It's a Winter Wonderland - December Sensory Bin

One of the thing I love about living in the tundra is the four seasons.  Sadly we are stuck in 3.5 season since the last three years have been disappointing for snow.  My husband isn't complaining, but it's hard to get in the season when it's cold and there is no snow.  I put together a sensory bin of what I think it should look like around here minus the penguins.

What's Inside:

• Clear pony beads
• Pom-poms (green, white, and red for Rudolf's nose)
• Evergreen trees
• Snowpeople
• Penguins
• Christmas balls
• Horn pick
• Lights
• Santa
• Kids playing in the snow

A Sneak Peak

So...what's new?  

The Two Steps house has been busy for the past month learning new skills and getting ready for Christmas. My dad has been teaching me how to wood work and we made a console table as my first project. If I would have known how empowering power tools were, I would have started long ago.  

Now, I am busy making Christmas gifts for the kiddos.  We are having a no electronics or battery Christmas because it's already loud over here.  As a side not my husband told me two years ago while we were enjoying our morning coffee that it couldn't possible get any louder here.  Should I ask him how he feels now?  Anyway, here is a sneak peak of Ladybug's big gift.  

I

Halloween - A Few More

Here are a few more activities on the shelves for Halloween.

Art

Frankenstein example

Mister's Frankenstein

Literacy - Ladybug loves to make cards for people, so I put a Halloween card template on the shelf.  I asked them to practice writing the first part of the sentence "It is a" and stamp Barnyard Boogie.

The stamp is from the #1 spot at Joann.

Practical Life - We have put a lot of effort into our cutting this month after I saw some less than stellar preschool cutting projects.  These shapes range from easy to a little harder.  After they cut the ghosts were glued onto black paper, shredded cotton balls were added and the words "Boo" and "Halloween" were added.  The Wee One glued shredded and glued cotton balls on her ghost.

Ghost cutting

Math - Draw a card and match the number on the hundreds chart.  The pumpkins are erasers I have had for years.

Happy Halloween!

T is for Teeth - What's on those teeth?

I have been lagging on posting this month because I have been so busy wood working (a new thing for me) and sewing Halloween costumes.  The kiddos and I have been over at my parent's house almost everyday, so that has left little school time.  We have been able to fit some in and the Wee One and I are on the letter T.  No, I didn't miss on posting the letters between A and T, but we are doing them out of order in one of the different suggested ways.

Before we carved our pumpkins, I drew a face including teeth.  On the teeth I put gross black that needed to be brushed.  I included a toothbrush and some water.  The first time the Wee One did it I threw it together to see if she would like it and that's the only picture I have.  I found that yellow paint worked a little better than dry erase marker.  Mister and Ladybug enjoyed brushing the jack-o-lantern's teeth also.

Happy Brushing!

Candy Corn and Holiday Cards

We are still struggling with sorting out the Wee One's activities from Mister and Ladybug's activities.  Te Wee One wants to do Mister and Ladybug's activities and they want to do her activities.  Of course what child would pass up the opportunity to work with candy corn?

Simple activity for practicing transferring and a lot of smelling, and probably some tasting too.

Another quick activity:

The kiddos like to put together picture puzzles rather than greeting card puzzles, but we have an abundance of greeting cards.  

What's On the Shelf - October

I love October because there is so much fun to be had and so much to do!  Here's the first activities on the shelves:

Practical Life

These chopsticks have a tendency to overlap, so just the right pressure has to be applied.

I have cringed at the cutting work  Mister and Ladybug have brought home from preschool, so  for some fun practice they can make a jack-o-lantern and cut it out.

Science/Sensorial

My body wooden puzzle

Human body x-rays

This is a challenge because the pieces are small.

Literacy

Halloween card making

After we played with this, I changed some of the verbs for more variety.  DK should have included blank pieces.

For Fun

JoAnn $1 section

Usborne cards 

Potato Head family

Skeleton Sort

When I ran across multi-colored skeletons at Michaels, it was a no-brainer what I would do with them - sorting!  This was the Wee One's first experience with sorting more than 2 things, so I put a skeleton in each tray section to get her started.

After she sorted, she stretched

and lined them up to count.