Lapbooks

The boys finished their next lapbooks and are very proud of these ones....esp. Rex.   Captain did his on Bald Ealges and Rex did the Human Body.  We got these free from www.homeschoolshare.com .  They have great ones!  We just do one or two of the little mini-books daily until they're all done.  Not time consuming at all and they're a great way to learn about individual topics with a great end result they're proud of! Love them.

As usual I don't have as many pics of Captain doing his lapbook.  His aren't as 'fun' as Rex's - which he's quick to point out!  His have a lot more writing, of course :) Here's a few

I learned to do a few tricks to combine photos! Finally!

This was the neatest part of his lapbook - he's showing the two different colored yarns included in one of the pockets.  One is the length of his 'wingspan' and the other is the eagle's wingspan (6-9 ft , we chose 9 ft of course).  

Rex did tons of activities for his book, and learned a TON!!!!!!!!  I mean, a ton.  I have to mention his favorite body part now....the epiglotis.  Little did I know many years ago that I would talk about the epiglotis a few times a day --- wait, I didn't even know what an epiglotis was a few years ago!

 counting body parts...with his helper LarryBoy

 making our bodies and labeling parts....everyone loved this one!

 we all got involved..

SOOO proud of his body...he drew in the epiglotis of course!

He had to trace his teddy bear and taped it to his hand (complete w/ teddy bear epiglotis and other organs). I'm going to add a pocket on the back to store his body in.

Another favorite was Excerise ABC's.  We did these many times over the last few weeks.

 

jumping 'O'ver a pillow...acting like 'I'nchworms

Assembling his lapbook..

 finished product! 

He has admired it many times!  I definitely recommend this for any preschooler!

God bless - Happy Thanksgiving :)

Continent study - Antarctica

Another continent down.

In October we studied Antarctica.  For our sensory bin, I purchsed two different toobs - the penguin one and the Arctic one.  It was a hit.  I added cotton balls for snow and blue glass thingys for water.

Doing our 3 part cards on the animals and matching them to our animals.

Then mama wanted to do a new 'sensory bin' of sorts....washing/playing with our animals in 'snow' (shaving cream)!  As messy as this looks, there was no mess to clean up!!! Amazing!
My thought was we'd just play with them in the 'snow' and smear our hands around...

then it traveled a little up our arms...

then full body armor!!! Rex was out by this point and in the shower because a little got in a cut on his arm, but tot was right there doing everything exactly as big brother was doing it!

Then we got to wash all the animals off in the shower (and little men off in the shower!)  This really had nothing to do with Antarctica, but it was sure fun!

Rex did a little intro into adding (with penguins):

little tot is always right where his big brother is!

We did a great experiment using Crisco.  We put about 1 cup into a baggie, then our hand into another baggie (to keep it clean) into the Crisco.  In a bowl of ice water, we immersed our hands - one bare and the other with the big layer of fat to see how the animals can handle the Arctic temps.  It was pretty amazing. We all tried it and you could barely feel the cold under the 'blubber'!

For our daily calendar we used Carissa's Calendar Connections Let's Explore the Arctic cards and learned a little fun fact everyday.

I also ordered two books from Cathswap about Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition.....it was a great story.

Anyway, that's our month!  We ended by watching March of the Penguins of course!

Now onto South America...

A big day here!

It was a very exciting day here!  My little Rex started reading!  We've worked on it a few times, but today he picked it up!  I'm so excited....it makes me want to cry :)  We just did short a words.  We worked on this little file folder game that a friend passed down to me

It opens up a whole new world....I pulled out the Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten tonight and he read me the first story "Fat Cat, Fat Rat".  He was very proud of himself!!!!! As a homeschooling mama....words can't express how this makes me feel...So excited! And so happy for him! Yeah!!!

All Saint's 2012

We were blessed to have another wonderful All Saint's party to honor our beloved Saints this year.  Here's our cast:

(ps...I'm finally giving the boys 'code names' - many bloggers do this so you don't use real names online..tot doesn't have one yet...will have to think of one soon..)

 Captain was St. Patrick (his beautiful staff used to be my clothes liner holder - I was promised a new one next year!)

Rex was St. Issac Jogues

Tot was a sweet little St. Anthony (the sweater stayed on about 10 minutes!, but he LOVED his 'Je-si' cross)

 Amazed that his monkey was his baby Jesus.

 Showing off 'Je-si''s cross

I'm pretty sure she was petitioning St. Anthony for something here.

Too cute to pass up putting in!

 All the kids enjoyed the games...

Captain excited at one of the goodies he pulled out of the fishing game!

 St. Anthony's Lost and Found game

To tell a little secret....Rex says that if God calls him to married life, he's going to marry her (so I had to get a picture just in case :) if only he could not blink at every picture!) 

 Eveyone's favorite - Manna from Heaven

 No hands allowed!

 Except for little tots, of course!

 Powdery smiles!

 Decorating cookies at St. Martha's Bakery

 Another favorite...Knock out Sin!

and finally....our wonderful Litany of Saints!

All ye Saints in Heaven...pray for us!

 And all this week since, St. Anthony's Lost and Found has become a wonderful sensory bin until it goes back up in the attic!

 Tot picking out all the stars!