Shaking Eggss

objective: a. listen to a variety of sounds b. compare the sounds and find the 2 that match Points to remember: 1. Listening and recognizing sounds is an important step in learning to recognize sounds in words.

Lesson:

1. Fill 12 eggs with 6 different objects so that there are 2 of each object. I used marshmallows, pennies, rocks, pom poms, bells, and macaroni.

2. Place the eggs in the carton. In the picture I have the eggs organized by color, but the sounds are not in the same color eggs. For example, the macaroni is in a purple egg and an orange egg.

3. Give your child 6 eggs, each a different sound. Listen to each one at a time. Set those eggs on the table and leave the 6 matching eggs in the carton.

4. Give your child 1 egg from the carton and have her listen to it. Then ask her to match it to one egg on the table that sounds the same.

5. Once she has found the match, open the eggs and look to see if they are the same.

6. Celebrate!

Here is a video of Kate and Brooke playing with the eggs. This is after we did it a few times and they knew the objects inside.

Modifications:

1. Switch out the objects and play again.

2. Set out all 12 eggs at one time and have your child find the matches - this is much harder since there are 11 options to choose from.

Resurection Eggs

I use Resurrection Eggs to teach my children about Easter. We have had our about 3 years and are missing the spear (but found a sword to replace it). This is a great way to teach kids about Easter and for them to be able to use the objects to re-tell the story back to you. My set came with a book called Benjamin's Box. I read from the book (summarizing a little) as the kids open the eggs.

The kids will set out all the items from the eggs as I read.

Then use the items to re-tell me the Easter story. By re-telling the story using the objects, I know they understand.

Here are 2 great blogs that gives even more ideas for how to use your Resurection Eggs:

http://totallytots.blogspot.com/search/label/Easter http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/RaisingRockStarsEaster.html

April Fool's Day Lunch

I loved making our April Fool's Lunch! I bought Teddy Grahams, Oreos and Rice Krispy Treats. I carefully opened the bags and replaced the snacks with carrots, sandwich and strawberries. Then using double-sided tape, closed the bags again.

Everyone also got some Fakin' and Eggs: eggs are made from white chocolate and a yellow m&m. the bacon is made from Tootsie Rolls and Carmels.

Happy St Patrick's Day

We LOVE celebrating St. Patrick's Day at our house! I love creating the special memories with our children! My ultimate goal is for them to always wish they were at home on holidays -so I really do them special! Wouldn't it be great for my children to be grown and away from home and call me saying, "Mom, it is St Patrick's Day and I wish I was home to eat Lucky Charms and Rainbow Cupcakes." So, with that in mind, I LOVE celebrating and creating memories now!

Breakfast

We start at breakfast with Lucky Charms! This cereal only appears in our house on St. Patrick's Day - they don't get it at any other time during the year! Wow, they look forward to it!

Lunch

Lunch on St. Patrick's Day includes shamrocks, Leprechaun magic, and rainbows! They have a Lucky Charm rice crispy treat (I found these at Target this year), rainbow Twizzlers, a rainbow cupcake, and shamrock sandwich made from an English Muffin, cheese and a sliced green pepper to look like a shamrock, a pot of gold, and Leprechaun pudding. The Leprechaun pudding is vanilla pudding with some green food coloring hiding inside - the kids will stir it up so see the Leprechaun Magic turn it green!

This is our Pot of Gold Jello - yellow jello-jigglers cut into gold pieces!

I love our Rainbow cupcakes - white cake mix separated into 6 bowls and turned red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Spoon one color at a time and use a toothpick to spread the color. Bake as directed on the cake box.

Dinner

Dinner was cabbage and sausage - that is Irish right? With green corn muffins and green salad.

Dessert was Shamrock Shakes:

Shamrock Shakes are mint ice-cream blended with mint extract, green food coloring, and milk! Yummy! Happy St. Patty's Day!

Leprechaun Magic Part 5

In our Steve Spangler Science Kit we were given some rare Leprechaun eggs. These eggs are so cool because they disappear in water.
Here are the Leprechaun eggs

Brooke says, "Magic Hands" and puts the eggs into the water. They disappear!

Then we can pull them back out and there they are!

The Magic is in the water-absorbing polymer that forms an amazing clear sphere. Due to the refraction in the cup of water, it looks as if the spheres completely disappear.

So what can first, the Leprechaun or the egg?

Leprechaun Magic Part 3

Just as we sometimes get snow in North Carolina, the Leprechauns sometimes get snow in the land of the Leprechauns....and I have some. Now the snow looks like ordinary white snow, but with some Leprechaun Magic, the snow is actually green!





