More Caterpillar Fun

J4 and I have been having more Caterpillar fun. Last week we played with the sequence cards and I thought it would be fun to share another video with you. These are just 30 second little videos that I take with my cell phone. I am excited to have another gadget in my arsenal very soon though...a Sony Cybershot will be joining our camera family for snapshot fun. I'm mostly excited about the video and blogging shots I can do with it. Nothing can ever replace our beloved our Canon Digital Rebel. Nothing. (with the exception of another digital Rebel!) The pictures are unmistakably better.

Anyway, enjoy the little video and other than hearing J4's little boy voice you will be graced with my heavy Maryland/Baltimore accent. Listen to the word cocoon especially. Trust me when I say I do not sound like I'm from around here!



Next up we have the life cycle of a butterfly courtesy of the Evan Moor Giant Science Resource Book. J4 was not too interested until I offered up the glitter. Now I'm not a fan of loose glitter (that stuff will come back on you forever). I'm not even really all that into glitter glue (too gloppy). But I love, love, LOVE Elmer's Shimmer n' Shapes. That stuff is an ingenious art glaze with glitter and other shiny things in it. The only thing to worry about is that it will dry out if you don't use it up. You can bling up any art project with this product. Totally worth it. And the glitter is safely caught up in a viscous solution. Perfect.

You can see J4 is all set with his glaze and his art box.


He was so careful with the bottle and the brush. He absolutely loved glazing over his colored life cycle. He wasn't really up for it until the promise of the fun stuff happened. I've probably set a precedent. It'll all be about the shine from here on out. I will say that R9 decorated some poetry with the glaze.
We pulled out The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game and had a fun time collecting food for the caterpillar. R9 and I7 also joined in after the first game.

We have a butterfly garden from Christmas and I'd love to send in the certificate if I could only find it...we may have to purchase a new kit. At least I only paid $5 on some awesome sale for the one we have.

J4 has some lapbook elements to finish up and then we can show off his Caterpillar lapbook complete with a cut and glued blinged up butterfly life cycle.

Fun with a Certain Hungry Caterpillar

We've been having fun with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The hospital where three of our kids were born gives this book out in the baby pack you take home. We had a copy from E11 and we once got to meet Eric Carle himself (at the anniversary celebration of the First Book program that funded the books at the hospital) and we took a regular hardback book for him to sign. So, we have no less than 5 copies of this book in our home!

I found some fun resources for the book and we've taken full advantage of them. This will be the first of a couple of posts on the topic.

At Confessions of a Homeschooler, she has some activities for the Caterpillar which is where I found the graph. Here J4 is sequencing the story by putting the story cards on the string in the order that I read them.



Today he did some story sequencing with the small cards. That was just before he colored the life cycle of a butterfly. He set it up and then told me the events. J4 likes to sequence. The sequence cards are from DLTK which I found through Homeschool Share.
Finally, I used the alphabet cards found at 1+1+1=1 to have J4 match his letters up. This was the day I had my phone out for taking video. Wanna see? You have to click in just to see him do lightening letters!



We did some fun science and art with the Caterpillar today...I'll share those tomorrow.

Preschool Block Play

J4 was asking to play blocks over the weekend. So, Dan sat down with him on Sunday and I7 joined the fun. J4 chose the wood blocks from our block stash.

The Block Pile

So, they all built buildings and knocked them down. However, Dan declared that his was a historic landmark and could not be torn down. So, that prompted the kids to ask what he meant and he explained it very well. He also added- we don't want to forget the architecture ( he paused to look at his watch) from 6:50pm. He cracks me up.

He cracks the kids up too because of course you have to add sneezing out blocks to block play...I spared you the picture of the block "hanging" from his nose. He's SUCH a boy.

Never underestimate the teaching power of block play. A fun time was had by all and yes...this is on our preschool morning rotation for activities ready for J4 when we begin school.

Name Games

Still trying to get back in the groove after being in Nashville and quite honestly after getting ready for Nashville prior to actually leaving! Preparing a team of 7 to go to convention and making sure they felt welcomed and loved on and to encourage them to do the same for their local teams that were going. And getting three new team members trained and equipped before leaving...whew...I'm ready for a short MOPS break! Perhaps I will share some of what I saw at Convention soon. I learned a lot of relevant stuff and enjoyed it immensely. However, I have much blogging, reviewing and homeschooling to catch up on so it will be a bit.

