Pumpkins and Jack-O-Lanterns

We are starting out Halloween with a bang.  We have a porch full of mums, cornstalks, and critter food  pumpkins.

The squirrls have found a new place to dine and it isn't our bird feeders.

I started off the day by reading "Pumpkin Eye" and then talking about how a pumpkins turns into a jack o lantern when you carve it.  I think we had a lot of fun.


We started by describing the pumpkin.  I have been trying to get G and H to use descriptive words other than good. 

After I cut the top off, I had G and H pull out the pulp and seeds.  They described how the inside of the pumpkin felt.  They came up with great words like "gooey".

G and H helped prepare the seeds by brushing on olive oil and sprinkling salt.  When the seeds were finished roasting G and H determined they tasted like popcorn.

They each drew part of the face on the pumpkin.  This was the hardest part because they had to think about how it should look when I cut it.  As you can see it doesn't really look like a face.

G and H helped me carve the face on the pumpkin.  We then took it to the bathroom and put in a candle to really see it.

We wrapped up the activity by making jack-o-lanterns out of paper plates, paint, and precut shapes.  I had a variety of shapes for the eyes, nose, and mouth for G and H to pick since we are still practicing with scissors.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

We have been reading The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapini.  It is a great extension to the nursery rhyme.  We made spiders to go along with the book and circled all the i's.

The End of Letter I

We finally wrapped up the Letter I.  I am pretty sure they are tired of doing I words, since the igloos were slow going and their hearts weren't into it.



H didn't like matching the numbers on the clothes pins to the numbers on the cards.  She preferred to count and stick any clothespin on the correct number.

They glued on cones and then rolled the die.  The number that came up was how many scoops they put on their cone.

They rolled the die again and that number was how many sprinkles to put on their ice cream. 

The igloos are white paint, white paper, and wax paper.  They also helped me write the word "igloo".  After they wrote the letter we pointed to each letter and the letter.
G and H "built" the uppercase I and added an inchworm. 

Letter I - Part 2

I am not a baker as you could probably tell from the cookies.  You have to measure and be accurate.  I am more of a throw it together and smell kind of cook.  So, my husband does most of the dessert and baking around here.  I planned to make pumpkin ice cream all week, but decided it would be best to have him around.  We used the Ben and Jerry's Ice book for our recipe.  Just what I need to shed the last of the baby weight.

The ice cream is ready for the ice cream maker.  It made more than we expected.

Sweet Cream Base
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 cup milk

Whisk the eggs in the bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 min.  Whisk in the sugar a little at a time and whisk until blended.  Pour in the cream and milk and whisk to blend.

Pumpkin Ice Cream
Sweet Cream Base
1 can unsweetened pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Prepare the Sweet Cream Base and pour 1 cup into another bowl, add the pumpkin, nutmeg, and cinnamon.  When it's mixed add this mixture to the rest of your cream base and blend.  Put it into your ice cream make and viola in a few hours you have your own B&J ice cream. 

We found it took almost 2 hours to fully mix in the ice cream maker since it makes a lot.  Also we will cut down on the nutmeg and cinnamon next time.  Overall it's a fun Halloween ice cream.

Letter Cookies

We did a review of E-H by making sugar cookies.  I am not a baker and this was my first time making cookies using cookie cutters.  We had flour everywhere and I learned this is not a project to take on 30 min. before your husband gets home. 

Sensory Box

We are counting down the days until it is too cold to go outside and ride bikes, play with chalk, and run in the yard.  It's coming, so we have spent more time outside and less time on our activities.  While we were waiting for the littlest one to wake up so we could go outside I brought out the sensory box.  They spent nearly and hour playing in it. 

H enjoyed giving Bear a bath.  She made sure to cover her eyes and wash Bear's hair with purple pom-pom soap.

Pouring

We are still working on the letter I, so I thought it would be fun to make ice pops.  We used the ice cube trays from the Dollar Store and G and H practiced pouring.  It was difficult since they could only pour a little at a time. 

They had so much fun I pulled out the regular ice trays and let them practice pouring.  This was so much easier and made less of a mess. 

