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

A is for...

My husband is really good at fixing large manly type of things, like a motor or a bathroom.  What he isn't so good at is fixing delicate things, like Mister's glasses (hello warranty) and my camera.  Two things you  never want from your camera is a flash and a boom and those two things I have heard.  The good news is that I have a few things I haven't posted from last month, but I have a really cool sensory bin that I am itching to get to.  In the meantime, here are some of the Wee One's letter "a" activities.

Math - Scented apple stickers on dots to work on one-to-one correspondence.

Literacy - Letter A recognition and beginning sounds Letter Book

Apple stamping - she chose to use make yellow apples

Stickers - fine motor

Finally, we did a lot of dancing to Animal Actions.

Apple Investigation

I can't believe this month is almost finished and I feel like we have so much to do!  Tomorrow is the last day of summer and it's time for all things fall.  Like every year, we will be going to the apple orchard to pick apples for apple butter, apple pies, apple eating, and what ever else we can make.  As a preview to our annual apple picking I read the book Life On An Apple Orchard.  It's pretty long, so I picked out the most important and interesting parts on each page.  

After we read, we did some movement with 5 Little Apples, but I changed to the words in preparation for a subtraction activity.  

Five red apples hanging in the tree (Hold up 5 fingers)

Red and delicious as can be (Rub tummy)

(Name) shook that tree as hard as she/he could (Shake the tree)

Down came one apple (Apple falling)

Mmm it was good (Take a bite)

They were ready to refocus and sit after our song, so we cut open an apple for investigating.  As they looked at the apple, we talked about each part and made chart as reference for their work.  

I didn't plan on including the core, but Ladybug noticed that the middle of the apple looked different from the rest of the apple.

Parts of an Apple was available on the shelf along with the cut apple and magnifying glass.

Being a good scientist - It's hard not to just take a lick.

I realize that this activity isn't original, but it's fun and easy to expand on the original idea.

Acorn Transfer

Easy, peasy activity and if I was really on it I would have picked up acorns outside.  The Wee One really liked these sparkly acorns, so here they are.

The Wee One used wooden salad tongs to transfer the acorns from apple dish to apple dish.

A is for Activities

Mean what you say and say what you mean.  I am not sure how many times that phrase has passed through my lips and now I can't help think, do as I say not as I do.  Just a few days ago I said that I wasn't going to put together many activities for Mister and Ladybug and I lied.  

Math

Mister and Ladybug can self check by looking on the back of the apple.

Literacy

Word families - Dot all the word families that belong together

Mister and Ladybug color the apples and cut it apart to make a book

Pages 3 and 4 of their apple book.

Practical Life

You may be thinking this doesn't look like a lot, but there is more to come and I have the Wee One's activities too.  Sometimes it just all comes together...

I Hope I Didn't Miss It

The Wee One has always been interested in numbers, shapes, and counting, but letter haven't been on her radar until about a month ago.  She started asking me to tell her the names of all the letters she saw and I complied, but with a busy last month of summer I put off putting together any real activities.  Now, I am hoping that I didn't miss the critical timing for her interest in literacy.  Then again, I am not sure I would trade our last month hurrah anyway.

To kick off the our month I introduced the sensory bin, as usual, and brought back homemade play dough.

Apple cookies, apple pie, and apple muffins

While Mister and Ladybug were at school, I took opportunity to formally introduce the letter Aa. I started off by showing her the miniatures and we named each one.  Next, I showed her the sand paper letter and made the short a sound.  After she repeated the sound a few times we looked at pictures of the miniatures and matched them.

By this time she was ready to do some actual work, so I gave her a new alphabet notebook - the same I used with Mister and Ladybug.

Mister's Alphabet Book from when he was 2-3.

I apologize for the blurry image.  The camera battery went dead right after I took this shot and my dear husband blew up my camera trying to fix it with his man tools.  I am at the mercy of any camera that I can find in the house.

The Wee One pasting her pictures.  You may notice the scissors and she did help me cut out the Aa.

September - A is for Apple

• Yellow lentils
• Apples
• Pom-poms
• Safari LTD squirrel
• Apple bag
• Tongs (used as a crow by Mister and Ladybug)
• Leaves
• Letter a's
• Scarecrows
• Acorns
• Spoon
• Fork

Two Confessions

Confession 1:  I love my husband, but he is thrifty cheap.  He is so cheap; he has been called the cheapest of the cheap.  Now before you think I am an evil wife, know that he is proud of his cheapness, it has rubbed off on me, and that's not a bad thing.  It means less waste, fewer material possessions and thinking that I can do anything.  I am good enough, smart enough,...

Confession 2:  When I was teenager I would laugh and roll my eyes at my mom for two reasons: rugs and wreaths.  She has always had a new rug and a wreath on her door.  Can you guess who loves wreaths?  If I could I would put a wreath on every door because they are that much fun.  I suppose it's a bit like the circle of life; becoming your parents.

Put confession one and confession two together and you have an attempt at Crafty McCrafterson.  Between Pinterst and ETSY, I have spent a good portion of my time obsessing over wreaths.  Recently, I stumbled on the mother load of wreaths and I had to have one.  It was only $55.  Only $55. 

Now, knowing my husband is beyond thrifty, there is no way he would tell me a $55 is a good deal and in all honesty, I don't blame him.  So, here is my version of the wreath.  I won't bore you with a tutorial since I believe your Googling skills are good, but I think it's pretty cute.  I may have gone a little overboard on the felt flowers (14 to be exact) but once you hot glue them, they are on for good.

Welcome Fall!