Last we put milk into a plastic glove and poked a tiny hole in the fingers. They could pretend to milk the cow’s udder into the bucket.
Butter in a Jar
We poured whipping cream into a jar half full and then the girls got to shake it all morning. We shook it hard and fast as much as we could and then a ball of butter formed. Just dump out the buttermilk and save to make biscuits or pancakes with.
Cow Writing
The girls each had a similar writing paper for the letter C. My 3 year old had a capital C and lowercase c with tracing arrows, along with a cow to color. The 5 year old had the same paper, but added a short poem and more tracing C’s and c’s on the bottom. I found both of these in the C is for Cow, Car, Cat Preschool Pack Digital Download.
I printed this C is for Cow Craft onto cardstock for the girls to paint. I cut out the Capital “C” for them to paint black spots on. After that dried they glued it to a piece of green construction paper. Then I cut out the head and tail for them to glue on.
I printed out the Cow Color Match game, and cut them out. I laminated them and the cut them again. Then we turned them all upside down and took turns flipping to try to find matching colors. They enjoyed this game, and did great taking turns.
Cow Shape Spots Match
I printed out the Match the Shape Spots game on cardstock and then cut the pieces and laminated them. Then she reviewed her shapes as she matched up the spots on the cows.
I printed out the Bear Cards on cardstock and then cut the pieces and laminated them. She liked to match the bear card with the one on the Wild Kratts episode.
We talked about how bears walk and looked at the Bear Walk poster. She put her hands and feet on the floor and walked around with her bum up. She also growled a lot!
Bear Writing
The girls each had a similar writing paper for the letter B. My 3 year old had a capital B and lowercase b with tracing arrows, along with a bear to color. The 5 year old had the same paper, but added a short poem and more tracing B’s and b’s on the bottom. I found both of these in the B is for Bee, Bus, Bear Teachers Pay Teachers pack.
Then we had a snack as we read the book Going on a Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury. We had shredded celery, goldfish crackers, chocolate chips, pretzel sticks, mini marshmallows, and teddy grahams.
Bear Walk
After our bear hunt snack we went on our own bear hunt with some sensory bins. We first stepping in grass, then water, and mud, next was sticks and last was ice cubes. The girls loved this and kept playing at it all day.
I cut a semi circle out of the side of 2 paper bowls and then we painted the bowls brown and painted a paper plate brown too. Next she rolled her large yellow dice and counted the dots. She then counted out the same number of counting bears and placed them into the first cave. She rolled again and placed the bears in the second cave. Then we talked about which cave had more bears.
Bear Patterns
Next we cut the bears to complete the Bear Pattern page.
Bear Color Match
I printed out the Bear Color Match game, and cut them out. I laminated them and the cut them again. Then we turned them all upside down and took turns flipping to try to find matching colors. They enjoyed this game, and did great taking turns.
The girls had fun learning about a bus today. They discovered that they love Honeycomb, and enjoyed creating the beehive. We got our recourses for today from the B is for Bee, Bus, Bear Teachers Pay Teachers pack.
The girls each had a similar writing paper for the letter B. My 3 year old had a capital B and lowercase b with tracing arrows, along with a bus to color. The 5 year old had the same paper, but added a short poem and more tracing B’s and b’s on the bottom. I found both of these in the B is for Bee, Bus, Bear Teachers Pay Teachers pack.
B is for Bus Craft
I printed this B is for Bus Craft onto cardstock for the girls to paint. I cut out the capitol “B” for them to paint yellow. After that dried they glued it to a piece of brown construction paper. Then I cut out the tires for them to glue on.
I printed out the Shape Wheels on the Bus game on cardstock and then cut the pieces and laminated them. Then she reviewed her shapes as she matched up the tires with the bus tires.
We found this Wheels on the Bus with Jesus song that they seemed to like, I think because it is familiar yet different.
Color Bus Match
I printed out the Bus Color Match paper, she matched the bus with the word color. The words are in color to make the matching easier.
Bus Snack
We placed a slice of cheese on the graham cracker and then added Cinnamon Toast Crunch for the windows and mini Oreo‘s for the wheels.
