Week 25- Letter V

Language Arts and Reading:

Our task this week was to fingerprint some violets and the letter V. I love that Hannah's little tongue is sticking out.

 This is an area that I have seen Ethan grow so much over the past 6 months.  When we started these alphabet letter pages Ethan would SCREAM if it involved anything other than crayons or the occasional dot marker.  He was adamant that he did not want to get his hands dirty.  Now look at the happy boy with paint covered fingers.

I took a bunch of plastic eggs and filled them with 3 letter words and the corresponding letters.  Ethan enjoyed matching the letters, calling out the letters, and then telling me what sound each letter makes.

Hannah did a very good job of matching the letter and sounding out the words.

This book has been read at least a 100 times this week.  Clearly a favorite.

Math: 

We did another activity using the eggs.  This time each egg had a different number of counters that they needed to match up to the number line that I laid out.

The of course they wanted to play with the eggs.  Filling and spilling is very entertaining.

 Science:  

Hannah and Ethan both enjoyed exploring the reaction between vinegar and baking soda.  First, I needed to show them how to use the pipette.  Hannah picked this up quickly, Ethan eventually switch to a spoon in frustration. 

I mixed food coloring into the vinegar so that they had several colors to choose from.  It was quite the bubble mess they made.

Hannah declared at the end that she made green yogurt. 

Faith Formation: Easter

This week we spent lots of time preparing for Easter.  All week the kids checked on our Easter garden to see if the seeds had sprouted.

Here is Hannah retelling the Easter story using the set we made from Catholic Icing.

We also made a story book that we read together.

Hannah and Ethan coloring a banner that we wrapped around our garden.

Just for Fun:

Hannah and Ethan played Geo Lotto.  It is a visual game that we were given by a friend.  They loved it.  There are several ways to play it, they played the most basic: match the card to the board.

Opposite puzzles. Another favorite.

Y wrap up and Z Preview

We are slowly making out way to the end of the alphabet and I am super excited.  Excited for many reason but I think its nice to finally reach full circle.  So before we have a look at the activities for Z, here is what we did for the letter Y:

We grew yellow animals out of small dollar store capsules, and even though I said it would take a couple days that sat and watched anyway.  Then finally they got to open their jars and play.

We made yellow Y collages.

Happily stamping yarn designs (or not to happily).

Hannah practiced counting.

Probably my favorite picture, here is Hannah teaching Ethan how to use the Jumbo push pin.

Letter Z:

Letter Z box: Zipper, zero, zucchini, zebra, letter z, and a z bean bag.

Matching the animal toy to their photo

Making a sticker zoo. (Source: Little Giraffes)

Zoo cage and lock game.  For this game I will hide the keys and when Hannah or Ethan find them they can unlock the matching cage to free the animals. (Source: Homeschool Share)

This is a terrible picture, it is a zoo animal shadow match. (Source: 2 Teaching Mommies)

Gluing Zebra stripes on the letter Z.

Letter X Wrap-up and Letter Y Preview

Hannah, Ethan and I had a really good time working our way through our X activities.  Andrew was even able to join in a little bit.  We didn't really do anything messy so Ethan was happy.  This week I'll be bringing out the paint so stay tuned.

Hannah is playing with the letter box things, while Ethan ripped off the sticker from the lid.

Hannah had fun doing the X maze, I'll have to print out some more of these because she thought these were lots of fun. 

Working away.

Oh, how much I love these two!

This was definitely a favorite.  It took me a bit of playing to fill the glasses so that they sounded right.  Then I added the food coloring.  I'm not sure why the red is more orange than red (especially since its called Christmas red).  They played their homemade xylophone happily.  It is now sitting on my windowsill and looks pretty when the sun is out (which it hasn't been)

Matching colors.

I had so much fun watching Hannah play tic-tac-toe with Andrew.  He explained it and she seemed to pick it up quickly.  Then after a few games she started cheating.  Hahahahah Andrew would win and she would remove one of his pieces and put hers down instead.

Coming up soon! 

Letter Box Y: Yukon pin, yarn, yo-yo, yellow block, letter y, and a y bean bag.

Yellow cube counting.

Yarn Block Painting (Source: Print and Pattern).  I also left some extra peices of the yarn so that Hannah and Ethan can drag it through the paint.  We will see if Ethan sits at the table with us.

Yellow sponge animals.  These little capsule animals are fun for the kids to watch grow. I thought they could choose and put their capsules in their jar and watch them grow.

Yo-Yo Fun: We are going to make a water balloon yo-yo each, and they can also try their hand at a real yo-yo.  (Source: Delightful Learning)

Letter W wrap up and X preview

I have really enjoyed watching Ethan participate more fully in the activities.  It is especially amusing with his growing vocabulary, he now says the sweetest and funniest things. Hannah and Ethan have there own conversations and I find myself eavesdropping.  More and more I am finding that I can sit back and quietly observe them while they are working.

Here is what I saw during our time with the letter W.

Playing with their letter box items.

Making pinwheels.

Decorating the letter W.

Gluing on some pasta wheels.

Finding the seeds in the watermelon play dough.

Here Hannah is playing the watermelon seed counting game, and Ethan sliding the pasta wheels on pipe cleaners.

Letter X Preview

Letter Box X:  Xylophone, and the letter x, and the x bean bag. 

Xylophone matching game.  

Match the colors, or to make it more difficult and flip the pieces over and match by length only.

Looking at x-rays. (source: My Homemade Montessori)

Dot and pin work.  (I keep including this because Hannah loves it).

Tic Tac Toe game. 

 Letter Maze ( from Carisa  www.1+1+1=1.com)