Hearts Felt Board Play

It's been a few weeks since I've brought out the felt board.
ED and DD have enjoyed playing with the hearts I made
for them.

The flowers and butterflies are just patches that I
happened to have around in my sewing stuff.

We made our own felt board out of two painting canvases;
it folds in half for storage and is about 2 feet square.
You can check out how I made it here and here's a
picture of it finished.

We continued working on our Forest Diorama

Owl Craft

We continued working on the little crafts for our forest
dioramas last week. We learned a bit about owls and
made this little craft (using Styrofoam, felt and fabric
paint).

Fox Craft

We also learned about foxes this week.

Our fox was primarily a sewing craft. We used felt
and did a few stitches to form a nose. Then they
sewed the head onto the body with a few stitches.
They pulled knotted embroidery thread through
to make whiskers.

The tail was also sewed on, but we wound up just
gluing the legs on (there was only so much sewing
DD wanted to do!)

The ears and tail were painted on with fabric
paint.

Ancient Greece -- Geography Project

This project idea was adapted from Ancient Greece! 
40 Hands-On Activities to experience this Wonderous Age.

We bought some self-hardening clay and looked at various
maps to make a map of Greece with its many islands.
Obviously Mom had a hand in forming the mainland
areas of Greece and Asia Minor (now Turkey). The kids
did all of the islands.

We've been reading Mary Pope Osborne's six-book series
about Odysseus (as well as reading/hearing stories about
the Minotaur, Troy and more). We had quite a long
discussion about Troy (and how archeologists have
found remains of the ancient city they think was Troy).
We also talked about how Odysseus left Troy with his fleet
of 12 ships and sailed to many different islands in the
Aegean Sea (encountering the cyclops, cannibal giants and more!)

You might be interested in these related posts:

Ancient Greece Unit for Kindergarten, Grade 1 or 2  Some of the books and resources we used for this unit.

Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome Worksheets and Activities These post has some free notebook pages about Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece: (over at our new location homeschoolden.com):

 

 

 

 

Ancient Greece Geography Project -- Aegean Sea

We added labels to our map of ancient Greece. Then we
took turns adding deep blue water and making the Aegean Sea!

It was a good lesson on much more than just the
geography of ancient Greece. Some of the islands were
covered by the water. We talked about the fact that
there are mountains under the oceans. We also talked
about the fact that when the levels of the seas drop,
some of those underground hills and mountains would
become islands once more. ED had poured some of her
water on the "land" and we talked about how lakes and
ponds form in the depressions. The kids amaze me with their insights.



































The kids spent quite a bit of time sailing Odysseus's fleet (little
leaves) around the Aegean!!

You might be interested in these related posts:

Ancient Greece Unit for Kindergarten, Grade 1 or 2 -  Some of the books and resources we used for this unit.

Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome Worksheets and Activities These post has some free notebook pages about Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece: (over at our new location homeschoolden.com):

 

 

 

Ancient Egypt -- Geography Project

Last year we did a unit on Ancient Egypt. We really got
a lot out of that geography project as well and I thought
I'd share it (since we started this blog after that).

We shoveled sand into the container, then laid down a
aluminium foil river bed (so the water didn't all wash
away). Then we placed fertile soil on the aluminium
foil and "flooded it" and watched the dirt get carried
over the banks of the Nile. We then added a bit more
dirt and sprout seeds. We kept the dirt moist and in
about five days had a lush, Nile River Valley.

We added the Sphinx and the great pyramids too.

Music and Games

I love music and it has always been a big part of my life.
I play the oboe, guitar and piano and am learning the
dulcimer.

LD started learning the piano earlier this year and is
doing really well. Still, I wanted the girls to get to sing,
dance and enjoy music as well. I set aside two different
times to do music activities during the week. One is
more for ED and the other is geared a bit more for
the older kids (that said, they all participate in most everything).

We used to attend Kindermusik classes, but unfortunately
Kindermusik is not offered here in town anymore. So, we
do things on our own!



















In the picture above we are playing Here We Go Round the
Mulberry Bush. We played it musical chairs style so that
when we finished singing the song, someone sat in the chair.

