Bird Activities for Little Learners

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 21 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

"Momma, can we learn about parrots today?"

Absolutely!  I pulled out my bird bag from our Mother Goose Time: Family & Pets box.

Bam.  Math games, craft lesson, even a book with sight words to begin our reading-all ready to go. 

Add in the plethora of parrot/bird books on my shelf and we are set. 

Since we had just listened to lots of songs while studying our memory work for Classical Conversations, I decided we needed some game time.  So I started our bird day with our math game, Feed the Birds.  I had a ton of these little bottles from my breast feeding days with Everett and they made the perfect containers for this game.

MGT sent these cute birds with numbers, tweezers and yarn (I used  pipe cleaners I had already cut for Everett).  All I had to do was put the little birds on jars and add some dry beans for the game.  Although MGT suggested using number cards in our pocket cube, I have really loved using these big foam dice (also from MGT).  They really help with one-to-one correspondence.  Avaleigh tossed the die seeing how many pieces of bird food she needed to retrieve with her tweezers and which bird was to get that amount.  

Everett didn't use tweezers (although he wanted to) but he worked on his pincer grip and pouring.

Both kiddos had a blast and kept at it until all the food was given to the birds.

After a fun activity like that, it's great to have some quiet time.

Our Literacy lesson was perfect!

Our new I Can Read book came with pointers and sight word cards.

The pointers I placed on a key ring (8 for a dollar at Dollar Tree), and

I grabbed a $3 pocket chart while at Target this summer! Perfect for the sight words!  

I first went over the sight words with my girl and we practiced making the sentence "it is a..." and then used the picture card.  After practicing our sight words, I had her open up the 

I Can Read book: What Is It? and she began reading all on her own!  I had to help her a little on the last page, but the words were unfamiliar.  

We are really working on reading this year, but taking it very slow.  

We read the book again, this time using our pointer to point to the word "is".  

I love how the very last page gives the kids something to do that is kind of like a brain break.

She was getting tired, so it was the perfect time for my girl to draw her pet, 

our golden retriever Bailey.

"Why did you use orange?"

"Because that is the color of Bailey's fur, momma," Avaleigh said as she pointed.

"There wasn't enough room to write my name, so I wrote it this way."  Yall, she wrote her name backwards.  I'm really impressed.

After outdoor time, lunch, and putting Everett down for a nap, it was time to do our 

Invitation to Create: Birds.

MGT sent us everything but the markers, glue, and outdoor materials.

We observed the picture of the birds and talked about them.  Avaleigh decided she wanted her picture to look like the one provided (I am not surprised), so we went outdoors to gather sticks, leaves, and acorns.

"Momma, make a bird with me.  You can make one and I can make one."

Done.  First she created "stairs" on her bird, then all of a sudden, my girl said, 

"These are tears (blue lines) because my bird doesn't have a momma."

"My bird can be his momma," I said.  "Maybe they can be tears of joy."

Later when Avaleigh told her daddy about the picture, she mentioned that her bird had tears of joy because he had a momma. 

Her finished piece.

Love it.

Happy learning friends!

Preschool Picasso

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 19 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

Pablo Picasso has always been one of my favorite artists to study.

His work is unlike any others before him.  Exposing my preschooler to his work and creating artwork in his style on her level was so much fun.  

Not going to lie though.... she did it completely different than what I thought she should do. 

I guess she truly emulated Picasso, because I am sure he created his artwork completely different than what most thought he should do.  

Our Art Studio box from Mother Goose Time has been so much fun!

For this particular Invitation to Create, they supplied us with a variety of shapes in multiple colors along with a beautiful print of a woman's portrait by Picasso.

I asked my girl what she saw, and she pointed and named all the parts including the lady's shirt.

We talked about what shape each facial feature reminded her of, and she compared them 

(pictured below.)

I told her she would create a face from the shapes I provided (along with glue and markers).

I expected her to glue the shapes and draw in them (because that is what I would have done);

instead she used the shapes as stencils.

