Mail from...Alaska

I LOVE when I have an idea for an okay lesson that Beck gets carried away with and pretty soon we've come up with something pretty cool!  That's what's happening right now-I had animal flash cards to divide into groups by number of legs or stripes/no stripes.  He, of course, took it a step farther and is now busily drawing an 11x14 "habitat" where all those animals can live.  He's amazing!

That's exactly what happened a few weeks ago when we pulled out our Alaska postcard!  (Oddly enough, the topic was animal related that day, too).  The postcard itself had no extra information written on it, but did have a cute cartoon of Alaska's baby animals.  I tested myself a minute, trying to remember the Alaska state bird and then was transported back to my time living there.  It really is a place where everything you hear about or see on tv is 100% real.

Alaska State Bird: Ptarmigan

We decided to use google images to find pictures of baby animals that live in Alaska.  We came up with photos for wolves, caribous, marmots, puffins, beluga whales, lynx, grizzly bears, salmon, mountain goats, and polar bears.

For an activity I found a simple tutorial to make a pop-up greeting card on Enchanted Learning.  I was excited to finally figure out how to do something as easy as that.  Beck's mind was running way ahead of mine and before I knew it we'd printed out all our baby animal images for him to put into his greeting card.

What was the last activity your children took eons farther than you had planned for?

Not So Spooky Pumpkin Patch

For some reason, book learning has really been a struggle this week, so today I decided to let my boys do a little hands-on creating.  They were excited the moment they saw me pulling out the "painting sheet." (Painting Sheet=cheap vinyl tablecloth I started using for craft-time a long time ago.  It protects the table and makes for super easy clean-up.  It was cute today to see the kids relate the tablecloth to painting without me saying anything.)

Drawing inspiration from an egg carton craft project I saw a couple weeks ago, I gathered the supplies and sat down with my kids to make pumpkin patches!

Usually I choose crafts that don't require a lot of preparation by Mom beforehand, but today I decided the headache I could avoid by doing some of the work myself seemed worth it.  Those steps included:

• Cutting a 12-egg carton in half so each of my boys would have 6 "pumpkins"
• Cutting a green pipe cleaner into 12 short pieces
• Poking a small hole in the top of each "pumpkin" where the "stem" will go
• Hot Glue the "fence"

The boys got to:

• Paint their "pumpkins" and their "fences"

Okay, so Beck got a little confused and painted his paint plate
 before I re-explained it to him

• Push in their stems 

• Draw on their faces

We were running out of googly eyes,
so each boy got one pair and  then  drew the rest of their eyes

• Pick, cut, and glue on the straw

You could use craft straw, but we had an adventure outside finding dry grass we could use instead.  On the way back home from the field down the street, we had a close call with a snake and barely avoided stepping right on top of it.  The boys LOVED that!

• Choose the best place to display their pumpkin patches for everyone to see.  They decided outside on the front porch so that Daddy would be spooked when he came home.  

Aren't those the cutest "spooky" pumpkins you have ever seen?

Mail from...New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a beautiful state!  Who could argue that when this is their state bird...

Purple Finch

I visited there in a long ago October when the granite mountains were on fire with changing autumn colors.  On that trip, I got to see the Old Man of the Mountain.  I'm so glad I did, because in 2003 the profile collapsed and changed the face of the mountain forever.

Before and After 

Much to my surprise, this pile of crumbled rocks held very little appeal to my boys, so, thinking on my feet, I pulled out the paints to create our own representations of the New Hampshire autumn leaves.  We used Q-tips instead of brushes and I demonstrated how to carefully dot the paint onto the paper.  It did not make any sense to my kids today.  Surprising myself again, I didn't over-react and try to correct them.  I just let them be and worked on my own dotted painting...

So, New Hampshire did not bring about a super-memorable postcard lesson.  I'll have to put "visit New Hampshire" on our to-do list and see if that doesn't turn out to be more inspiring.

Mail from...Texas

I spent many, many summers working in Alaskan hotels, and so have heard my fair share of proud Texans try to incorrectly assert that they live in the largest state in the nation.  And, while, I've driven through Texas several times and would agree that it is a massive amount of open space, my alliances have to stick with my northern roots on this one...nonetheless, Texas is a great state and I was very excited to introduce it this week in kindergarten.  

Since the Texas state bird is the mockingbird, and we already studied it during Arkansas/Apple Week, I decided instead to focus on the Texas state mammal (how many other states have a designated state mammal?).  If, like me, you've done any driving in the Lone Star state, you know it's not just a stereotype that the same animal could also be designated the official state roadkill.  And as roadkill goes, I'm going to declare that the armadillo is absolutely the most disgusting!

