Muffin Tin Tuesday!

I don't know what happened yesterday, but I never got around to doing a muffin tin, so we did it today. The kiddos were thrilled as usual! We had raisins and peanuts, cantaloupe, cheese, ruby red grapefruit, snow peas with dip, and turkey. I'm so thrilled because after several months of putting snow peas and sugar snap peas on my kids plates (I LOVE to snack on them) Lyssy finally ate them all!! Now, they were covered in dip, but SO WHAT! She ate them, woohoo! Also, it's been a long time since I've given them grapefruit and Aidman LOVED it, so I'm going to have to offer that more often.

Funny, my hubby came home for lunch and the first thing out of his mouth was "it's not Monday?!". hahahahaha I've told ya'll about the chanting right? Monday without muffin tins don't exist in my house (which is why we didn't do the calendar yesterday, hahaha, I'm a bad mommy!).

Head over to Her Cup Overfloweth for more great tins!

Name Playdate

Today we invited some friends over for a Name Playdate. When each child arrived they got a cute name tag sticker. We all sat in a circle and sang a name song and each got a turn to stand up and shout our name. Then I set out 3 name stations.

One was the snack station. Each child got their first initial and lined their snack on the letter. I had bowls of marshmallows, raisins, peanuts, and popcorn out. BTW... my kiddos REALLY liked doing this, I think I'm going to let them do it for each letter of the week.

One was at craft station. Each child decorated the first initial of his name and then glued it to a paper containing the rest of his name.

Lyssy is proud of her work.

Finally we had a puzzle station. I got this cute idea from No time for Flashcards. The kiddos place the letter circles in the correct order to spell their name.

They even made a station of their own... and chalk name writing station! I keep the chalk out on the carport and one of the kiddos saw it and said "let's write our names!". So all of the bigger kiddos wrote their names on the carport. It was really cute to see how excited they were about our name playdate. All of the kiddos had a really good time. They really liked seeing everyone elses names.

Painting Pps

Today we made pink and purple paint by mixing red with white and blue with red. Then we painted the letter Pp.

All of the kiddos asked for more paper when they were finished. My kids LOVE to paint!

Aidman was very interested in painting his name.

Lyssy just wanted to paint with her two favorite colors, Pink and Purple!

Table Top Toys

I LOVE to cook. While cooking and cleaning up from 3 meals and day, my kiddos want to be around me. I try to get them busy in their rooms playing, reading, or even doing a fun project, but often find them getting under my feet in the kitchen. It was starting to drive me crazy! I had this little table that I decided to put in the corner of my kitchen. At first I just put their journals and some writing materials on the table, but that quickly turned into a table covered with toys.

So I brought one of my organizers and put it next to the table. I always put the journals on top and add some learning toys (or things that need some supervision) in the drawers. I have been so inspired by My Montessori Journey

and just love some of the activities that she does. Not to mention that most of them are rather easy to put together. So most of what goes into the drawers are ideas inspired by her.

This weeks letter is Pp and it just so happened that I have alot of things that go with the letter Pp so I decided to put them in the table top area.

Pouring with a Pitcher.

Journal and markers.

Sorting Pompoms by color with tweezers.

And Pie math. The point of this activity is counting, number recognition, and figuring out how to position the pie slices.

I change out the activities after about 4 days because it starts to loose it's newness after that. I also don't pressure myself into making or coming up with elaborate things to go into this area, sometimes it's just blocks and because the blocks are now on the table and not in the bedroom it adds a fun newness to it. I also like to add different art supplies to the drawers so that they can have more free art time. I do make sure to explain how to use each new item as I put them in the drawers.

We have had this table top/organizer up for over a month now and my kids just LOVE this area! I do too because it keeps them busy while I'm busy in the kitchen and I don't have to feel bad about doing my chores since they are having fun.

Pp Lessons

This week we are learning about the letter Pp. This letter has so many words to do fun things with! It's a very good week for us to have alot of stuff too since it's Spring Break here and Aidman has no school or t-ball.

Art:

-Paint a Pp with Pink and Purple

-Make Puppets

-Shape Pipe cleaners and Playdough into letters

Science:

-Pine cone bird feeders (my kids never get bored of making these)

-Plant a seed

Math:

-Make Playdough

-Count Pennies

-Puzzles

-Don't eat Pete game (memory game)

Cooking:

-Pancakes

-Pizza

-Parfaits

-Pie

Movement/Outside:

-Search for Pinecones

-Go to Peterson Park

-Walk like a Penguin

Extras:

-Dress up like princess and prince

-Have a Pajama Party

Empty vs. Full

Today we talked about empty and full. I set out a bunch of bowls and put price, beans, noodles, and water in some and left a few empty. Then I gave the kiddos 6 each of signs saying "empty" and full". I then asked them to put the correct sign to the correct bowl.

Afterwards, I let them pour different items into different bowls and rearrange the signs. This occupied Lyssy for a very long time!

Evaporation Experiment

Ok so I know this post isn't very mind blowing, but my kiddos LOVED this and wanted to check on it every day.

We took two jars and put the same about of water in each. Then we put a lid on one and not the other. We drew a line to mark the water line. Ever day we checked to see what happened.

First Day

Second Day

Four Days Later.

Look at Aidman's face! He cracks me up!!!

Eggcellent Eggs!

This afternoon was all about the egg! First we went outside to see what would happen when you drop raw and hard boiled eggs.

Aidman's raw egg cracked.

Lyssy's hard boiled egg actually bounced, the pictured captured it bouncing.

Then we dropped a raw egg on a pillow and talked about why it didn't crack.

Then we all wrapped the eggs in Soft toilet paper to see if it would crack. They all did, but AB wrapped the most tp around hers and it did not crack much.

Then the kiddos thought it would be funny to crack their hard boiled eggs on their heads for snack.

After that yummy egg snack we went inside to play with the egg activities that mama put in the table top games.

Aidman matched the upper case to the lower case letters.

All the kiddos REALLY loved this spooning activity. I got this idea from My Montessori Journey.

AB and Lyssy matched the correct color eggs.

AB started stacking her eggs and called it a "castle".

Then the kiddos laced eggs. I cut and egg shape out of a cereal box and punched holes in it. They used a plastic blue needle with ribbon to lace.

It was an Eggcellent Afternoon!

ABC Puzzles

The other day my Mother in Law brought the kids a Spice Box Early Learning Puzzle Set. It has a set of ABC puzzles, Opposites puzzles, and Numbers puzzles. The kiddos really like it.

I like the fact that it has upper and lower case letters and that it shows the picture and has the written word. They are sturdy cardboard and are alittle larger than a flash card. These puzzles could easily be made by cutting flashcards.

I like watching how my kiddos are different. You can see that Aidman stacked all of his puzzles, while Lyssy laid her out for all to see. Aidman was faster, but lost interest quicker so they both ended up doing the same amount of letters.

Using Junk Mail to Find the Letter

So we really need to do more letter recognigtion. So, since Ee is the letter of the week I gave each of the kids some junk mail and wrote the letter Ee at the top. Then I gave each kid a yellow marker and asked them to color every Ee.
Aidman really enjoyed this activity, especially when he got to use the mail that he wanted to use.

Lyssy did VERY good at this. I was very surprised!