The next time we played the squirrel and fox version
(as we are studying the forest biomes!). Each person got
a card with a number on it. Then we set all the cards aside,
one number was placed separately from the others. We sang
the song, one person sat down then we revealed the card. If
the person sitting's number was set aside then he/she was
a fox and did not get a point. If his/her number was not
set aside then s/he was a squirrel and won the round.

Below are some of the instruments we use for our music
activities--playing rhythm sticks or jingle bells to music,
dancing with scarves, etc. ED really likes songs that
bounce her on my knee or lift her into the air (you can
do this to songs/poems like Ride a Cock Horse to 
Banberry Cross or The Grand Old Duke of York.

If you haven't checked out Kididdles.com they have lots of children's songs. They have the lyrics to most any children's song you can think of and you can play many of the songs if you don't remember the melody.

Here's a website that has a lot of fingerplay songs that you
can do with your toddler or young preschooler:
songsforteaching.com  or  Finger Plays Here or Here.

Here are some action and movement songs from the same website - songs for teaching. You might not want to order their albums, but the website has the lyrics and will give you ideas of dances, songs and actions you can do with your kids that you probably already know. For example, they change the words to a Tisket-a-Tasket slightly and turn it into a little game to toss balls into a basket.

Capture the Squirrel's Tail Game

In keeping with our forest theme, we've played this
fun game outside the past few days. The object is to grab
the squirrel's tail while protecting your own. In our
version we each had a couple of tails to start out with!


















 FOX AND RABBIT GAME:


Another good game we played this week was the  "Fox and
Rabbit" Game (from Family Fun website).  Two players are
blind folded.  One is the fox and has to try and catch the rabbit,
who has to hop and keep away from the fox.   Each player has to
listen carefully to find or keep away from the other.  Another
person  outside the area needs to guide the fox and rabbit back
into the designated area if s/he starts to stray.

ED Turns Two!

Our cakes these days always have decorated cookies on
them instead of fancy icing. For one thing, my cake
decorating skills are lacking, but also the kids love
decorating the cookies and everyone gets to be involved.

We had a lovely birthday, though ED was a bit under the weather.

Sandpaper Letters; Writing Curriculum

I wanted to share a couple of things that are working
really well for us for handwriting. I had heard about
sandpaper letters. In fact, I've heard that a lot of people
have made their own. I decided to buy sandpaper letters
(ours are from didax.com). I have found them SO helpful.
Both LD and DD enjoy doing them and it helps LD with
some of the letters he hasn't been forming properly. I wish I had
had them earlier! They both really enjoy them.

LD has been LOVING Draw Write Now (in the picture
below at the right). For some reason he is much more willing
to write the sentences after drawing their little pictures. He's
been upset about writing and while he'll do copywork or
other work, this book has really appealed to him. YAY!

We also got Handwriting Without Tears for both DD and
LD and they seem to like those books as well so far.

Pattern Blocks

Grandpa also sent us some pattern blocks when he sent
the sandpaper (tactile) letters. ED and DD have really
been enjoying them a lot! We found lots of free pattern
block printables at http://prekinders.com/pattern-blocks/
I printed them in color on one side and black and white
on the other (to make it more challenging for DD).

Telegraph Station

The cicadas are out now and I promised LD that we
could go to the park to hunt for cicadas. I packed a picnic
lunch and we headed there after Kindergym (for ED).

At first the only wildlife we saw were the birds (galahs,
middle picture and the crested pigeon, bottom).

Bull Ant

Then we saw the dreaded bull ant (these ants are an
inch long and inject an acid that REALLY hurts). Poor
DD has been bitten by these several times (but not yesterday!)
I was even nervous taking these photos because the ants are
so aggressive!

Little Critters

But then after our picnic lunch we went down closer to the
(now mostly dry) river bed and saw lots of little critters--
a little frog, a cicada coming out of its shell and a large
6-inch/15 cm praying mantis.

By the way, once the cicada has dried, it is orange and
black we just happened on it in the ten minutes or so
when it's still drying and the wings are hardening.