On to the topic at hand! One of the goals I have for my preschoolers is to have them learn their name. Pretty early on all of my kids could recognize their names and J4 is no exception. So, once that skill is accomplished I like to work on them writing it and identifying individual letters. I mean it's one thing for a 3-4-5 yr old to recognize the pattern they see when they look at their name and another for them to actually sort of spell it out.

Every day I put a name "game" into J4's workboxes. I made this one from paint chips. I cut a file folder in half and wrote his letters on individual chips. The chips in the picture are turned to protect the innocent. I glued one set down on the folder and the other set are for matching up.

I used a library pocket on the back of the folder to store the loose letters.

Other fun ways to practice names for preschoolers:

• Spell their name on a sentence strip and have them trace it with marker
• Spell their name in yellow marker and have them trace in pencil on a sheet of blank paper (I use drawing paper cut into wide strips)
• Spell their name so they can trace it and decorate it with stickers
• Spell their name out in pencil and let them trace the letters using dot painters.
• Give them the letter molds for playdough and let them make their letters in playdough and then match the order.
  
• When they are a bit older just have them spell out their name with playdough letters
• Use letter chips to match the letters in their name
• Spell out name in letter magnets at the frig or magnetic wall
• Trace letters on the white board/chalk board
• Cut out letters that are in squares and match/arrange depending on age
• Begin teaching last names when they get good at their first name

Share your ideas on how preschoolers can practice their name by leaving a comment!

Rivers, Roads, and Rails...A Game

This is a great game made by the Ravensburger Company. It's called Rivers, Roads, and Rails. It's a matching game where you need to lay out a path using the cards and you have to match up all the modes of transportation.

With J4 we just pile the cards face up and he chooses the ones that match. Usually you keep them face down so you can't grab a match. Of course.

It's always fun to share a game that might be new to you. It reminds me a little of Waterworks. Do you remember that one?

Preschool Activities in a Bag

This is just a teaser...we have lots of new activities since participating in another Activities Exhange. This one involves sorting beads. Which reminds me that we just acquired some new buttons for scooping.

We're off for a family camping trip to Lake Ontario- our favorite camping locale. I'll see all you blogging buddies when I return on Sunday- with more details on the Preschool Activities in a Bag and camping photos of course. Dan already complained about packing our nature box complete with field guides, hand lenses, and nature journals. But we'll return with something fascinating to share. I'm just sure of it!

Milk Carton Blocks

How could I forget the milk carton blocks??? In my block play post I completely left them out so when they got pulled out the other day for bowling I knew I had to come back and share this idea with you all. These are basically home made preschool "brick blocks" you know the ones...from Romper Room fame?

How do you make them?

• You'll need two cardboard milk cartons per block.
• Cut the tops of each carton.
• Insert one carton inside the other making sure the bottom seams are perpendicular to each other. This makes for a stronger block!
• Push in from both ends so the top end of one carton is flush with the bottom of the other one.
• You can cover them with contact paper, but then you might as well buy a set because that ups the cost of the blocks considerably. I left mine as is.
  

We actually gave this set to E10 when he turned 2 years old! I asked my MOPS friends to save their milk and orange juice cartons for me and and collected as many as I could. It was helpful that a local dairy store was having a sale on half gallons of milk at the time and people were buying lots of it when normally they would get a gallon container. I was able to have a set of 24 blocks or so.

These have all sorts of uses from building forts to sailing vessels to providing obstacles for courses to making pins for bowling when the 4yo desperately wants to go bowling.

We store them on a lower shelf on the toy shelf in the post below. Honestly that is the only drawback. They take up space.

We love these blocks. I hope you can make a set today!

Block Play

I was listing our block play materials for someone recently and I thought this would make a great blog post. Homeschooling blog fodder comes in many forms!

Blocks are an open ended toy that never grow old. Every time you play it's different. I can't tell you how many times I've seen giant fort formations all over my house! LEGO guys like to hide out in these forts. Elaborate play times ensue...even with our oldest kids.