Marbelized Art

I found this great art project at Unplug Your Kids.  It's geared towards older kids, but I thought it would be fun to give it a try. 

I added too much water to the dish and we had to start over.  There wasn't any complaining since that meant they could add more food coloring.  Don't do this project before family photos because your children will have lovely rainbow colored hands.

I divided about 1 tablespoon into 4 parts so G and H could pour them into their cups.

The eye dropper is great practice for prewriting and writing. 

Not bad for a duo of rowdy two year-olds.

I is for Island

Yesterday G and H had no interest in activities.  Today they couldn't get enough and sadly I didn't have enough for them to do.  We did finish our letter I art project with I is for Island.

G and H dipped their hand in paint to make the palm tree leaves.

G and H added sand to the land.  I know, I know sand, paint, and two year olds is asking for trouble.  It's a good thing we had Nay-Nay to help.

Letter I

My husband once said, "Every day is a Monday for you babe."  I believe he was right, but this Monday was one of THOSE Mondays.  The baby didn't sleep well, so I wasn't my usual cheerleader self and the twins couldn't be bothered with activities.  They had more fun playing with each other today and didn't even want me to play.  The upside is I was feeling the need to deep clean and they gave me the opportunity. 

We did start the letter I by reading a few books and painting.  I intended to make and island, but we didn't get very far.  Tomorrow my fingers are crossed we will finish.

Painting an uppercase and lowercase I indigo.  It took a few tries to get the correct color. 



G told me he was finished painting his paper brown.  I was able to get him to do a little more and by little I mean a little.

We are working on cleaning up our space after each activity. 







A Little More Halloween.

My childless brother-in-law once said Halloween was his favorite holiday because he didn't have to spend it with his family. I think Halloween is my favorite holiday because of my family.  To be honest I think they are all my favorite holidays.  We have been doing some Halloween themed activities (shocker since it's Oct.) and G and H have had a blast.

We made orange play dough using gelatin.  They loved smelling it and then using Halloween cookies cutters.

I found a pumpkin ice cube tray at the Dollar Store and some Halloween pom-poms at Target.  They loved using the chopsticks to put a pom-pom into each pumpkin space.

Doh

Thanks to the ladies who pointed out my spelling error in the header.

Letter Review

I found these cute little letter stamps in the dollar section at Target.  I thought they would love to stamp, but sadly I found it more interesting than they did.  I will try them again in a month and maybe we will have better success.

Matching stamps to letters. 

I put out a basket of letters and objects to match.  The letters are from the Melissa & Doug puzzle and the objects are erasers I found at Michaels.  The only downfall to the erasers is they pull apart into tiny pieces.  I can just see the kids playing with these in the classroom.  I might try some Crazy Glue to keep them together.  They are the perfect size for initial consonant recognition.

Letter H Hunt



During nap I gathered objects that begin with H and hid them in the playroom.  The twins did a hunt to find all the objects.  It was a big hit.



Playing the haromonica.

I outlined each object to help them know how many they needed to find.

Wait, bunny doesn't start with H and that's why we called it a hare.



Sorting Hearts

We do a lot of sorting in this house, me included.  I like to think I am getting them ready to take over sorting the laundry. 

Sorting hearts for our letter of the week.

Dramatic Play

 One of my favorite things to do with my children is dramatic play.  I love how you have to use your imagination and it is so open ended.  Recently I set up a doctor's office in the playroom.  The twins were really confused how to play doctor since they are rarely sick.  It took a little bit of modeling before they became interested. 

For the supplies I found old medicine bottles, an old thermometer, ace bandages, band aides, craft sticks for tongue depressors, and anything else that looked like it belonged in a doctor's office.  I printed off prescription cards, patient cards, health posters, and x-rays and then I used contact paper to keep them nice.  It's a good thing my husband looked closely at the x-rays because our doctor's office had a few pet x-rays.  I thought the x-ray with stomach and chest x-ray looked funny.



Supplies

The Waiting Room

Exam Room



The Doctor