WFMW - "A" Adventures

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Last week we went through our "A" activity trays, and today I'm gonna tell you about some of our absolutely amazing "A" adventures! Mommy told you earlier how our school is organized by day, but we kinda let some of the days overlap. Here's how it went...

Review.

Song: The Alphabet Song. Mommy printed each song on a page with pictures, so I can pick out the song I want to sing out of our songbook. I like pointing out some of the letters as we sing, especially "WXY and Z!" And I'm starting to move my fingers to sign the alphabet like Mommy does.

Book: Avalanche by Michael J. Rosen. We read a number of alphabet books, but this was my absolute favorite! I especially liked the outer space pictures.

Food: Alphabet soup. Not terribly exciting. Apple chips. Not my favorite, either. Apple Jacks. Now THOSE I like!

Computer Time: Fisher Price alphabet game - fun because I can play without having to use the mouse!

Physical Activity: Color Twister

This is the day Mommy brings out the big bin of alphabet and color and shape stuff for me to play with. Plus we put together our very own Teeny Tiny alphabet book. I helped color, and then I decided it needed some glitter glue. That was just the perfect touch, Mommy says.

Lapbook (& Ants).

Song: The Ants Go Marching. My favorite song of the week! I love to march around the house and go "boom boom boom" with my foot! I don't always make it through all ten verses, but we did a couple of times. And it's good exercise on a rainy day!

Book: Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros - we just looked at pictures. The Ant and the Elephant by Bill Peet - there were too many words in this book, but Mommy just told me the story as we looked at pictures.

Food: Ants on a log. I had fun making these - but I only ate the peanut butter and cream cheese, not the celery or raisins...

Computer Time: Archibald's Adventure - I had fun watching as Mommy showed me how to play.

Science: Ant farm. We filled a jar with dirt and ants. You can see more at this science post.

Physical Activity: Marching like ants

On the second day, we are putting together a lapbook for each letter. I get to play with it during the week, and then I'll get to look at all my lapbooks on review days, too.

We're keeping things simple for now. Here's what we did:
We have the folder set up backwards from what you would normally think a folder should be. This way, you can punch holes along the back left page and put it in a binder nicely - the front page is a little smaller and opens to the right.

The first page is a block letter "A" with fingerprint ants on it. Mommy says it was much easier to do this last year when I was little and let her move my hand around. I wanted to do it myself this time - and I DIDN'T want to do three fingerprints in a row. So this is as good as it got.

On the inside of the front page we stapled a gallon ziplock bag to store some of the "A" activities we did throughout the weeks.

On the next page we had a letter book, with pages of things that start with "A." Then our sign language cards. I really like flaps, so these are taped with the A card on top, then you lift it up and the apple card is underneath. And on the backs of each card is a diagram of how to make the sign.

And I have a Bible verse card. For "A" we did "Go to the ant" verse from Proverbs 6:9. This is a flap card, too - if you lift it up, there are ant pictures pasted underneath. And I had a counting pocket. Inside were apples numbered from 1-15, so we could pull them out, put them in order, and count.

On the back page we glued a coloring page of an "A" ant.

Mommy says to let you know - if it seems there is too much coloring, try changing the medium you color with. Watercolor paints go a long way - I colored a LOT of pages very fast with my watercolors.

Excursion 1: Aquarium.

Book: Curious George Goes to the Aquarium by Margret and H. A. Reys. I LOVED this book! But then, I love anything George is in...

Food: Goldfish crackers.

I really wanted to drive 3 hours to a big aquarium, but instead we just checked out the fish at Wal-Mart while running errands. We almost bought a fish bowl to put plastic fish in, but we couldn't find plastic fish anywhere. And the real ones weren't for sale that day (thankfully, Mommy says).

Bible Story: Adam (& Creation & Animals).

Song: God Made Adam

Book: Colors of Creation by Thomas Paul Thigpen - this is my absolute favorite book! Mine is in Mozambique, so we just read it online. In Our Image: God's First Creatures by Nancy Sohn Swartz - Mommy says she paraphrased a little bit due to theology, but this was a fun book and fun story.

Food: Garden of Eden food! Acorn squash glazed with apricot jam, almond butter, dried apricots, asparagus.

Computer Time: When God Made Everything online book, Animal Sounds game

Science: Switching lights on and off, candles (God said "Let there be light.")

Physical Activity: Naming the animals we saw on a walk outside

We talked about creation and Adam and Eve on our Bible story day. I played a creation matching game. Mommy laid out 8 cards in the order of creation, and I had to match my 8 cards to those.
And we made a mobile of the days of creation. Each day was a different color, kind of like my favorite creation book.
We decided to use up the paint that was left on our plate to make this rainbow. Mommy helped a lot, but I told everybody "Esmé paint it!"