Take a look at our block collection:

• basic maple set
• architectural set
• wood cubes
• colored blocks (hand painted when you order in the USA)
• wedgits
• pioneer logs
  
• Kapla Blocks

We used these at our science center a few years ago and J4 fell in love. We have our own set now. These narrow blocks are pretty versatile.

Check here for lots of block play stuff like store fronts and all kinds of things.

We also have the traffic signs and they are super for the car mat and block play. Even my 10 yr old will still do blocks because you should see the amazing forts one can make from nice blocks!

A recent acquisition for preschool and math time, these wood cubes can always double as a building toy.

One of our favorites these architectural blocks (see link above) are from Constructive Playthings.

Last year R4 got these for his birthday and they are a great addition to any collection. These were hand painted in the USA when my mother-in-law ordered them. Crazy but true...you could smell the new paint. The links for these are all in the list above.

You can never go wrong with Wedgits. Never. Target sells small sets now, but in the category of blocks/building toys the more the better! Yes Dan. It's true even if you don't think so!

Is There a Doctor in the House?

With all the kids' birthdays we've had recently, it's not hard to imagine that we had to have some well checks to go along with them. We spent nearly 2 hours at the pediatrician's office on Wednesday afternoon and the event inspired a lot of pretend play. I've been doctored quite a lot since then and J4 has been really on those "pinches" (shots). He had more than his fair share the other day seeing as how he got his boosters. On the upside, he's done until he's 10.

The doctor box.

The scrubs- courtesy of Grandma.

The lab coat- also Grandma. She made name tags for the three oldest kids. The title says "Doctor of People". The stethoscope is from Discount School Supply and is pretty authentic. Note: I-7 really has the "blog picture" stance down - whatever it takes to keep the face out of the picture! Such cooperation for the cause.

E10 is being a good big brother and a good patient. We have lots of arm orthopedic supplies because E10 broke his arm a few years ago. Great for the box.

Inside our Fisher Price doctor kit- this is a few years old so I'm sure the current version is different.

I picked up this little gem at a Scholastic Warehouse sale as I was starting to homeschool four years ago. It has some great paperwork to go with learning centers.

These are in our doctors box- how cool are these?

And follow up appt cards.

I bet you're wondering where we keep this stuff! Well it so happens that we have a wire shelf that goes around the perimeter of our playroom up near the ceiling. We have boxes there with labels on them.

The centers hold the dress up and the props for each category. This makes it easy to store dress up and it makes for great pretend play! We also have bags of themed dress up on a set of hooks in our playroom.

What other centers are currently made up?

• restaurant
• hairdresser
• grocery store
• house (this one is more spread out but we have lots of food and kitchen things)

I'd like to get a library center going...in all my spare time! There's also ideas for zoo, post office, hospital, pet store, shoe store, airport, engineering and construction and commercial fishing. Never thought to have a commercial fishing center. There's also paperwork for a Native American fish camp. Wow.

Our Nature Boy

On J4's birthday we took a field trip to a local park. J4 had been asking to throw rocks into the water (ever since the day he took some rocks in the water bottle). So, we went to the lake to skip rocks. Of course. R9 and I-7 finally got the hang of it after I gave them some tips on technique. I loooovvvee to skip stones. I may have broken a personal record. I'm hoping to visit the local parks at least once a week this season.

This little bird kept on chirping close to us. I tracked him down for a photo op. What kind is he? He reminds of a sandpiper the way he runs on the ground, but I don't think so...

I stocked up J4's art box with double sided Crayola markers and these color sticks by Crayola that are a lot like the one that comes at the end of the Prismacolor box and he loves that thing.

A new play dough set- it has sand textured play dough in it which we both believe is nasty. I particularly like making the sea anemone.

A new tool set- pretty cool. He can correctly identify a phillips and flat head screwdriver, alan wrenches, ball drives, and he can use them. He loves it. I found it at Target in their "upscale" toy aisle. You know the one I'm talking about.

Today's party was a nature party. J4 requested a "funny tree" cake just like last year. His cake had a pine tree on it- I made another ice cream cake which turned out so nicely! These are the treat bags- a few small cans of play dough and a little nature journal and a tootsie pop.

