Recycle Every Day ~ stART

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too!

This week we have been talking about Earth Day and ways that we can help do good things for the Earth.  Emily and Juliette  really enjoyed Recycle Every Day!, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.  This is a great story about a little bunny, Minna who needs to make aposter about recycling for school.  She wants her poster to be picked to be in the Community Recycling Calendar.  Her family helps her learn about the different things that they do to recycle each day of the week.  Finally, she is inspired to create her poster. 

I loved the theme of this book, because all of the different ways that Minna and her family recycled are things we can and in many cases already to in our home.  Emily liked seeing the bottle returns since we just recently took a huge bag to our recycling center.  We also use our tote bags when we go food shopping.  

I also love the illustrations in this book the last page has a list of the different recycled papers and materials that are used throughout the book.  We are working on collecting them so that we can use them to make our own pictures.

For today’s project we made a Puffy Paint Earth Day craft.  I got the idea for this project on Pinterest from Itsy Bitsy Learners.  

Emily’s Puffy Paint Earth

These were fun and easy to make, first I cute out the hearts for the girls, then the girls traced and cut out their handprints.  Emily traced hers and Juliette cut out one while I cut out the real ones (she likes to just cute everything into really small pieces, but it was still good practice in using the scissors!)

  Juliette’s Puffy Paint Earth

Next I gave them each a paper plate and some green and blue homemade puff paint.  First they painted the green on to look like the land and I microwaved it to make it puff up.  Then they painted the blue for the water and I microwaved it to make it dry and puff up.

Finally they glued on the hands and heart to show that they love the Earth.  This was a fun project and looks so cute hanging up for Earth Day!

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The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Also, be sure to check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. 

Paper Plate Easter Basket

 

Emily’s Basket ~ I love the Empty Tomb that she decided to draw all on her own!

We made these cute paper plate Easter Baskets with Emily and Juliette’s Sunday School Class for their Easter Party.  We wanted something that was easy to make and that would hold the treats that they found inside their Easter Eggs after the Easter Egg Hunt.

Juliette’s Basket ~ She loved the stickers and Emily was very proud of how she blended the colors at the bottom to make a great design :)

To make them I cut out all of the paper plates ahead of time.  You will need 2 paper plates per child.  Cut one paper plate in half.  Then cut a half circle out of the inside of the second paper plate, this will be the handle.

We gave the kids crayons, markers and stickers for them to decorate the paper plates with.   Make sure they decorate the back(side that would normally touch the table) of the half paper plate because you are going to staple it to the second paper plate so that they are facing each other.  We had a few kids decorate the front (side that the food goes on) so we couldn’t see their design.    Then staple the half paper plate onto the bottom of the other paper plate to make a pouch.  This was a perfect little Easter Basket for the kids to hold all the candy they found after our Easter Egg Hunt!

stART ~ Three Little Christmas Trees (Fingerplay)

Welcome to stART!  I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART.  **This is a work in progress so if you have participated and would like to be added to the list, leave me a comment and let me know.

This week we did something a little different.  We have been working on this Christmas Tree Poem/Fingerplay so we made some cute Christmas Trees to go with it.

Three Little Christmas Trees

Three little Christmas trees standing all alone, (hold up three fingers)
Their heats were very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
Two little Christmas trees standing all alone, (hold up two fingers)
Their heats were very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
One little Christmas tree standing all alone, (hold up one finger)
It's heat was very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
No little Christmas trees standing all alone, (pointer finger and thumb make a zero)
Their hearts were very happy (hands over heart)
'Cause they all had found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)

Paper Plate Christmas Trees

I cut a paper plate into 4 different sized pieces and then we glued them together to make a tree shape. The girls painted it with green paint.  Then they glued on sequins and spangles for the decorations and added a star at the top and a construction paper trunk.  They had a lot of fun decorating their trees and it was great fine motor practice too!

Juliette’s Christmas Tree

Emily’s Christmas Tree

stART ~ Dinorella

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

 

This week we read Dinorella, by Pamela Duncan Edwards.  This is Prehistoric Dinosaur version of the fairy tale Cinderella.  It is a great example of alliteration and would compliment any dinosaur or D themed study!  Emily enjoyed this book and was very excited to make her own Dinorella after we finished reading this story.

I thought that it would be fun to make a paper plate dinosaur and after reading this book I knew exactly what we were going to do…make some adorable Dinorella Paper Plate Dinosaurs all dressed up and ready for the Dance.

First Emily used a Do-a-Dot paint marker to dot a paper plate pink.

Next, she cut all the way around the inside of a paper plate.

From the edge piece she cut 4 leg pieces.  Then she cut the leftover piece in half.  To use one half for the head and the other for the tail.  I shaped both of these pieces to better resemble a head and tail for her.

Emily glued the pieces together to look like a dinosaur.

Now for the really fun part…dressing up Dinorella!!!

