Smores....

We ended our week of camping (we will probably continue it next week also because the kids LOVE it!) with a fire and roasting marshmallows to make Smores. We got out there while it was sunny and by the time we were done we were getting rained on! As soon as we got inside the clouds opened up, thunder and lightening cracked, and the hail came down. Whew, we just missed it. The kids had a great time around the fire.Korina makes marshmallows for me and her......

teacher project vs kid project

What is this? Yup, it's a spider. We made it with our hands today. So tomorrow we will add eyes and maybe some 'web', and it will be cute, and you will love it.
So here is the problem. For the little guys I have to paint their hands to get it just right. Then I have to place their hands down on the paper just so, to get the 'spider' look. Then I have to take them over -right away- after I place their hands down, and wash them so they don't paint everything else black because I have to paint someone elses hands because they are waiting. That is alot of I's, isn't it? Sure the project is cute, but your child did not really make it. I did. :)So I let the older kids paint their own hands, but what happens if they do it.....wrong? Which is something that I stive very hard NOT to do, is make the kids feel bad about doing Art wrong. But I have to tell them exactly where to put their hands....and sometimes....They do it wrong. I don't tell them though...and we move on to the next piece of paper. I say, "let's do another one Lexi!"I started getting pretty frustrated at myself, and the things I was trying hard NOT to say, but ended up having to say, like....wait, hold on, in a minute, no, not there, stop!!!!! Because they all wanted to do it at once.
So, I put out a big piece of paper and let them do it themselves. Ahhhhh, much better! Quinn and Sam painted themselves for about 20+ minutes and I just sat and listened and watched and it was so peaceful and so much less chaotic. They learned much more by doing this than by me doing it for them.
That is why we don't bring home very much 'cutsie' art work. :) ....it's because I love your kids so much and love when they are doing it, not me.

Ooohhh, this is cool. I have plexi glass pieces that we paint on, shaving cream on, window crayon on, but today we used window pens. Have you seen those? Cool dude......I printed out some spider pictures and taped them under the plexi glass and set them out with the pens. Me likey!

Spiders and random pix.....

We are all over in the sand box and these two are giggling away over on the deck. I look over and this is what I see. Too cute!

These guys are working hard on the 'bathtub' bubble solution. They are using sand, playchips, rocks, and whatever else they can find laying on the ground.

Here is the bathtub. Right now just Lexi is in it, but they all take turns and all 3 were in at one time.

I put a hay bail in front of the bunnies. Now they can easily stand up high and feed the bunnies pieces of hay. Quinn loves to do this and at one point he looked at me, "hey annie, they are sharing!" Indeed they were.

We will add more webbing but here is a shot looking from the entrance doors.

Boys.....

I put out cooked spaghetti noodles and added plastic spiders.....They LOVED this!!These gloves are the best! I got them at Target....make sure to get enough for everyone.

Yup...6 pairs of skelly gloves!...well I got enough for the boys anyway. :)Spider discovery bottle. I added rice and many different kinds of plastic spiders. We are also in the process of making real ones with real spiders. I will show those after they have made webs.Anna loves the feel of the 'key chain rope'. It's for the magnet board.This is the magnet board....The easle has yellow, purple, white, and black. I put a hole in the middle to see what they would do with it. More spaghetti stuff......I added spiders to the beans......Potato prints......Dancin' girls.....Okay, this is super cute....Quinn is showing Alondra how to golf. He is explaining to her where to put the ball, how to hold the club, and how to whack it! I love him!Jackson is using his keen counting skills to make sure everyone gets the same amount of shells on their plates. Hot tray! If you don't have one of these I highly recommend it. The kids love it when I put this out. They will burn themselves, but thats how they learn and the burns are not bad enough to leave any damage. They can draw pictures and make prints, or watch as the crayon slowly melts and leaves a big puddle of colored wax. You can always tell when it is on because it fills the room with that distinctive melted crayon smell! This is one of mine and the childrens favorite activities. Oh...they also love to peal off the melted wax from their fingers....remember doing that with candle wax?

drummin'

Here is the video...for some reason only the picture posted before....

Drums...

Quinn and Kelly Drumming away!

bubbles.....

I put the bubbles out today....

I found these gloves at target....I knew the boys would love them!!

around the room....

The kids are really loving these tubes! I will have to put some out in the water bin.

Here is a shot from the back of the 'messy' room.....

Bryan loves the busses!.....People in...people out....Bryans best buddy Dylan came to join the fun.....Lexi washed this ball for about 30 minutes......It can get pretty slippery!

Carrots had babies.....