She carefully placed them, compared how she wanted them turned, traced around them, and then filled in her shape if needed.  She chose not to use a drop of glue.

Oval eyes.  Semicircle ears and nose.  A triangle for a mouth.  Rainbows shape for hair.

Her picasso was completely different than what I would have done when given this Invitation to Create.  But that's what makes these provocations so amazing!

She does as she sees fit!  She is the artist!  Not me.  And she truly created something amazing.

Beehive Stamping

Spring has sprung down here in Texas!

The azaleas are putting out their yearly show and our yard is exploding with white and pink azaleas.

With the blooming of all the flowers, comes the pollen and the bees (and allergies)!

It's absolutely perfect timing to start our Bees and Butterflies Unit from Mother Goose Time, 

our preschool homeschool curriculum.

I have to admit... I despise insects- especially flying ones.  However, as I have started reading more bee books to my preschooler and actually looking at the bees around me, I am slowly trying to appreciate them more.  I especially appreciate when they don't buzz to close to me! ;)

Here are a couple of pics of the bees in our yard this week as they flew from azalea to azalea:

Bumble bees, honey bees, and carpenter bees all make their way to our yard in the spring and summer.  I can handle the bumble and honey okay, but those carpenter bees are pretty territorial of our garbage can and shed... no bueno my friends... no bueno.  I have been known to look like a maniac a time or two ducking and running for the safety of our garage.

As the bees buzzed outside, we started our Bee Basics week with MGT, starting with their home.

Although bees can have different types of homes (hives, nests, or underground), we focused on a hive as we did our first Invitation to Create for for this unit.

MGT sent us the photo, yellow paper, and bubble wrap bag.  The Inspiration photo is truly inspirational!  Avaleigh stared at it for a loooong time and pointed to the larva in the hive showing me the babies and then asking me where the queen bee was.  She's into bees already!

We only had to add paint.  Although the pic above shows yellow paint, I did add some brown into the yellow to get the honey looking color you see below.

Avaleigh did not waste any time painting.  She used her bubble wrap bag like a mitten- stamping bubble imprints all over her paper creating the cells of a hive.  When she finished that, I asked her what she wanted to use to create her bees.  She asked for black paint.

I asked what she wanted to use to stamp her bees thinking she would ask for a paintbrush.

She surprised me and said she would use her fingers.

Which, by the way, were the perfect bee creating stamp.

The thing that impressed me the most as I watched her create her hive was the way in which she manipulated her fingers to stamp.  She was really trying out different parts of her finger to see what the effect was- something I had not really seen her think of before.

Her finished hive. 

I love how her bees turned out! Some of her fingerprints actually look like the head and abdomen of a bee! I also love the variety of bee shapes she made, some circular, some thick and solid black, others with a thick outer black ring with the yellow of the paper in the center.

Yeah....I'm going to frame this one.

Desert Night Activities for Preschoolers

We have had so much fun with our Mother Goose Time: Desert Discovery theme!

Last week we did activities that were all about the rodeo and this upcoming week we will actually attend a rodeo in our small town so stay tuned.  

Did you know that the desert night is filled with noise?

From coyotes to campfires and caves, we had an absolute blast exploring the desert night in the comfort of our home.  Here are some fun activities we did (all thanks to MGT) that you can try with your littles!

STEAM STATION: Desert Darkness

Using a highchair makes for an AWESOME cave!

Kids can easily crawl through the legs creating a perfect cave entrance.  I taped some of our animal pictures from a bingo game (later in this post) that MGT sent.  Avaleigh used a flashlight to expose the desert animals and tell me what she saw.  She was so excited.

A bright flash from the camera reveals all the little desert creatures in the cave.

MATH: Bingo (matching)

After Avaleigh removed all the desert animal cards from her cave, we used them to play Desert Bingo.  I placed all the cards into a brown bag.  Why?  Because we are leaning all things about the desert NIGHT and we have to incorporate darkness as much as we can... plus it's fun! We used our linking cubes (maipulative of the month that came in our monthly box) as markers for our bingo cards.  After playing a few blackout rounds, we took MGT's advice on their teacher guide and added a CHALLENGE!