J4 loves trees. He correctly identified a cottonwood at the park the other day. This is another of his gifts.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

I offered to read to J3 during a fussy moment this morning...then he wanted to listen to the songs...then we made a coconut tree...remember when I said it was time to do that again?! Here is a glimpse at our morning of fun.

In our listening corner we have lots of books on CD, some bird call CDs, and even books their grandparents have read onto a CD. Very fun. I picked up the Chicka, Chicka recording from a Scholastic Flyer and it has a fun reading by Ray Charles and some songs from the author John Archumbault. After I read the book and J3 had fun naming the letters, we listened to the CD while we made our cocunt tree. Preschool moments from heaven!

For the coconut tree you definitely need some butcher roll paper. I use this for lots of murals and for lots of other things including homemade wrapping paper. I got mine from Discount School Supply. I like the 50lb weight paper because it can handle wet media.

We laid out our supplies. There was a bit of preschool rockin' out to the Chicka Chicka CD.

R9 cut out the stem from long brown construction paper. J3 helped to place it.

R9 worked on the coconuts.

J3 traced the letter A to get us on the way. We put the few letters we did today up on the tree after I took the next picture. Oh and that monkey in the photo was made and it will go up the tree tomorrow at J3's request.

The duo takes a step back and checks out their hard work. Yes...a fine coconut tree.

As the week goes on we'll add more letters, Wednesday he'll open those fun letter sand molds, and we can even watch Chicka, Chicka (another Scholastic purchase). We'll probably try a few things from Picture Book Activities by Trish Kuffner.

Picnic Table Talk- Alphabet

ABC and 123 is hosting a weekly picnic table talk and this week's topic is Alphabet. So, I thought it would be fun to join in on this one. Although I have not been specifically working on the alphabet hardcore with J3, we have done plenty with the alphabet. Below are some resources I like and use and some of the things J3 has done throughout the year with the alphabet. He knows all his letters and their sounds at this point. Pretty cool.

We use Before Five in a Row as our core preschool program.

I like to use this book to do alphabet activities. Thankfully our local library has its own copy!

One of the Before Five in a Row selections- our current book though we haven't done much with it yet.

Another favorite Before book that J3 has not done yet. I have the Fold n Learn for this one which has some fun alphabet activities.

One of J3's birthday presents (his birthday is next Wednesday) is a set of upper and lower case alphabet sand molds from Learning Resources. I found them at Rainbow Resource. Of course!

Of course we have ample amounts of magnetic letters to use on our magnetic board.

Who doesn't love to stamp? These are R9's but she is fantastic at sharing.

And the lower case set...

Frig Phonics- lots of leap frog fun here. I especially like the letter dance J3 does along with it.
Word wammer is fun. You put letters in order to make three letter words and it says the word. And in case you are wondering there are certain three letter words that the Word Wammer claims not to know. Dan checked. I laughed.

This is the third in the Letter Factory series- good ol' magic E. We don't have the 3 letter word video- yet.
This is the way J3 learned his letter sounds. Hands down. Good stuff. I just get to have fun practicing with him and reinforcing those skills.

Leapster games- J3 loves them!
This is a great for letter sounds and recognition. J3 is still working on mastering the game.

Other alphabet fun items:

• puzzles- floor puzzles, trains, pair puzzles with upper and lower case or letter sounds
• letter tiles by Learning Resources
• letter bingo
• letter fishing both a home made game and the Discovery Toys game
• learning wrap up
  
• playdough ABC cutters
• preschool activities in a bag- lots of them revolve around letters (I'm awaiting the results of an exchange for the second book so I'll be getting a whole new set soon)
  
• Boggle, Jr.
• Bananagrams- we use these with a little dump truck to scoop and talk about the letters and find them
• Scrabble, Jr.
• Scrabble- any game with letters tiles can be a good time for a preschooler. Who says you have to follow the rules?
• chicka chicka boom boom- have you made that coconut tree? We have! I think it's time to do it again soon...
• Leapfrog word caterpillar
• Wilson cookie cutter alphabet
  

That's a pretty good list! The possibilities are endless for alphabet play. Really. So dig in for some preschool fun!