In Like a Lion

Emily's Hand and Macaroni Lion

I have been thinking about doing a project for the saying, "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb." But, I hadn't come up with any ideas until the other day I saw this really cute Handprint Lion Project on Just For Fun. I was going to do the same thing but after a little more searching I combined a few ideas and came up with this hand print and macaroni lion.

First, Emily painted a piece of white paper with yellow paint. (We are out of yellow construction paper at the moment, otherwise we could have just used that).

After the paint dried I traced Emily's hand on the yellow paper and also drew a circle. I cut out her hand and the circle, while she practiced cutting on the small scraps. The hand piece will be the body of the lion and the circle will be the face.

Finally, Emily glued on googly eyes and I drew a nose and mouth for the lion.

**I don't have pictures of all of the steps because I had to help Emily with most of this so by the time I thought about the pictures it was too late.

Meatball Matching

Spaghetti and Meatball Matching Game

This week we read the book On Top of Spaghetti, written by Paul Brett Johnson. I decided to make a spaghetti and meatball plate as a craft project with Emily and then it turned into a matching game.

Emily gluing on the "spaghetti" yarn

(Last week she helped me cut the pieces of white yarn up and I dyed them with tea).

Emily squeezing the glue over the "spaghetti"

Shaking the "sauce" sparkles over the glue.

For the Meatballs:

Last week Emily and I sponge painted some poster board with brown paint and then I cut out circles for the meatballs. I was going to have her just glue them on the plates, but to turn this into a matching game I put a piece of Velcro on each plate and then a piece on the back of 4 of the meatballs. Then, I put a different colored dot sticker on each of the 4 meatball with Velcro. I also put colored dots on 3 other meatballs of each color that did not have Velcro.

To play:

I attached 1 of each of the colored meatballs with Velcro to each of the paper plates. Then I mixed up the other meatballs without Velcro and gave the pile to Emily. She took each of the meatballs, told me the color and put it on the plate with the matching colored meatball.

Emily enjoyed playing this game so much I think we played it 10 times in a row! Sometimes she would give me the stack and tell me where to put each of the meatballs.

You could also use the meatballs to do patterning or turn them upside down and use them to play memory.

I also made a set that had the letters "A", "B", and "C" on them since we are going to be working on letters soon.

Bookworm Reading Record

My Little Bookworm!

We love to read and I thought this would be a fun and cute way to keep track of all the books we have enjoyed together.



Here is our Bookworm so far. We will add a new circle to the bookworm for each new book we enjoy together. It will be fun to see how long it will take to make it all the way around the room!

Our Bookworm's face. (Emily helped me glue on the eyes.)

Lenten Pretzels

Making Lenten Pretzels with Mommy and Daddy!

The Sunday School at my church makes Lenten Pretzels every year at some point during lent.

This year since Emily is old enough to enjoy watching and helping with some baking and she loves playing with play-doh, I decided that each week during Lent we will try a different pretzel recipe. Today, because of the snow Daddy was able to help us with these!

Emily watching the mixer knead the pretzel dough

Emily working on her first pretzel

Emily and Mommy

Daddy working on the perfect pretzel


The story behind the Lenten Pretzel

Many years ago, an Italian monk made a simple bread as a reminder that Lent was a time of prayer. He rolled the bread dough in strips and shaped them in the form of arms crossed over the heart in a prayerful gesture.

The recipe we used for today's pretzels:

SOFT LENTEN PRETZELS

Serves: 8-12

• 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 dash of salt
• 1 1/2 cups 110 degree water
• 1 Tbsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup warm water
• melted butter and toppings

1. Combine the yeast, sugar, salt and 1 1/2 cups 110 degree water. Allow to rest for 5 minutes
2. Stir flour into mixture and knead for 5 minutes (I used the dough hook and my stand mixer)
3. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 hour ( I turned the oven on the lowest it could go about 170 degrees)
4. Divide dough into 8-12 equal pieces, roll each piece into a rope and shape each rope into a pretzel.
5. In a shallow dish, stir baking soda into 1/4 warm water; dip pretzels into mixture; lay coated pretzel on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake in a 550 degree oven for 5-8 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Brush with melted butter

**For toppings we sprinkled some with Kosher salt and the others with cinnamon sugar**

Happy 105th Birthday Dr. Seuss

Emily's Cat in the Hat Hat to Read in!!

Today is Dr. Seuss' 105th Birthday and to celebrate Emily and I made a Cat in the Hat Reading Hat. We got this great idea from Allie at No Time For Flash Cards.

Emily started painting with a large paintbrush...

...but, we decided fingers were much more fun!

The Dr. Seuss Books we are reading today:

• The Foot Book
• One Fish, Two Fish, Three, Four, Five Fish (Dr. Seuss Nursery Collection) (Board book)
• Green Eggs and Ham
• Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! (Board book)
  

Unplugged Project ~ Clothing

Clothing Basket Toss

We were so excited to participate in our first Weekly Unplugged Project at Unplug Your Kids.

We got our idea for this weeks project from Emily's TURTLE Magazine. The new issue had directions for "Toss and Count", where you toss rolled up socks into a laundry basket and then count how many you got in. We played a variation of this with some clothes Emily had that we were waiting to put away. Emily enjoyed tossing the wadded up shirts and pants into the laundry basket. She is still learning to let go of the object she is trying to through so this was great practice...and a lot of fun! When we were finished we counted all the pieces of clothing that actually made it into the basket.

TotSchool

We did a lot this week!

Emily painted a snowman and added salt to make it look like snow.

We worked on the Alphabet by singing the ABC song and putting together puzzles. This is her newest puzzle and so far one of her favorites.

Emily LOVES her Aquadoodle. Here she is practicing circles.

Since she painted a snowman earlier we decided to read this snowman book and use the magnets to make the scenes in the book.

Emily used scissors for the first time this week. Here she is practicing cutting string. I held it taught for her and she was able to cut it really well. We did another project later in the week where she cut paper and string!

Emily and I made a whole Little People village and played in it. Emily loves putting the baby to sleep in the crib. We can spend quite a bit of time playing with her little people.

Our Favorite Books from this week:

The Snowman ~ Raymond Briggs

The Grouchy Lady Bug ~ Eric Carle

Where is Baby's Mommy ~ Karen Katz

Just the Way You Are ~ Kara McMahon