Creation - Day 6

I'm getting kind of sad that this unit is almost over.  We've had a ton of fun with the numbers and learning about how God created the world!

*Side note - my kids have about 10 pairs of pajamas, but seem to be in these particular gowns every time I take pictures of our lessons.  I promise, I really do laundry....sometimes....when I have to!

Today, we colored the 6 like usual, cut, pasted, etc.

While we worked on our 6, we talked about rhyming words.  My girls LOVE to rhyme and make up the most ridiculous words by rhyming, especially when singing their favorite "Down by the Bay".  Today was a great opportunity to talk more about rhyming because today was the first day our song didn't rhyme.  So, as a great review, we sang all 5 other verses to the song.  After each day, I asked if they could figure out what the rhyming words were.  Then, we learned the new verse for Day 6!

Later, I recorded Charlotte practicing.  One word slip and she had to do the whole thing over....not that she's a perfectionist ;)

Adelyn's sidewalk chalk rainbow of 6

 The fun thing about teaching 2 kids (instead of a whole classroom) is that I know my kiddos really well.  They adore make-believe, dress-up, etc, especially together.

So, our favorite activity today was these little wooden masks I found at the dollar tree.  $2 my kids had probably 45 minutes of "crafting" and a ton of fun playing afterward.  Win-win, right?

It was really fun to paint with the girls today.  I let each of them pick 4 colors so they could do some mixing.  Adelyn just mixed all of the colors, but Charlotte was so particular, really trying to make a different shade of each of her colors by mixing white.  She was quite meticulous and it was fun to watch her explore making a lighter and lighter pink, without my direction.

Both girls love to paint and took a good amount of time to paint their masks!

I thought animals might be difficult to draw (though later I realized they aren't for Charlotte) so I pulled out our stamp pads and animal stamps.  Kids LOVE to stamp (really, they love anything that makes a mess, right?) and I was happy to do it outside!

The girls' favorite math manipulatives are these little animals so we pulled them out for math time.

Charlotte put them on her ten frame and went to work, writing number sentences.  This has been really good for me to watch her write numbers.  I'm realizing that we've spent a lot of time writing letters and less time writing numbers.  To practice, I'm going to start adding a number to the writing part of the end of her reading lessons.  

Then, we used the animals for patterning.  I made a pattern and asked each girl to continue the pattern.

For Charlotte - Red, blue blue, Red, blue blue (then she added the rest)

For Adelyn - Yellow, Purple, Yellow, Purple

It's also good to use objects for less obvious pattern, other than colors.

For Charlotte - Alligator, Turtle, Alligator, Turtle (in a variety of colors)

My girls are kind of obsessed in their pretend-play with "being the teacher" and I hear this nonstop as they pretend to the ballet teacher, gymnastics teacher, church teacher, etc.

So, I asked them to "be the teacher" and make a pattern for me to finish.  We repeated this a few times.

Charlotte was quite pleased with herself when she tricked me with the above pattern.

I thought the pattern was: yellow, blue, yellow, green red, yellow, blue, yellow, green, red.

However, the actual pattern was: Dog, Bear, Dog Bear, etc

Our masks were dry by the time we finished our lesson!

15 minutes after our lesson was over, Charlotte randomly started drawing animals: two cats, a dog, and a monkey.  I guess my theory went out the window.

Meanwhile, Adelyn is being the "gymnastics teacher" and the girls are singing "The Wheels on the Bus" with diving rings.  These girls crack me up, seriously!

Creation - Day 5

Today, we learned about Day 5 of creation!

We did our usual color the number,

then cut, 

and paste!

 We learned a new verse to our song:

We colored a picture about Day 5

 I made number cards on the fly (1-5) and had Adelyn "make a train" by putting them in order

While Adelyn worked on her numbers, Charlotte counted every 5 spaces on a 100s board and colored them.

Then, we used that board to learn to skip count by 5's.

This is a great connection for Charlotte who has been counting nickels up to 25.

Then, we started our jello oceans :) and let them set for an hour!

After, we moved on to our 10-frames, using 5 fish today!

Charlotte has really picked up on this routine and went right to arranging her fish!

She arranged and wrote all of these number sentences alone!

Then, we headed to Chatfield to swim with the fish and watch the birds :)

After nap time, we got to eat our jello oceans full of fish!

Today, we also tried a new word study strategy.  I've seen it a few different places, but I printed one of the boards found at this site.  I've printed 2 extras to have laminated at Lakeshore the next time we're there!

We've been working on word study and with Charlotte's strong reading skills but young fine-motor skills, I had been having her do some word work with her tiles.  This utilizes both strategies, so obviously I'm not the only one with this idea :)

We got in a little more math after nap time too.  This was my favorite find because there were two mats at two different levels, which perfectly fit my girls exactly right now :)  Win-win!

Charlotte worked on some addition problems, using goldfish!

I caught her at one point not using the manipulatives, but trying to use a counting strategy to combine both 4's.  She has trouble keeping up with the numbers she's adding on, so she labels them 1, 2, 3, etc.  Her sister woke up right in the middle of her thinking, but she still managed to finish :)  Hooray!

Adelyn's mat was just the numbers 1-6.  She counted and placed the correct number in each fish bowl!

Then, we jumped in the bike trailer and headed to the park that has lots of pine cones for our next craft!

I tied yarn on each of the pine cones and the girls smeared peanut butter!

At last, we hung our bird feeders!

Creation - Day 4

We had a jam-packed day today, but we still managed to get in some learning about day 4 of creation this morning :)

We did our usual coloring of 4 while reading from Genesis.

Then, we started on a craft for day 4.

We colored some stars, the moon, and sun!

Then we cut them out!  We put them aside for later.

And worked on some writing!

Then we pulled out our ten-frames and did a little math!

I put all of my fish on the top row and wrote the number sentence 4+0=4.

Charlotte had 2 on top and 2 on bottom so she wrote her own number sentence!

We did all of the possibilities to make 4 with our ten-frames and wrote number sentences to match each.  Then, we found the turn-around-facts.

Adelyn is showing 4 with one hand!

Charlotte shows 2+2=4

Then we decided to finish off our craft.  We cut a piece of construction paper in half and glued it together.  Then, we taped 8 different-length pieces of yarn.

The girls enjoyed the taping!

...and

Ta-da!  A daily reminder that God made the sun, moon, and stars.

Frogs!

We went to Hudson Gardens yesterday.

Seriously, if you've never been there, it's awesome!

It's free and tons of fun.

They also have these kits you can borrow for $5.

We're looking into our binoculars (from the kit) at all of the frogs on the lily pads!

Yesterday, one of our friends decided to check out the "Frogs" exploration and we learned SO MUCH about frogs, while watching them.

After observing the frogs, we read a book together (from the kit) and explored this freeze-frame of the life cycle of a frog as we answered questions.

There were lots of high-end questions about similarities and differences that the big kids could answer, but there were a lot that even Adelyn could answer!  

It was pretty fun to discuss a topic and learn with such a wide range of ages at once!

Later, at another spot in the gardens, we explored adaptations and basic anatomy of a Frog by dressing up as the frog as we talked about it!

Alicia gave Charlotte a turn with the slippers, while Matthew got the ears and eyes!

The eyes were definitely the most fun :)

 All and all, it's a fabulous place to explore, learn and just have fun.

I highly recommend the kits and I'm already working in when we'll do the leaf exploration during our unit about Autumn!

Alicia and Charlotte enjoy their lunch while watching the ducks