Friday, February 18, 2011

The Letter M!!! Money, M and M’s, Monster Trucks and MORE!!

  IMG_4795IMG_4802
My little Monkeys!! In my little guy’s workbox I had these magnetic letters and he had to find the letter M’s. He is always asking me how to spell things. The funny thing is is that he has no idea what he is talking about, but because his older brother likes to spell, he just wants to join in on the fun! What fun letter practice for him! Here is spelled “Monster truck” which is definitely his favorite thing!!
My youngest turned three this month and he received money in the mail from Nana and Grandpa. Perfect timing Nana for the letter M!!!
IMG_4474 IMG_4471
We have our own “Letter Tree.” Idea had been taken from my favorite home school website http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/.  Each week the kids get a chance to put the letters on the tree. My youngest is making a “sad” face because he has the wrong letter! Silly boy!
The next activity was our letter do-a-dot pages! My youngest LOVES these pages. He likes putting stickers on the circles and using the do-a-dot markes! He is also tracing the M and M pages with a dry erase marker. (I did laminate these as to use them again!) Both of these pages were found at http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/.

    IMG_4475-1IMG_4476-1IMG_4430


The next activity we did this week was to make a “Moose craft.” The boys traced their hands, cut them out and attached it to a Moose head. They glued googly eyes and coloured their masterpiece! I used a craft idea from a wonderful book about alphabet crafts called Arts and Crafts From A to Z.
Arts & Crafts From A To Z (PreK-K)
IMG_4477-1IMG_4479-1
The other day we were in a story and a lady passed my us and made small talk with the boys. She asked them what their names were and my youngest said to her, “My name is Monkey.” Se, what better craft that a monkey one!!! (My oldest is working on a jungle one!) I found these in the dollar bins at Michaels craft store. I tend to navigate down these aisles every time I am there and stock up on fun crafts!
IMG_4481-1IMG_4480-1


We made M and M cookies this week! I think the whole family loved it! My inlaws and our student from Mexico loved it as well! The kids thought it was perfect that our friend/student was from Mexico (letter M!)

IMG_4485


Marshmallows are always a hit at our house!! This idea was from http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/. I am pretty sure that half of the marshmallows ended up somewhere else (tummy!) Hmmm a mystery!! My oldest LOVES math….might as well do math with marshmallows in your mouth!!
IMG_4444 IMG_4446
Who says you cannot have a BLAST with M and M’s!? We decided to play with our food and build patters with them! It was their favorite workbox! They actually raced through all their other boxes to get to this one! Nothing like some sweet motivation!
 IMG_4416      IMG_4418

My little guy LOVES searching for letters! Here he had to circle the letter M’s!
IMG_4421
Measuring: let’s find out which box holds more: the blue or orange? We made these boxes (which were made from different shapes: one a square and one a rectangle). My son filled each box up and then counted to see which shape held more.
IMG_4435

I know this one is hard to see, however we did make a trip to McDonalds. My kids know how much I despise McDonalds, so to go here was indeed a treat. You know you have made an impression on your children when they keep it a secret from mommy when daddy and them go to McDonalds when Mommy is at work. They will say, “Mommy, Dad took us somewhere that is unhealthy.” Love it!
IMG_4426

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Valentine's Day Party!


Recipe for Fun!!:
Number one: Have an amazing husband who encourages you, supports you and is just plain amazing! (He is also my incredible post party clean up helper!)
IMG_4851
Number 2: Decorate!!
I have always wanted to try making one of these tissue paper flowers! I had so much fun!! I chose pink of course! Here are some great links on how to’s:
  1. crafts.kaboose.com
  2. You tube : enter in “make tissue paper flowers with your kids”
  3. No, the blue flowers are not mine, however were the biggest inspiration for mine! (Image found on google search. I am not able to find the website).



IMG_4829
IMG_4839

IMG_4841IMG_4838




Number 3: prepare crafts for the kidlets! When I host parties, I love to have everything ready for when the kids arrive. Here I prepared the craft table to the kids when they arrive. We made clear contact paper heart crafts. www.allkidsnetwork.com. The kids were able to decorate their heart however they wanted. I loved seeing their creativity!

IMG_4830
IMG_4823IMG_4856IMG_4857


Number 4: Have some activities prepared for the kids!!
  1. We played a game that the kids had to guess how many candies were in the container. Whoever won had to share their candies with their friends at the party while we all sat down for story time.
.IMG_4834
2. We read Franklin’s Valentines. This is such a great book about friendship!
IMG_4836
3. The kids each received a bag of candy hearts. They had to see who could make the tallest tower. This was even a hit with the mommies!!
IMG_4864IMG_4860IMG_4863IMG_4861
4. We then had a balloon race. This was so much fun! Putting balloons between your legs and running in a race is quite hard for those little legs!!!

IMG_4865IMG_4868IMG_4866
5. The next activity we did was have a sword fight! Well…..what else do boys do at a Valentine’s Day party?!
 IMG_4854IMG_4855
6. Finally it is COOKIE making time!!! Or is it eating time?! 

IMG_4872IMG_4874IMG_4876
IMG_4886                          IMG_4880 IMG_4884

Number 5: I sent each little one home with a party bag complete with candy, bubbles, stickers and some more candy!! (Sorry Mommies!!)
IMG_4835

Some great websites I used for my party ideas:
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY





Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Letter P: Paintings, Peanut M and M’s, Porcupines, Picnics and more!!

So many things that begin with a P!! Some things we did not capture onto pictures was…. made popcorn, made pizza, had fun with play dough, talked about playing with puppies (tried to get daddy to buy us one!) and played, played, played!!

Painting: My boys love to paint! It allows them to use their imagination. I love to see their focus, their designs and the fun they have! When my oldest was old enough to start painting I was that Mom that did not enjoy the paint being mixed together! It drove me crazy….after having two boys…you learn that you will ALWAYS have brown paint!! (from them mixing colours constantly!) And you just have to accept that!! Same things with play dough!

 

 IMG_4740 IMG_4742 IMG_4744 IMG_4749 

In their workboxes today I surprised them with peanut M and M’s!! Looks like it was a hit!

IMG_4722 

We did try to have a picnic at the park today, however it was below zero and our lips were blue and our fingers were frozen….so were our sandwiches!

 

IMG_4758IMG_4757

We made a porcupine craft. I cut a paper plate in half and the boys painted it and we glued toothpicks to the paper plate and made a head and feet. Looks pretty cute! Daddy couldn’t tell what they were, but who said they had to be PERFECT!?

 

IMG_4791

And we PLAYED today!! So PRECIOUS!

IMG_4786 

IMG_4784