Ok, just getting organized for our first week. I’m still trying to decide what I am going to do to mark the special ‘first day’ of school.
Week One (Sep 2nd-5th)
Tops and Bottoms
The Veggies We Eat
A is for Apple Blossom
We will be coloring the Apple Blossom page from our Flower Fairies Alphabet Coloring Book and reading the accompanying story in the Flower Fairies Alphabet Book.
Click here to download an Italic Letter A Handwriting Practice Page.
See completed project and directions: Salt Dough Veggies
Carrot Cake
INGREDIENTS
Cake:
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. mazola oil
4 eggs
2 c. flour
2 t. soda
3 c. grated carrots
1/2 c. chopped nuts
1 t. vanilla
dash salt
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
Icing:
1 4 oz. package cream cheese, room temp.
2 t. vanilla
1/4 c. butter
powder sugar
DIRECTIONS
Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour into greased and floured 9×13 pan. Bake in 300 oven for 1 hour or until done. Let cool. Blend all icing ingredients together and frost on cooled cake.
Visit a Farmer’s market or grocery store. Spend time in the produce section comparing the types of veggies. Use the 5 senses to make observations on the veggies, try to determine which part of the plant you are eating top, bottom or middle. You might want to make some graphs comparing size, shape, color, taste, etc.
Poem of the Month for September:
Little Boy Blue
Little Boy Blue,
Come blow your horn;
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn.
Where is the boy who looks after the sheep?
He’s under a haystack, fast asleep.
Will you wake him?
No, not I. For if I do he’s sure to cry.
Our house was in desperate need of some attention. We’ve had a painting crew here all week and it is amazing how much better everything is looking. Since it isn’t done yet I don’t want to do full shots but here is a sneak peak.
BEFORE (awful trim and yucky mildew)
AFTER
This week’s Unplugged Challenge theme was cylinders and although I had quite a few crafty ideas we just never got a chance to do them. BUT we did do both an indoor and outdoor scavenger hunt looking for cylinders and had some fun. Here was one of our favorite outdoor cylinder finds… the log stumps at Gammy’s house that are set up to be used as a balance beam type activity (they will be spread out more as the kids get bigger). They also make a great outdoor table for the sand box tea parties. Very fun and free idea for the backyard!
…which really means it has been anything but quiet around here. Not the craziness of our July travels but still a lot of projects in the works.
First, we had our Annual Girl Trip on Monday. Not quite as long (or spendy) as some years but enjoyable and ‘L’ keeps asking when the next one is.
Second, my mom and I have been working on a Crafting Blog. If you haven’t made your way over to Wee Folk Art yet check it out. If I’m not blogging here then I’ve probably been posting a lot over there.
Third, the school year is starting up soon and I’m just trying to get organized. I will be posting our first Kindergarten/Prechool Trimester book list and curriculum plans in another couple days or so. Most of the books have been added to my Amazon book list if anyone is looking for ideas.
This year our main social studies focus is on the seasons and holidays. Term one will start on the farm, bringing in the harvest and taking us into the holiday season. It will be very hands on with lots of crafts and baking. In science we will be using our senses to make observations and always asking questions like; How does if feel? How does it taste? What does it sound like? etc.
Our Break Down for the Year:
Term One: Sept, Oct Nov
Dec off
Term Two: Jan, Feb, Mar
Term Three: Apr, May, June
July, Aug off
We will be loosely following a Weekly Schedule (Preschool and Kindergarden)… with my general outline being:
Every Day: Pledge, Calendar, Days of the Week, Weather, Poem of the Month, Circle Time (songs & finger plays), Prayer, Free Art Time (play dough, water colors or colored pencils – their choice).
M: Read Story of the Week, Introduce an Art History Image, Introduce the Letter of the Week
Tu: Read Story of the Week, Complete a Handwriting Page, Craft/Directed Art
W: Read Expansion Book, Read Flower Fairy Alphabet Story and color Alphabet Book Page
Th: Read Story of the Week, Complete a Handwriting Page, Do an Illustration and a Narration in Our Story Journal about the Story of the Week
F: Baking Time, Nature Study/Science Theme/Field Trip, Finish Craft if Needed
Daily (Kindergarten only)
Phonics & Math (We are using ReadingA-Z.com and Right Start Math)
Days of the Week Song (sung to the tune of Fara Jocka)
Seven days, seven days,
In a week, in a week,
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday,
That’s a week.
Poem of the Month for September:
Little Boy Blue
Little Boy Blue,
Come blow your horn;
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn.
Where is the boy who looks after the sheep?
He’s under a haystack, fast asleep.
Will you wake him?
No, not I. For if I do he’s sure to cry.
Composer for the Term: Tchaikovsky (Listen during free play or art time. You might want to watch one of his ballets like the Nutcracker or Swan Lake.)
Art History: You can choose an individual artist to study for a term (like recommended by Charlotte Mason) or use the Come Look With Me series of books to focus on a theme instead. We will be using Come Look With Me for now starting with Animals in Art.
