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.
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.
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.
This month my 4 year was learning how to mix colors. We used books and Colors Worksheets Preschool (Learn to spell 11 Colors) Color Mixing Activities from Teachers Pay Teachers. First I taught her the primary colors; red, yellow, and blue. Then we read the books over and over and she learned how to mix red and yellow to make orange, yellow and blue to make green, and blue and red to make purple.
First we drew a monster outline on a large piece of paper and placed the paper inside a cookie tray. Then we dropped some red and blue paint on the paper and added a few marbles to the cookie tray. She moved the tray back and forth to have the marbles move through the paint and mix the colors. We did another monster with red and yellow paint drops and a third one with blue and yellow paint.
Finally she wanted to do one with all three primary colors of paint.
After the paint dried we cut out black paper to look like mouths and eye brows. We also added googly eyes to the monster.
She loved this book and asked to read it every night for a while.
The Dot
We read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and she make several paintings with all sizes and colors of dots on her easel. She even experimented with mixing paint colors to make new colors of dots.
Painting on her easel is one of her favorite activities.
Today we read Color Dance by Ann Jonas and then tried to mix white with each color and black with each color.
We made 3 circles of each color and then added white paint to each color on the column on the left and added black paint to each color on the column on the right.
Mixing Colored Ice Cubes
I froze red, blue, and yellow water. Then she placed the ice cubes in the jars to mix the colors.
red ice cubes in the first jar
red and yellow in the second jar
yellow in the third jar
yellow and blue in the fourth jar
blue in the fith
and blue with red in the last jar.
Painting with Primary Colored Ice Cubes
I also let her paint with the ice tubes. She could make a rainbow by mixing the primary colors.
You might find some more good ideas for learning toddler colors here:
Storm cut out the strawberry shapes. She told me the name of each shape as she glued it to the Strawberry Patch. The shapes included circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, diamond, star, heart, crescent.
Flower Colors Cut & Glue
She cut out the flower colors. She told me the name of each color as she glued it to the Flower Garden. The colors included red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, white, gray.
The Valentine’s Day Preschool Pack also included many other cut and glue pages that she enjoyed.
Here are a few of the coloring pages from the Valentine’s Day Preschool Pack. These covered shapes, colors, and numbers. There are also some Bible Verse pages too.
Valentine Volcano
This was one of her favorite activities today. We made the volcano in a clear glass heart dish and added glitter. After we made the volcano she played with it for a long time. We got this Valentine Volcano from the Valentine’s Day Preschool Pack too.
Trace & Color Pages
Here are a few of the tracing pages from the Valentine’s Day Preschool Pack. These pages covered the shapes and the numbers.
We had a fun ocean themed lunch at school for our “Anchored” week at school. Each day we found creative ways to incorporate all of the food groups. We also had to keep the calories and sodium counts down to meet the state requirements for serving food to the school children.
We used clear plastic cups for the pudding, jello, and the banana cup. We also offered milk everyday even though it is not pictured.
Monday
Ham & Cheese Sea Monster Sandwich Goldfish Crackers Broccoli Ocean Sprouts Coral Reef Fruit Cocktail Shark Pudding (Gummy Sharks)
Tuesday
Fish Shape Nuggets Barnacle Baked Beans Sea Dragon Punch Blueberry Bubbles Teddy Graham Beach Jello (Umbrella Toothpick)
Wednesday
Peg Leg Chicken Sea Shell Pasta Salad Green Sea Beans Dolphin Banana in Grapes Mermaids Delight Ice Cream (Mermaid Sprinkles)
Thursday
Hot Dog Octopus on Seaweed Spaghetti Crab Leg Carrot Sticks Sea Cucumber Slices Green Sea Turtle Apple
(We added the hotdog bun to get enough whole grain. And we added a banana, because we had extras left from yesterday.)
Friday
Sand Dollar Pancakes Sea Foam Scrambled Eggs Treasure Tater Tots Poseidon’s Red Pepper Sticks Orange Boats
