I am an Artist

I can't really say that we did a whole lot with this book, although I did have great plans for it.  I plan on getting to the activities soon, but since these pictures will soon be outdated, I thought I'd post what we've done so far.  The book is about seeing art in nature. 

The star in an apple.  This was from a page in the book.  (And I promise you we don't live in a perpetually dark house.  There just isn't enough lighting to make these pictures bright enough.  Augh!)

We went on a nature walk.  We grabbed the red wagon, a bin from the house, and went out to see what kinds of "art" we could find. 

We walked all around our neighborhood, with William frequently asking if "this was nature" and "Can I put it in the nature bin?"   

When we got home we went to the backyard and took everything out of the bin and examined the items closer.  We talked about texture, size, color, etc. 

In the book there was "art" in the clouds.  I thought it would be fun to paint with cotton balls.  Again, this was one of those "good in theory" ideas, bad in practice.  The cotton ball fell apart in the paint and left behind cotton pieces. 

So we eventually gave up on that idea and switched to brushes and painting our clouds on black paper.  Worked like a charm! 

We'll be doing more with this book and the ideas soon. 

The House

The kids love playing House.  They meticulously set the table, complete with napkins and saucers, then they serve hotdogs and mac 'n cheese - straight from the grill, of course.  smile  I've been wanting to get them a play house for the patio for some time now, but that just hasn't happened.  So when I was contacted by Cascades about receiving a playhouse, I jumped all over it!  Last year they sent me a Christmas tree made out of recycled cardboard, which has been a ton of fun to decorate (we are decorating it more this year!) so I was familiar with the company and their products.  The Christmas tree is very sturdy, so I was excited to get the playhouse.  Well, Cascades delivered on their promise of a playhouse, and the kids are SO enjoying it. 

John put it together in no time at all.  It has since been affectionately dubbed "The Gingerbread House".  I love it!

William was too busy setting things up to even look out the window for a picture.  But I really love this thing.  It has a front door AND a back door, and comes complete with mailbox and skylights (great for extra ventilation, if you know what I mean!).  We haven't decorated the house yet probably because they don't realize that that is even an option.  I plan to keep it that way for awhile.  So if you're looking for a fun house for your kids stop by to Cascades and pick one up!

Ask Mr. Bear

It's been awhile, I know.  We've been doing a lot of reading, but our activities have been focused on fall and Thanksgiving rather than doing a ton of activities relating to Before Five in a Row.  However last week we did row Ask Mr. Bear.  

 

 

The book is about Danny, who asks the farm animals for ideas on what to give his mom for her birthday.  He ultimately asks Mr. Bear, who gives him the perfect idea!  William had to sequence the book with the story strips.  If you look closely you'll see his little tongue sticking out!  Too cute!
 

He's working on his letter writing.  He's got a long way to go, but as you can see, he's mastered his name!  Yah!

 He sorted words out according to their ending sounds.

 This classification activity was easy but fun.  Really, anytime glue can be brought out and used is an occasion for smiling.

These sheets were fun to incorporate this week.  I'm not sure why I never thought to use the Scrabble tiles before, but they worked perfectly for building the vocabulary words.  I did not have him to the "write" portion of the sheet.

Here he had to circle the correct beginning sound of the picture.  This is too easy for him, but he loves doing them anyway.

We are almost finished with all the books in the Before Five in a Row curriculum.  We will be doing I Am An Artist this week and maybe next, and then we are finished.  I did just place my order for all the books in the Five in a Row series, so I'm excited to get started on those.