Monday - Animals

Today is ANIMALS day.

My 3yr old loves a new show on PBS called Dinosaur Train, so since it is ANIMALS day today, we will make Dinosaurs our theme. For more information check out the PBS site
http://pbskids.org/dinosaurtrain/index.html


Craft
We need a new window banner -the 4th July stars are a little old now.

We are using:

• construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• ribbon
• tape
• stapler

We have a dinosaur puzzle that we are using to get the basic shapes for our dinosaurs from, but you could look up on the internet - just Google "Dinosaurs" images - there are lots to choose from.


We are using two different colored paper, folding them in half, tracing the shape on one, then cutting out the shape to get 4 dinosaurs (all the same).


We are then selecting a section of the body to do in the contrasting color. I trace the outline onto the second color and cut out the shape and then glue onto the original dinosaur.









Once all done we tape up our string and staple the dinosaurs onto the strings - looks great!



Books
We also have a couple of dinosaur books to read - my 3yr old is fascinated with dinosaurs - old branches in the woods are "dinosaur bones" to her. Must get to the Science Museum soon! Our books for today are "Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!" by Sandra Boynton (Workman Publishing), and "Dinosaurs" by Hannah Wilson, a Let's Look book (DK Publishing).



Video
Also found this cool educational video on YouTube (very cute!):



Game/ Activity
We had our dinosaur puzzle to complete!






Song
And to top it off - why not a Dinosaur song...

The Little Baby Dinosaur
(Sung to: Itsy Bitsy Spider - rather appropriate considering all the rain we have had!)

The little baby dinosaur, went out one day to play,

Down came the rain and that dinosaur ran away,

But, out came the sun and dried up all the rain,

And the little baby dinosaur went out to play again.


What a great day - and as a bonus one happy worn out toddler, who is now having a nap. Have fun!

Weekly Bus Schedule

Bus Schedule - Week 8


Monday - Animals

Tuesday - Shapes

Wednesday - Seasons

Thursday - Letters

Friday - Music

Have a great week!

Friday - Craft

Today is CRAFT day.

We are going to make a collage - that can be made into a placemat if you wish (get laminated for easy clean-up and to preserve the "artwork").

We are using:

• card (choice of two sizes - 18"x12" or 8"x10")
• scrapbooking paper (or any pretty type of paper like wrapping paper will do too)
• photos of family members
• pictures of favorite things (trains, horses, cats, trees, etc)
• stickers to spell out name of child
• glue sticks

Place the card down on the table. Cut out the photos and pictures you wish to use. Have a selection of different paper, pictures, stickers, etc for your child to choose from, and then let them decide what goes where (with just a little of your direction).

Assist with the glue stick, but also allow then to try to use it (depending on the age of your child). Glue sticks are pretty easy to use and have minimal mess - just make sure you get non-toxic, but still make sure it doesn't end up in their mouth!

As a final touch spell out your child's name with the letter stickers - also good for letter recognition.

If you wish to use it as a placemat I recommend getting it laminated. The 18"x12" cost around $7 to get laminated (at Kinkos), while the 8"x10" cost around $2. My 3yr old loves the one I made for her just after her little sister was born (although I tried to contact mine and it has not lasted very well - will laminate this one!). Have fun!

Thursday - Curiosity

Today is CURIOSITY day.

We swapped Thursday and Friday as I really wanted to take my kids to a local farm to check out the animals - curiosity got the better of me. I also really want some farm fresh eggs.

The big hit song in our house at the moment is "Old McDonald" (even my 1 yr old does the "E.I.E.I.O"!), so what better way to make the song come alive than go to a real farm and see real animals.

Homestead Farms is located at 4072 Keller Hicks Road, Keller, TX 76248 and here is a link to their website - http://www.sbrowning.net/homestead/homestead-farms_005.htm

They have a small store on-site that sells their produce, and out the back you can go see some of the animals.






The kids loved seeing the animals, but were disappointed there were no eggs yet. My three year old did go up to the hens and say "Come on chickens, where are the eggs?"





Going to any farm is a great experience for kids and adults alike - have fun!

Wednesday - Numbers

Today is NUMBERS day.

We are going to do something fun with numbers today and use up a little of that abundant toddler energy - we are going to play hopscotch.

We have a concrete patio out back and some sidewalk chalk - easy to set up a hopscotch board. Numbering our squares 1 - 10. Now we are ready for the games to begin!

We begin by throwing our pebble - the square it lands on is the square to miss, however try get a three-year old to actually do that is a totally different game! So we are just working on the numbers, counting as we jump through the squares. My 3 yr old can already count to 15, so we aren't doing too bad!

Math can be fun if you apply it right - have fun everyone!

Tuesday - Cooking

Today is COOKING day. We have an abundant supply of not-so-nice-to-eat bananas (over-ripe) that are perfect for making Banana Bread.


I have my little helper, all the ingredients and a great old-fashioned recipe, so we are ready to make some mess and have fun.


Old Fashioned Banana Bread Recipe
(makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 F and grease loaf pan. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In separate bowl, add shortening and sugar and cream together until light and fluffy, and beat in eggs one at a time. Add bananas and mix. Add one-quarter of dry mixture at a time, beating after each addition until batter is smooth. Add batter to loaf pan and bake 50 minutes. (I usually rotate my pans around about half way through so they don't burn on one edge).


My little helper greased the pans.


Poured the ingredients into the bowl.


Helped sift the flour.


Did some mixing (although all she really wanted to do was put her fingers in her ears!!).



Mashed up the bananas.



Did some more mixing (wasn't so scared of it the second time).



And helped pour the final mixture into the pans (we did a double mixture).


Then she helped set the timer.


This kind of reminds me of the "Little Red Hen" story - might be a good one to read while we wait for our bread. Smells SO good in here - making me hungry. Had better go check on it - have FUN!

YUM!

Weekly Bus Schedule

Bus Schedule - Week 8


Monday - Labor Day Holiday (Family Day)

Tuesday - Cooking

Wednesday - Numbers

Thursday - Craft

Friday - Curiosity

Have a great week!