For the lesson, we looked at armadillo pictures and learned that armadillos like to burrow into the ground and use their noses to hunt for bugs.  We learned about the many different types of armadillos and then more specifically about the nine-banded armadillo which is the only armadillo native to the United States.

Texas State Mammal: Nine-Banded Armadillo

Beck's favorite was the Pink Fairy Armadillo which appears to be green and pink-two of his favorite colors. It also happens to be the smallest of the armadillos.

Unfortunately I had no time to get to the library this week, but I did find this online story about an armadillo named Arturo.  It wouldn't have been my first choice, but Beck liked it and it did teach how armadillos defend themselves in scary situations.

Clara and the Armadillo

My new favorite website is learn create love because it's full of printable cut-out templates and this is the one we used today...

Armadillo Printable from learn create love 

I really do love Texas.  I'm really glad I didn't go the cowboy route with this week's postcard.  I'm really glad Beck had so much fun learning about this odd little creature.  And I'm REALLY glad I'm not going to have to look at any more photos of this creepy little mammal for a very long time!

Have you been to Texas? 

 What is your favorite thing there?

Apple Week (and Arkansas)

Last week we pulled out the postcard from Arkansas and discovered that 1) the state bird is the mockingbird, and 2) the state flower is the Apple Blossom.  I could have put it back in the bin until spring when, the apple trees would be blossoming, but decided to link it to the apple harvest of this time of year instead.

This was our week of apple learning...

First, we counted & sorted them by color & size. We also looked for patterns & more than/less than (i.e. stems v. no stems, red v. green, etc)

Then, we made a comparison chart. Beck colored each different apple across the top.  Our categories were: stems, red, not red, & spots/dots.  Does anyone know why apples have those tiny, tiny little dots?

We tried doing a taste test, but my kids didn't seem to think the apples tasted any differently.  After a few probing questions, I decided not to push their apparent lack of taste buds any further.

I found this superhero apple template on Pinterest and KNEW my kids would love it!

After printing, I glued the pieces to a cereal box cardboard, and cut the pieces apart in hopes of avoiding the frustration of tired hands.

Beck had a serious problem that his little brother wasn't putting  his apple together properly...

He forgot soon enough, though, unable to resist the lure of being a superhero!

 Our second craft activity of the week was an attempt at apple printing.  They didn't turn out the way I'd anticipated, but still the boys had a lot of fun.

 And the Apple Week Grand Finale was a field trip with cousin Claire to our local apple orchard!  The kids got to run up and down the planted rows in search of the perfect apple to eat right off the tree.  This picture doesn't show it very well, but these Galas were nearly as sweet as the doughnuts that were waiting at the end of the tour!

Do you have a favorite apple activity you'll be doing this year?

Mail from...Hawaii

Coming up with a craft or activity that I can relate to each of the 50 states is turning out to not be as easy as I'd expected it to be!  For Hawaii it seemed like the Internet-gods only wanted me to make paper leis.  While the options were plenty and very cute, I thought for sure there was something more boy-centric that we could use to make Hawaii exciting.  We fell back on a little experiment with exploding volcanoes...

 Obviously, Beck loved this activity.  The bonus for me was ticking off the Teaching Your Children Joy activity that has been hanging me up since January!  That's right-it's been that long since we got way-layed in the chapter on curiosity.  I just could not find the motivation to prepare, so I never did.  The closest I came was finding Science Sparks, a great website full of child-friendly experiments, which I do look at from time, if only to remind myself of the guilt I feel in falling off the teaching bandwagon.  With volcanoes now cleanly under our belts, I'm checking the box and moving on...to magic tricks...aye, aye!

My 2-year-old's volcanoes turned out vibrantly tropical colors, didn't they?

And because I promised a bird picture, here you go...the Hawaiian Goose, an extraordinarily un-tropical looking bird...

Mail from...Arizona

The "Mail from..." series was part of our participation in a a postcard swap hosted by Beth at Living Life Intentionally.  The idea was to send out 50 postcards of your state-one to every state in the Union-and then receive back the same.  Being a travel junkie, I thought it was an exciting way to add a little geography into this year's kindergarten lessons.  Besides, what kid doesn't LOVE to get mail?

Well, the postcards have started to trickle in.  While most of them have included fairly generic tidbits of information, my kids seem to be most fascinated with learning each state's official bird.  They get confused with senders who didn't understand that was vital information.  And because that's what they're intrigued with, I've started printing out the official state birds and attaching them to the map as we study each new postcard.