Science: Alligator & Airplane.

Song: Alligator Pie

Book: See You Later, Alligator by Bobette McCarthy. Snip Snap! What's That? by Mara Bergman - one of my absolute favorites! Freddie Goes on an Airplane by Nicola Smee. I Love Planes by Philemon Sturges - my ABSOLUTE favorite book of the week!

Food: Airplane tray. Sadly, no alligator pie...

Science: Flying airplanes

Computer Time: Barney's Airplane song

Physical Activity: Jumping on the trampoline like an astronaut

You can read more about our airplane adventures on this airplane post.

Social Studies: Australia.

Song: Kookaburra Song

Book: Big Talk by Miriam Schlein - one of my favorites. Wombat Stew by Marcia K. Vaughan. Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne. Australia: Enchantment of the World by Ann Heinrichs - we looked at pictures while talking about Australia.

Food: (Veggie)meat pie

Science: Eating gumdrops - see this science post.

Computer Time: Kookaburra video - there are several other kookaburra videos, too.

Physical Activity: Prep and take a walkabout.

I got to play with some Australian outback paper dolls. I liked matching up styles for them to wear, since I am such a fashionista myself...
Excursion 2: Airplane.

We ate lunch while staking airplanes (see airplane post). I LOVE airplanes!

Kitchen: Apple.

Song: Apple (to the tune of BINGO)

Book: There are STACKS of books on apples. Here are some that I enjoyed: Ten Apples Up On Top! by Theo L. LeSieg. The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall. How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson. Johnny Appleseed by Jane Yolen.

Food: Apple shakeups snack. Mommy peeled up some apples, and I cut them with a table knife. Then we put them in a ziplock bag. I put in some spoons of brown sugar and cinnamon, too. Then I shook it all up! I didn't eat any, though...

I did eat the sugar cookies we made. I helped roll out the dough, use the cookie cutters (A, apple, airplane, and angel), and decorate them. Cept Mommy said they flopped cuz they didn't keep their shape when they baked. But they were yummy, anyway.
Science: Lemon juice on apple - see this science post.

Computer Time: Checked out some apple sites with Mommy: http://www.bestapples.com/kids/games/, http://www.applejuice.org/fungames.html, http://apple-corps.westnet.com/apple_corps.2.html

Physical Activity: Apple blossom blizzard. We went outside and checked out the orchard in our back yard. There were some pretty apple blossoms! We got to do a blossom blizzard, too. Not with the apples, though - the pear blossoms worked much better for a blizzard. I like tissue paper blossom blizzards, but real blossom blizzards are much better! Mommy hid some wood apples in my alphabet macaroni tub. I got to find them and paint them!
My coloring page for the day was an apple. After it was colored, we glued it to cereal box board. We had to wait for it to dry. Then Mommy cut it and punched holes in it, and I got to sew it up. I got real good coordination...
I made this really cool apple print wrapping paper. Mommy showed me how to paint stems and leaves on the apples after we printed them.
Miscellaneous A Stuff.

Act of Kindness. Write a letter to an aunt. We picked my Auntie Ann, cuz her name starts with A. Here's my letter:
I haven't met her yet - she lives in Cambodia. But she gives the nicest gifts. So we picked out a present for her, and we're gonna wrap it in the apple print paper I made. But I can't tell you what it is - it's a secret!
Calendar. Since we're in April, which is an "A" month, we started keeping a calendar. Every day we put a new sticker on the day (or sometimes we have to catch up and put several stickers on the days we missed). And I'm learning the days of the week and stuff, with a little help from Starfall.com.

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WFMW - "A" Activity Trays

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Esmé's Mommy here.

I've been having a hard time deciding how much detail to share of our alphabet school each week. The alphabet posts have generally taken the most time to put together and get the least comments - most of my "known" readers aren't into all the details. Yet these posts also get the most hits on my blog, so I'm guessing there are a few anonymous readers out there.

So here's what we're gonna do. Only one post each week devoted specifically to "school," as we've been doing in the past. I'll give you an outline of what we're doing, including some photos and a little feedback on how things worked. The idea is simply to pass on ideas, not to provide a "curriculum" or to keep track of all the sources and links. If you want a specific link, let me know via email or comment and I'll try to get it to you.

We're spending two weeks on each letter, so for organizational purposes, I'll go through our activity trays one week, and then the themed activities the second week.

So here are the "A" activity trays that worked for us this week!

