Discussing Groundhog Day--Making a Venn Diagram to compare groundhogs with beavers

Today we discussed the meaning of groundhog day and made this cute craft. Mr. K actually helped the little ones make it rather then making his own...he is so great with them.
 

 

 The picture below is what happens when my 2.5 year old daughter makes a craft.

She has a bit of a "cutting" obsession right now! LOL
 

 

During our discussion Mr. K asked what the difference was between a ground hog & a beaver.  We both discussed the obvious differences (beavers live in water, ground hogs live in burrows etc.)  He wanted to draw a picture of a groundhog for his unit study book but wasn't sure what one looks like so he asked me to google it.

I googled an image and while he was drawing googled and found this page:

http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-woodchuck-and-vs-beaver/

 

While he drew I read the page to him and at the bottom there is a chart for comparing the two.

Something really cool happened next!  I took out a piece of lined paper & made a little chart the same as the one on the internet. Mr. K grabbed a piece of paper & said "mom lets do one of these!" excitedly.

 

 

I was very surprised & said "do you know what that's called?"  he said no and I said "it's a Venn diagram".  I know it's really not THAT exciting but I was very excited he thought to make one & that he was so excited to get filling it in.

 

 

 

 

I am so proud of Mr. K today! He has come so far lately in his spelling & in his reading....before homeschooling he struggled so much with it. What I am most proud about him though is that he is really starting to develop a love for learning new things :) 

EASY DIY CD ORNAMENT

This post was inspired by this pin from Happy Hooligans : http://www.pinterest.com/pin/197173289909708729/

I LOVE how they turned out!

Materials List:

Old CD's
Glue
ribbon
Various Art supplies: Tissue paper, glitter, buttons, washi tape, snowflakes, Christmas stickers

The kids loved this open ended craft and were so proud to make something to hang on the tree!

 

 Look at that sweet face!

 

The daycare kiddos made one as well and will be giving them to their parents for Christmas.

 

Here are Little M & K's: 

 

You can get it in on the fun too! Check out this blog for LOTS of great ornament ideas here:
20 Days of a Kid-Made Christmas: Ornaments

Pumpkin Collage Art

I stumbled upon this cute pumpkin craft on Pinterest & my daughter & daycare kids had a great time making it today!

I found it here:
http://www.two-daloo.com/2013/09/30/halloween-play-jack-olantern-collage/

Here is our version:

Here is Little M with her finished pumpkin. She LOVES it so much she carried it around all day & will not even let me hang it up to use for decoration...LOL  (I hole punched the stem & tied a string so I could hang it)

Here is one of my adorable daycare boys making one :)

Painting With Puffy Paint

Yesterday was such a beautiful day that we headed outside in the morning to do some painting with "puffy paint". I'm not sure how we have not tried this before! I know I pinned it on my pinterest a long time ago.....I'm SO glad we tried it because it was a lot of fun for the kids! 

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp salt, food colouring, enough water to make a paste, and pieces of cardboard (that will fit in your microwave).

After they are done creating you just pop the cardboard into the microwave for 20-30 secs.

I`ll be honest...I didn`t follow the recipe at all ;) I was working on the fly with all the little ones anxiously waiting to get outside so I just ran to the cupboard, mixed the items together without measuring at all & voila! It turned out great :)  

K wanted to set the pictures to dry in the sun & "see if they would puff up in the sun"  He was very impressed when they did.

 

Here they are after being microwaved for 20-30 seconds.

 

They all had so much fun with this & were so proud of what they created!  They actually sat at the table while I made lunch feeling the textures on their cardboard :)

Having fun painting!

The kids really enjoyed doing some painting yesterday....and it kept them busy for a LONG time ;)

 

 

Here is Little M painting a picture for daddy. 

