Saturday, September 21, 2013

Happy Fall!


Happy Fall everyone!

I know, I know....I have barely posted - life has been so busy!  I know all my fans have missed me (ummmm...two grammas and the nice friend down the street that is!) :)  Just thought I'd post a quick one on our little Invitation to Play Fall table I put together last night after everyone was sleeping (nowhere near as nice as the one I found on some blog, but my kids didn't know better and loved it anyway!)...

 On the table I put some fall leaf stickers for them to add to the tree (which is just a paper bag all rolled up), some fall colored pom poms (which became coconuts on the tree??!) and some blue gems (for lack of something more fall-y).  After doing that I decided our Montessori wanna be shelves needed some fall items on the top shelf.

(L to R) We have some fall colored pom pom and tongs for transferring into the right colored dish, pumpkin and bird seals to stick.  I also added the only fall book I have (can't believe I only have one!), a Draw Write Now book which includes Autumn Harvest (Rex drew some beautiful grapes) and the kids art project from a few weeks ago.



the last two activites are Thanksgiving related (a little early, but again last minute and no more fall items - Dollar Tree is calling my name this week).  A song called Turkey Feathers where I sing and call out a color and the child finds the correct feather and puts it on (so simple, but they love it) and then Counting Clip cards (count the objects and clothespin the right number).

Of course they jumped RIGHT in when they came down the steps! I love when imaginative play starts...


Rex and Tot loved putting on the stickers (and a few pom pom 'coconuts'!).

Tot wanted to do all of the activities.  We started Montessori about 2 months ago now here at home...not doing too much but I can see the difference in Tot. I made the toy shelves Montessori learning shelves and I'm SO happy I did!  It's such less cluttered and each activity has a great purpose. I love that Tot unrolls his mat, does the activity, cleans up (even when he's by himself in the room), rolls his mat up and puts it away!  Love it!  So organized :)

He thought it was so interesting that these were seals and you had to lick them to make them stick!
And the tree by the end of the day!  I loved the imagination used here....adding the bird seals and some pumkpins to the bottom!  I'm definitely going to have to get some more fall activites and crafts this week!



Hope to post more soon! Have a blessed fall!


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

School pictures 2013-2014



Captain - grade 3 - age 7


Rex - Kindergarten - Age 5


Tot - Tot school - Age 2 1/2

St. Philomena, pray for us for a wonderful school year.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Tot School - Letter A

This week Tot started Animal ABC's Letter A - A is for alligator.

Our setup

 First day trays...
 Exploring his A basket...
 He has a 'notebook' with a bunch of printables that he starts the day out with.  He likes picking a new dry erase color each day and erasing. 

 For this one, sometimes I would call out the shape, other times he would call it out then trace it.


 Playdoh mat letters

 The whole time I'm reinforcing 'A says aaaaa'.  He has never learned the sounds before so that's what we're focusing on.

 This is Carissa's ABC Find It which is super cute.  Below is the control sheet and he has to find all the matches in his rice bin.



 This is not tot school (technically), but it was very cute so I had to include it!  For our morning basket we are doing Enchanted Homeschooling Mom's 'Year of Learning with the Berenstain Bears'.  I think it came as a free download when you subscribed to her blog.  It's more of a 'fun' thing I put in the basket since they all love BB :)
 Day 2 setup...
 Using a oversized poke pin to poke the A's


 Day 3 setup
 Counting apple seeds and matching numbers
 Coloring alligators
 I'd ask him to place X color on Little A or Big A
 So very cute!



 He loved putting his first letter on his Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree!  We read the book first, then put on the letter...
 ...and today added in the youtube song of it - he LOVED it!
 Just making some random patterns with something that was mine when I was little :)
And here's all his work displayed for the week - he's very proud of it!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Back to School Treat!

Here was our treat for first day of school.  Needless to say it was a hit!


I got the idea from Jessica at Shower of Roses.   She has complete directions and a pdf file of the 'patron of students' page :)