I printed out the Name Bus pieces on cardstock and cut them out. The girls glued them to a piece of black construction paper. Then they added a picture of themselves to the driver window and the letters of their names to the following windows in the bus.
The girls had fun learning about bees today. They discovered that they love Honeycomb, and enjoyed creating the beehive. We got our recourses for today from the B is for Bee, Bus, Bear Teachers Pay Teachers pack.
The girls each had a similar writing paper for the letter B. My 3 year old had a capital B and lowercase b with tracing arrows, along with a bee to color. The 5 year old had the same paper, but added a short poem and more tracing B’s and b’s on the bottom. I found both of these in the B is for Bee, Bus, Bear Teachers Pay Teachers pack.
B is for Bee Craft
I printed this b is for Bee Craft onto cardstock for the girls to paint. I cut out the lower case “b” for them to paint yellow. They let it dry and then add black paint stripes. After that dried they glued it to a piece of blue construction paper. Then I cut out the wings and antenna for them to glue on.
I printed out the Beehive Shape game and then cut the pieces and laminated them. Then she reviewed her shapes as she matched up the bees with the honeycomb.
I printed out the Pollen Playdough game and then cut the pieces and laminated them. I showed the girls how to make small balls with yellow Play Doh. Then they put the appropriate number of playdough pollen balls on the matching hexagon.
Bee Emotions
I printed out the Bee Emotions Matching game and then cut the pieces and laminated them. First we talked about different emotions and then she matched them up.
The girls each had a similar writing paper for the letter A. My 3 year old had a capital A and lowercase a with tracing arrows, along with an astronaut to color. The 5 year old had the same paper, but added a short poem and more tracing A’s and a’s on the bottom. I found both of these in the A is for Alligator, Apple, Astronaut Teachers Pay Teachers pack.
Astronaut Balancing Tree
I found this little Astronaut Balancing Tree for the girls to play with today. They had a hard time balancing it, so we just set it on the table for them to place the tiny astronauts on.
Straw Rocket
We printed out the Straw Rocket Outlines and then cut them out. We each colored one and then attached the larger end of the pipettes to the back of the rocket with tape. We inserted a straw into the pipette to launch the rocket by blowing up on the straw.
Space Dress
She wore her favorite dress today, her space dress.
Moon Dough (cloud dough)
She got some Butter Cloudz for her birthday and we decided to use it to create a moon for our astronauts from our Astronaut Balancing Tree to stand on. I gave them each a number tile from Math Box, and then they each placed that number of astronauts on their moon dough.
Star Count
I printed out the Star Count Activity game and then cut the pieces and laminated them. Then she counted the number of stars on each piece and placed them on the proper number.
We had some indoor astronaut training. She jumped on her mini trampoline, then hopped on her two handled hippity hop and last she spun around on her gymnastics bar.
The girls each had a similar writing paper for the letter A. My 3 year old had a capital A and lowercase a with tracing arrows, along with an apple to color. The 5 year old had the same paper, but added a short poem and more tracing A’s and a’s on the bottom. I found both of these in the A is for Alligator, Apple, Astronaut Teachers Pay Teachers pack.
A is for Apple Craft
I printed this A is for Apple Craft onto cardstock for the girls to paint. I cut out the lower case “a” for them to paint red. After it dried they glued it to a piece of green construction paper. Then I cut out the stem and seeds for them to glue on.
I printed out the Apple Shape Matching game and then cut the pieces and laminated them. Then the girls took turns making a match as they told me the color and shape that was on the apple.
Apple Observations
Then they each got an apple to measure with their Linking Cubes. The colored how many cubes it took to get the height of the apple.
Then they, felt it, smelled it, and then I cut it and the tasted it.
They counted their seeds and colored in that many seeds on the paper. (Save the seeds for the Jumping Apple Seeds experiment).
Jumping Apple Seeds
We placed some apple seeds into a clear plastic cup with a fourth cup of vinegar. Then they added a teaspoon of baking soda and watched the seeds jump around.
Apple Picking
We went to a local farm to pick yellow and red apples. The trees were pretty low, so the girls could reach them.
The girls each had a similar writing paper for the letter A. My 3 year old had a capital A and lowercase a with tracing arrows, along with an alligator to color. The 5 year old had the same paper, but added a short poem and more tracing A’s and a’s on the bottom. I found both of these in the A is for Alligator, Apple, Astronaut Teachers Pay Teachers pack.
