O is for Ocean

Our Ocean theme stemmed from our trip to Sea World.  GB decided she needed to learn more about the Ocean.  So, of course we found all the fish and ocean books we could, both fiction and nonfiction and started learning.  The internet is such a handy tool to answer all those questions of a 3 year old when mom doesn't know the answer! :)  We learned lots of random facts about different fish, crabs and whales!

Books:
Commotion in the Ocean
National Geographic Kids- Ocean
Colors of the Ocean
Rainbow Fish
Rainbow Fish to the Rescue
O is for Ocean
The Shark that was Afraid of Everything
Alice in Bibleland- Jonah

Crafts:
Bubble painting to look like the ocean water.  Let me just say this worked well in the classroom with powered tempra paint, dish soap and water.  However with liquid paint, not so much.  It worked, but not as noticeable as powered tempra does or I didn't add enough.

Have kids blow bubbles, them touch paper over top of bubbles.

 They loved doing it though. :)

So much that with this face when we were finished lead to..

More bubble fun outside! Much happier kids!

Handprint fish for GB and handprint octopus for L on top of their ocean papers! Cute, you can't see the bubbles in this photo, but they were there. :)

Glitter Star Fish- glitter and glue (I have seen this done with sandpaper)

Paper plate "Rainbow" fish- paper plates, tissue paper, aluminum foil and glue

Ocean in a Bottle- water, little cooking or baby oil, blue food coloring, sequins, "fish". super glue or tape lid on!


Skills:

Octopus have 8 arms ("don't call them legs mom" We also learned they are not tentacles) number match

Fish patterns

Ocean animal Memory with letter sounds
coloring her cards

Playing Ocean memory, I wrote the beginning letter in upper and lowercase and as we made a match she would say the letter and it's sound.  

"Fishing" for Fish puzzle

 "Fishing" for color words and letters- try not to notice my vbs stuff all over floor behind them. :0

Playdoh O's

Sorting seashells

 and let's examine them too!

A great time to introduce the game GO Fish!  She loved it, but really doesn't have the "don't show your cards to others thing down". hehe 

Lunches/Snacks:

Octopus(hotdog) seashells (pasta salad) and Seastar (apples) & grapes.  I found this idea on MuffinTin Mondays and she used green ramen noodles as seaweed under the octopus.  I tried to make green cheese(something my kids would eat), but didn't want to use much food coloring.  It just didn't work. :) 

Tuna"Fish" sandwich with cheese star fish

Pizza Fish

MY FAVORITE- Crab sandwich  Let me just say I normally don't buy "special" ingredients or supplies.  We just use or modify to what we have.  However, these crossiants were too cute not to use and so crossiants were bought just for crabs! :) I bought the cocktail ones, so now what am I suppose to do with 10 extras? Plus, my kids just eat the "insides" of a sandwich.  They sure were cute though and Gracie Beth was really excited about her "Ocean meal".

Apples in fish and turtle cups- How easy is that?! :)

Ocean Jello snack- this was one of my favorites too and my camera was MIA. :(  blue jello in clear cups, topped with crushed teddy grahams on half and teddy bear under a cocktail umbrella on the other. I think the original idea is on a cupcake.

Goldfish crackers are great with this theme, count them- sort by color (if you have the colore1d ones), serve in shamu bowls from seaworld and EAT them!

Bible Stories:
 Jonah and the Whale
Jonah 1-3

This theme would have summed up nicely with a trip to the beach, however that didn't happen! Boo! :)  We settled with the Little Mermaid movie night. :)

F is for Flag and Freedom (Fourth of July)

We are proud Americans and showing our patriotism with lots of learning fun.  There were so many fun ways to make our days patriotic!   So many ideas so little time!  There's always next year.  *idea box is overflowing for this one*

Books:

America the Beautiful

Our Flag

ABC's of the United States of America

Crafts:

One of these 1st two are my favorites!

torn paper flag- she did a great job

Love this one!  Don't mind the orange marker, it was drying on the easil and L found an orange marker. :)

Artwork made a great banner for the mantel.  The black ones you can't see well, but they are firecrackers!  Glitter and glue.

star stamping with cookie cutters

Snacks/lunches:

star pb&J with red and blue fruit

oops forgot to turn these pics (silly little camera)

Even chicken nuggets can be festive- cookie cutters are great tools.

