Live.Love.Learn: April 2013

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sunshine!

Today was a beautiful, sunny day! After music class we came home to have some lunch and then headed outside. I brought all of the supplies to work on our craft project on the deck, and Braden seemed excited about it. But, as soon as we were outside he just wanted to play and explore.

Eventually he did come over to paint, but he was ready to play again within 5 minutes!

Sandpaper painting

Abandoned project

Once the paint was dry I cut it out & glued the sun together, so after nap he was able to see the sun!

Feeling the sandpaper!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Rain Stick

Well the weekly themes have been a little off track, but it is looking like things will be better in the coming weeks. This week the focus is on "weather" and I'll have to post the plans tomorrow!

But, we started today off with a homemade rain stick (even though we have a real one downstairs). It was a pretty difficult project, so I don't think we will be trying that one again.

Imitating me. I used the roll to announce it was time to paint!

First I had Braden paint a paper towel roll.

Did not really need anymore paint on the brush...

Busy painting

Deciding which color to use

The hard part came after it was dry. I used one of my sewing needles to poke holes in the paper towel roll and then push 40-50 toothpicks through (not fun).

Braden found other ways to entertain himself, while I worked on that fun project!

Started off by coloring (was not happy about putting the paints away)

Now knows how to open this cupboard

So he decided to stack some of the cupboard items in front of the fridge?!

Mike helped by clipping off all of the toothpick ends. Then I hot glued them, so that they were not sharp edges, and they would stay in place. It wasn't pretty, but it did the trick. Finally, I topped on end off with card stock & tape, added 2-3 tablespoons of rice and then enclosed the other end.

Then I gave it to Braden, so he could have a little fun shaking it before bed time!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Theme: Weather

Well I lost count of the weeks, because we missed a few here and there.

WEATHER

April 29 - May 5

Crafts/Activities:

Rain Stick

Weather Chart

Weather File Folder Game - created myself

Umbrella with Raindrops

Sandpaper Sun

Sensory/Discovery:

Rain Stick (used the rain stick from above)

Puffy Cloud Painting

Weather File Folder Game

Tornado in a bottle

Cloud in a cup

Snacks:

Umbrella Apple

Marshmallow Clouds

Raisin Raindrops

Sun Pancakes

Alphabet:

W - Weather, S - Sun, C - Cloud, R - Rain

Books:

Little Cloud - Eric Carle

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs -

Friday, April 19, 2013

Nature Walk

On Friday we started things off with a little recycled bottle craft. I happened to have a 2 liter bottle of ginger ale in the fridge. So, we used that to make some Cherry Blossoms. I started things by painting the stem & limbs and setting it aside to dry.

After lunch we headed outside to our little trail for a nature walk. We brought Sage along with us and our new binoculars.

Heading outside

Found a walking stick

Pinecone

We couldn't forget our binoculars

Pointing out the trees & exploring the leaves

Unfortunately, our little walk was cut short so we didn't get to see everything on our scavenger hunt list. We will have to go exploring again soon!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Stained Glass Earth

There are quite a few different crafts that involve tissue & contact papers to create a stained glass look. Last week we created the kite and this week it was another Earth project.

Helping mom cut out the circle

Taking a break while mom gets things ready

"Green"

"More Green"

"Blue"

The finished Earth project

Braden again loves to color, so I had him color a few pieces of construction paper. I had some fun creating designs with him! Then I used the pieces of paper & recycled toilet paper rolls to make some binoculars.