A is for Alligator Craft
I printed this A is for Alligator Craft onto cardstock for the girls to paint. I cut out the capital A for them to paint green. After is dried they glued it to a piece of blue construction paper. Then I cut out the teeth and eyes for them to glue on.
Alligator Pie
We read the poem by Dennis Lee:
Alligator pie, Alligator pie… If I don’t get some… I think I’m gonna cry! Give away the green grass, Give away the sky, But don’t you give away my Alligator pie!
We made vanilla pudding and dyed it green, then we folded in 8 ounces of cool whip, and placed this in a graham pie crust. Refrigerate it for a couple of hours, then enjoy!
Each of the girls got to choose a number to place on their side of the board, then they placed the same amount of buttons to match their number. After they did this, we talked about it together to figure out if we should use the “greater than” or the “less than” alligator.
Alligator Crawl
The girls didn’t get to do the Alligator Crawl today, but they liked the idea. One of them had a stomachache today and the other had a nasty fall and scraped up her elbow the day before. We will probably try it in a few days when they are all healed up!
She had this little alligator finger puppet craft in her Abeka Arts and Craft with Amber Lamb book. You just color, cut, and tape. She is growling like an alligator in this picture!
Alligator Color Match
I printed out the Alligator Color Match game, and the girls helped me cut them out. I laminated them and the cut them again. Then we turned them all upside down and took turns flipping to try to find matching colors. They enjoyed this game, but had a hard time when the other girl found their favorite color.
Alligator Swamp
I took a big, clear, shallow, empty tub outside with the kids. I asked them what was in a swamp. First they said water, so I added some water to the tub. Next they said grass and leaves, so they all gathered some grass. And last they said that a swamp has mud, so we added a couple small shovels of dirt. I added some foam hand soap to make it bubbly, and last they put in their Schleich Alligators and Fisher Price Little People Alligators. They loved this sensory tub and played in it for quite a while, and one of them got all wet!
Whenever I start teaching my toddlers their shapes, I start with one shape and then add another once they have mastered the first one. I keep adding shapes while always review the shapes that they have mastered. We use videos, books, flashcards, and coloring pages. I keep adding shapes until they know circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, diamond, star, heart, and crescent.
Shapes Songs
Here is my Shape YouTube List that we watch when one of my toddlers is learning their shapes. The list starts out by reviewing songs and then teaching each shape individually near the bottom of the list. Songs for each shape; circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, diamond, star, heart, and crescent.
Whenever I start teaching my toddlers their colors, I start with one color and then add another once they have mastered the first one. I keep adding colors while always review the colors that they have mastered. We use videos, books, flashcards, and coloring pages. I keep adding colors until they know red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, white, and gray.
Colors Songs
Here is my Color YouTube List that we watch when one of my toddlers is learning their colors. The list starts out by teaching each color individually and then has review songs near the bottom of the list. This list has Color Blocks songs, Frog Street songs, and The Good and the Beautiful songs for each color; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, white, and gray.
We visited our first national park this weekend. We camped at Indiana Dunes National Park on the southern part of Lake Michigan. The younger girls got a Junior Ranger National Park Passport Book to put their stamps in. They also completed the Indiana Dunes Junior Ranger program and received their Junior Ranger Badges. The older boys enjoyed cooking over a campfire and hiking up the dunes.
We planed our visit to see all of the things that interested us and also the locations that were mentioned in the Indiana Dunes Junior Ranger activity guide. We read and filled out page 3 at home, we found the mission of the National Park Service online. We used this Great Lakes Map to fill out page 4 of the activity guide. On page 6, we looked up some of the Indiana Dunes Animals to figure out what the Potawatomi would have hunted. We had a little trouble on page 10 identifying the animals with their prints, so we got a little help from the big brothers! We talked about page 15 and answered the questions, then we filled out the last page as well, so we wouldn’t have so much to do at the campsite.