Our bunny Carrots, had babies. 6 of them. They were all dead. I think she was too young. There was no nest or anything.
I showed the kids. They wondered what we were going to do with them. "let's bury them" "Are you going to put them in the garbage?" Olivia wanted to set them on the Hay bail so that they could eat when they got bigger. "They are dead honey, they won't wake up." "Can I touch it?" ....."um...sure." So we touched them. they were cold. they were stiff. they didn't move. Olivia said, "Can we squeeze them?"
Dylan said, "Yeah, theyre dead"
Olivia was very fascinated with them. If I had the guts (no pun intended) I would let them dysect the little guys.
"Soooooo, what should we do with them?"
and after touching them and realizing they were dead, Jackson said we should eat them.
Olivia replied "Yeah let's have them for lunch...but we have to cook them first!" Smart girl.
Don't worry....I could never cook the bunnies.

Around the room......

Cornstarch and water...and some color. This is a favorite. Sometimes I just put out the cornstarch and water and let them mix...but today I had it all set up, even with color. Olivia and Jackson were the first ones to try it out. "What do I do?"....that question for some reason is always asked. I am not sure why they ask because I always say the same thing...."what do you want to do?" "Touch it!" "Okay...touch it" "But I don't want to...." "So what do you need"....which is a question I am learning to say more often.....She said "I need a stick!" So I got a wooden spoon and that seemed to work. "Wheres my spoon?" asked Jackson....so I went and got another one....and another one......

At the table behind the cornstarch were baby food jars filled with watercolor paint, crayons, and paper. Kelly thought it would be a good idea to bring some of the color into the starch....At the big blue table I set out paper and pie tins with different colors of paint. I put one car into the tin...and waited. Quincy (of course) loved this spot. He picked out all sorts of cars, trains, and even a person. "LOOK ANNIE!!! FOOTPRINTS!!!" "your right Quinn...footprints"Can you see the sound that a big person makes stomping on the paper with green feet?The watercolor table.....I love the look of the watercolor pictures. I also love that Alayna likes to mix the colors.....There are now beans in the sensory bin.....There are scoops and small containers but Quinn had a better idea.....He brought over the tubes....."ANNIE!!!! It goes through!!!He tries to make it longer....it didn't work and he moved on to something else....maybe tomorrow.

Back to School....

Today we read a book about hands and throughout the book there were painted handprints. Soooo, if you give a kid a book with handprints all over it, chances are he will want to paint his hands......Jackson LOVED how the paint felt...and he loved slamming his hand down on the table with a big splat!Dylan wanted to wear cool sunglasses while painting himself.We had a goodbye party for Connor. Ice cream sundae's. We will miss you so much Connor but I know you will have such fun adventures at your new Preschool and we will be excited to hear all about it when you come visit to pick up your brother!Jackson and Anna were feeding everyone....Dylan and Bryan were riding around on the xylophones....they were giggling up a storm.Korina finds a semi quiet spot to read to Olivia and Quinn....The sensory table is filled with Red, Yellow, and Blue pasta with yellow plastic mice cups....Red, Blue, and Yellow at the Easle.....Gluing Red, Yellow, and Blue objects to make a collage.....There are pastas, shapes, and little buses.

Mixing colors at the light table.....

Boxes.....

When I was on the 'tour of daycare homes', we filled out forms to tell the providers what we liked and disliked. A few of the providers wrote about my house and they told me I should get rid of the boxes I was storing on the porch. NO WAY!!! Kids LOVE boxes and I was fortunate enough to recieve these from one of our families....thank you Debbie! They hide in them, read and play in them, write and paint on them, and flatten them out to use as jumps or bridges for the bikes. At one point there were no kids in the yard. If someone came by the would wonder what was going on........Here they are....hiding in the boxes!!

Lunch time outside today.......

Random Photos.....

Making pie's and what-not....

Riding through the bubbles.....

Cutie pie.....

Bryan is giving Alondra for a ride....He is so gentle and drives nice and slow...He is also always checking to make sure she is okay....

These two hit it off right away.....here they are enjoying a little potato print painting.

Connor started this....but I missed the photo op, so I got Olivia instead. Connor was dressed up like a firefighter with his firefighter hat, vest, gloves, and a small hose. This is the piece that was connected to the hose (we had previously used it for a 'wall marble shoot') So they took off the end of the hose and taped it to their mouths. I sure wish I got Connor dressed to the T, but I wanted to show you this ingenious way to make a firefighters mask.

Bryan, Dylan, and Jackson working on a puzzle together.....

Kelli is practicing writing her alphabet.....

Fathers Day.....

I know it has been awhile since I have posted. Hopefully I can catch up and stay caught up! So a few of these posts will be from awhile back....like Fathers Day.... We chose our own colors and painted our hands on a long strip of white paper....

We let them dry and taped them to Braydens formula containers...thank you Dacia for bringing those in!.....We made cards and added cookies to the colorful containers.

