Autumn theme

Luv Bug is 43 months old

 

I LOVE autumn! Everything about it. It's also one of my favorite themes. I knew we'd take at least 2 weeks, but if we had time, we could go a lot longer. Luv Bug enjoyed it too (although she did ask if we could do dinosaurs again). The day before we began, Daddy took us apple picking! SO MUCH FUN!

 

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I made her a new sensory bin. I used kool aid to dye rice in autumn colors, then threw in some autumn decorations from The Dollar Tree.
 

 

 

  I didn't change her trays during the 2 weeks since we spent so much of our time outside. She had 5 trays:

She loved her science tray. It was one of my favorites too.

 

I have been teaching myself to sew since before Luv Bug was born, but I never have the time. I've been wanting to get back into it and would one day like to teach her. I put together this little 'sewing' tray for her.

 

She was so proud of herself. I didn't give her enough thread though, so she could only do a few stitches.
 

I bought these Autumn sequencing puzzles a few years ago from Scholastic.

 

She really loves these.
 

This was something she'd been wanting to do. This book is so cute. Usually she'll do 3-4 letters before growing bored. We did the entire alphabet one day.
 

This Fisher Price bingo game was a discount store find awhile back.  One side is a puzzle, the other is a bingo board with items from the scene on the first side.

 

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We did many autumn related activities.

Many of the printables were from my files, but we also used some from these places:

 

http://homeschoolcreations.com/FallFunLearningPrintables.html
 http://www.lawteedah.com/2010/10/fall-lantern-cutting-practice.html
 
http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/09/apple-unit-expanded.html
 http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/10/pumpkins-expanded.html
 http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/09/leaves-unit-expanded.html
 
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/FallTreeEaselArtIdea.htm

 

http://www.makinglearningfun.com/t.asp?b=m&t=http://www.makinglearningfun.com/Activities/Apples/AppleLacingABC.gif

 

http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/ApplePieEmergentReader.htm
 http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/AppleLifeCycleEmergentReader.htm
 
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/100AppleStamp.htm

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/08/letter-for-apple-2.html

 

 

 

 I found this last year on this site but I couldn't remember exactly where.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was her first time using a knife. It's plastic but still a bit sharp. I was nervous but she did a great job. She was helping Mama make apple crisp.

 

 I loved this. Luv Bug picked a leaf from a tree and for 5 days observed it and colored a leaf to match. She was so hoping it would turn yellow, but it never changed color.

 

 

 I made 2 batches of salt playdough. To one, I added cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ground cloves (it smelled so good) and the other I dyed red and added cinnamon extract. We had a lot of fun making apple treats.

 

 

 

 

 I found this here. Scroll down until you see From Pumkin to Pie mini book and sequencing activity.
 

 I saw this printable on Pinterest and couldn't wait to do this!
 

 Luv Bug LOVED holding her little clipboard.
 

 And playing in the leaves.
 

 

 Acorn 'marble' painting.
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A few random things:
 

 She built so many things with her wedgits.
 

 Luv Bug's Aunt and Uncle gave her her cousins old Light Tracer. I was SO excited since I'd been wanting to make her a light table. this worked just fine. We used water beads and those flat marbles (I can never remember what they're called. We call them jewels)
 

 

 I love these Melissa and Doug blocks. I was so pleased she chose to play with them.
 

 Our letter these 2 weeks was E. I set out only one eye for the elephant and explained that you can only see one from the side. Luv Bug wasn't having it. HER elephant needed 2 eyes:)
 

 She thought this was pretty funny. I didn't tell her at first what we were making.


Oh, I loved this theme. (I think I say that about each one).
We missed national fire safety week, but since out library will be having the fire trucks visit next week at story hout, we'll be doing out Fire Safety theme then. I'm praying for nice weather.

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Dinosaur theme

Luv Bug is 43 months old

It has been a BUSY couple of weeks around here. We started our dinosaur unit, but took a break for a vacation for our 8 year anniversary. When we got home, Daddy was still on vacation, so we took a few little day trips. We did manange to fit in a few other dinosaur activities and finished up a few days late. I did a dinosaur unit with Luv Bug last year. She LOVED it, so I decided to do another this year.

I prepared several trays since I knew they'd be out for 2 weeks, but we were having so much fun with dino related activities, they were barely touched. Here are a few Luv Bug chose:

 

Luv Bug loves to pick up rocks on walks and hikes. The day before we started this theme, we went wading in a creek and found some rocks that looked like fossils. I put them on her science tray this week.

 

Magnetic pom poms (idea here). The printable came from here, scroll down. It's the 1-10 sticker sheet.

Sorting fruit pouch caps.

 

 Hammering tees into foam.

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 When we begin a new unit, I try to have a theme related sensory bin. Last year, I just put in some stones from the Dollar Tree and some toy dinosaurs. I think that was the most played with sensory bin to date. Since she loved it so much, I decided to duplicate it but added a salt dough volcano this time.

She wanted fire to come out of her volcano, so we added some tissue paper.

Of course, lots of puzzles. This came from a set I posted about here.

 

I have another collection of children's puzzles. These have 100 pieces which are a bit too much for her. I put the puzzles together and remove several pieces, Luv Bugputs the missing pieces in.

 

I found so many cute Dinosaur Tot and Preschool packs. All the printables either came from my files from years ago, or from one of the following:

 

http://www.overthebigmoon.com/dinosaur-pre-k-pack/

http://www.2teachingmommies.com/search/label/Dinosaurs

http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/DinosaurTrain.html

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2009/10/prek-letter-d_28.html

This printable was in my files, from an old Mailbox magazine.

I set out her do a dot markers and some foam triangles and let her decorate her dinosaur.

 

 She loves stickers. not sure where the shiny set came from, but the ones on the big sheet are part of this Melissa and Doug's collection.

 

Found this cute dinosaur 'mask' at the Dollar Tree.

 

 I realized that we haven't done too many open ended art activities. I saw this idea at Teach Preschool and loved it. She added every piece I set out.

Capital D craft

 

She wanted to make a duck for lowercase d. I tell her what each piece is for, but I don't tell her where to put them. I thought she did pretty well.

 

  I made these 'fossils' from salt dough, then added them to Luv Bug's sandbox when they were dry.

 

I found this dinosaur egg for less than $1. She and Daddy worked together to dig out the little dinosaur toy.

 

We did the egg in vinegar science experiment. It's supposed to feel tough and leathery like a dinosaur egg may have felt.

 

It worked well, but Luv Bug squeezed a bit too hard. Next time I'll boil the egg.

It's hard to see, but there is a 10 foot lenght of yarn around Luv Bug to measure the diameter of a T-rex jaw. She's showing me how wide she can open her mouth. First she ran around it, then jumped in it.

 

I cut some 6" triangles for the teeth and she added them around the inside.

 

I made some dinosaur feet for her and put on We Are The Dinosaurs from the We Are The Laurie Berkner Band dvd.

 

She liked them on her hands better.

 

We papier mached a balloon (too messy to take pics), then I let her paint it make a dinosaur egg.

 

Before I blew up the balloon, I added a small toy dinosaur. I told her the egg was ready to hatch and she had to help it.

 

She was very surprised to find a baby dinosaur inside.

 

At the end of the 2 weeks, we let her erupt her volcano. Since it was made of salt dough, it became very slimy, so I had to throw it away.

 

We read MANY dinosaur books. Here are some of them (some do discuss evolution, especially the first. I just skipped those parts).

 

Another fun theme. Next we'll be learning about Autumn. It will most likely be another 2 week (or longer) theme. It's one of my favorites!

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