stART ~ Splish, Splash, Spring

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.

It has been a very rainy week so we have been reading Splish, Splash, Sprint by Jan Carr. This is a great rhyming story about three kids that explore all the fun things that happen on a spring day in the rain.

I planned on having Emily draw a picture to put out in the rain so that she could how the rain would blend all of the colors however once Emily started drawing she did such a great job of drawing herself in the rain with a rain hat and umbrella I didn’t want the picture to get ruined. Thank goodness Emily agreed and we just kept the picture. We will probably try another rain picture on another rainy day :0)

Emily working on her rainy day picture. It is so much fun to see her drawing people and adding lot’s of details to her pictures.

Emily’s finished picture.

It is a picture of her with a rain hat and an umbrella.

Listening and Following Directions Can Be Fun!!

Oh my goodness does Emily need to work on listening and following directions.  I usually have to repeat myself 5 times before she begins to do something that I ask her to do.  I know as a teacher that you should not keep repeating yourself, because then it just becomes a habit and then there is really no need to listen the first time since it will be repeated over and over and over.  So I will be working on that for myself and in the meantime I made up this activity, which turned out to be a fun game for the girls!

First I printed out this shape mat that I made to go with the activity (you can click on the picture above for a free download).  Then I got out three objects that I could have the girls manipulate(this time we used 3 mega blocks in 3 different colors, but any objects that you can describe will work ie. little people, counting bears, bottle tops…)

The girls placed everything in front of them.  We started by talking about names of the shapes on the mat and the colors of the blocks.

Then they had to follow our directions to place the colored  blocks on the correct spot on the mat.  At first we repeated ourselves and then we reminded them to listen because we were only going to say it one time.  Once they were all used they cleared them off and we started again.

Some of the directions they had to follow were:

• Pick up the purple block and put it on the circle.
• Pick up the green block and put it on the square.
• Pick up the red block and put it on the heart.
• Pick up the red block and put it under the square.
• Pick up the purple block and put it above the circle.
• Pick up the green and purple block and put it on the circle.

I was really happy that all the girls seemed to enjoy this activity, it will be a great way to practice listening skills and following directions as well as reinforcing placement concepts too!

 

This is being shared at:

 

Happy Mother’s Day

 

Before you were conceived I wanted you,

Before you were born I loved you,

Before you were an hour old I knew I would die for you !

February 13, 2007 ~ Holding Emily for the first time

May 13, 2007  ~ My first Mother’s Day with Emily

 

July 9, 2009 ~ Seeing Juliette for the first time

May 9, 2010 ~ My first Mother’s Day with Juliette

 

   Me and my beautiful girls on Mother’s Day 2010

(I love that Emily insisted on having pink baby in our Mother’s Day picture)

Having Fun Learning

 

Our Week Having Fun Learning Together!

Emily is 38 months old and Juliette is 9 months old

Emily got to wear her new ballet slippers to Ryleigh’s birthday party.  Emily had fun trying out different ballet moves and dancing all around!

 

Daddy’s friend had a very cool bowling birthday party and Emily got to bowl for the very first time.  She really enjoyed it even though her ball went really really really slow! 

We baked Zucchini Muffins at Sarah’s house.  This was great practice following directions as well as, mixing, pouring and scooping!

 

We made Umbrellas for the letter Uu, I can’t believe we are almost finished with our Alphabet books.  They look so cute!!

 

Emily enjoyed checking out her beans every day so far.  They have sprouted and even have their first 2 leaves already!  Hopefully we will be able to plant them in the garden soon.

 

Emily worked on this cut and paste sorting activity that I made for her.  She loves cutting out the different pictures and gluing them in the correct spot.

I made Emily a green tutu to so that she could practice her ballet moves and have fun dancing around the house.  She loved it so  much she insisted on wearing it to Aunt Jennifer’s house for dinner!!

 

Emily made a paper plate ladybug after reading I Love Bugs! for our stART project this week.

We planted some cucumber and zinnia seeds since it has been so nice out this week.  Emily liked poking the hole for the seeds to go in.

  I was working on teaching Emily how to pump on the swing so that we won’t need to push her all the time.  She said she would rather we push her so she didn’t really try very hard to learn how.

We have been doing a shape theme for Art Group, this week was squares so we made Popsicle Stick Frames for Mother’s Day too!  The girls had a great time and they came out so cute.

While Emily was at Grandma’s they played this cute domino game my mom had from discovery toys.  Emily totally understood how to play and she got so excited when she could make a good match!

Tiny Tot School

 

Juliette loves the dolphin swing.  She usually holds on to the yellow and giggles as she is swinging!

Juliette is old enough for the library class now.  We sing songs together, read a book and then get to play with all the fun toys that they have.  Here she is talking on a pretend phone (actually it is a plastic piece of mail,  she is just using her imagination, maybe I talk on the phone way to much!!)

 

Playtime with Braeden, they both got into the music bin!

Juliette is oblivious to the photo shoot going on around her, finger castanets are much more interesting!

Juliette looks adorable in Emily’s tutu, she loved feeling the tulle between her fingers!!

My little climbing girl, she goes directly for the stairs as soon as I put her on the floor!

Me and my cutie pie, I was blowing into her hair and it made us both giggle!!

Juliette also spends a lot of time playing in the kitchen set, she is always busy dumping the buckets of food and  carrying things around with her!

 

Juliette showing her friend how to walk around the play pen!  She was having so much fun with her :0)

  

Our favorite books from this week:

• I Love Bugs! ~ Emma Dodd
• The Giving Tree ~ Shel Silverstein
• Sitting in my Box ~ Dee Lillegard
• Where is Baby’s Belly Button ~ Karen Katz

 

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking these buttons!!

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

Sorting Fun ~ Circles and Triangles

Cut and Paste Circle and Triangle Picture Sort

Since the Plant and Animal Picture Sort went so well I couldn’t wait to make another one for Emily.  We have been doing a shape study with our Art Group so I thought it would be fun to make a shape picture sort for Emily.  I found pictures of every day objects that were either shaped like a circle or triangle for this activity.

First, I printed out the  Circle and Triangle Pictures(click to download the one I made) and then Emily got to work cutting each one out.  As she was working on it we talked about each picture.  Emily was familiar with all of the pictures.  It is fun to see how excited she gets when she sees things that she likes in these activities.

After Emily cut the pictures out she placed them on the construction paper that I labeled for her and got to work gluing them down.

  Emily’s Finished Project!

 

I am planning on make more of these since they are great cutting and sorting practice and Emily really enjoys doing them. 

What Cut and Paste Picture Sort should I make next???  Leave your ideas in the comments and you just may find in on my next post!!!

Muffin Tin Monday

Happy Cinco De Mayo Muffin Tin Style!

This weeks theme for Muffin Tin Monday is Cinco De Mayo and Emily loved every part of her Muffin Tin Lunch today!!

We had Cheese Quesadillas and some fun dippers:

pink cup: smashed avocado

blue cup : sour cream

yellow cup: organic salsa

  She loves posing for pictures with her muffin tin, what a crazy kid!!

I am thinking Juliette will be joining in on the fun really soon, she had the smashed avocado for lunch too!!