Earth Day

So, Goose wasn't really into Earth Day like I thought she would be.  We watched a video on YouTube and completed a trash vs. recycle activity.  She enjoyed those two things, but wasn't interested in the earth sponge painting or coloring.

I hope next year will have nicer weather so we can do things outside (like hanging a bird house or making bird feeders).

Body parts

DD has known body parts since before she was a year old.  This week's unit will focus more on bones and the functions of our body parts, plus the five senses.

Today I gave a simple worksheet to DD.  She had to cut out labels and glue them to the worksheet.  It was a good phonics review too.  For each part I'd point to the first letter, ask her the sound it makes, then ask her what body part started with that sound (/f/-what body part starts with the /f/ sound??)  She did a fantastic job with it and I can't believe how well she glued!  She had the labels in the boxes perfectly!

This is a blurry picture, but I included it to show how she sticks her tongue out when concentrating.  

So cute!!

Birds live in nests

It has finally gotten cooler out here!  It's going to be warming up again, so today we made sure to get outside time.  I remembered to bring home some yarn to put in the suet feeder.  Birds will take this yarn and use it to make their nests.  I showed DD pics of nests, eggs in nests, momma bird feeding baby bird in the nest, etc.  She was very excited to "help the birds build a nest".

All I did was help her cut some pieces of yarn and she put them in the feeder herself.  After it was filled we went outside and she picked a place to put it.

Using scissors

Stuffing yarn in, with Noah keeping an eye on any dropped pieces

The feeder filled with yarn

DD pointing to the feeder outside the window

Nature

This week we learned about nature.  It was a good review of living/non-living things.

We still need to fill our suet feeder with yarn so we can look for the yarn in nests later.

We also need to go on a nature walk.  Luckily it's cooling down now.  I've been so hot working in a room without A/C all day that I have little energy for outside stuff when I get home.

We did make binoculars and two bird feeders (using peanut butter and bird seed).  DD kept singing "B-b-b-bird, bird, bird, bird is the word" when she was making it.  She is obsessed with that song for some reason!

More pictures to come as we finish up this unit tomorrow.

Making binoculars

 Adding birdseed onto the bird feeder.

 We hung one in the backyard

And one in the front yard right in front of our bay window.  

She was very excited!

Field Trip

To wrap up our living things unit, we took a trip to a local nursery.  We got to see lots of plants and bought some seeds to make a seed book.  DD was able to point out stems, leaves, and flowers.  She had a lot of fun!

We also bought a hanging suet basket to put yarn in.  This way you can see how birds use the yarn to build their nests.  We will do this when we review living things in a couple weeks.

Living things have babies

Yesterday we learned that living things eat.  Today we talked about how living things have babies.  We played a fun matching game where DD had to match the mom with the baby and vice versa.  She really enjoyed it.

Tonight I asked her, "What do living things do?" and she said, "Eat and have babies."  So I guess she is picking up a bit.

Living vs. Non-living sort

Mommy and baby match up game

Living things need to eat

Today we worked on a worksheet where DD had to name some living things.  She did a good job naming Mommy, Daddy, me, Wyatt, etc.  She only messed up once and said, "Chocolate milk".  I added that to the 'not living' list.

After that DD got to use a pencil and write on the worksheet I filled out for her.  She asked for helping making certain letters.  She loves being allowed to use a pencil.

After her bath we played a game where she had to match living things to the food they eat.  She really enjoyed that game!

Intro to plants/living things

The first part of our unit was a trip to the library.  We had to pick up books on plants and other living things. When we were there, DD stated that she wanted a library card.  I was in the middle of telling her that she is too young when the lady checking us out said she could in fact have one.  So I signed her up and she was so excited to have her very own card!

The library has lots of really nice plants growing all around outside.  We took time to look at each, find the flower, the leaves, the stem.  We found a plant that had berries growing on it and talked about never eating something without asking first.

When we got home we read some books and had fun drawing plants on the chalkboard.

That night DD colored a plant picture and kept trying to smell the flower.  Very cute!