When we pulled out the card, we had to give clues as to what was on the card.

Avaleigh pulled a card and said, "It has a hump and can drink a whole bathtub!"

Can you guess?

Avaleigh glancing at her hidden picture just pulled from the brown bag revealing clues about the picture.

A camel!

I loved her clue! (a whole bathtub....ha!)

We had so much fun playing this game, that we saved it for later when Daddy came home and we could all play together.

LITERACY: Letters in the Dark

Back to the cave of darkness.

Place the phonics picture cards in the cave.  Place the letter cards outside the cave.  Allow learners to find the picture, say the word, and place it with the correct letter card outside the cave.

My favorite part?  Hearing her say the words slowly and repeating the beginning sound so as to place it with the correct letter.  Her favorite part? Going into the cave!

STORYTIME:  Way Out in the Desert

When we finished our literacy cave fun, we extended our reading time with our story of the day...

Way Out in the Desert.

You have to read this book to the tune of Over in the Meadow!  It is such a lovely counting story of all the animals that you come across in the desert from the break of day until the wee hours of the night.  We have read it over and over.  It was such a great catalyst to our Invitation to Create which is up next. 

INVITATION to CREATE: Desert Night Painting

Using crayons, star stickers, and watery black paint Avaleigh created her own Desert Night Painting.

It started with us observing our Inspiration photo and discussing what colors we could see, plants and animals that live in the desert, and how she would use the star stickers.

She dew a red prickly cactus, a brown coyote, and an outlined full moon.  She then placed the star stickers all over the place and washed the black watery paint over the picture.
The end result...

The crayon and stickers resist the paint allowing the dark painting to still have color.

I love resist artwork.... it's just the art teacher in me. 

(read to know a little about my past teaching experience)

We had a blast with all our Desert Night Activities.

My husband came home and was impressed with my cave building (thanks MGT!) and then crawled in with the kids while I made dinner. 

My sweet boy loved it too!  Not to mention our golden retriever Bailey.

At one point, my husband, both kids, and the dog were all in this cave! The cave stayed up throughout the whole week since we had even more fun learning about nocturnal animals such as Desert Cottontails, Coyotes, and Rattlesnakes and no desert night would be complete without studying Campfires!

Which activity are you excited to try with your little learners?

 

Roll a Painting

How can you incorporate kicking and painting?

By painting with a ball of course!

Mother Goose Time comes up with some memorable and amazing ways kids can create art- especially in their Invitations to Create which I love!

They sent us a rubber ball (blue) and I added a yellow one for my 1 year old son because all things go in his mouth. MGT also included this amazing inspiration photo and the white cardstock.  

All I needed to supply was the paint and the box. 

Avaleigh and Everett collaborated on their first masterpiece!

I could not be more pleased!

Here are the deets:

Observe the Inspiration photo and ask your kiddo what they notice.

"That's a lot of colors momma! Can I roll my ball in paint like they did?"

Yes.  Yes you can.

Get a container (box lid/ tray/ pan) and tape down a white piece of cardstock.

Roll the tape and fasten down on the backside.  This will allow the entire surface to be painted and you do not have to worry about the picture falling out.

Pick 3 colors of paint. This lesson can turn into a great one on color mixing, so be careful about what colors you choose.  We went with the primary colors which make all colors. 

Dip the ball in paint and start moving your container.

Ewwww and Ahhhhh at the beauty as it unfolds....

Don't panic when the ball bounces out of the tray because your preschooler is so excited and paint trails in a line across your tile floor.  You used tempra.  That stuff washes out with water.

Oh wait... you used acrylic.... yikes!  It'll come off your tile but not your clothes.

Because this was a collaboration, my girl would roll her small rubber ball and then take it out, dip Everett's large yellow plastic ball in paint, and then she placed in on the paper. Then I held his hands as we shook the box. That's why there aren't too many process pictures.  It's hard to take pics with a one year old who can't wait his turn in your lap....lol! 

