Puppet time!

We made puppets!  Cloth and paper.  Check it out here.
I posted the pics on my family blog.
Scroll past pictures of the kids to get to the puppets.

Here are the materials I used:
Paper puppets:
-stiff paper
-markers, crayons...whatever makes a mark
-packing tape
-large Popsicle sticks
These puppets we are using for a Noah's Ark lesson.  We are collecting animal puppets to fill an ark we painted.  Post to come!

Cloth puppets:
-felt like material, you can find it in a fabric or craft store
-thread, buttons, needle, sewing machine if one

I am not including instructions on how to make these.  It is pretty easy cheesy.
For the cloth puppets here are instructions.  They are but trickier.  Er...more tricky...

Making Collages!

I love love love making collages.  And for kids it is so easy and fun to do!
Pretty much the definition of a collage is : an artistic composition made of various materials ( paper, cloth, anything!) and all applied to a surface using glue.
But really, a composition is not needed at all to make these projects pieces of art!
What I love about them, is that they can be as abstract as you want.  And of course, for kiddos, abstract is all you are going to get!
 ( I took pics of their collages, but I cannot find them on my computer...errr....  Just image one inserted...HERE.)  :)

Supplies:
-paper or a thick cardboard paper like surface.
- all kinds of material like construction paper, tissue paper, buttons, cloth, cotton balls, Popsicle sticks, anything you can find really!  I love to take paper scraps from other art projects and save those little pieces. Thy come in handy for collages
- glue or glue stick.  Glue stick are best for the little guys
- crayons, color pencils and pencils

Lay out all the materials and pieces of odds and ends and help your little one to get started.  Begin by asking what they what to make a picture of.  Encourage them by suggesting something.  Like a house, or sun and ocean.  Then start tearing paper to look like those shapes.  The more you do, the more elaborate the pictures can become.  For my little 2 year old, I just let him go to town without any instruction.  And he always makes a colorful masterpiece he is so proud of.
The beauty of collages, that it is all Art!
Have fun!  And make one yourself!
So fun!!!!

Funny story:  Ella was saying that we could not see lightening bugs outside unless they were lit up because they are collaged.  Ryan and I were like,.." they are what?"
"They are collaged!".  Then we died laughing.  She was meaning to saying camouflaged!
We corrected her, then she said, "nope.  collaged. ".  Then she starts doing a jig in a circle, " collage, collage, collage!".  Yes, I have brainwashed her with Art...

Plating Lima Beans

We did a little Lima Bean project.  It was fun and really easy.
I bought some Lima Beans and we germinated them in plastic bags then later planted them. 
I also got her a new investigation drawing journal so she could keep track of the progress of the seeds.

Here is what we did over the course of a week:
Step 1:  I checked out books about seeds and germination and we read them for a few days.  Talked about them and I drew a diagram of the stages of the life of a seed.

Step2: I bought some Lima beans and we drew them in our investigation journal.  Along with the plastic bag and paper towel.  Then we added water to the paper towel and put it and a seed in three bags.
We kept two bags in the sun, and put on in a dark place.

Butterflies Part II

 We got our live Caterpillars in the mail and got to see them come out of their Chrysalis's.
It got lost in the mail for a while, so when we got them they were already in their cocoon stage starting coming out as butterflies the next day.  So I was unprepared to see butterflies emerging on my kitchen counter.  But we made them as comfortable as possible.
The kids got to hold them...they loved it!

Butterflies Part I

 We started studying butterflies and caterpillars.
But before we got our live caterpillars, we looked at some books from the Library and borrowed.
We read about them.  I showed her pictures on line.
We even found some outside one day and held them.
One afternoon we drew and painted some butterflies.  It was also a great chance to talk about God being the Creator.
Here are our paintings....

I drew the butterfly and told her that we were doing to create our own butterflies like God does!

So I showed her how I could make any shape I wanted inside the wings.  Then she did the next one.  

I love that she put ears on her butterfly....

Bible Drill

Did you ever do Bible Drill growing up in church?  I grew up Baptist so Bible Drill was always a nervous/fun experience.  As well as performing "Father Abraham" on stage with an audience.  Eek.
Well, on most mornings when I have my devotional after the kids are up, we have a "Reading Time".  I read the Bible and the kids read books quietly ( quietly is key) in the room next to me.
Well that almost always bombs.
They are always interested in my Bible and coffee.  Or they want to sit in my lap and draw in my journal.
So a way to help them to obey and stay in the other room, AND get to join in what I was doing, I started a Bible Verse box for Ella Reese.

If there is something that we are working on that day or week.  Like being patient, or kind etc....we would find what the Bible says about it.  Then on some index cards I would write out the verse and then she would draw a corresponding picture to help her remember the verse.
We do not do it every morning.  It becomes boring to her if we did it every day.
But here are some of the ones we did.

And as the day continues, or later that week...I will remind her of the verse we studied and I have found that it has helped her to remember God's word better.  As opposed to it just coming out of my mouth.

 This is Ella and Dean in the picture.

 Whenever I draw people or Bible people, I will draw a cross on their heart to help explain that when you Love God Jesus is in your heart.
So Ella Reese put crosses on our hearts.  That is our family if you can't tell.  We all look more like zombies....

Ouch!

