4.23.2013

Bugs!

Buggies! Such a fun thing to talk about.  Even though most of us are scared of the majority of these real things, playing with little pretend critters is oh so cute!  

Here are the cute little lightning bugs that we made (courtesy of my co-teacher at schools idea).  
We decorated Easter eggs with pipe cleaners and foil for wings, then we stuck some miniature light up fake candles in the inside to create lightning bugs!  (you can find these lights at a Dollar Tree or similar store).  We flew these little buggies EVERYWHERE inside the house just to make sure they glowed the same amount everywhere they went. =)







Then we created a little bug exploration sensory table with dirt, life cycle of a ladybug, and bug catchers with magnifying glasses and nets.  



 Our art activities included ladybugs, ants on a picnic blanket, and as always, Big K threw in her own creativity and decided she wanted to make a handprint fly.  Not really sure if I see it, but she knew where she was going with it, so there you go! 



                                     




Bug hunted outside...(we pretty much found mostly worms) 




Can't believe she touched this! 


And bug hunted inside...






Then we retold the story "There was an old lady who swallowed a Fly" with our fun interactive doll, over and over and over.  Simply couldn't get enough of this funny old lady!








4.01.2013

Easter art and fun!

Here was our Easter sensory table this year to kick off the week. If you missed last years, you can see it here.  Playing with plastic eggs has got to be one of my girls favorite things of all time.  I can't even begin to tell you how many "indoor" Easter egg hunts I had to perform.



Materials Included:

Easter grass
plastic eggs
Easter confetti (97c @Wal Mart)
Robin's eggs and nest (Target dollar bin)
Girls easter buckets


Here is our math egg match activity. Dots on the top half of the egg, numbers on the bottom. Match em up! 


Little K was obviously still a little too young for this activity this year but Big K had a good time helping her out.  She loves playing little teacher, just like Mommy.  And she does a mighty fine job I should say!



Decorating eggs with glue dots and colored sand..our alternative to egg dye this year.



See my cute little OSU eggs?! 



 Tape resist/wet chalk egg art.  Something about dipping the chalk in the water is what creates all the fun! 





Uppercase/lowercase letter egg match game



Alphabet egg hunt. Reveal the letter inside the egg, then match it to the ABC chart.




We then had to throw this sensory table in towards the end of the week. I had the spring colored rice in my sensory table at school and since we were done with it, Big K insisted it was a must that we take it home and put it in ours. So here you have it.  Something about colored rice never gets old. 






Mod podge egg balloons.  Messy but cute.





We did our own little version of Resurrection eggs so we could try to remain focused on the real meaning of Eater.  Even though Big K will refuse to tell you so, I do believe she had it figured out by the time Easter finally got here, why we actually celebrate the day.  I plan on bringing these back out year after year and know I will be thankful for it one day! Already am through watching Big K re enact playing with them.  There are all sorts of formats you can follow for making some of these yourself through Pinterest, etc. 




And here is a glance of a few of the little arts we did.  The last three of which were made with cut potatoes.  



 I apologize but the bunnies photo got taken while the glue was still running. I was in a hurry!



And this was supposed to be a sheep, but I must say it is the most interesting sheep I've ever seen.  But you know what, that's just fine because I ALWAYS encourage my kids to make their art their own, so there ya go! 


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