Names

My son has been able to write his whole name since he was 2.8 years old.  He is 3.5 now.  He is trying to work on his last name which is great.  Here is a website we have been using and we love it.

Printable Handwriting Worksheet Generator

We also love this raised letter paper:

My daughter is determined to write her own name too, but she just turned 2 a week ago, so it will take some time. :)

We started with learning and mastering each letter in his name for a week, and then wrote them all together.

My 8.5 month old is getting in on the fun too!

I will be posting tomorrow and that is it for the week.  I am hosting Thanksgiving this year and we are having 24 people in my house and that means I will be VERY busy!  See ya next week have a lovely holiday!

Shoe and Hand Turkeys

I know, I know everyone is doing it.

I traced the shoe, folded the paper in half so I could have a pair.  Glued the heels together to make a fat torso.

I traced the hands 2x and folded the paper so I had 4 hands total. Then I let them paint them with Dot Markers.

Then we assembled.

Pretty easy, pretty cute.

Harold and the Purple Crayon

I have a little obsession with this book.  In fact I own the entire series by Crockett Johnson.  I wrote 2 papers on this book in College.  When we were cleaning out the basement this weekend my kids wanted me to stop what I was doing and read them all.

Of course I did.

This is what inspired todays art project.  You need a purple crayon and an imagination for this one.

My kids started drawing and then I started to trace their pictures darker so we could paint on them, and then the kids told me that they wanted me to draw certain things on their pages, so I did.  My son wanted a windstorm by a mountain with trees.

My daughter wanted a castle next to a fluffy tree. My 8 month old wanted to eat the crayons.

Then we water colored over them, and when my husband came home they bombarded him with kisses and pictures for his office. :)

The end.

Baked Corn Dogs

• 2 boxes corn muffin mix, 8 1/2 ounces each (recommended: Jiffy brand)
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 8 jumbo pork or beef franks

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

In a shallow dish, combine muffin mix, eggs, milk and melted butter. The batter will be a thick, sticky biscuit dough. Place a hot dog in the bowl of batter and swoosh it around to coat it. Remove coated dog to a nonstick cookie sheet and use your fingers to spread batter on any exposed dog spots. Don't coat it too thick, just shy of 1/2-inch should do the trick. If it's too thick it will just slide off the dog while it's baking, leaving the dog exposed. If that happens don't sweat it, they will still taste great. Repeat until all 8 are coated. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until evenly deep brown all over.

We did ours a little thick but they tasted great!

I would add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the mix!

Pilgrim Hats (both genders)

Here is what you need:

2 pieces of black, 1 piece of white, a scrap of yellow, a stapler, glue stick and yarn.

BOYS PILGRIM HAT

Cut the typical shape, with a buckle and a white strip. Glue pieces together, then cut remaining piece of paper into 2 think strips (there will be extra.) Measure the boys head and staple around it, then staple the ring to the hat, glue extra strip to the hat to cover the staples.

GIRLS PILGRIM HAT

 

 

With the white paper, fold down 2 inches of the paper and then cute two places on the opposite end.  Punch 2 holes behind the flap.  Bend the 3 squares behind the flap and string the yarn through the holes and attach to the girls head.

We read a few books about the pilgrims today...here they are:

Pegs

I love these pegs from Lakeshore.  I bought these WAAAAY before I had children because I loved them so much when I was working for the district.

They are decently priced and my kids light up when I pull them out!  My mats are reversible with shapes, scenes, and numbers on one side and totally blank on the other.

Today we did a lot of math exercises and they totally loved it, even my 8 month old!

If you are looking for a great educational present for toddlers this is it!

Indian Corn

Last Friday's post posted in French and I am trying to fix it.  Weird.

So...here's what we need:  Paint red, orange, brown, and green.  Bubble Wrap, Yellow paper, Brown Paper Bag, Stapler, Scissors.

Paint the bubble wrap with the red, orange and brown.

Then "stamp" it to the yellow paper.

With the brown paper bag cut a funky leaf shape and paint it green.

Once they are dry cut into a corn shape. Staple the leaves to the corn husk.

I know it looks like a pineapple, but you just trim the sides until it looks right.  I forgot to take a picture after I did that.  We made about 10 of them and then glued them on a giant stalk. Super cute! I will take a picture tomorrow.

Rocks

So sticking with the R theme, we collected "Rocks" and then washed them.

 

We used soap, strainers, scrub brushes, and towels.

This was a nice break from doing art! :)

Then we dried them and rolled them on an inclined plane too see which ones went faster.  They thought that was neat but wanted to keep washing them, so we did!

Something different that lasted an hour and a half!

Letter R - R is for Rainbow...texture rainbows!

This picture is having an issue Rotating but here is our 15 inch R.

Something fun that they can do all by them self!  I found 7 little plates and then put every color of the rainbow on each individual plate.

Then we folded the papers into fans and then laid them flat.

Then we read:

Now it was time to assemble.

Everyone started with a different color so it worked out because no one had to wait on anyone else!

 Here is everyone showing them off.

Red was a marker.

Orange was torn paper.

Yellow was tissue paper.

Green was a crayon.

Blue was a marker.

Purple was rectangles.

Fist Ladybugs

Today we embraced what little sun we had and read a few books outside on the porch.  The above 2 were our favorites and K actually had the left one in his backpack!  Lucky us! So here's what we did...

We sang this cute little tune that is to the same tune as 5 little pumpkins...

Five little ladybugs, climbing on some plants,
Eating the aphids, but not the ants!
The first one said: "Save some aphids for me!"
The second one said: "These are tasty as can be!"
The third one said: "Oh, they're almost gone!"
The fourth one said: "Then it's time to move on!
The fifth one said: "Come on, let's fly!"
So they opened their wings and flew through the sky.

Then we got to work!  Paint the side of the fist like so... 

Make five of each side then you wash the hand with a wipe and connect them with the other fist, making 5 heart shapes.

While those are drying, find ugly scraps of paper and cut them into grass, I was really lucky and found this hideous piece of scrapbook paper that looked like clouds and it totally worked for this craft.  That just goes to show you NEVER throw anything out.  (my husband just rolled his eyes reading that) :)

So here we are gluing grass on the aforementioned paper...

See what I mean hi-de-ous!

While the kiddos were doing that I freehanded and cut some bodies.

My son glued all of the bodies to the hearts.

He is nice like that.

Then we glued the spotless ladybugs to the grass.

I meant punched them to the grass.

Then it was time for the spots.  I used infant Q-Tips and let them make the spots. While they were drying and the kids were eating pineapples I did the antennae.

And voila! 

I know SUPER cute right? Go on, grab a kid and do one today!

(Preferably your own kid)