Zoo Animal Day!!!

Zoo Coloring Sheet

I found a coloring sheet for their own coloring when they want. I have started to do this more often to help give them an opportunity to play on their own but, still tie in the days activities.

Animal Flash Cards (with a color twist)

For the animal cards I found zoo animals of different colors. To help make the matching easier I added the color name at the bottom of the card. Since we have become the master at matching colors on the color sheet I keep using it.  That being said I will be looking for some new and fun ways to teach colors because, I think we have mastered this matching stuff (for Michael anyway).

Counting Cards

Using the same animals I created couting cards. This was a fun way to use the same type of visual items but, differently. We are still struggling a little with the number matching. So I did change our counting sheet to see if that helps a little. Stay tuned to see if it is actually helpful or not.

New and improved counting sheet



Music Day

In addition, to pulling out our box full of music toys and making music with our favorite Baby Genius DVD we had a busy day of supporting activities as we learned about all different types of things while using a "music" theme.

 

Make Our Own Shakers

One of the first activities we did make our own shakers.  I used two different types of bottles and two different types of "shaker" material to ensure each one had a little different sound.  One with small beans and the other with rice. To get started I placed a small amount of food coloring and a little bit of water on the bottom. I then filled with the desired material. Sealed them up and let them shake!!! They had so much fun when they realized each one was changing a different color! It was a great way to bring color into our day where I had not previously planned it!!

Color Matching with Music Instruments

I found this picture of different color instruments to use with our color matching sheet today. Although it doesn't have all the colors the sheet has it still worked out ok. Although the second clarinet (?) went either in red or orange - which I felt like was fine.



Counting with Drums

Using the counting sheet from confessions of a homeschooler. Today instead of apples or pompoms I cut up little drums to use in the small boxes instead. It was a great way to use one of our favorite sheets again but, in a way that supported the theme of the day!

Music Flash Cards

We rounded out the day with card work showing instruments we have around the house as well.  Cards are probably Michael's least favorite activity and today proved to be no different. We at least did make it through them once.



Weekly Schedule!

Monday	Letter F	Food: F Pancakes F Worksheet Art: Paint Fish Outlines (For Fishing Activity on Tuesday) Art: Foam Sticker Flowers Concept: Size - shape sort pompoms as center of flowers - Small to big
Tuesday	Fishing	Fine Motor: Fishing Art: Fishing
Wednesday	Valentines Day	Breakfast: Heart Pancakes; Red Strawberries Lunch: Heart Cookies Valentines Day Craft Counting: Hearts
Thursday	Gross Motor Skill Fun	Obstacle Course: Holla hoop - hopping, running around cones, crawling under bridge, slide Red/Light Green Light Practice: Jumping

Cars & Couting

We are trying to find interesting way to work on counting! It is working as we are getting more vocalization with numbers so yipee! I used the sheet below and cut them out, laminated them. Since we are a huge Cars fan in our house I figured this would be a welcomed activity!! Once cut out we put them on the number sheet below. This turned out to be harder than I anticipated. We did have fun but, it may be over their head. I have some ideas to make it easier for them (i.e. putting numbers on the back of the cards)

Our next activity with cars to round out the day was cars painting. I put paint down on our giant roll of paper and let them drive the cars through it.  They had a great time - enough that resulted in bath time!!



Cars & Colors!!!

Today we did activities around increasing our exposure to colors.


Different color 'telescopes'
To make the different color telescopes I took a combination of old papertowel rolls and toliet paper rolls. I was fortunate that one fit into the other nicely so it helped keep the different color cellophanes secure. I did end up running out and taping some to the outside which worked fine as well. Once the cellophane was secure I wrapped the outside of the tubes with the corresponding paper color so that they could be easily identified by them.

Here are some shots for the fun that we had!!!

Matching Cars

This is another good example why I laminate almost everything. I use this color matching sheet at least once weekly with different shapes, color cards, etc. This week it was different color cars. This one was very well received so we have been using these cars almost daily since this day.



A Day About Me!!!

We have been having a lot of fun lately with head, shoulders, knees and toes. Today we made self-portraits.  They had so much fun putting them together. Admittedly, they are a little creapy looking but, it was a lot of fun to talk about eyes, nose, hair. The best part for them?? The yarn hair!! They loved it!!

I am fortunate enough that both my little ones have blue eyes and blond hair.

Impromptu Color Matching Activity

Although this activity started out as our normal fun building blocks I decided to enhance it a little by bringing in some matching.  I laid out 4 pieces of colors that matched our blocks. We focused on matching the blocks to the right colors and building color towers.  This one took a little work but, I am interested to see how it goes next time.

We love building in our house so anytime we can incorporate something that enhances an activity we already love I am all for it!!