Flag toast

Cake pops

Blueberry star pancakes with strawberry sauce (mushed strawberries)

making our own bomb pops- lesson learned-use smaller cups.  They were way too big and super hard to eat!

yummy strawberries- L's cute little fingers trying to grab one as I snap the photo!

Stars and Striped Cherry pie- (of course that crust is homemade, hehe)

I bought some festive paper plates and sometimes that's all thats needed to make our meal themed! :) L's happy with it!

 de-constructed S'mores- cute treats for Sunday School kids

More fun treats for friends- paper firecrackers filled with tootsie rolls

Thank you Martha Stewart

Skills:

cutting- okay, not a patriotic skill, but an important one!

shaving cream F practice

that says Happy 4th of July. ;)

shape counting number match

* We also made our cardboard F, but oops didn't get a picture.  She painted it red and blue and white (which looks a little purple) and after it dried add flag stickers.

* Color word match on stars

The pledge of Allegiance- Gb can now say the pledge of Allegiance, some of the words are a little fuzzy, but super cute!  We learned about the our flag, the number of stripes and stars and what they stand for. 

Bible Lessons- God gave Moses the Ten Commandments- this played well with our country has rules and of course- Obey your parents!

The Good Samaritan- learning to help (serve) people.

Happy Fourth of July!



E is for Easter and Egg

Easter themed week, just wasn't good enough.  Let's do Easter for 3 weeks!!  We had lots of fun with Eggs and Easter!  However, I didn't do a great job of taking pictures of our learning projects.  I am getting better though! :)  We keep Easter centered around Christ's death and resurrection, but we do like to add in a few eggs and bunnies!

Books: 
Fancy Nancy's Easter
The Parable of the Lily-I get choked up ever time, almost as bad as the Crippled Lamb
Countdown to Easter
Happy Easter Biscuit- Who doesn't love Biscuit?!
The Golden Egg
The Story of Easter- pingry - great kid-friendly version of the first Easter
Egg in the Hole
Where's Baby's Easter Egg

Crafts:

Paper plate bunnies

We also did...

*"stained glass" eggs and crosses- tissue paper and liquid starch

*Sponge painting- egg shaped of course

* sparkling crosses- glittter, sequins and glue

lots of painting, chalking, and coloring too!

Snacks/lunches:   We had egg, bunny and cross shaped sandwiches, toast, and pizza.
Made deviled eggs a couple times- my kids only like the filling- not the white
We must have been on a nutella kick, the next 3 are all with nutella! :)

chocolate bunnies

bunnies in the mud

bunnies in the mud again! :)

lots of sugar cookies and cupcakes to give as Easter treats.

GB learned how to crack an egg!  No shells, most of the time! ;)

Skills:
We did shape match with Easter egg cutouts
practiced making E with chalk and paint
had some interesting conversations about eggs hatching- next year we will be getting an incabaitor and watching them hatch.  (My school kids used to always love that)

Egg letter match- capital letter on one half, lowercase on the other.

Great activity for the kitchen floor as you cook! :)

E is for Egg!

Went on a field trip to see what comes out of eggs!

lots of baby chicks

You can guess what our Bible lesson for these weeks was!  I absoluelty love GB's retelling of the Easter story.  She learned it quickly and was proud to retell it to anyone that would listen.  Such passion and excitement (as with most stories), makes a mama proud! :)
She learned 3 Bible Verses:
Deut. 6:5
Proverbs 30:5
Ps. 139:14

Went on lots of Egg hunts, dyed lots of eggs and even had a bunny picnic party!  Of course all of that can be found on the other blog HERE.