C is for Camping

For Tot School, we're following a letter of the week format. I'm not quizzing or drilling anything in to Eli, just simply introducing letters and having fun around that letter during the week. 

We've been lucky with the themes I chose to go with: they've suited everyone for three weeks now! 

This week, we went with "camping" (and caterpillars) as our theme. Homeschool Creations and 2 Teaching Mommies had some FANTASTIC camping preschool packs that I split between Eli and Turner. We had other things to do this week, so today was the only day we did our camping theme. I had intended for it to be week-long fun, but why drag it out when you can cram it in to one day? 

Turner working on a maze from Homeschool Creations camping pack. 

Eli, practicing following a line. 

We made a fire by rolling up rectangles cut from paper bags. I spray painted two opened paper bags (because the spray paint was right in my sight in the garage as I grabbed the recyclables). The kids tore the bags in to pieces and we crumpled them up and hot glued them everywhere. This led to an interesting conversation about why I chose two different colors for fire. We were able to talk (simply) about the heat differences and the way gasses burned. 

Probably my favorite shot of the day: Eli with bed-head around noon, and breakfast still on his face! They painted a sign that said "Welcome Campers." While they were doing this, we talked about camping and Scouting. Turner is pretty obsessed with turning 6 (he just turned 5) so he can start Boy Scouts. 

Canteen craft. I think I was googling "camping theme" or something like that. I saw someone glued two paper plates together and stuck a water bottle in the middle. We (un)fortunately had some juice pouches left over from Turner's party so I stuck that in the middle. 

We were supposed to go on a hike with our canteens and backpacks but as I looked at the forecast last night and realized we were in a monsoon all day I quickly thought of activities to do inside. I remembered a game I made up a few months ago and wondered if we could go fishing in the bath tub.

It worked! The kids loved fishing! I had intended to do more with "Go fishfor the letter B!" but the baby was in to everything! In the two seconds it took me to take this picture and get down (ahem, from le potty), Deacon was in my room splashing in the toilet saying "baaafff!" (bath). So, the big boys ended up in a fishing competition.

Meet the Dubiens was, again, the inspiration behind our "Fun Food Friday." The kids LOVED last week's lunch even though I thought it was a total fail. They talked about it all week so it was a no-brainer wether I'd do it again! 

S'mores on the grill. It rained all day and everything was SOAKED! 

My three campers! 

I totally forgot graham crackers, but remembered I had ice cream cones from Turner's birthday cake!  John stuffed marshmallows and chocolate in them and put the cones on the top rack of the grill while the kids roasted their own marshmallows. Then he added the roasted marshmallows to the top with some chocolate! 

Campers ready to Turn in for a short movie on the computer, in their "tent," of course. Unfortunately, there are still boxes from our last move (ahem, like 11 months ago) we haven't opened and I'm positive the tent is in one. I just couldn't get to it this week!

It doesn't look like much, but the kids had a blast! Turner even proclaimed this "the best camping ever!" Too bad we've not taken them on a real trip yet! 

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Donuts and the Beach: Off-Day Edition

This was our first curveball day. The kids were up to MAJOR shenannigans last night and we were tortured souls this morning. My husband suggested we head out for out annual (ok, for the second year in a row around the beginning of fall) trip to Duck, NC, to hit up Duck Donuts. 

I was going to pack things for Turner to do when it occurred to me he might like a little breather, too. It is only Kindergarten and, well, sometimes family time is more important than hitting the books!

Pop three kids in the car, add two parents with to-go coffees and an hour an a half later...
DONUTS! 

Eli was singing "mmm mmm mmm dounuts!" while he waited (im)patiently.

The boys were still in their pajamas. It was that kind of morning.

Warm, cakey and ready to soak in the glazes. 

Eli's bed-head. 

75 and sunny: perfect for donuts on the deck, overlooking the sound. 

The choice du jour, chocolate (thick and fudgey!) with sprinkles.

Deacon says: "Hmm, which shall I choose?"

"Uh, that one!" 

Somebody named Eli decided to take bites out of each donut. 

After donuts, we headed down the road to Kitty Hawk to play on the beach. Lost of places still had hurricane damage and there was still debri on the beach. Thankfully, the surf was incredibly rough (8-10 foot waves) and there was a bad rip current so we didn't have to brave the chilly water! 

The kids had fun collecting skate egg cases, shells and a great horseshoe crab shell! 

 

We didn't necessarily need the break today, but we really don't know how much time we'll have with Daddy really around. Oh, and it wasn't like I was going to have the most cooperative audience!  

So, today, it was the school of life and it worked out just fine.

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Tot Tray Tuesday

Tot Trays 9.19.11 - 9.23.11

**Two trays not pictured: car sorting, and sensory box for the week**

Letter C craft: crab

Giving a Cat a Cupcake from Spell Out Loud

Cupcake number matching: Eli surprised me when he easily identified 

numbers 1-5 so I've added 6-10. If he gets bored, we stop. 

Letter Cc dot-a-dot from our Letter of the Week Curriculum from 

Confessions of a Homeschooler. Actually, this is a magnet page but Deacon

puts too much in his mouth so markers it is! 

How many caterpillars on the leaf? From COAH's Letter of the Week Curriculum.