Bedtime Reading: Some suggestions that come to mind are James Herriot’s Treasury for Children, Farmer Boy or Charlotte’s Web. We tend to mix up a couple chapters in a ‘big’ book one night with the kids’ pick of picture books the next. But both my 3yr old and 5yr old are really enjoying Farmer Boy right now (keep asking for one more chapter please) and I think we will be done with it long before the term is up.
Term One Book List
Craft for the Week: Modeled food (use salt dough to form veggie food shapes, paint when dry)
Baking Recipe for the Week: Carrot Cake
Craft for the Week: Stuffed Art (have kids draw a farm animal on fabric, cut out basic shape outline with a second piece too, sew together and stuff)
Baking Recipe for the Week: Homemade Butter and Bread
Craft for the Week: Tracks in the Mud (dip a variety of items in paint and then create tracks on the page)
Baking Recipe for the Week: Grape Nut Cookies
Craft for the Week: Quilt Square (we will make one a month to use to make a year end quilt)
Baking Recipe for the Week: Yellow Cake
Craft for the Week: Apple Prints
Baking Recipe for the Week: Apple Bread
Craft for the Week: Pine Cone Bird Feeders
Baking Recipe for the Week: Apple Pie/Crisp
Week Seven:
Craft for the Week: Weaving Project or Something with Wool Roving
Baking Recipe for the Week: ?
Week Eight:
Craft for the Week: Painting Pumpkins
Baking Recipe for the Week: Pumpkin Muffins
Week Nine:
Craft for the Week: Quilt Square
Baking Recipe for the Week: Popcorn Balls and/or Carmel Apples
Week Ten:
Craft for the Week: Craft for the Week: Beeswax Candles
Baking Recipe for the Week: Gingerbread Cookies
Week Eleven:
Craft for the Week: Table Decorations (Centerpieces or Place settings for our Thanksgiving Table)
Baking Recipe for the Week: Pretzels
Week Twelve:
Craft for the Week: Quilt Square
Baking Recipe for the Week: Corn Bread Muffins
Additional Resources This Term:
Freezer Paper Leaf Shirts
This week’s Unplugged Challenge theme was Trees. I had been wanting to try the Freezer Paper Stencil T-shirts for awhile now and leaves seemed like a fun inspiration for the design.
We started by going on a leaf scavenger hunt. Each of the kids gathered 5 leaves with completely different shapes. Once we had all our leaves we compared their shapes and colors. They each picked one leaf for their shirt design. I cut the freezer paper into 8.5″x11″ sheets to fit in our printer.
Then we photo copied each leaf onto a sheet of freezer paper. I cut out the shapes and ironed them on the tee shirts.
I helped each of the kids stencil their shirt. We used a sponge style stencil brush and it was not the best for the project. I will try something else in the future. It left a bubble like texture in the paint. But in general the kids and I were pretty happy with our results. (Remember to put a piece of card board inside the shirt so the paint doesn’t bleed through).
A couple days later the kids modeled their new shirts outside under the trees. Here they are trying to do a yoga ‘Tree Pose.’ Very cute!
We went to visit my grandparents yesterday. I spent a few minutes rummaging through their basement and pulled out some of the games I remembered playing as a kid. One of our favorites was Careful! The date on the box was 1967.
I think they decided it was a fun but difficult game to play with a 23mo old little sister.
This week’s Unplugged Challenge was Hot. I asked the kids what was hot and their first two answers were the Sun and fire. My first thought was to make the rolled beeswax candles but I couldn’t find the supplies in town and didn’t have time to order them so instead we had some Shrinky Dink fun.
I bought Shrinky Dink sheets that I could run through the printer. I let each of the kids pick an image of the sun (just ran a google search for SUN Coloring Pages). Then I printed the images and we colored them with colored pencils. When they were done I helped the kids cut them out and punched a hole in the top and we were ready to watch the magic unfold.
I put mine in the HOT oven first. It was a good thing we started with mine. It totally folded over on itself and melted into a blob. I think our images were just a bit too big (around 8×8). When the edges curled up they were a bit too heavy and completely folded. This added a bit more excitement to the process. Watching the others ones more carefully I had to intervene a couple times with a butter knife to unfold them. There was much squealing during the shrinking process – lots of fun!
Once their suns cooled, we made necklaces (or window hangings) with some yarn and wooden beads. We also made some ladybug buttons and other cute little things with the scraps.
‘A’ had his first testing for Tae Kwon Do last night. He did awesome and earned his yellow belt! One of the teachers (not his normal one) told us that he has never seen a young student do that well in all his years of testing and ‘A’ was his first to recieve a perfect score. The best part was that you could truly see how much A enjoyed it. He took it very seriously and is sooo proud of his accomplishment.
During testing the kids have to break a board which was really cool. I was taking a video of it but my camera memory card maxed out just before he hit the board. AHHH!
We spent yesterday morning building a fairy house in the garden. ‘A’ really got into it. The girls would come over to check our progress or hand over a found treasure but were more interested in playing with the hose and the dandelion puffs.
