The Snowy Day

One of my favorite winter books is The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and we recently had a lot of fun doing a unit to go along with the book.  Hunter loved the book too, and asked to read it every day.

Here are the activities we did to go along with book:

After we read the book, Hunter made his own snowy day scene.

We mixed up some shaving cream and glue (equal parts) to make some puffy paint and then he added it to his scene.

Hunter’s snowy day scene

In the book, Peter sees the older boys having a snowball fight.  It has been super cold where we live, so Hailey and Hunter had an indoor snowball fight using socks.

We also brought some snow inside.  Hunter used a stick to make lines in the snow just like Peter did.

We kept the snow inside to see what would happen to it.  It melted, just like the snow in Peter’s pocket did.

Then we made some delicious snowflakes.  We cut tortilla shells to look like snowflakes.  Then I fried them in butter and put cinnamon and sugar on them.

They tasted so good that Hailey and Hunter requested to make them again when Rich came home from work.

Hunter did this paper from Homeschool Creations about which clothes he would wear during winter and summer.

We made this really cool fake snow- you mix shaving cream and baking soda together.  I added the shaving cream first and then I stirred in the baking soda until it looked like snow.  It was really neat- it could be molded like real snow and it even felt cold.  (If it happens to get spilled all over your dining room floor- it does not vacuum up easily.  You will end up having to scrub your hardwood floor to get it off.  But, it will smell very nice.  Don’t ask me how I know.)

Hunter had a great time playing with it.  When he was all done using it, we poured some vinegar in it to watch the snow erupt.

We had such a fun time doing this unit!!

100 Day Celebration

Today was our 100th day of school! I can’t believe we are more than half way through this school year. I wish time would stop going by so fast.

When Hailey and Hunter came out to the dining room this morning they found some 100 day decorations.

All ready for our 100th day!

This was on the first day of school back in September.  I can’t believe how much they have changed since then… it seems like so long ago, but such a short time ago.

Anyway… on to some of the fun things we did today.

I gave Hailey 100 cups and told her she had to build something using all 100 cups.

Here is what she came up with- pretty cool! She really enjoyed this activity and asked if she could do it again after school.

I gave Hailey and Hunter a 100 that I cut out and told them to make a picture using the numbers.

Hailey got to work making her picture.

Hunter said he wanted to make a car, so I helped him put it together and he colored it.

Hailey made her picture so that it was a mask if you hold it one way…

…and a dress if you turn it over.

We made a 100 day snack- we took 10 different snacks and counted out 10 pieces of each kind of snack to total 100 pieces.

I saw this cute idea on Around the Kampfire.  Hailey made what she thinks she will look like when she is 100 and then wrote a paragraph about what she will be like when she is 100.

This is also from Around the Kampfire.  Hailey wrote about something she has been told 100 times and drew a picture to go with it.  She wrote about how I told her she could do a pullover on the bar at gymnastics.  She has been working on getting her pullover since September and she finally did it last week- we are so proud of her!

It was a fun day!  I still can’t believe how fast this year is going by.

Preschool- Letter A

A couple of weeks ago Hunter told me he was ready to start doing school again.  So, I thought I’d put together some letter A activities to see how it went before I started doing lots of planning.  We spent 2 weeks on the letter A and every day he was asking me for more work to do.

Hunter colored a letter A crown from Sing With Me Through the ABCs.

He made a letter a door hanger from Sing With Me Through the ABCs that hung up on his door all week.

He also colored a letter A paper from Sing With Me Through the ABCs.

He made this cute A wand from Sing With Me Through the ABCs.

He used water colors to paint this paper from Sing With Me Through the ABCs.

Hunter used a foam letter to stamp As onto a piece of paper.

He made the letter A craft from the Animal ABCs.  He cut out the alligators with some help.

Hunter kept asking for more to do, so I found this cute letter A coloring page at Just Color.

We played hide and seek with the foam letter A- I hid the letter and Hunter had to find it.

Hunter stamped letter As and glued foam letter As onto this paper from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

Other stuff:

He practiced his colors with this alligator paper from the Animal ABCs.

Hunter worked on some gears.

He entertained Harper with the gears while I worked with Hailey on her school work.

He did some building.

We worked on patterns- I made the orange and purple one and then he made the yellow and purple one.

He played with Play-Doh.

He built a “flying car” with his Legos.

He played with his Legos with Harper.

He read books with Harper.

Hunter had a great couple of weeks working on the letter A.  I am hoping his enthusiasm continues.
We also did a unit on The Snowy Day which I am going to be posting soon.

Preschool in Review

So, what has Hunter been up to the last couple of months?  He still says that school is boring and he doesn’t want to do any school.  While Hailey does school I usually set up some learning type activities and manipulatives for him to use to keep him busy.  He thinks he’s just playing, but I know he’s learning 🙂  Here is a little sample of some of the things he has been doing:  (It’s funny to see him using a pacifier in some of the pictures since he finally gave it up back in the beginning of December.  I was beginning to think he’d have it forever.)

Hunter has a great time building with these.

He made lots of different towers.

Mickey and Minnie got to check out his building.

Using pegs to work on the letters in his name.

We made some cute turkeys back at Thanksgiving time and Hunter actually decided he would participate in a craft.

Everyone in the family had a turkey.  On the front is a little pocket.  We put little notes inside the pocket to say why we were thankful for each other.

Hunter’s turkey

Another Thanksgiving activity that Hailey did was to disguise a turkey as a pigeon.  Hunter wanted to make one too.

Hunter’s finished pigeon.

Hunter absolutely loves this book!  He was a little sad the first time we read it when I told him there weren’t any pictures in it.  But very soon he was laughing and really enjoying the book.

He worked on a train puzzle.

We set up a Christmas tree in our classroom.  (It was pajama day :-))

Hunter really enjoys the gears.

Practicing some cutting

Working on an ABC puzzle

So, even though Hunter isn’t doing any “school” these days, he’s been keeping pretty busy 🙂