Monday, September 9, 2013

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Necklace Sequencing

We decided to try out the Virtual Book Club for the first time! This month's author was Bill Martin Jr. We chose the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" (one of Chickadee's favorite books!)


I picked this book because it was a book that Chickadee loves and enjoys reading, but not one that we had done a lot of activities with. She was excited as she pulled out the activity and wanted to know what we were going to do! Here is what I used:
The book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin Jr./Eric Carle; Pony/craft beads;  "Brown Bear Flip Book" cards


The first thing we did was read the story. Since this is a favorite of Chickadee she pretty much as this story memorized and so she read it to me!  
She even added voices for the different characters! It was great!
Next we took the cards I had prepared and played matching, matching the pictures to the words that described the cards:


Then, we made our sequencing necklace!! I had her lay out the pairs of words/pictures and get out the bag of beads. I asked her which animal came first in the book and she said "Brown Bear!" so we added one bead and then added the brown bear word card and picture card. Next we added 2 beads (for the second animal) and she knew red bird was next so we added the word card and the picture card. Then we added 3 beads (for the 3rd picture) and she had to check in the book for what came next because she couldn't remember. We continued using this pattern (# of beads for which number the animal was plus the word card and picture card) until the necklace was completed!






Look at that concentration!!

Finally, we had a finished "Story Sequencing Necklace" and she just HAD to wear it and retell me the story of the book using her new necklace!


**This activity ended up teaching more than just story sequencing! We did matching, counting beads, ordinal numbers, worked on fine motor skills, and retelling the story! My favorite part of the activity of was Chickadee was stringing on beads, stopped and looked up at me and said- "Mom, this is awesome! I LOVE this!" 
Making learning fun.... that's what it's all about!



Until next time, Enjoy life's adventures!
~B


Thursday, September 5, 2013

Even Super Heroes go to school!

 Last night at church, we talked about how God gives us an awesome power to help us be more like him every day- The Holy Spirit. One of the activities was to talk about super heroes and how they have special powers and how we are "like" super heroes in the fact that with the Holy Spirit helping us, we have "powers" to help us be more like Christ.

 I had the kids in my class make "Super Hero" masks to remind them that the Holy Spirit is there to help us anytime, anywhere! This morning, Chickadee woke up, insisted on wearing red and blue ("because those are superhero colors, like Superman") and then finished her wardrobe with her mask... She then told me she was a super hero with the Holy Spirit and she was ready for school!

  She proceeded to wear her mask during all our morning activities:


**I love this kid!**

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Full Swing!

  We have been trying to get into a routine here, after all, it has been 3 weeks since school started! However, I have a daughter who is NOT a morning person and I have learned one of the joys of homeschooling is to let her sleep a little longer so that we can both enjoy the day more! We have also been busy the past few weeks with different activities. Here are a few pics of what we have been up to!


 Working on more art projects from Home Art Studio!
"Happy Sun"

Completed "Happy Sun"
(I love the eye lashes she added on this project!)


We took a field trip to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis!
The just opened their brand new Playscape area and Chicadee LOVED it! 


I love to see them interact together!

Chicadee was afraid to climb in the climber at first. It took her multiple tries to talk herself into climbing all the way to the top to get in the boat! She was so proud and excited that she finally faced her fear and did it! We were very proud of her and it was neat to watch her face that fear to do something she really wanted to do! ;)

She drew the rabbit in the art studio!

Water table play!    ~I LOVE her smile here~

A little more Art Appreciation interpretations of "American Gothic" 

Latest art project "Sunflowers" based on Vincent Van Gogh's "15 sunflowers in a vase"
(from Home Art Studio)


Hope you enjoyed a small glimpse into our busy lives! September is definitely going to slow down a little for us! Enjoy the adventures!