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Category: Ages 2-6

Fabulous Fall 2

Ages 2-6: Fall Theme / Nature

Fabulous Fall

We had fun on our nature walk and found such beautiful things!!  We have a full grocery bag of acorns and pine cones for crafts in the coming weeks.  The kids have never seen fall leaves (and Daddy and I haven’t seen fall for 14 years or so!)  It is so, so amazing to be experiencing autumn again!  Gorgeous!  And the kids are so excited to see the white-tailed deer...

Pets Theme — Patterns, Countin’ Whiskers Blindfold Game, Colors 0

Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

Pets Theme — Patterns, Countin’ Whiskers Blindfold Game, Colors

This week ED and DD are going with a pet theme for some of their activities. Even before I could finish printing things out DD was bursting at the seams to play! This is a pattern matching game from http://kidssoup.com/  (a paid website whose graphics and activity ideas are wonderful and well worth the membership fees for us — ages 2-6 or so — we use it all the time...

3D Castle Maze 2

Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Homeschool: Random Thoughts

3D Castle Maze

LD read a book called “The Knight at Dawn” and decided he wanted to do some sort of knight-related craft.  We built castles.  I mostly did the big castles (with bits of help from the kids) while they used the scraps to build elaborate small castles (which unfortunately this photo totally obscures!) Dad used the castles as the entrance and exit of an elaborate 3-D maze. It became more and...

4

Ages 2-6: Preschool at Home / Homeschool Den / Kindergarten / Kindergarten Math / Math: Preschool Math

Sunny Side Up (game learning about double digit numbers)

I brought out a dice game to play with DD called Sunny Side Up.  The dice have the numbers 1-5 and a smiley face.  I made little cards that have 9 numbers using just those digits (such as 51, 42, 14, 3, 5…).  We each have our own card and take turns tossing the dice.  We try to build numbers using the value on each die.  So you need a...

Egg-speriments! 14

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Science Experiments

Egg-speriments!

To make our bird unit especially appealing to LD we, of course, had to add in some science egg-speriments! While DD and I were unable to smash our eggs… LD did!!  We’re not quite sure why, but then when he tried it with a second egg he couldn’t break it no matter how hard he tried.  Anyway, this experiment was designed to show how strong egg shells are and how...

And more Egg-speriments! (Eggs and Pollution) 4

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Science Experiments

And more Egg-speriments! (Eggs and Pollution)

We looked at the air bubbles coming out of this egg when it was placed in vinegar and talked about why the shell is porous.  This lets the growing embryo get oxygen.  We then talked about how since it is porous it can let things through — like acid (vinegar), acid rain and pollutants.  We talked about DDT (how eagles nearly became extinct)– and how poisons, pesticides and so forth...

The Developing Chick-Egg Set 4

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Science

The Developing Chick-Egg Set

This summer, I saw a really interesting tool for studying chickens at My Montessori Journey.  It was a chicken hatching set that you can buy for about $35.  It was a great idea, but I decided the kids might get more out of it making their own.  So, earlier this summer at Grams’ house, I printed out some chicken embryo pictures.  One set has the developing chicken embryo with the...

4

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

Bird Unit Activities

Last night I set up the table with a few more bird-related activities. These are activities for my 2 1/2 and 4 year olds: In the middle of the table are styrofoam eggs. The girls decorated them with plastic push pins (I don’t know what else to call them!) and colorful brads.  I also set out a bird identification set and the bird lapbook we made years ago. The girls...

Bird Unit 2

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4)

Bird Unit

I showed this picture last week, I think, but what better visual to go with our bird unit! We have started off the year with a new bird unit. We did a pretty extensive bird unit last year and learned all about galahs, magpies, Murray magpies and Port Lincoln parrots (lots of pictures in the “Where we Live” label). We did a lovely lapbook to go with those (I just...

Last Year’s Bird Lapbook 0

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit

Last Year’s Bird Lapbook

Here are a few pictures of the bird lapbook we did last year. We’ve had this out and have chatted a lot about how different the birds sound (galahs make a really distinctive ruckus). ED did the coloring last year; DD did the cutting activity (cutting the slits in the feathers). Hmmm… this would be PERFECT for ED right now. She really loves practicing with scissors.  I’d better head off...

Bird’s Egg Craft 0

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Arts and Crafts

Bird’s Egg Craft

This activity would probably be perfect around Easter!  This summer as I wandered around Hobby Lobby I saw all the cute colored brads.  Not just the plain round ones as were available in our town last year, but flowers, hearts and things like that.  I picked up a couple boxes of brads, a push-pin looking thing I also saw at H-L or Michaels and a bunch of styrofoam eggs.  All...

Bird Related Activities 0

Ages 2-6: Bird Unit / Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Ages 2-6: Preschool and Toddler Activities / Ages 2-6: Theme Time (age 2-4) / Math: Preschool Math

Bird Related Activities

So aside from learning about the birds in our area (which are all new to the kids), I also selected a number of general bird and chicken activities to slip into their workboxes. Here are a couple they did today: DD had this chicken grid game from prekinders.com in her workbox today for math.  We played with two dice and she had to try adding them together.  That’s quite challenging...

Dance Camp 0

Ages 2-6: Preschool (Age 4) / Homeschool: Random Thoughts

Dance Camp

The kids have really enjoyed their summer activities. Just a five minute drive from the house is a really nice gym.  LD has been taking gymnastics classes and always glows afterward.  “That was SO hard, but SO great,” he tells us! A dance teacher also offers classes at the gym. DD participated in a little dance camp this week.  They made all of their props — frog feet, a duck...