Saturday, April 16, 2011

Alphabet Fun - Letter Ss

Jenni is 3 years 8 months

We had a spectacular time exploring all the super things one can do during Ss week! Here is some of what we did...

Bible Verse:
Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:2)

Sea World San Antonio






Eric had been out of town for a few weeks and was home for a weekend when we made a spontaneous trip to Sea World! Jenni loved the whales and Joshua adored the dolphins. We had so much fun learning about the letter Ss while we were traveling. We had an action-packed weekend watching the Shamu Show and other shows, riding carousels, playing in the splash pads, walking the boardwalk and spending some time in San Marcos shopping!

S is for Springtime




We learned about the different seasons and focused on Spring. I thought the best way to learn about Spring was to experience it! So off we went to a beautiful garden. We spent the majority of our time walking through the rose gardens - just spectacular. Jenni stopped to smell each rose bush. We brought the boys with us who were not slightly interested in stopping to smell the roses :) After our walk through the gardens we had a sack dinner consisting of sandwiches, strawberries, sun chips, and snickers for dessert :) After dinner the kiddos played some soccer.



 Another great thing about Springtime in the South are bluebonnets and wild flowers :)

Sole Rubbings and Scissor Activities

Sole Rubbings - I taped a piece of paper around a pair of Jenni's sneakers that had a neat design on the sole. She rubbed her crayon over the entire shoe displaying the pattern underneath.

Scissor Activities - I made dashed lines on several pieces of paper for Jenni to cut through. Jenni kept saying to herself, "Follow the tracks. Follow the tracks. Get back on the road." It was sweet.

Sandbox Play
I called a half dozen local stores asking if they carried Crayola colored sand (usually in pink or blue - and in the gardening section). All the stores carried it but all were sold out. Who knew colored sand was in such demand? I went ahead and bought the good old regular sand and stored it in an airtight container for future uses. Jenni practiced writing s's in the sand as well as using spoons and shovels to spoon, shape and scoop with.

Sponge Painting with Shapes



I bought two packs of rectangular sponges from Wal-Mart and cut each sponge into two shapes making a circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, heart, pentagon.

Sunflower Hand prints
Jenni painted the sunflower with yellow hand prints and the sunflower seeds, stem, and leaves with her fingerprints. We worked on identifying the type of flower, the seeds, stem and leaves.

S is for Homemade Spaghetti Noodles (and Sauce and Salad)



I bought a pasta maker from Williams-Sonoma. It came with two attachments and you can buy additional attachments to make it even more useful. We love the purchase! Jenni and I made pasta dough, put it into the pasta maker, turned the wheel and out comes spaghetti noodles (I skipped a few steps :)) It's a fairly time consuming project but is such a neat kitchen gadget to have.

Sidewalk Chalk
Jenni loves spending her afternoons outside drawing with chalk.

S is for Ice Cream Sundaes

We made ice cream sundaes with vanilla ice cream, crushed Oreos, chopped walnuts, hot fudge and loads of sprinkles. Joshua enjoyed some Oreos with us :)

S is for the Science Museum






Jenni had a great time exploring all the exhibits the children's museum had to offer!

S is for the Strawberry Patch and Homemade Jam







We visited a nearby strawberry patch. It smelled lovely! Rows and rows of ready-to-pick strawberries. We picked a couple of pounds of strawberries, went home and started the process of making and canning jam. It was a neat (and tasty) experience to share with J and she was absolutely thrilled to can extra jars to share with her grandparents and great grandparents.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Alphabet Fun - Letter Pp

Jenni is 3 years 8 months

We had plenty of activities planned for Pp week! Here is some of what we did...

Bible Verse:
Praise be to the Lord..who made heaven and earth. (2 Chronicles 2:12)

Palio's Pizza Picnic at the Park

We love a good park! (And we love a good pizza too!) One of our family outings was to our favorite park for a picnic dinner and a late night walk around the pond, picking wild flowers. We also got to catch the last few minutes of a little league baseball game - adorable!

Potato Prints (with purple and pink paint)

I love potato prints! We rarely eat potatoes but I like keeping them around for painting projects. Jenni had fun painting purple p's and pink pentagons.

Homemade Pizza

 
Jenni made a simple cheese pizza and paired it with pears for dinner.

Popcorn and Pajama Party

I remember making caramel popcorn as a little girl with my mother and loving it! When planning Pp Week I knew we had to have a popcorn party. So J and I made some delicious popcorn in our PJ's :)

Homemade Pretzels




When planning Pp Week, I spoke with my sister for some inspiration and she mentioned making pretzels. I thought that was a super idea. I've never made pretzels myself, so I thought Jenni and I would have a good time learning together :)

Homemade Playdough






Jenni girl made pink and peach colored playdough pancakes :) We don't buy playdough for the kids because it is one thing I thoroughly don't like getting out and cleaning up BUT homemade playdough is so much fun and we like the consistency much bettter.

Homemade Playdough Recipe:
2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon cream of tartar, 2 cups water, food coloring

Mix together and cook, stirring constantly. The playdough is done when the mixture pulls away from sides of pan. Turn onto table and knead a few minutes. (I've read that if you wait for the playdough to cool completely, the food coloring mixes in better. I've also read that you can refrigerate it for a month. I haven't explored either of those ideas...yet.)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Alphabet Fun - Letter Bb

Jenni is 3 years 7 months

We had bundles of fun exploring the letter Bb! Here is some of what we did..

Bible Verse:
Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. (Acts 16:31)

Books:
The Bible
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear (by Nancy White Carlstrom)
It's About Time, Jesse Bear and Other Rhymes (by Nancy White Carlstrom)
Let's Count it Out, Jesse Bear (by Nancy White Carlstrom)
No Jumping on the Bed! (by Tedd Arnold)
Bread and Jam for Frances (by Russell Hoban)

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear (Before Five in a Row)








We completed the Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear lapbook. It was a lot of fun - and our very first lapbook!

Beans
I outlined the letter Bb and Jenni glued dried beans onto the inside.

Bubble Blowing


Bread


Our intentions were to go feed bread to the ducks - which did happen - but Jenni also fed bread to herself and brother bear :)

Our Budding Ballerina
Our little ballerina practicing her ballet moves at the pond. I believe it was after this outing that we retired Jenni's favorite pink sandals which were clearly too small :)

Balance Beam Fun
Jenni practiced her balance beam skills at the park. She had such a wonderful experience with the balance beam when she took gymnastics last fall.

Monkey Bars
I remember my sister and I having so much fun on our monkey bars in our backyard as young girls. I think Jenni will have just as much fun...one day :)