Emily added white pieces of white tulle for the dress and black foam for the top.  Then she glued on Sequins & Spangles for the diamond necklace and earrings.  She used yellow dot stickers for the hair and a wiggly eye.

Emily’s Dinorella all dressed up and ready for the Dance

stART ~ I Love Bugs

Welcome to  stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too.  All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures so that everyone can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.

I added a stART tab in my navigation bar to make it easier to search for past stART projects.  Be sure to check it out!!  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order. 

This week we have been enjoying the book I Love Bugs!, by Emma Dodd. .  The descriptive words that are used to describe each of the bugs makes this book so much fun to read.  The illustrations are bright and exciting and went right along with the story.  Emily loved looking at the pictures while I was reading this to her.

When we were finished with the book we talked about all the different bugs that we saw in the book.  Emily LOVED the ladybug that was on the cover so for our stART project Emily decided she was making a ladybug.  Not only did she decide which bug she was making she actually decided how we were making it too, I basically provided her with the materials and she went to work!

She told me that she needed, red paint, a paper plate, black circles and wiggly eyes.  She was adamant that we make this project out of a paper plate!

  Emily painted the paper plate with red paint.

She glued on the black circles that I cut out for her.

She also drew the line down the middle all by herself.   Emily’s Lady Bug

stART ~ Good Morning, Pond

  

Welcome to  stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too.  All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures so that everyone can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.

I added a stART tab in my navigation bar to make it easier to search for past stART projects.  Be sure to check it out!!  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read Good Morning, Pond, by Alyssa Satin Capucilli.  This book starts off with a frog leaping into the pond and waking up all the animals that live in and around the pond and ends with three children coming to see all the animals in the pond.  Emily loved acting out the different sounds and motions of the various animals in this story, of course the frog was her very favorite.  I liked that it was written in a semi cumulative story form.  It made if a lot of fun to read and easy for Emily to follow along.

I picked this book out because Emily loves frogs at the moment and I thought that she would enjoy reading a book with a frog in it and then making a frog project to go with it.  I love projects made out of paper plates so I thought it would be fun to make a frog out of one.  To go along with this book.

Paper Plate Frog

First, Emily painted the front and back of a paper plate green.

While the paper plate was drying Emily colored in black circles on the top of two green bottle tops.  (We had these in our huge bottle top collection.)

I drew and cut out frog arms and legs on green construction paper.  Emily received Do-a-Dot markers for Easter (She was so excited!!) so she wanted to color in the frogs arms and legs a little more with them. 

After all the pieces were dry,  Emily folded the paper plate in half and I made a small slit in the middle of the fold to slide the tongue which I cut out of craft foam through.   Then Emily glued on the arms, legs….

… and eyes.

Emily’s Froggy

TOTSchool

Our week in TOTSchool

Emily is 35 months old.

These are the past two weeks in TOTSchool and I am now finally caught up!! It definitely feels good to be back on track. I am looking forward to some great activities in the next few weeks. Emily has really started to show and interest in letters and writing them so that is what we will start to focus on.

We worked on the letter Ii with our friends at Sarah’s house. She has some good pictures of the finished products. We made igloos for our Alphabet book.

We made handprint/fingerprint penguins. I loved the way these came out. They look like they are marching across the paper. We used the side of their fist for the body and then their fingerprints to make the white belly, beak and feet.

Gluing mini marshmallows on this snowman was a great fine motor skill practice. They also enjoyed eating the marshmallows :0)

Emily had fun stamping with this penguin rubber stamp that she received for Christmas. I couldn’t believe what a great job she did lining them up. I left her to do what she wanted with it and really expected to see a bunch on top of each other. When she finished she called me over and asked me to write their names under them. Many of them were named Grandma and Grandpa I thought that was pretty funny.

We started a color wheel project in our Art Group. For the first week we did red. We will collage the primary colors and then work on the secondary colors.

We made blob paintings after reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk. Emily decided hers looked like a butterfly and it really did!

This, handwriting ring from Confessions of a Homeschooler was my favorite printout of the week!! I can’t wait to make some more. Emily loved working on it and it stayed out all week. She did an amazing job tracing the lines and different patterns too. I think she is definitely ready to work on letters now.

Emily decorated a teddy bear cupcake and Juliette really wanted to taste some, but she still has a while to go before we introduce her to these sweets!!

When we were at my mom’s house Emily wanted to play with these Make a Picture Tiles. This was one of my favorite games/toys when I was little. You get to make all different pictures with the different tile cards. My mom had this from when she used to sell discovery toys.

For our stART project we made paper plate penguins after reading If I Were a Penguin.

During our Art Group we worked on our Color Wheel Project. This week we focused on Yellow. Here Emily is painting with spaghetti

Some of our favorite books from this week:

• It Looked Like Spilt Milk ~ Charles Shaw
• If You Give a Pig a Pancake ~ Laura Numeroff
• If You Were a Penguin ~ Wendell and Florence Minor
• Good Night Moon ~ Margret Wise Brown

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking the buttons on the top of this page!!