More fun with leaves

Here are a couple of crafts we did yesterday. I took a couple of different ideas I had seen and created this turkey. Sawyer colored the paper plate, but he wasn't able to do much else. I had to do the cutting and the gluing. I had to use a glue gun to get the leaves to stay. He thought it was pretty fun when it was finished.

The next thing we made was a group project. Sawyer colored the green part and the orange leaves. Jaxon colored the red leaves and I cut everything out and glued it together.

I have it hanging in the hallway and the boys love it. I taught them a song about falling leaves and dropped leaves as I sang it. We did this over and over and over.

L for Leaves

This week we are learning about the letter L. Our theme for the week is leaves. I am also incorporating fall and Thanksgiving crafts, since Thanksgiving is a week away. I have found so many cute ideas. It has been hard to decide what I want to do. I keep reminding myself that we have many more years to do fun crafts together. I don't have to teach them everything this year. Sunday I took the boys to the park to collect leaves. Sawyer kept picking up leaves and saying, "this is a great one" or "look mom, this one is perfect." We talked about the colors of the leaves and the sound they make when we walk on them.
Monday we went to the zoo in the morning and did a fall craft with our friends in the afternoon. We decorated corn with glitter. Actually, I decorated the corn. Sawyer was too distracted by the snack and his friends. He helped a little, but I did most of the work. Tuesday he decorated a letter L with leaves.

Then I had both boys decorate place mats for Thanksgiving. I let them decorate a paper towel with markers. Then I covered it with contact paper. Sawyer wants to eat on his all the time now.
Yesterday Sawyer painted leaves that I had drawn. After they dried I cut them out. I glued clothes pins and the leaves to make a Thanksgiving garland. I saw this idea on notimeforflashcards.com. I also cut out other paper leaves and asked Sawyer to name some things he was Thankful for. Then we clipped them to the clothes pins. I hung it by the dinner table, so that we could do this every evening before dinner. I probably should have done this earlier in the month. Oh well! I will save it and hopefully bring it out next year.

I really haven't talked to Sawyer much about the details of Thanksgiving such as pilgrims, indians, and turkeys. I wish I had a good book or play set to teach him about it. We will probably talk about it a little, but I am focusing on being Thankful. He likes to thank God for things and it makes me so happy to hear him talk about God. The other night when I was tucking him in bed, he told me "God's word is true." So sweet! Then he told me "God made me" and he sang the song.

Kangaroos, Koalas, Kites, and Kings

Well, we finished up K week today. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of all of our crafts. The boys broke the camera on Wednesday. Tuesday we read a book about a kite contest. Then Sawyer colored a kite with markers. I wanted him to tear and glue paper to it, but he wasn't interested in that. Jaxon joined us in coloring.
Sawyer started sorting these cards into piles. I showed him how they had numbers on them and he sorted them in rows from 1-5. Then I would tell him to hand me the card with 2 eyes or 5 fish. He loved this little impromptu learning game.

Wednesday we read the book, "Can you cuddle like a koala?' The boys acted out all of the animals and it was too cute. Then Sawyer made a koala puppet while Jaxon colored a picture of a koala. These are the last pictures I took before the camera broke. I was dumb and didn't put it in a safe place.
Today we talked about Kings and I read Sawyer a story about King Josiah. Then he decorated a crown. It is very cute, but you will just have to take my word on it since I don't have any pictures.

Little Bit of J and K

Last week we talked about the letter J. During circle time we talked about words that start with J like jar, jelly, Jaxon, Juice, and Jungle. We took turns calling out commands like Jump, Jiggle, and Jog. I printed out Jungle Scenes and Sawyer glued the animals on. He was proud of his work.

This week we are learning about the letter K. I don't really have a theme picked out. We will just talk about different things each day. Today I read the boys a book called "The Blue Kangaroo". I read it twice in a row because Sawyer liked it so much. I actually read it in the bathroom, because we are working on potty training. Sawyer glued parts of a kangaroo onto a paper sack today. He loves kangaroos especially the baby Joey. That didn't take long and he wanted to do something else, so I let him glue kernels onto the letter K. We used sunflower kernels, because that's what I had handy.


I read The Blue Kangaroo one more time before nap and I will read another book about a kangaroo who can't find her cookies when the boys wake up. Then we will have milk and cookies.

Spiders and Ghosts

Here are the ghosts and spiders we made last week. The ghosts are foot prints and the spiders are made by tracing their hands and cutting off the thumb. I saw both of these crafts on Barney's Halloween movie.

The top ones are Sawyer's and the bottom one's are Jaxon's.

Jaxon has tiny feet, size 3 at 13 months, but you wouldn't know it from the picture.

Letter I

We did another Halloween craft last week. I helped the boys make spiders by tracing their hands. I cut them out and Sawyer glued on eyes. They are hanging on their bedroom doors, but I don't have a picture. My battery was out, but I am charging it and will post a pic soon.
We talked about the letter I last week. I didn't have many good I ideas, plus we were busy with Halloween festivities. I did help him make an ice cream cone on Thursday. I cut out the pieces and he glued them together. He was supposed to glue on a pom pom for the cherry, but he wanted lots of cherries on his ice cream.

He also decorated a card for his Lulu's birthday.
This week was supposed to be the letter J. This week really hasn't been that busy, but last week and weekend were so busy that I didn't plan much and I am tired and not feeling well, so we just haven't done anything. Maybe we will start tomorrow or just wait until next week. I haven't decided yet. There is no way I could home school. I am not organized enough.

H and Halloween Crafts

Last week we talked about the letter H. Our theme was Halloween. First he covered the letter H and a treat bag with Halloween stickers. I also let him color and decorate a mini pumpkin.

That same day he painted a pumpkin orange. When it dried I glued on the stem. On Wednesday the boys made ghost prints with their feet. I painted their little feet and helped them make prints. When they dried we glued on googly eyes and drew a mouth.
Saturday Sawyer helped me make and decorate chocolate cupcakes for the church trunk or treat. He helped me pour in the ingredients and mix the batter. I let him decorate two cupcakes, one for him and one for me. I decorated the rest for the cake walk.
I had more planned for the week, but we were all sick at least one day last week. It was not fun! We will talk about the letter I this week, and continue to do a few halloween crafts.