Letter sorting

How many fireflies? From Homeschool Creations Camping Preschool Pack

Place the pom poms on the caterpillar (worksheet from our LOTW curriculum)

Making cubes from foam blocks (Dollar Tree)

lower case letter c craft: caterpillar

Ok, this one might stretch the imagination: placing a dough ball in the cupcake liner...place the appropriate numbers of candles in the cupcake. I'll say the number orally and Eli will place the candles. 

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The Plan, Stan

Fall is right at the door so I'm excited to get started on lots of crafts and activities. This week I'll be adding one or two additional items to our week, but that's only because the kids keep asking for things to do. The excitement when Eli sees his trays or Turner sees his different books laid out is quite odd. I mean, I'm extremely happy that they like what I've got in store for them but I'm a little nervous that it will wear off quickly! 

At any rate, we had another great week last week (week 2) so I'm looking forward to the new week! 

Here's what we're up to in school:

Letter of the Week: Cc

Turner

Co-op on Tuesday

Horizons Math: Lessons 13-18 -again, this is still number identification and listening to very basic directions (circle the bird on the left, etc)

Other Math: numbers 1-20 identification assessment (Confessions of a Homeschooler), using games to practice identification (bottle cap math game from COAH), caterpillar graphing from our COAH Letter of the Week Curriculum 

Phonics: (Rocket Phonics): On-going (very short) oral lessons for phonemic awareness. This week we'll play the "I'm thinking of a word" game where I'll say: "I'm thinking of a word and my word is /c/ /a/ /t/. Can you guess my word? It's just something to get him listening to the sounds of words but in a more "formal" way. 

Other Phonics: using an idea from Pintrest, I'll make up a dot-a-dot game where Turner will listen for single sounds and use the dot-a-dot markers to mark off the letters. First person (even though he's playing "against" Eli) to find all their sounds correctly wins. 

Reading Skills: The "mom" and "dad" sight words from last week were a hit! I think he really enjoyed learning words he was interested in. This week I'll choose two more from the 1+1+1=1 color by number sight words and also review the previous words. I also printed off a bingo game to play and practice letters (I found this on Pintrest)

Reading: We are using the Before Five in a Row books. This week we're reading Caps For Sale and using Homeschool Creations printables to expand on the book. The printables are a great introduction to money, graphing, using a ruler as well as language, phonics and reading skill practice! 

Science: a quick talk about how scientists observe the world around them and an introduction to their magnifying glasses (well, new ones because the old ones have been destroyed!) and their nature journals. It will also be our fist week of the Outdoor Hour Challenge from the Handbook of Nature Study blog. 

Other: I'd like to try to make a cute project I saw on Counting Coconuts. I think it will help to reinforce where we live in relation to the world and give us something to talk about during calendar time.  

Eli

Letter of the Week: Cc and we're using the Camping theme from Homeschool Creations and 2 Teaching Mommies for printables and ideas!  

I'll post everything he's doing on Tuesday! 

Week in Review

Our second week with off without a hitch! I wasn't sure how much we'd accomplish just because it was a busy week on the social calendar. In the end, Turner completed all of his work and Eli blew through all of the trays I had set up for him. 

We're still taking it easy and incorporating new things each week. By second week of October we should have our full load for the year. Next week I'm hoping to work on a formal morning routine so the kids know that after this (breakfast) we do that (play/morning work). 

It's been a little willy nilly around here. 

I use the Laurie Berkner Band station on Pandora in the morning and
spontaneous dance parties are common place. 

Jammin' out to "Starfish and Coffee."

 The bug sensory boxes were a hit! It allowed us to continue talking about what a scientist is and then introduce the idea of scientific instruments. Which led to a discussion about the multiple meanings of the term "instrument." 

We talked about observing different bugs. 

The "tools" were great for fine motor skills.

Eli is always the first to think outside of the box. He's always creating something! 

Ants (in this case a random bug) can carry ten times their weight. 

While the kids played, I had some (more) coffee and read On Beyond Bugs. Turner loved all the facts
about bugs! Both boys remembered the parts of a bug (head, thorax and abdomen) from listening. 

 Most of Turner's reading work was oral this week. We are still talking about words and sounds (phonemic awareness) any chance I remember. I also gave him two sight words to work with from Carissa at 1+1+1=1. I thought it was such a great idea to use two words he would be highly motivated to remember! 

Of course, we had to break up the day with some Super Hero action. I think Eli needed a cape so I used the back and neckband from a white shirt to make the cape and the masks and arm bands just happened.

Super Turner worked in his Get Ready for the Code book. He's (finally) almost done with this book so we can move on to Get Set (for the Code) book!

Who needs pants when you work from home? Eli certainly doesn't; he decided to do his shape match up game half dressed! 

This was my first attempt at "Fun Food Friday" a la Meet the Dubiens! I know mine would be lame this week because we had so much going on, but the kids loved it any way. I ordered a bunch of really cute cutters and punches from here. If I would have only had the foresight in Japan, I could have had boxes of the cutest bento accessories for mere dollars!

Since the theme for the week was bugs, I attempted a bug plate. Someone (who shall remain nameless)
decided to get in to his snack before I could get a better picture. Ants (dried cranberries) in grass (celery),
a caterpillar (edamame), a spider (fruit leather) on a tree (pretzel rod, steamed broccoli), butterflies (flour tortillas decorated with food safe markers), and a sun (mandarin oranges, mini marshmallow eyes and decorating gel). 

Eli counting bees.

Turer was "sewing" while Eli threaded beads on to pipe cleaners. 

I'm happy we had another great week!

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