I made her paint into "puffy paint" because I knew she would love the look of it when it dried (& she did!)  It looks puffy & sparkly :)

 

The recipe is here:

 

http://www.learning4kids.net/2012/10/16/how-to-make-puffy-paint/

 

Here are the boys at work on painting these little wooden boxes I found stashed away in my craft pantry (I bought them  from the $ store a couple yrs. ago & forgot about them *blush*)

They decided to paint them up & give them to their next door neighbour BFF's who are moving away at the end of the month :(

The boys literally spent about 2 hours working on these. Such a great fun activity to keep them busy & beat the "summer boredom"!

If you don't happen to have wooden boxes like I did there are plenty of other things you can get your kids to paint! 
Mine have painted numerous things in the past & it always keeps them busy for a long period of time.  I am going to be breaking these painting ideas out again soon whenever the "summer boredom" sets in.....or whenever the brotherly fighting starts up again ;)

http://tinkerlab.com/painting-on-wood-panel/
http://www.mommywithselectivememory.com/2012/05/painting-rocks-and-how-it-helps-daddy.html
http://teaching2and3yearolds.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/circles-from-tubes.html
http://frugalfun4boys.com/2013/06/17/diy-paint-stamping-with-wiki-sticks/
http://www.funathomewithkids.com/2013/05/shaving-cream-paint.html
http://picklebums.com/2011/08/30/easy-art-for-kids-painting-on-foil/

Making nature collages!

 Little M & her friends had lots of fun this week going on a Nature Hunt!

We went for a walk around the neighborhood so they could collect little flowers, leaves, grass, weeds etc.  

When we got home I got out a tray & set it up with a peice of paper, some glue & the items we collected!


Here is a picture of one of my daycare girl's working on her nature collage.

They turned out so pretty!

Unfortunately I didn't snap any pictures of Little M making her collage because after working on it for about 5 mins. she was done & I didn't get a chance to take a picture!


I did happen to grab a picture of her catching a snail the next day though!  Right after she caught it we made a run to the $ store so she could carry it around & she has been taking care of it ever since.,,,,sticking leaves in her bug carrier & showinng it off to all her friends!

Canada Day Craft--Making flags

 

 

K has been studying maps and learning how to use his kid's atlas. Yesterday we studied the map of Canada & made our own maps. Today after looking at the different flags K was excited to make his own Canadian flag for Canada day!

My idea was to paint his hand red for the flag but he got the idea to paint a leaf & glue it to the middle of the flag instead. I LOVE his idea & it turned out great! He used a sponge to do the red on the sides.

"The Kids Art Exchange"

 K was very excited to make these little TP roll people for the Art Exchange!

He sent them away to 2 brothers in Iowa  last week & is so excited to see if he gets some mail back!

Here is some more info about "The Kids Art Exchange"...we had lots of fun!

http://handsonaswegrow.com/category/kids-art-exchange/

Father`s Day Craft

I found a Father's Day idea on Pinterest the other day that I thought was so cute. We just HAD to do it....we also did them up for all the daycare dads. Too cute!

 

Here is the pin:  http://pinterest.com/pin/135037688799900028/

 

 

 

Here is how Little M's turned out:

 

 

Sensory fun & summer bucket list!

Little M had so much fun with this sensory bin!  I added aqua beads & adzuki beans with a drop of blue food colouring.  She just loved scooping & pouring them into containers.

 

Just a side note/reminder....when you leave the beans sitting in water for a couple days they begin to sprout & go a  bit skunky...don't ask me how I know that ;)

 

This sensory bin was lots of fun though & totally worth it!

 

Little K took some time to work on his "summer bucket list" recently so I thought I would share...here he is just starting out:

 I helped him with the labelling..... Of course Little M had to make one too!

Mother's day art & a sensory activity!

 
 
 
 

 

The kids had lots of fun making these pieces of art for mother's day. 

I taped the word "mom" onto a piece of Bristol board & the kids painted over it with different coloured paint. When it dried they loved peeling off the tape to reveal their master pieces!

Little M  & her daycare friends loved this sensory bin I out together the other day!  It is a mixture of flour, coffee grinds & cocoa powder.  It smelled great & was so soft that they played with it for a long time....scooping, dumping & pouring!