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Salt Trays and Shaving Cream

I took a class many years back called 'Math Their Way'. It was a great class and in that class we made these little boxes...and in them we added salt. 'salt trays'. These are great. They can practice writing, drawing, or just making scribbles...and then shake it and start over. Here Olivia is working on her 'B'.

Jence made a 'C', just by chance. He was so excited that he shook it out and re-did it about 5 times. Guess who now knows how to draw a C?

Who doesn't love shaving cream? I love it because it smells good and cleans the glued and painted table....the kids love it, well, because it's messy. I call it the 'getting things clean mess'. Dylan repeatedly looked back at the table after he was done and said...wow, it sure is a big mess!

Anna is in heaven.....

Friday....

Bunny update....awwww....aren't they cute?? One of them got out and died but the three that are left are as cute as can be!

We got a new tire swing...LOVE it!

I will post a few words about Karina, but here she is reading to the kids. We love her!

This is Lexi's version of the bumblebee.....

Quinn is practicing his spoon skills.....

Making 'Bb' Books....Quinn is working hard at mastering the scissors.....Oh my goodness, if this is not the cutest!...Dylans first day and he fits right in. He is Jacksons new bud....

Bee Week.....

Okay...so I made this bee....We actually have not done this project, but I had an open house this weekend and had to 'pre-do' some things so they could see what we were doing. So this project will be for the older kids, and the following will be for the younger ones....because they just like to squeeze glue...and I let them....

I set out paint and a variety of items to paint with. --3 paintbrushes taped together, dish sponge thingies, cut off nylons with rice in it, make-up brushes, etc....Yellow playdough with black pipe cleaners.....A bigger view of the 'messy' room....The sensory bin has black, yellow, and white rice with 'honey comb'...egg cartons, and lima bean bumble-bees.Tubes and marbles.....we put the marbles up when Alondra comes.... :)Discovery Bottles...Bee theme with the sensory bin rice and some bumblebees from the bee game....They roll these and try to count them. There are 6 all together....This was our discussion on Saturday....Can you tell who said what?.....Flannel board......

Random Photos...

Everyone got a Micky lollipop from Disneyland....

Olivia was having some quiet time while eating her lollipop....

Anna is building a little city under the climber....

This is a project we did...I set out popsicle sticks and glue and they created...then after they dried they watercolored their creations. Love your shirt Connor :)This is Korina, She is our new teacher. She is great and the kids already love her!Water, water, water.....These guys are working hard to get the water to the top of the slide....down it goes...water at the bottom....Good cooperation happing here....I set out two trays: one yellow, one blue. I place forks, sponges, circle cookie cutters, and qtips next to the trays. Kelly wanted to paint her whole sheet while Jackson made prints....I added some small planting pots to the rice. Quincy just found out they have holes in the bottom....coooooool....Color mixing at the light table....I love this picture of Olivia....She has been riding around on her bike carrying water in a bucket. She would water plants and ride back to the pool, fill her bucket up, put it back on the bike and ride to the next watering spot. She stopped here at the tree....thought for a bit....and....started painting the tree. :)Then she went to sweep....and apparently sand is a great cleaning agent....These cute kids are watching Drew clean the pool...very intriguing....

bunny update....

They are 13 days old today....Their eyes should be opening soon. This is "Paws"...Olivia named this one. It looks like he might be lionhead like his papa.

This is "McQueen"...any guesses who named this one?.....Jence.

This is Moto....Drew named him...cause he is so fat and looks most like his dad, Froto.

This is "Carrots"....Connor named him. He is my favorite....not sure why...I am pretty sure he is the runt of the group and very odd looking. We shall see in time....

We have baby bunnies!!

My son came home after school on Thursday to find this lump of fur in the cage. Scared for the momma...not knowing what was going on...He went to pet the momma, and seeing that she wasn't moving much, started to pick her up. To his surprise...she was in the middle of childbirth!!....DAD!!!!

They saw these creepy looking little creatures. ..4 of them. Not many people know that bunnies are born very bald. No fur...not any. These guys in this picture are about 5 days old. In another 5 days they should have more fur and their eyes will open. The momma doesn't hang out with her youngins and only feeds them about once or twice a day...usually later in the evening or first thing in the morning.I am excited to be able to bring such an experience to your little ones! In about 6 weeks they will be ready to find new homes. Bunny hutches aren't hard to make.... :) awww....so cute!

Muffin Tin Monday!

Today when I handed the children their Muffin Tin lunches, I had them look at them and find things that were the same. I purposly added things today that were similar...Here is what they came up with.
Olivia...Orange carrots to orange cheese to orange jelly bean!!
Connor....Green beans to green Jelly Bean!!
Jence....White Jelly Bean to white bread to white banana!!
Connor...Wait Annie...I forgot one...Purple Jelly Bean to Purple Jelly!!

Can you think of anything else?