Arctic Unit Week 1

This was meant to be our first January unit, but lack of routine and school was getting to us so we went ahead and started a week early.

First we looked for the Arctic Circle on our globe and talked about the different countries that make up the Arctic land.  I pointed out the Arctic Ocean.  (We haven't really talked about the names of the oceans yet.  Does anyone have a good song for that?)

I printed out a few Arctic Animal Bingo and by printing the bingo ball cards twice we could play memory as well.

Although I don't like Nickelodeon characters, I was pleased with the Diego Arctic animal cards

because they gave concise information about each animal.

I printed them out and paired the information card with my own Arctic animal nomenclature cards.

I much prefer having real photographs of the animals.

We have been reading lots of books about the Arctic and about polar bears.  We are focusing mostly on polar bears.  With the Arctic Toob, Bear put together a polar bear habitat. I showed her some Google images of the Canadian Arctic and she chose one for me to print for the background.  She used white organza fabric I had and some white Duplo for the snow and ice.  Her animals barely show up in the photo.

We talked about camouflage and why animals in the Arctic tend to be white. I painted some popsicle sticks (I had 5 different colors) and we talked about which ones stood out more on the white paper.  Then we did a hunt in the yard to see what color sticks were better camouflaged against our yellow lawn.

 

We experienced how blubber keeps a polar bear warm.  (We also did this experiment last year.)

 I used butter and not lard in the ziploc bag and since our hands never came in contact with the butter, I can use it for baking.

  I printed out an early reader from Enchanted Learning called How Many Arctic Animals.  This counting booklet was too easy for her in terms of math but she enjoyed writing her numbers.
I also found an early reader to print at Making Learning Fun.  She loves to read it to me.

We read Arctic Community by Bobbie Kalman and I is for Inuksuk and then built our own inuksuks after a nature walk to find rocks.  I glued the sculptures with hot glue so they couldn't be accidentally knocked down, but they are still fragile.  We displayed them where J-jo can't reach.

(I made the one on the left.)

Stay tuned for more Arctic Science experiments next week and the list of Arctic books we read will be posted Saturday.

Linked to Preschool Corner.

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The Perfect TV Stand

After moving back to the States from Costa Rica we finally broke down and got a TV.  We'd never owned one and there was a terrific deal and my husband and I enjoy watching Netflix movies together.  For a long time the TV stood on a horrible little stand we'd brought back with us.  After looking through many tv stands we finally decided on the perfect one for our living room.  It was an early Christmas present and it just finishes the room (especially when I take the time to put the cushions and books back in place!).

I had to temporarily remove a shelf to fit the Nativity on the right.

Disclaimer: After writing one more such random post, I will receive a gift code from csnstores.com to use to purchase items to review.  Click here to see the first such random post.

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Artists and Art Week 15 - Georges Seurat and Pointillism

Our foray into pointillism was piqued by reading Katie's Sunday Afternoon.  Bear loves these books about Katie who can go through a frame and enter a painting.

The idea of pointillism is not to mix colors.  This allows for optical mixing - your eye mixes the colors as it sees the two colors next to each other.  Georges Seurat began this art movement.  One of his famous paintings is An Afternoon at La Grande Jatte.  This painting took him two years to finish.

photo from http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/jatte.html

If you scroll down on this page, you can see a close up of part of the painting that shows the dots of paint.
Here is a You Tube video that shows some of Seurat's work.

I gave Bear a Seurat coloring page. I let her paint in the picture with the end of a pencil (the eraser side). 

She didn't finish and had no desire to try her own creation with dot painting.

If you've done any art with your child this week based on an artist or illustration style, or taught some of the elements and principles of art, or studied a musician or any other type of artist, please join the Linky.  Please remember to link back.  

Comments are appreciated, especially if you link up! 

This post also linked to stART

and to Read.Explore.Learn

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Montessori Monday

 Since it was Christmas week, we didn't do much, but Bear did choose her skeleton puzzle (printed from here).  There's a little picture of what it should look like put together taped to the inside of the box so she can self-check.

 Short bead chains.  These teach the squares of numbers and also skip counting.

 We played a telling time game with a bit of active play thrown in.

