Mm" this week, and I'm anxious to share one of our very cool activities!

On Monday, I cut a big, long piece of easel paper and taped it to the floor. I gave both kids their own set of crayons (we used Colorations Silky Sticks, which are soft and glide over the paper).

To prepare them for the activity, I told them to just listen to the music and draw what they feel. I didn't say much more than that, and they didn't really need to know more. After a questioning look from KID 1 (What are we supposed to do?), I reassured him that he would know how to draw the music once he heard it.

The first piece of music I selected for them to "draw" was "Moonlight Sonata," which has lots of repetitions. It's very smooth music, and my 4-year-old really reflected the feel of the music as he drew, using large, sweeping movements of his arm in concentric circles. My toddler tapped, dabbed, and pounded her crayon to the beat, raising her crayon over her head with a flourish as she looked up to see if we were watching.

I tried to melt into the background and just observe, occasionally reminding them with a hand signal to just listen. I didn't want them to feel their art time was a performance, but it sure was fascinating to watch!

The second piece was my husband's choice (he was home from work by then and thoroughly fascinated by this little experiment) and we moved this new mural up to the table so the kids could really move their whole bodies. He chose "Sing, Sing, Sing (With A Swing)" from the Swing Kids soundtrack. Oh, my goodness, it was so funny to watch! And what a difference between the two pieces of art! Fast, jaunty scribbles took up the center of the page as his feet flew beneath him! Watch our video...it's too funny!

Combining our love of art and music really works for us!

The Letter "Cc"...continued...

Briefly the world's tallest building, the Chrysler building is truly an American icon in architecture and the New York skyline. We are using clay to make miniature sculptures of the Chrysler building today. This gives us an opportunity to talk about uppercase and lowercase letters and when to use them.


Adorned with metal hubcaps, radiator caps, car fenders, and hood ornaments, as the name suggests, this building gets much of it's inspiration from a car! If it has anything to do with cars, it works for us!

Happy Works-for-Me Wednesday!

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The follow-up: Sculpting was very challenging, but we had so much fun making all sorts of things!

My nine-year-old niece and my son really "went to town" with their creations. He sculpted a city and she did a shoreline with a lighthouse and the Little Mermaid on her rock!

Introducing....the Letter "Cc"

Both kids made their letter "Cc" signs using corn kernels...

I "wrote" the letters in glue and they stuck the corn on. Creative and cute! (Our letter signs are made from cardboard diaper boxes, cut into 6x6" squares.)

We're celebrating the letter "Cc" today by cutting cheese and crunching crackers. We only buy big blocks of cheese here...it's much cheaper and the kids love cutting it themselves!















We conspired to clear the clutter from our yard. And KID 1 is learning about composting in the garden to enrich the soil. We love this because it means less waste!

We also created cookie cutter sandwiches and concocted a fun cooperative art piece using bubble solution and powdered tempera paint.

We'll be making cupcakes later in the week, of course, and I'd love to take the kids to a local candy factory to see how their confections are made. Cool, huh?

Can you tell we're kinda crazy about the letter "Cc" around here?

Any more frugal ideas for us to introduce the letter "Cc" this week?

"J" is for "Just Kiddin'"

Our Jet Pilot!

This week we're working on the letter "J." It's the second letter in the book The Sound of the Week, by Sally Barrett and Mary Barton Wilson. My goal is to find frugal ways to learn about "J." I only want to use things we already have around the house.

We'll be making jewels this week using rock salt, glue and food coloring and we'll also make a self-propelled jet. I can't wait to see how that works! Both of these projects are from the Kid Concoctions series by John and Danita Thomas.

I got the chance to take a Kid Concoctions workshop from the Thomases last year. One of their demo projects was a set of juggling balls made from balloons. Neither of them could juggle, so they asked for a volunteer...I do love an audience! Yes, I can juggle!

Jack and Jill is a great nursery rhyme to work on this week and talk about rhyming words.

And, of course, we'll be making jello!

We're also doing lots of spontaneous jumping jacks throughout the day (Kid 1 gets excited about these things...4 is a great age!).

We don't have a jump rope, but I do have a length of rope for the kids to jump over as we jiggle and jerk it.

We will make our letter "j" sign using a 6x6" square of cardboard cut from a diaper box, some colored paper, glue and a popsicle stick. Last week, for the letter "S," we made a silver, sparkly "S" sign with glitter. I still keep finding glitter in strange places (like, the corner of my eye, my upper lip, inside my bra, all over our bed, and dumped all over the office floor...use it at your own risk!).

For some great letter "s" ideas, check out Teresa's blog!

In case you're wondering "What does she do with her little one while KID 1 does all these cool (messy) projects?," the answer is, KID 2 gets to do almost everything her big brother does. The goals are just a bit different. If KID 1 is glittering up a letter, KID 2 (almost 2 years old) is making a glittery picture and we talk about what color the glitter is. Most activities can be slightly modified for the younger sibling. Even though she is not ready for phonics, she is still developing the phonemic awareness necessary for reading later on.

Check out more frugal ideas at Crystal's blog...so many links, so little time!

Any other great "J"-week ideas?