The Arizona Cactus Wren

To get us started, let's take a look at Arizona...

The postcard we received showed an enormous Saguaro Cactus.  

I adapted this cute cactus craft from one I saw at Creative Jewish Mom.

To make:

~Cut apart the square parts of a cardboard egg container 

(This part was unexpectedly messy and probably should be done by mom)

~Paint the squares.

~Send your kids outside to collect pebbles and rocks while the paint dries.

~Glue the squares into whatever shape your child thinks a cactus looks like.

~Glue the rocks onto the cardboard  (we used the side of a cereal box) 
so your landscape looks like a desert.

~Crumple tissue paper and glue to your cactus for "blossoms" 

What fun tidbits can you share with us about Arizona?

Happy Winter Solstice!

As much I dislike cold weather, I love to celebrate the winter solstice.  Why?  Starting tomorrow the days are getting longer and it's only a short 6 months until my favorite holiday, the summer solstice, is here again.  Today to commemorate the summer solstice, Beck and I did some fun winter activities.

We watched this time-lapse video of the shortest day in Fairbanks, Alaska 

(I wrote more about the solstice on my other blog Wandering Still).

Beck did a fun Snowman color-the-shapes worksheet

and then we cut out this adorable snowman paperdoll.

I didn't think about it before school today, but I'm going to mount these on cardboard (recycled cereal box, probably) and attach small velcro pieces so that they're a little more usable.  Very cute!

And finally we made these cute snowman Christmas tree ornaments out of popsicle sticks and random scraps we had laying around the house.

Beck insisted on keeping one as a puppet and it gave me great ideas to make a whole puppet family.
We'll get to that someday...

In the meantime, how are you spending your shortest day of the year?

Computers and Creativity

Beck has serious cabin fever so I gave him the camera and sent him outside today to take pictures of his favorite things in nature.  That last part got a little lost on him, but his eyes lit up when I handed the camera to him.  

My husband and I have decided not to let our kids play on the computer until they start school.  It stuns me how integral computers have become in classrooms and how quickly children pick up the skills they need.  I don't think it's going to set them back if they aren't sitting in front of the screen instead of up around and playing.  Today, however, I decided it might be fun for Beck to actually see his pictures turn into something.

Using Picnik.com, Beck created these collage beauties.  He learned new skills like double-clicking and dragging and was captivated.  I'm sure it's only a matter of time before our roles switch and he becomes my computer tutor...

The Week Before Christmas

I love all the pre-k packs available online and this week we're taking a break from regular workbooks to do the Christmas pack from Living Life Intentionally.   Go check it out!

I have a Teaching Your Children Joy activity lined up, but right now I'm watching Beck pretend he's a doctor and his stuffed lizards are in the hospital with broken tails and are being brave to get their "pokes."  I think I'll just leave him be...

The machine that puts a cast on Baby Iguana's broken neck

Fixing Lizard's broken tail

A tough recovery for Turtle

Appreciating Nature in Music

Today's Teaching Your Children Joy activity is to listen to classical music and identify nature sounds in what you hear.  A few days ago I checked out a bunch of Christmas CD's from the library and in the middle of the stack I found a Peter and the Wolf cd.  That worked perfectly today!  The cd also had Prokofiev's Carnival of the Animals, which got to be a little long, but has 12 additional animal tracks.

If you don't have access to the cd (or the original record we all remember listening to Peter and the Wolf on), I've found a fantastic version of it online.  I'd forgotten all about it, but my kids love to creep around the room acting out the characters while they're listening.  Enjoy!

Peter and the Wolf

Playing in the Sand

I took Beck and Peyton to the dinosaur museum today.  We were there for 4 hours and Beck still was certain there were bones he didn't get to see.  We crawled through caves, walked through a universe of stars, listened to  prehistoric birds and got a little dirty.  It was a great way to spend the day!

Building a triceratops

Washing the dinosaurs

Beck's dinosaur habitat

 One of this week's Teaching Your Children Joy activities is to get dirty playing in the sand.  I really wasn't looking forward to bringing the sandbox indoors, so this worked out perfectly!  Between the water and sand basin from above, and the fossil sandpits below, my boys used their imaginations to the extreme.  Beck made up a whole make-believe play where he got to be the paleontologist.

Brushing (or throwing) sand away from fossils

How cute are these boys playing together?

Paleontologist Beck working studiously