I set up a time on the clock and she had to tell me the time, then while I changed the hands to a new time, she slid down her slide once.  At the bottom of the slide, she had to look at the new time and tell it to me.

 Some rice sensory time.  I often throw together some sensory bowl for the kids to play in while I cook. 

Linked to  Math Mondays hosted by Joyful Learner and also at One Hook Wonder for

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A Quick Science Experiment

After cooking a whole chicken, I had a wishbone to show Bear.  I told her about how you can wish on this bone when you break it.  Since we then had two pieces, I put one in vinegar and left one out in the air.  I told Bear she'd feel something really neat in a two or three days.

 The bone left in the air was hard and stiff.

 The bone in the vinegar was all rubbery.

The vinegar is a mild acid and dissolves the calcium in the bone.  Calcium is what make the bones hard. 

Here's a link to a detailed how to for those who like directions.

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Snowmen Ornaments

 I saw these at Our Homeschool Fun last year and fell in love with them.  I love commemorating my little ones' hand prints and this is a really neat way to do so.  Susana did this project again this year and when I saw baubles on sale, I had Bear help me make some.  J-jo (top photo is his hand) only let us do one bauble with his hand, but Bear did two other ones so we could give them to grandparents.  Bear helped me make eyes, mouths, buttons, and scarves.  She was so steady with that paintbrush.

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Artists and Art Week 14 - A Snowy Tree Painting

 This week's project is a snowed upon tree.  We got our inspiration from The Snowy Day.  

 She left the bottom white, drawing a line in white oil pastel across the paper horizontally to discourage the purple and blue watercolor from spreading too far. She drew her tree in brown oil pastel and painted the sky with watercolors. Then she added salt before the watercolors dried too much.  After it had dried and the salt had been dusted off, she added white glitter to the snow and to some of the branches to make the snowy parts shimmery.  The salt effect and glitter gave the painting lots of texture.

Bear loved this so much she did too.  She gave one to her grandfather for his birthday. I love how she includes the roots in tree drawings ever since we studied trees last spring/summer.

If you've done any art with your child this week based on an artist or illustration style, or taught some of the elements and principles of art, or studied a musician or any other type of artist, please join the Linky.  Please remember to link back.  

Comments are appreciated, especially if you link up! 

This post also linked to stART.

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Preschool Wrap up

 We mostly did arts and crafts this week and battled ear infections and colds. 

Glue Men

 They look cute on the children's tree.

 Adding glitter to ceramic snowflakes (found at Hobby Lobby) to give to her ballet teachers.  They look better in person.

Decorating the circle tree we made last year.  She's still working on this one.

 Our Monet inspired painting of the Christmas tree.

We've read a lot of Christmas books, including:




Bear has been reading the following books on her own:


Math has been more or less just counting down to Christmas with a bit of addition practice (at school).  She's also been working on short bead chains at school and is up to the 4 chain (there are 4 sets of 4 beads linked together and she counts them in 4's adding a little arrow with the correct number at each 4th bead - it's to learn 4 squared.)

I've been busy planning units on Frogs and Polar Bears/the Arctic (totally unrelated, I know) to take us through to the end of January.


Linked to

• Preschool Corner.
• What My Child is Reading

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How to impress your children and your neighbor's children too

Today I am guest posting on Montessori MOMents, a wonderful new-to-me blog I discovered a little while ago. To find out exactly how to impress your children and your neighbor's children too, go visit my post there today.

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Rainbow Pegs and Cups

I made this for J-jo before Thanksgiving and forgot to post it. The pegs and cups are from Hobby Lobby with 40 and fifty percent off coupons.  I used non toxic watercolor paint to color the wood.


They were going to be a Santa gift, but Bear saw me making them and so they’ll just be a Mommy gift.

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Artists and Art Week 13 – Monet Inspired Christmas Tree

  After reading Katie Meets The Impressionists

over and over at Bear’s request, I figured it would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to do a Monet artist study, seeing how interested she was in the
impressionist art.

Using our Christmas tree as inspiration, we dabbed and daubed as the painters in Katie Meets the Impressionists. 

 She had a beautiful shape of a tree here, but decided to do a super-zoomed in tree (her words) as you will see in the photo of the finished painting.