I love how the large ball left different track lines than the smaller ball- adds variety.

My girl was so excited about this artwork that she brought it as her Show and Tell item to our Classical Conversations co-op the next day!

She shared how she made this masterpiece with her brother and I'm wondering if her classmates are painting their own kick inspired artwork at home.... 

All thanks to Mother Goose Time. 

Kids in the Kitchen Activities

I love having my little sous chef in the kitchen!

Mother Goose Time had some great "In the Kitchen" Activities this week 

from our Health and Fitness Unit.

Here are some of our faves.

(LOTS and lots of pictures... but that's not really anything new to you regular readers ;)   )

Cleaning and Safety:

"Wash your hands and say your prayers because Jesus and germs are everywhere!"

Avaleigh constructed all sorts of germs using our shape manipulatives from MGT.  Not only did she review the names of her shapes, she created some germs of her own.

Everett loved sitting nearby and drew his FIRST picture!!  It's getting framed, yall.

Measure and Pour:

Shape recipes was a super hit!

First we pretended the shapes were certain foods.  The orange pieces were carrots, the hexagons were her mini pancakes (she eats those daily), the green triangles were green beans, and so on.

We then reenacted the stories on the cards.  She did really great with this activity, although she was quite the perfectionist when stacking her shapes on top of her hexagon.... it almost led to a meltdown, but she got it together and kept working at it.  That smile says it all...

Chop and Stir: 

Avaleigh stirred primary colors together to create secondary colors.

She has her color mixing memorized, but it's always magical when you see the colors transform.  MGT suggested we stir colors together in our Invitation to Create.  Just add shaving cream, a touch of paint, some glitter and a spoon and you too can make soup fitting for every Grandparent.  

Just listen to Avaleigh explain hers in the video below... so cute! 

MGT sent us these cute cutting boards and numbered bowls along with a wooden knife.

After rolling out the play dough, Avaleigh lined up her dough on the cutting board, cut the log with her knife, counted the pieces, and then placed them into the corresponding bowl.

Hers what happened thought (to the tune of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie):

If you give a preschooler a cutting board with a picture of a banana, she's going to ask for a real banana. When you give her the banana, she's going to want a plate to put her slices on.  When she sits down with her plate of bananas, your lesson will be over because now... it's snack time. 

Bake and Cook:

After discussing what we bake in our oven (lasagna- her fave, brownies, cookies, potatoes), we set out making an oven from a diaper box.  This was our STEAM acvitity suggested by MGT and I am so glad we did it! She helped glue the foil on, and I mad a handle from 2 unifix cubes and an extra popsicle stick.  Presto Chango!

We then made pizza for our play oven and then danced the Pizza Dough Boogie, Banana Boogie and all the other Dance and Beat songs on YouTube, cuz yall...it's rained FORRRR EVVVVER!!! 

Her moves are a little stiff and totally remind me of Elaine on Seinfeld! Ha!

 

We then got into the kitchen and made lasagna!  She put all her learning into action and helped me make 5 8x8  pans of lasagna (Pioneer Woman's recipe- it really is the BEST)

Last but certainly not least,

Set and Serve:

Our highlight was learning how to set the table and then play Restaurant, aka Serving Friends lesson. I taught her the correct way to set the table and she made name cards for the 4 of us.

Writing the name card for our places was such great practice on writing all sorts of letters.   

MGT sent a food sheet (we cut out the food) and menu for our Serving Friends lesson.  After cutting our food from the food sheet, we placed it in the play kitchen of the playroom which is adjacent to our dining room. We then took turns playing customer (one of us sitting at the dining table) and waitress (one of us going back and forth from the play kitchen to the dining room).   

She calls this game Restaurant and wants to play it everyday.  I love how she used a tray to carry the food- totally her idea!

So many pictures... so many videos....so much fun... and so many memories.

Have fun with your littles in the Kitchen this week!

Happy Cooking!