Seusstacular

I know! I know! I'm SO late! lol :) That has been my theme lately, unfortunately! But here we go :)

I love Dr. Seuss! Though some of his books tend to run too long for me, I adore his whimsical imagination nonetheless! I love that my boys love his books too! We have a lot already, but checked out some others because I wanted to read as many as we possibly could & do as many fun activities as we possibly could! Regretfully, we didn't get to read & do all I had hoped, but we did have a Seusstacular week anyway! 

Now don't start hating, but I can't remember where I got all of our printables from! I did buy a cute pack from Mama's Little Monkeys for $1 & I went to Teacher Pay Teachers & searched for FREE printables. I really love that site! There are so many creative teachers out there!!

As you can see Rylan had a blast with all of his Seuss stuff & I forgot to get pics of Brady working on some of his. I didn't find a whole lot for 1st grade that I was willing to buy, but I did print some free stuff from Seussville.com that included language & reading work as well as some math, all with Dr. Suess themes!

One day for lunch I made the boys sandwiches from this fish shaped bread (they really did't like it though;P) & of course Goldfish crackers. I read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish to them while they ate then I let them watch the Cat in the Hat cartoon that comes on PBS.

We used their hands to make Things 1 & 2 which I thought turned out super cute!! I loved it because I always call Brady & Rylan Thing 1 & Thing 2.

On Friday, Dr. Seuss's actual birthday, we went to the Resource Center for a party celebrating the man himself! They made Green Eggs & Ham, listened to stories, played games & did a few crafts. The ladies who work at the Resource Center each dressed up as a different Dr. Seuss character. We love them! They always come up with the cutest stuff for the kids!

VALENTINES

Who doesn't LOVE Valentine fun?! We don't just have Valentine's Day, we have Valentine's Week! I used printables from Confession of a Homeschooler's Letter of the Week & a few from 2 Teaching Mommies Valentine Pack & 1+1+1=1. Below Brady is using Scrabble tiles to spell Valentine words while Rylan sorts big V's & little V's. Then Rylan used the Scrabble tiles to match the letters

 

Rylan practiced his handwriting by tracing lines, played with his magnets, & did matching games.

 They used their five senses to observe Sweet Heart candy. Brady used his box to graph & Rylan used his to practice counting.

 

After they ate  up their Sweet Hearts they colored a heart book. Rylan's words were colored so he would know which color to use & Brady's were in black so he would have to read his words in order to know which color to use.

Of course being the awesome momma I am I made heart-shaped food on Valentine's Day! I mean seriously, what says, "I love you" like a heart ham & cheese sandwich & cinnamon rolls? :)

 All three boys made these cute hand hearts at the Resource Center's Art Day. They also made beaded necklaces, used cookie cutters to make hearts, & decorated heart shaped cookies.

The night before our homeschool Valentine party the boys decorated their bags to collect all the Valentines they'd get from their friends. They had a ton of fun, but I was so busy I didn't take one single picture! (GASP!) Thankfully, the other mommas promised to send me copies of theirs.

We used the devotional from John 14:15 that 2 Teaching Mommies put together for our memory verse this week. All the kids at the party brought canned goods to donate to a local food pantry. A good time was had by all & my boys were sound asleep before we even got home!

Hope you had a great Valentine's day with your family as well!

The 1st Weeks of 1st Grade & Preschool

Well here we go! A new school year has begun. As much fun as I had planned for the summer we all ended up restless most days. So I decided we would start school back the week after July 4th & it has proved to be a wise decision! I knew I had a trip & other things planned in August which would set us back & interrupt our usual "1st Days of School" fun & with new co-ops coming up I didn't want to get behind & feel overwhelmed like I often do when things teeter too far off schedule.


The 1st few weeks have been a genuine review of what Brady learned last year with of course some fun stuff thrown in. Our theme was of course "All About Me."

Brady had to draw a self-portrait by observing what he he looked like in a mirror.



His final product :)


Brady sorted pictures that related to the 5 senses into their proper category.We reviewed the 5 senses by experimenting with different tasting packs of soy sauce, honey, relish, lemon juice, mustard, & ketchup. This was Brady's face after tasting the lemon juice.



The boys enjoyed the fruity smelly markers & ended up with a rainbow on the tips of their noses. We also had a box filled with different items & the boys had to describe how each item felt before they pulled it out to see what it was.





I found a cute 5 Senses Lotto Game at the Parent Teacher Community Resource Center in our town. I've written a whole blog dedicated to the PTCRC you can read here.


Along with studying the 5 senses we also learned about various parts of our body. After learning about our heart & lungs we took our pulse & observed how our breathing changed after doing jumping jacks, resting, & running. We learned the fun process of how our food enters our body, what the stomach does to it, & how it leaves our bodies. Of course Brady thought that was the GREATEST thing! Poo humor does seem to get good laughs from any 6 year old or male for that matter :) We also learned about how our bones protect our insides & along with our muscles help us move. We read & acted out Eric Carle's book From Head to Toe. I HIGHLY recommend it! Super cute! We did our 1st science experiment of the year. We placed chicken bones in a jar of vinegar to observe what would happen to them over a period of time.



The vinegar began to dissolve the calcium in the bones & they got smaller. Brady was relieved to know that all the milk & yogurt he consumes will keep his bones strong! He loved learning about the name of some of his bones too. I'm blaming that on the fact his daddy is a physical therapist :)





Of course we practiced our printing, counting, shapes, colors & ABCs. Rylan isn't as easy to teach as Brady was at 3 :) He loves doing school but only wants to do it his way. Which isn't surprising knowing his personality. Nonetheless, I don't force him & we always have a great time. He is absolutely in love with puzzles. This one below I bought at Target for a $1 & he wants to do it over & over & over.





We began our 1st days of school reading the classic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Coming in September Rylan will begin the Letter of the Week curriculum by Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Below the boys are playing with a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree & velcro letters we checked out from the Resource Center.






We worked on patterns, letters, & colors by making an ABC clothesline.



The boys have also enjoyed playing with these magnetic learning boards by Lakeshore that we check out from the Resource Center. Like I've said before, the Resource Center is like a homeschool momma's heaven!!





I assume many of you are back into schooling too whether it be homeschool, preschool, grade school etc. It is however that time of year again :)