Brown Bear Brown Bear

Eric Carl has a wonderful book titled "Brown Bear Brown Bear" that we read recently.  We've been talking about animals that hibernate in the winter and this gave us another opportunity to about what different animals do in the winter time.  Over the coarse of a few days we made our own Brown Bear Brown Bear book.  I printed pictures of different animals off the computer and wrote the words on each page to go along with the story (What do you see?  I see a...  looking at me).  Then I gave the kids one page at a time and a different supply to decorate it with (tissue paper, water colors, sparkles, finger paints, etc).  Then, after all the pages were dry, I stapled them together to make our own book.  The kids enjoy re-reading the books they made! 

Sink or Float?

This activity involves water so it’s always a hit with children!  There are multiple ways to do the activity and, even though you’re doing the same thing again, to kids it is a new activity.  This morning Lillian wanted to know if some metal balls would sink or float.  So we took them into the bathroom sink to find out.  We have carried toys into the bath tub to test the theory, put kitchen utensils in the kitchen sink and, this summer, outdoor toys (including bikes!) in the swimming pool!  We talk about if the items are lighter than the water, have air in them, and so forth.  We’ve even found if we put enough water in the pool or tub and lay real still our bodies will float! 

Trains

Both of the kids loved this activity and I have to admit I did too.  It's always fun to take the learning outside!  We started our activity by reading Donald Crews book Freight Train.  It is a short story so we read through it a couple times.  During the second reading I had the children help identify the colors of the train cars.  Afterwards we headed to our small near by city, parked the van, and walked the rails!  The children had a ball and, of course, were full of questions.  I loved that their brains were so engaged; we were just walking on a railroad track (does the train that goes close to our house come through here? What keeps the train on the track?).  Who knew!  We even got lucky and found a metal pin that is used on the tracks.  It was great to have an item to bring home and show dad from our "field trip."  Later, when we have more time, we're going to go up to Indianapolis so we can tour the train station and watch the trains come and go.  The kids have always been fascinated with trains, as most kids are.  Our house isn't to far from a railroad track and sometimes when we're outside we hear the distant sound of their horn blowing.  If time permits we run to the van, load up, drive to the track and watch the train go by.  We keep ear plugs in the car for the kids as it can be pretty loud.  We've always had wonderful luck with the conductors too.  They are always very friendly; waving and giving us some extra toots on the horn!  When we got home we read a couple more books with a train subject that I had picked up from the library.  Needless to say the kids had a lot to tell Dad when he got home in the evening!  This is definitly an activity that we'll repeat again next summer.

Holiday Lacing Cards

If your like me you like to buy holiday paper plates.  These can, of course, be found at your dollar store or on clearance after the holiday too.  It is very quick and easy to turn one of those paper plates into a lace up card for your child.  Simply use a hole punch to punch holes either around the outer edge of the plate (not to close to the edge though) or if the design permits around the border of the picture.  Then provide either a long shoe string or a long piece of yarn (put a small piece of scotch tape tightly on the end to lace with) and they can start lacing!  I usually tie a knot in one end of the lacer so they can't pull it all the way through.  This activity provides great hand eye co-ordination practice.  If you desire, you can also number the holes with letters or numerals thus incorporating another element.

Record Your Own Story

If you would like to record your own stories on the computer it is relatively simple to do.  First go to the Audicity link, which I have provided below.  You will need to install the program onto your computer.  You will also need a microphone (these can be purchased at Walmart or Meijers for around $30).  You are now ready to record!  You can, of course, record anything you like, but we have found that the children enjoy listening to stories with the headphones.  They especially like the ones Daddy records since he is working a lot of extra hours right now.  They may not get to see him, but at least they can hear his voice and one of their favorite stories read by him.  This would also be a fun way for elementary age children to practice their spelling words or math facts!                                 

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Painting - make clean up a snap!

The kids love to paint and asked all week to do it.  We finally had the time this afternoon, so I got our paint supplies out.  Having taught for 10-11 years I have learned a lot about this activity, mostly about making the clean up process quick and easy.  First, we always either paint in the garage or outside.  Today we had just a little breeze, so we ended up painting in the garage (I've learned papers blow away very easily!).  To start with, I keep cheap dollar store table cloths on hand to use on our work surface.  I always keep table cloths after our birthday parties too as they work well.  Next, I filled a couple recyclable containers with a little water to rinse our brushes in, and grabbed some paper towels to have close by.  I always put old t-shirts or something on over the kids clothes and we just reuse them each time we paint.  Lastly, I poured some paint in disposable meat trays.  Both the plastic and Styrofoam ones work well.  This makes clean up a breeze; I recycle the water containers, throw away the paint trays, and just fold up (or throw away) the plastic table cloth. 
I think its an adults nature to want the children to keep the paints separate, but this is a great learning opportunity.  I happened to put pink and blue in one meat tray (at opposite ends).  Lillian mixed them together and learned she could make purple.  Of course this led her to wonder what other colors she could make.  We had a great time and now have lots of art work for the Grandma's to have!

Cell Phone Math

Lillian loves this activity!  There's lots of ways to use your cell phone to play math games while you wait in line or at an office.  Sometimes I type the number and she tells me what is displayed or I say a numeral and she types it.  One of her favorites though is Phone number math; I tell her Grandma's phone number (lucky grandma!) and if she can find the numbers and get it dialed she gets to talk to grandma!  This is a great way to kill time and practice numbers (of course we do 10, 11, etc too; not just 0-9).   I bet this will be a big hit with your kids too.