Sensory Tub. We filled a small tub with alphabet macaroni, and put in a few measuring cups and spoons for good measure. So we got practice figuring how many 1/8 cups filled a 1/4 cup, etc, as well as practice "hiding" our hands and feet in the tub. I also used the tub to hide various objects for crafts - plaster planes and wood apples for painting, etc. And Esmé also liked picking out the Os, Ws, Vs, and As. (And I found the macaroni in the Mexican section of the grocery store, not the pasta section...)
Shake 'n Sniff. I put a teaspoon of allspice into an apple-shaped shaker and paired it up with a coffee filter for Esmé to sprinkle the allspice onto. I refilled it a couple of times and replaced the coffee filter, too. And the first time I realized I needed to include her little broom and dustpan with this activity, so she could sweep up her mess afterwards!
Counting. I had two activities for counting. The first was a tray of 15 acorns, to be counted out into cups of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Counting didn't actually happen unless I was involved, but she liked carrying the little acorns around.
The second counting activity was 15 crocheted angels in an angel bag. These could also be counted in rows of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 to make an angel tree.
Play Doh. Play doh is a very important part of our school! It does take my involvement, as I get to roll it out. I've been collecting cookie cutters from thrift stores - so for A week we had an angel, an apple, an airplane, and the letter A.
Matching. I had two sets of matching games out - one that included "A" pictures from a Memory game, and the other a 3-part card set I printed - though we are only using two parts for now - not matching written words yet! Though I might need to do so soon. Esmé does the matching right the first time, just to show me she can do it, and then she just messes around with me and mismatches everything... (Those Memory card holder boxes work great for this - 12 cards is about the max I'd use for Esmé.)


Color Sorting. I made an apple tree and an orange tree out of felt, and cut 10 of each fruit from felt, also. I mixed them up and let Esmé put the correct fruit on the correct tree. She did perfectly the first time through, and then just like with the matching activity, she starting messing things around. Her favorite part was alternating the fruit to put back on the tray for the next time through.


Magnets. Esmé loves magnets, so I've started collecting these from thrift stores, too. My best investment was a set of five photo frame magnets. We looked through a magazine for "A" pictures, ripped them out, and stuck them in the frames. The magnets are in a bowl on her activity tray shelf, and she has a little magnet board to put them on, or she can carry them to the fridge and use them there.

Rubber Stamps. I've started a collection of rubber stamps from thrift stores, too. I put "A" stamps on a tray with ink pads and strips of paper to make bookmarks.Esmé enjoys this if I am playing along with her, but it does get rather messy.

Stickers. Esmé generally loves stickers, but for some reason just putting them on a tray with paper wasn't very appealing to her. So I colored a few "background" cards, and that went over much better. We did an airport scene, an apple tree with apple stickers, and outer space with astronaut and alien stickers. She also liked putting stickers in her new journal, as well as drawing in the journal several times.

Cutting. I printed out a bunch of small apples for Esmé's lapbook, and had a few strips left over. So I stuck these in a cup with her scissors, and she enjoyed cutting the strips.

A Triangle. I took three craft sticks and put velcro on them so they could be connected in a triangle shape or in an "A" shape. She enjoyed these as long as I was helping her with them.

Inserts. Nothing "A" about this - I lost my creativity here. But it was one of Esmé's favorite activities - inserting toothpicks into the holes on a salt shaker. She pulled this down a number of times to do by herself.

Coloring Tray. I put an apple mug of crayons on a tray - yes - I'm looking for mugs to correspond to all the letters now! Then I had a coloring page for each theme during the week, so I could swap the pages out as they got colored. (I haven't given Esmé crayons much because she eats them, and she stayed true to form, but I tried to ignore it this week, and I think she's slowly getting over her fetish. She at least managed to do some coloring between the bites.)




Pouring. The last activity tray on her shelf was the pouring one - a small glass pitcher and a small glass. Not particularly "A"ish, but I'll be adding a sponge or towel to this in the future, so maybe those can be A themed! She loves this, it is always messy, and it is put on the shelf empty, so when she wants to use it, I take it to the kitchen and fill the pitcher. A little control that way...
We also had a couple of bins of toys. As I mentioned last week, I've cut down a lot on the toys, but she's definitely enjoying the ones she has more now. Not everything is "A" themed - I left out her doll and wagon. But I did include a bin of A stuff - angels, apples, airplanes. And here is the ark with animals...

And I left some other art stuff out for free art time, like her easel and white board. So I can be blessed with spontaneous designs such as this one. Doesn't it just feel like spring?

So there you have it - the A activity trays that worked for this 24-month-old! Next week we'll go through the A-theme adventures we did, too.