Our container of Leprechaun Snow:

Idea and supplies from Steve Spangler Science.

Leprechaun Magic Part 4

Everyone knows that Leprechauns hide their pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. But we are never fast enough to find the gold! Leprechauns are tricky creatures and, I think, they hide their pots of gold at the end of rainbows we can't see! So, we got some special glasses to help us find the rainbows.

We put on the glasses and rainbows appears all over the house! They were everywhere!

Here is why? The Rainbow Detecting Glasses have special lenses that diffract the light. When light is separated we see red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet - the rainbow!

Leprechaun Magic Part 2

How do Leprechauns catch green fish? They use green worms and we know how to make them.
We added some soduim alginate to a water-calcuim solution. The calcium helps to link the small molecules of the alginate into a polymer, a long chain of smaller molecules......in other words, it makes green worms from worm goo.

Idea and supplies from Steve Spangler Science

Leprechaun Magic Part 1

With St. Patrick's Day soon approaching, we have begun some Leprechaun Magic at our house.

Today we learned the secrets of the Leprechaun Sandwich bag! Leprechauns eat enormous sandwiches at lunch time and we happened to find one of their sandwich bags.

We tied a knot at the end of the bag. I asked Jake to try to blow up the bag. He tried about 10 times and gave up saying it would take forever.

I told Jake that I could blow up the bag with just one breath! And I did! Then we talked about why I was able to blow it up with just one breath and he was not even close after 10 blows.

Here is why:

Here is Jake blowing it up with one breath.

Idea and bag from Steve Spangler Science

Birthday Party Video

Brooke and Kate had an I Spy birthday Party

This is the front of their invitations: I took my own I Spy picture (notice the picture of Brooke and Kate on the I Spy page) and it reads "I Spy with my Little Eye 2 birthday girls who are turning 5, a cake, a game, and a balloon to take." The inside of the invitation had all the details.

At the party we had an I Spy puzzle and books

A make-your-own I Spy Bottle where the children found 10 items in the big bucket and make a bottle to take.

The Balloon Fairy


And an I Spy Game where the children had to find objects on the floor. The caller would say, "I Spy with my little eye something green" and the kids would move to stand on something green. Then the caller would say, "I spy with my little eye something that lives on a farm" and the kids would move to another picture. More than one child can stand on an object at a time and there were at least 3 options for each category. I adapted the idea from our Hullabaloo game and it worked perfectly. The pictures on the floor are stickers on pieces of white paper.

A video of the party is below. Just so you know, the party was right after preschool on March 9th which was Ash Wednesday. You'll notice the kids have ashes on their foreheads - they did that at preschool, not at the party! Just so you know! :) But it would make for a unique party idea!

Lunch on March 2nd to Celebrate Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss's lunch today to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday: Cat in the Hat (starwberries and pound cake with a cat in the top), green hard boiled egg, ham, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss' birthday so we celebrated at dinner tonight. Of course, green eggs and ham were on the menu. My son commented, "I thought the ham was supposed to to be green too." Well, I did the best I could!

I love the Cat in the Hat treats. They are strawberries and pound cake layed to look like the hat from The Cat in the Hat. I have little cat toothpicks that I stuck in the top - so it really is a cat in a hat!

Valentine's Day

We made these cute little Valentine suckers as classroom gifts. They are made from 2 candy canes in the shape of a heart with white chocolate and sprinkles in the middle. We found the idea in the February Family Fun Magazine. We put them in a plastic bag and tied a string with a card around the stick.

We began the day with red heart-shaped pancakes....a few with frosting and sprinkles on them! A great way to start the day! Plus Daddy got each girl a rose for Valentine's morning.

I packed a Valentine's Day lunch with pink yogurt and strawberries, dried cranberries and heart marshmallows, and I Heart You peep, a heart-shaped ham and cheese sandwich, red fruit strip, and cookies. There was strawberry milk to drink!

As tradition, we bake a Kindness Cake each year. The top is covered with hearts that say why we love each other. For example, I love Kate because she lets me play in her room and she shares her toys (from Jake) or I love Brooke because she is nice to me (from Kate) and I love Jake because he is nice and he is a boy (from Brooke). Every member of the family writes one for everyone else in the family. So we each make 4. Then Daddy reads them before we eat the cake.

I love this balloon because our puppy is terrified of it. He barks at it and watches it intently at all times. Someone (Jake I think) put him in his crate and put the balloon right outside! Poor dog stared in fright at the balloon until I came to rescue him!