5 Senses

After I created the 5 senses book Braden and I headed to Deering Oaks Park to play and have lunch.  I had never been with Braden (but had seen it a few times from the highway and on the way to the museum).  He had fun running around trying out all of the different slides and then we sat down for lunch and went through the book talking about the 5 senses.  

SEE

SMELL

HEAR

TASTE

TOUCH

 We didn't get any photos of touch, but that is when we headed back out to the playground to play for a few more minutes before heading home for nap.  

Here is a video of our discussion about the 5 senses during lunch.  He was a little confused at first talking about smell, because I had asked him "What do you see?" right before hand.  But he got it eventually!

Silly Faces

One thing Braden loves to do is "look pictures" on the computer.  It started off when he was younger looking at objects as he was learning new words.  Now he just enjoys looking through pictures of family, friends and himself.  

So I decided to try and get some photos of him and his expressions of emotion (which was not a very easy task).  He likes to go through them and we name the emotions.  I think eventually I will try and add the words to each picture and create a little slideshow for when he is learning to read words.  

SURPRISED

SURPRISED

HAPPY

MAD

WORRIED/SCARED

SILLY

SAD

Afterwards we used the boy & girl play dough mats from the farm series and made some happy and sad faces using play dough. 

Then we made some snowmen

Braden being silly with a blue mustache!

Making Faces

I thought now would be a good time to introduce feelings to Braden.  That way when he is crying or he is mad he can eventually associate the names with whatever reaction he may have.  

First I had him help me make some play dough - I looked for a recipe that did not require any cooking to make things easier!  

"Squishy"

Mad, Surprised, Scared/Worried, Sad, Happy

Here is a cute video of Braden learning each different emotion.  I love his surprised face!

Braden really loved playing with the balloons - throwing them, naming the faces/emotions, and squishing them.  He even took them to the playground one afternoon and "happy" ended up squished onto the steps.  So after about 3 weeks, I decided it was time to toss them before the play dough ended up all over the floor or carpet in the house.  

During the week we also had plenty of books to look at.  I really thought using the book Funny Face would have been cute, but they did not have it available at the library.  So we read If Your Happy and You Know It and other great books about emotions.

Texture Cards

For this week I worked on making some texture cards using materials I had around the house.  I glued the objects on to card stock and them labeled them.  The focus was mostly on hard, soft, smooth, bumpy with a few squishy & sticky cards thrown in.  

I left the cards out for the week and Braden would get them out every once in a while.  He really seemed to like the bumpy ones and could easily pick them out.  

Theme: Feelings, Emotions & The Five Senses

August 19 - 25

Crafts/Activities:

Texture boxes or cards
Emotion balloons
5 senses book
Feelings/emotions slideshow
Sound boxes

Sensory/Discovery:
Touch - different types of textures
Funny faces book
Playdough silly faces mat
Sensory cards
Smelling bottles

Snacks:
Any types of foods to talk about taste & texture

Alphabet: 
S - senses   F - feelings    E - emotions

Books:

Funny Faces
When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry
Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad, Day

Sorting the Bugs

Another great activity that I found thanks to the Mommy School blog has to do with sorting bugs.  In her blog she provided the outline of glass jars to be sorted either by color, number or type of bug.  Each jar had a different category on it.  The bugs could be ordered online, but I decided to make my own paper cut outs.

Braden did a great job with sorting the bugs into the correct colored jars.  He wanted me to "play" too, so we took turns placing the cards.  But he was pretty much done after colors and was being silly while trying to sort them by type of bug.

Time to clean up!

Bug Shadows & Bug Movements

The week I was in Bangor I created the Sea Creatures shadow match, and there was a Bug version as well.  I had put both of them together knowing that I wanted to do a Bug week sometime soon.  So, this week I brought it out along with a few Bug/Insect themed books for Braden to take a look at.  

Then we worked on a ladybug craft, which was not very successful, because we were low on the red finger paint.  

When looking for ideas on Pinterest I found a really great resource for our weekly themes.  It is a blog called Oopsey Daisy and she has a section called "Mommy School" where she puts together thematic units with songs, activities, books, crafts, math & science learning and amazing free printables.  I loved reading through her I is for Insect unit.  That is where I found her bug activity/movement cards.  I had so much fun watching Braden move around the room depending on the type of card I picked.  I hope you enjoy it too:

  

Dragonfly Morning

A quick morning craft of coloring to create a popsicle stick dragonfly!

Very focused!

Spiders and Ladybugs

Well I am really trying to get back into weekly themes and activities.  I found some really great resources on Pinterest and was able to plan out the next 2-3 weeks, so we will see how it goes.  I found some really great alphabet activities, so I am excited to try those out in another week.  But for now it is all about bugs/insects.

I found a ladybug number activity that I thought would be great to reinforce numbers and Braden could start to see what the numbers look like written out.

He was having fun with it for a little while and then he got really silly!

Then we did a little bit of painting - spiders, before it was time for a haircut!