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Science

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This week's Unplugged theme was "science," which is awfully broad! So I thought I'd highlight the science experiments we did for our "A" themes...

Hypothesis #1: Ants. If you fill a glass jar with sifted dirt and stuff it with all kinds of nice things like grass and crumbs and sprayed water, and put ants into it, the ants will get busy and create a real cool ant farm that you can watch through the jar.

Conclusion #1: Ants. Ants are miniature Houdinis.

First we hammered nail holes into the jar lid for air. The ants all escaped. Then we covered the jar with aluminum foil and pricked pin holes into it. The ants all escaped. Next time we are just going to forget about giving them any air. Or stick with ladybugs instead.
Hypothesis #2: Apples. If you cut two slices of apple and coat one with lemon juice and put them on a plate on the table, the one without lemon juice will turn brown, and the one with lemon juice will not change color.
Conclusion #2: Apples. If you put sliced apples on a plate on the table, they will disappear. All that will be left is the cores.
We did do this again, making sure Pappa was in the loop this time around. And the hypothesis was correct...

Hypothesis #3: Adam (Creation). When you switch on the light, there will be light.

Conculsion #3: Adam (Creation). You can't tire God out. The light keeps coming on when you switch it on.

Hypothesis #4: Australia (Kookaburra). Kookaburras must have a jolly good life, eating gumdrops all day.

Conclusion #4: Australia (Kookaburra). Gumdrops are hard to stab with toothpicks, so kookaburras must have pretty good beaks to be able to pick up gumdrops. And quite frankly, they are awfully gummy and hard work to chew. I prefer to just suck the sugar off and throw the rest away.

(And yes, I did watch a video all about kookaburras, and Mommy explained that their gumdrops are not quite the same as mine...)

Hypothesis #5: Airplanes. My paper airplane will fly farther than Pappa's because of my secret folding methods.

Conclusion #5: Airplanes. Maybe my paper airplane doesn't fly so far, but neither does Pappa's when I throw it. Let's stick with the real planes, shall we?

Hypothesis #6: Alligators. Alligator stew is awfully yummy. So is alligator pie and alligator soup.

Conclusion #6: Alligators. Alligators are too scary to catch. So we can't cook them.

Hypothesis #7: Avocados. If you plant an avocado seed in a jar of water, it will sprout and grow.

Conclusion #7: Avocados. If you plant an avocado seed in a jar of water, nothing happens. Not in this lifetime, anyway.

So there you have it. Any other scientific theories you'd like me to test for you while I'm on a roll?

Airplane

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This week's Unplugged theme is "Transportation," and since we're studying "A," we focused on airplanes! Cuz like I told Pappa, "Ay-pane "A" word! Ay-pane up dere! Go ay-port NOW!"

So here I lined up all my stuffed airplanes. Me and British Airways - we got a partnership going. I even got more of these back in Mozambique!
Then Mommy and I got Taco Bell food and staked out the local regional airport while I slurped on my Fruitista Freeze. Cept it was raining so this is all we saw the whole time - no takeoffs or landings. You don't hear me complaining, though. I'd hang out at the airport 24/7 if I could.
I did airplane stickers, too. Mommy figured out FINALLY that I love stickers if she'll draw a background for me to put them on, instead of just giving me a blank piece of paper.
And I did an archaeological dig to find some plaster planes buried beneath alphabet macaroni rubble. I'm learning to carefully brush away the debris on these digs.
And the planes were salvageable! So I painted them. Mostly white. White paint on white plaster. White on white is always good - I got fashion sense, you know...
I saw Mommy folding up some planes, so I grabbed them and said "Esmé do it!" Here I am showing Mommy how it's done.
Mine didn't fly so well, though, so I grabbed Pappa's and flew it. Pappa tried to show me how it's done, but I already know. "Esmé do it!" Cept even Pappa's didn't fly so well when I did it.
So of course we needed an airport for all these planes. Mommy started to work on the runway under my supervision, but ultimately "Esmé do it!"
Then Mommy started building a control tower out of blocks, but "Esmé do it!" in the end. And we lined up all the planes on the runway.
After all that, I was hungry and needed a good old-fashioned airplane meal. So Mommy got me an Amy's Mac & Cheese dinner. She tried to get a photo of me eating, but "Esmé do it!"
See - my photography skills are excellent! Seriously. Mommy says we might do an exhibition of more of my recent photos later this week. If I could just get the cat and the Pappa photo subjects to cooperate better.
Oh yeah, we read some airplane books, too. Freddie goes on an airplane by Nicola Smee was pretty good. But my favorite was I Love Planes! by Philemon Sturges. I could read that one for hours!
For more Transportation activities, check out Unplugged!