Penguins and Picnics

We have been talking about things that start with the letter P this week. Tuesday we read a book about a penguin and her chicks. I had planned to let the boys make fingerprint penguins. After I read the book I was inspired to use my prints for the mommy penguin and the boys' for the chicks.
I did my prints first. Then, I held Jax and painted his fingers and helped him place them on the paper. Next, I held Sawyer and did the same thing with him. When we were finished, I painted the feet and beaks with orange paint. I thought it turned out pretty cute. While the boys were waiting for their turn, they played with the potato head family Sawyer got for Christmas.

Wednesday we read another book about penguins. Then I let Sawyer match these color bows to the penguins with the corresponding color words. First we talked about the colors and I had him match them. Then I let him glue them on.
I found the pattern here.
I could have laminated the cards and bows to use over again, but I decided to glue them to paper instead. Our printer was low on ink, so the penguins are bluish gray instead of black.
Today we read books about going on a picnic. Then we sang this little song.
and played a game with our plastic food and picnic basket.
I let the boys play with plastic food while I got our real picnic ready. I served a snack of grapes, goldfish, and lemonade out of the picnic basket. They had a blast. Who knew eating on the floor could be so much fun?

Then, I let the boys decorate this picnic basket with stickers and glue pictures of food on it. I am not an artist at all, but the boys didn't seem to mind. They worked so well together and had a fun time.

Scripture Memory and Poof Painting

I got Sawyer "The Memory Bible" for Christmas this year. I decided to incorporate scripture memory into our daily lessons. Sawyer calls it his Bible study book. I really like this book because it has a verse, story, and song to go along with every letter. This works perfectly for us, since I teach the boys a letter each week. The book came with 2 cds with Kirk Cameron narrating the story. Then there is a song about each verse to help us remember the verse. I will be learning along with Sawyer. Our verse this week is "For I know the Plans I have for you declares the Lord." Jeremiah 29:11.

I introduced the letter P this week. We played with puppets and puzzles during circle time. Then I let the boys paint with bath poof balls. They painted with pink and purple paint. I can not seem to upload the picture right now. They just dipped the poof into the paint and then ran it over their paper. They also sponge painted.

Jax really wants to be involved in everything we do. This makes me happy, but it is also hard sometimes. I want him to learn too, but I constantly have to redirect him to stop eating crayons, paint, etc. He wants to do everything his big brother does. He is keeping me on my toes!

Letter O

We were home a lot last week, so I decided to do a few lessons with Sawyer. I didn't have much computer access, since Justin was working on it most days, so I just thought of a few things to do with the letter O. I had to be spontaneous to give us some things to do. First I cut out a letter O and let Sawyer color it and cover it with cheerios. This was their snack time, too.
I let Jax glue Os onto an oval. He didn't realize you can't eat the cherios once they had glue on them. That is glue under his nose.
Another day we read a book and watched a video about Oswald the Octopus. I helped Sawyer make this Octopus. He painted it orange and glued on the 8 tentacles. He likes counting them and saying the word tentacle.
One of the tentacles tore, so our octopus actually has 7 and a half legs.
We also talked a lot about opposites this week. Sawyer really enjoys reading books about opposites, so I jumped on the opportunity to teach him more about them. We played a game with his musical instruments. We played the instruments fast then slow, loud then soft, high then low, etc. Lulu gave them the Melissa and Doug band in a box for Christmas. It is great for music time. My guys love music, so any lesson I can incorporate with music is perfect for them.

Numbers and Noise

Today we talked about numbers. During circle time I filled a net with magnetic numbers. I let the boys choose a number and tell me the name. Then I let Sawyer help me make these number cards. Yesterday I cut out pictures and glued them to index cards. Sawyer counted the objects and put the corresponding number sticker on the cards.
He did pretty well with this activity. I had to help him count the pictures with objects of more than five.

I also helped the boys make noisemakers. Sawyer filled sour cream cartons with dried beans and noodles. Then they covered them with stickers and shook away. I could have covered them with paper and tried to make them cuter.


Other activities we may do for N week are play with the nativity set, read nursery rhymes, and talk about names. Justin will be home the next two week, so we will take a little break and enjoy our time with Daddy.

Noel

We are talking about the letter N this week, so I had Sawyer paint the letters Noel with green and red paint. I told him that the work Noel means Christmas.

He said, "Mommy, see the l, it says yesel not noel."

Noodles

This week we are learning about the letter N. Today we did activities with noodles. Sawyer enjoyed painting with cooked noodles.
It was messy, but lots of fun.
Next, I had Sawyer count and sort different types of noodles.
Even Jax enjoyed putting noodles in the ramekins. He liked the noise it made.

Then Sawyer glued his noodles on a letter N.

Still Learning

We have been busy, but we haven't stopped learning. Last week I was busy trying to get things back in order from being gone, so we didn't do a letter. We did decorate a very cute card holder, but I haven't hung it yet. I will take a picture once I hang it.

I had a hard time deciding if we should just do Christmas crafts or work on letters this week. We are doing a little of both. I traced the boys' hands and feet to make this reindeer. Sawyer insisted Mickey do one too.


We talked about the letter M and thought of as many words as we could that start with M. I cut out pictures and words that started with M and Sawyer made a collage. He did a good job and filled up the whole paper. I also talked about the manger and read a book about baby Jesus. We played with the toy nativity scene. Sawyer thinks it is fun to throw the characters and say "Super Mary" and "Super Joseph."

Today I let the boys decorate Christmas trees with markers, stickers, pom poms, and glitter glue. They had a good time! If you look closely you will see that Jax took a bite out of his star.