 Mommy's finished tree.

Bear's "super-zoomed in" tree.

 Photographed with the inspiration tree.

I didn’t share any actual artist biographical information with her this time since it was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment project.

Art elements and principles, and vocabulary, taught:

magnification, texture, impressionist, use of space, balance

What are your favorite books for kids about artists? 

If you've done any art with your child this week based on an artist or illustration style, or taught some of the elements and principles of art, or studied a musician or any other type of artist, please join the Linky.  Please remember to link back.  

Comments are appreciated! 

This post also linked to stART.

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Santa Lucia Day

I made Bear a Santa Lucia crown following this tutorial.   I added popsicle sticks sandwiched inside the white felt of the candles to get them to stay upright.  You can see one's shadow as the light from the tree shines through the felt.

As much as I wanted to make her a white gown, in the end I decided my white slip and a white shirt would do just fine.  We tied a red Christmas ribbon around her for the sash.

She dressed this paper doll (found via Our Little Nature Nest).  Although I liked the story provided at Our Little Nature Nest, I decided in the end, to tell her part of the true story of the Saint.  Bear adores the paper doll because we read the book Kirsten's Surprise last week and this paper doll is a replica of Kirsten.

Here's a bit of background I gave Bear:

Saint Lucia became a devout Christian after prayers to Saint Agatha saved her mother from illness.  She convinced her mother that they should give her dowry (money you need when you get married) away to help the poor.  It is said they did this at night by candlelight and so she wore a wreath of candles, so her hands would be free to give out the money and food.  Santa Lucia's bright candles remind us to be the light in the darkness. And her offerings of food and drink remind us to be kind and giving to others.
(I left out the next bit in telling Bear the story.)
She also promised herself to God and did not want to marry the man to whom she was engaged.  She was blinded (although in some versions she gauges out her own eyes to scare away her fiance) and tortured and finally slain.  The red slash symbolizes the blood, the white gown her purity before God, the candlelit wreath symbolizes the light by which she and her mother donated the dowry.  I could not find anything to tell me why the tradition involves Santa Lucia delivering breakfast to her family.
Does anyone know?

I wanted to make Lussekatter from the recipe on this post but I was deterred by the price of saffron.  Instead, I made a challah recipe and shaped the dough into the traditional S shapes.  I also took some of the dough and made a miniature braided crown too (as seen at this recipe for Saint Lucia's braided bread).  Bear distributed the Lussekatter at school.

 We ate some for breakfast.  Breakfast was a candlelit affair - with just two battery operated candles and the Christmas tree lit.  It was really magical and the whole family had a wonderful time.  It was just perfect.  We can't wait to do this again next year!

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Tot School

Play dough.

Playing with plastic insects. 

He can match the bugs when I show him one and ask him to find me the other.

Attempting to bake with Mommy.  It seems to me Bear was a bit more helpful at his age and not just wanting to eat the dough.  He had a complete meltdown because he wanted to eat the dough and I wouldn’t let him because of the raw egg.  Thankfully my husband was home and took care of that while Bear and I finished making the gingerbread!

He loves books and often can be found “reading” to himself.

Buttons in a mini muffin tin.  I supervised this so closely because he still puts everything in his mouth.  He loved the clinking sound of the buttons hitting the tin.

Figuring out how to get his hand inside the Cheerios bag and subsequently helping himself to a snack. :)

He discovered the Do a Dot markers and fell in love!

Technically he shouldn’t be touching the cylinder blocks but he is so drawn to them that I let him play with this one.  It was very interesting because he went to where I keep the mats and pulled out the one he is sitting on.  Then he tried to spread it out (I helped him).  After he’d done that, he went to the shelf to get the block (too heavy for him, so I carried it).  he must have internalized the sequence of steps Bear does when getting her work out.

I presented to him how to take them out with the tripod grasp and how to put them back in properly.  I was very impressed that he could imitate me.

 

My favorite photo this week is him settled to watch TV at the Gymboree store in the mall.  When we walked past Gymboree later, he remembered and wanted to go back in for more TV!

Linked up to Tot School at 1+1+1=1

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