We arrived Saturday afternoon and stopped at the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center to pay the $25 for our stay (this pass is good for a week). You can also pick up your Junior Ranger activity guide there if you didn’t print it out ahead of time. After this we went to visit Bailly Homestead and Chellberg Farm near the Visitor Center. Bailly Homestead was under construction when we visited, but we could see the house a bit from the road. You can hike a quarter of a mile between the 2 places as well. After we visited here, we filled out the bottom of page 6 in Junior Ranger activity guide. Next we went to Dunewood Campground to set up our campsite for the weekend (read more about this below).
On Sunday morning we went hiking while it was still cooler out. We decided to hike the 3 Dune Challenge in the State Park at the Nature Center (we learned that we had to pay an additional park fee to enter though). You can read more about our 3 Dune Challenge experience below. As we hiked we tried to use all of our senses, then we filled out the bottom of page 12 in Junior Ranger activity guide. A short distance from the Nature Center we followed the Great Marsh Trail where we saw Bull Frogs and a Great Blue Heron. We were able to complete page 10 in Junior Ranger activity guide after this trail.
Sunday afternoon we wanted to go to the beach for the warmer weather. We tried to visit Dunbar Beach or Lake View Beach because it was closer to the Lake View Pavilion that we needed to visit for page 4 of our Junior Ranger activity guide. Unfortunately, there was no parking anywhere along the beach here, so we had to travel farther to West Beach and try to visit the Lake View Pavilion in the morning. At West Beach we didn’t see everything on page 8 in the Junior Ranger activity guide, but we saw a couple of them. We saw the toad, marsh grass, and Herring Gull; we also saw a tiny dead fish that had washed up on the beach (the girls had fun observing it).
Monday morning we stopped by Lake View Pavilion before heading back to the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center to fill out the last pages (page 10 and 12) of our Junior Ranger activity guide. After the guide was completed, the Park Ranger helped the girls say the Junior Ranger Oath, and then she gave them each a badge. Then they got to stamp their Junior Ranger National Park Passport Books. We also bought a couple of the 3 Dunes Challenge t-shirts in the gift shop.
Dunewood Campground
The only campsite in Indiana Dunes National Park is Dunewood Campground. The girls brought play kitchen toys to use in the sand, and the had a blast getting filthy! The boys brought their cast iron camp skillet to make pancakes for breakfast and quesadillas for dinner (be sure to bring your own firewood). We also had the traditional hotdogs and s’mores! We set up our CAMPROS tent and Kijaro Camping Chairs. The girls liked using our LED lanterns once it got dark.
3 Dunes Challenge
The boys favorite part of the trip with the dune hiking; my 15 year old said that he would like to do it again some time. We wanted to climb The 3 Dune Challenge in the morning while it was still cooler out. The girls enjoyed this too, and discovered that climbing up the sand dunes was easier for them without their shoes on. The rest of us had piles of sand in our tennis shoes by the top of the first dune, except for one of my sons who wore his hiking boots… no sand in those!
The 3 Dune Challenge is a loop if you start at the Nature Center. We just followed Trail 8 until the top of the last dune, then we switched to trail 4. The first dune is Mt. Jackson, 176 feet with a 31 degree slope angle. I really felt it in my calf muscles but it helped to stop about three fourths of the way up for a rest. The next dune was Mt. Holden, 184 feet high with 34 degree slope angle. This one made my hamstrings burn, but again I took a short rest about three fourths up that really helped me. (I saw several families with small children and fantastical mommies with babies riding on their bellies during this hike!) My teenage boys and small girls just went right on up without stopping for rests. The last dune was Mt. Tom. This one had soooooo many stairs! And again, I stopped to rest halfway up. Mt. Tom is 192 feet with a 43 degree slope.
Great Marsh Trail
A short distance from the Nature Center we followed the Great Marsh Trail, which is just about a half hour walk. You can see herons and cranes sometimes, we ended up spotting Bull Frogs and a Great Blue Heron which was amazing.
West Beach on Lake Michigan
The beach was the girls favorite part of the trip, they would have stayed there all day but the boys are usually done with the beach after about an hour. One of the boys didn’t even wear shorts to the beach, so he sat on the towel and dug the deepest hole every… to his elbow! The little girls brought their toy kitchen dishes to the beach and kept collecting little white feathers. They also found and tiny dead fish that wash ashore that they observed until I had the boys throw it back.