I knew it had been a while since I had posted anything on this blog.  But since May 9th...ouch.
But since summer has hit we have been more lax with doing projects and lessons.  We have been out more, doing VBS, and enjoying hosting people at the house.
Here in the next week or so I will have more time to post.
We have germinated lima beans, grown them, saw butterflies merge from their chrysalises, made puppets, painted butterflies, writing almost the entire alphabet,....and making a huge mess all the while.
It has been tons of fun watching them enjoy these little projects.
I will post them all here soon....

TInker...

For the past week I noticed that my pages above were not showing up.  So the non-tech person I am...I ignored it hoping it would fix itself.  Nope.
So I just tinkered around and fixed it!  Call me tinker bell...minus the very short skirt.

Temple Grandin

Ryan had watched a movie a few weeks back called "Temple Grandin".  It is an HBO movie production about an autistic girl named Temple Grandin.  Ryan raved about it and told me I had to watch it.  It did not sound exciting to me at all.  He loved it so much that he even said he wanted to own it.  And folks, we only own like 6 DVD movies and 4 of them are kid movies.  So I knew he was for real loving this movie.  So he had it for me to watch last night.

Let me tell you, it is awesome.  I agree...I want to own it and watch it with my kiddos.  It is such a great movie.  For me, what strikes me even now is how this girl was able to work with her autisim, and with the help of others, she found what methods helped her excel in learning and life.  She is now in her 50's and is widely known in the Autistic community.
Here is a link to a trailer to the movie. But, it kind of gives some of it away.
I usually am not one to recommend movies, but this is a must see.
For me, it has inspired me to study my kids and learn what teaching methods will help them excel.
It is truly an inspirational true story!  Go check it out..you will not regret it!

Jesus Feeds the 5,000

We did this as a Bible lesson a few weeks back.
I read her the story from the Bible about Jesus feeding the 5,000 in the book of Matthew.  Then made a quick storyboard.  By quick, I mean I literally grabbed some paper and color pencils and sketched as I told her the story.  She was interested,...so I went with it.

Planning for some Science....

I am going to start a series of Science lessons with the kids.  I have had some ideas here and there, and I think with some research and organizing all these thoughts, I can put together some great Science studies with the kids.
I want to focus on things that grow and change.
I am waiting on some Catepillars I ordered online that will turn into butterlies. In the meatime I am going to look into germinating seeds.
Here is a link I pulled up just now that I think I will water down and follow.
Other things this week I am going to try to pull together for the Science lessons for May;
- Get some new Nature/Investigation Journals for the kids.  Something with no lines so they can draw and make observations in them.
- Get some seeds...a variety of beans like kidney, lima, northern beans, and corn seeds...
Here is a U-Tube video of radish seeds germinating that ER will like to watch.
- Get books on Catepillars and butterflies, plants and growing....etc.

This is so fun to research!  I have forgotten all of this stuff.
I will be a student here as well....Library here we come!

Word Play Flash Cards

Allyson Hughes commented on my "Word Play" post and gave me this idea for a lesson.
It was a great way to focus more on the phonics and letters.  And Ella Reese loved to flip through the words.

Pizza Time!

I was about to toss out my frozen pizza box and stopped myself when I had the cardboard circle the pizza once sat on.  I could make a pretend pizza for the kids to play with!
I tore the pizza box open and traced the same size circle on the two sides of the box and on the circular carboard inside.

And what made it all really exciting is a perfect cardboard box I had that opens just like a delivery box!  So fun!  If you go to CCK it is the Mission Fund box you got.  Yes...I held onto it.  I hold onto all kinds of junk.

Trash = Art

When Ella Reese was little, like maybe around 20 months, I did not have really any "craft" supplies for her.  So I started just looking around my house.  And what is around my house? A trash can full of possibilities.
I started digging in my recycle bin and made tons of little art projects with her.
My very first one I did with her ( which I still have to this day) was a little Aquarium we made.

Little Chef

Ella Reese is always asking me to cook along with me.  Dinner time cooking is never the best time.
So I decided to make lunch time into a cooking lesson.
It also helps emphasize following instructions.

Word Play

Here is a lesson that I made up that incorporates reading and letter recognition, phonics, writing, and drawing. Feel free to take some of these elements out if it is too much. 
This is such a fun learning lesson, and I love to do with Ella Reese as much as she does!
I am sure there are books that do this very same thing, but I love that it is all hands on and I can create as much challenge to it as I want.

Easter Lesson

The week prior to Easter I dropped the Bible lesson we were going through and started to teach her about Jesus Resurrection. Yeah, try teaching that to a 3 year old. So I think she kind of got most of it.

I tried to integrate it with other activities. So along with the Bible Story I tried to do other short lessons that integrated the theme of transformation and life.

We talked about insects. Well, really caterpillars and how they turn into butterflies. I showed her videos online of caterpillars transforming into butterflies. We even ordered some live caterpillars that will turn into butterflies. ( http://www.shop-insectlore.com/Butterflies/Live+Butterfly+Culture+3-5+Live+Butterfly+Larvae.axd ) . We talked about dead things and live things etc. I had these little pill things that you drop into water and little sponge insects would come out. It was cool.

And just when I thought she was kind of getting it she would look up at me and say, "Can I watch Sesame Street now?" then hop off my lap. Hilarious.