Lesson Theme: Fall!

Taking my cue from kids and piles of leaves during the fall, I am just going to jump right in with we've been working on...

A quick lesson in pointillism.  Miss A worked on this over several days so as not to grow bored with it - pointillism can require a good deal of care and patience.  It was worth the wait - I LOVE how this turned out!

I'd also seen the cutest craft where the person used puzzle pieces for autumn leaves on a tree!  I decided to make our own version using a watercolor background and a branch heavy with leaves waiting for the first strong wind to send them tumbling to the ground.

We made three of these - examining how the changes in light during the day make the leaf colors appear slightly different depending on the time of day...

Here's a tree branch with autumn leaves in the full bright sun of the day...

Here's the same branch at sunset (notice the more muted yellow tone)...

And here is the branch at night - the yellow much darker...

Among the many different fall books available for reading is a treasure we read titled "Autumn: An Alphabet Acrostic".  I LOVE this book and highly recommend buying it (link below) or getting it from the library.  It is a book rich with the language and images of the season.

It was a challenge for us to make an acrostic of our own but we did!  Actually, Miss A did much of it, and I helped with harder letters like "U" where we looked up words that started with "U" and then chose one we could work with.  

After coming up with our own acrostic for the season, Miss A illustrated it (notice it is a fall NIGHT picture).

We also practiced our new spelling words!  Miss A would write a spelling word, count up the letters in that word, make up a math sentence to equal that number, show the math sentence using fall leaf cut-outs, and then write it out using numbers.

This was a sorting math sentences activity.  I wrote incomplete number sentences on leaves and placed them in a pile on the paper between the two baskets.  Miss A had to complete the sentences and sort the leaves into the appropriate baskets.

This was a whimsical bit of fall leaf yarn art.  I printed a picture of a leaf, taped wax paper over it and we worked together to dip yarn in a glue solution (mostly glue and a little bit of water to thin it out) and apply it to the outline of the leaf (sometimes having to add straight glue to make it stick better).

We also used yarn to add her initial to the center of the leaf.  Once dry, I pulled it off the wax paper (it was VERY stiff), and hung it up!  :)

Does this little wooden doll family look familiar?  They should since I posted about a photography and makeover session with them recently!  ;)

The Autumn family (as I named them), joined us for the week in a little bin full of colorful bits of fall!  Miss A and Mr. J have been enjoying them quite a bit!

BTW - this was incredibly INexpensive to make.  The apple trees are made from cut apart and painted paper towel rolls and construction paper.  The apples are red pom poms with velcro attached so they can be "picked" from the tree.  The baskets are cut up painted egg carton pieces.  The leaves are made from construction paper using a leaf punch I have.  The rakes are pieces of a thin cardboard box that I cut up and painted.  And the ground pieces are felt.  The dolls are available here and are very inexpensive as well!

So what fun fall activities have you been up to lately?

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Meet the Autumn Family & a GIVEAWAY!

Every once in a while, I have the pleasure of photographing a family and preserving a memory!

 Meet my newest "clients" - Mr. and Mrs. Autumn and their five adorable children.  ;)

They were "referred" to me by Gemmie from gemmielou , and I am so glad they came my way!  They were so much fun to work with!

Here's mom and dad sneaking a kiss while the kids giggle in the background...

And here are the kids - with proud mom and dad looking on from a distance.

After our initial photo shoot - the Autumn family had a makeover...

And I was fortunate enough to be their photographer a second time, helping them showcase their new-found style and color!

Note:

The clothes are NOT painted on (with the exception of the boys' pants) but made from material I had left from another craft.  I thought it might be more fun to have the option of a change of clothes later on should Miss A wish to make some of her own outfits for them to wear.  

These clothes were sooooo simple to make.  I just measured and cut rectangles and then hot glued some very small pieces of velcro to both sides of the material so the clothes could be put on and taken off easily.  

I also cut little strips of felt for scarves and tied one around each doll to keep them toasty warm while we completed our photo shoot outdoors...

Here are those cute kids again!

And mom and dad sneaking another little moment together - look how in love they are!

Just the girls...

Just the boys...

A good portion of our photo shoot took place here in the Autumn family's backyard.  Lucky family - they even have their own apple tree!!!

I just love candids, so I snapped a few while they worked and played together...

A little good-natured wrestling in the leaves going on here...

I love this one of father and son working together...

The girls were busy as well, collecting some of their delicious red apples for cooking purposes later on.  Mrs. Autumn confided in me that she is a champion apple pie maker!  

It was fun spending part of a day with this amazing family, and I can't wait for them to meet my kids as well during our fall themed week!  (Actually, Miss A has already met them.  She discovered them before their makeovers were complete - and joyously began playing with them just as they were.)

I hope you've enjoyed these pictures from our fall photo shoot - every photographer should be so lucky to have such a great family to work with!  ;)

And now....the moment you've been waiting for....it's GIVEAWAY TIME!

Gemmie from gemmielou has generously offered to GIVE AWAY one more paintable wooden doll family to one very fortunate reader!  There are several ways to earn entries - just take a look below!

Can't wait that long to see if you've won?  You want your own wooden doll family RIGHT NOW?  

I understand - they are just that cute!  :)  Click on over to Gemmie's etsy shop now to view her amazing selection of wooden dolls!

They are so affordable you might just want to weep for joy as you realize the possibilities and pick up several more for friends, family, Christmas gifts (these would make the cutest stocking stuffers), birthday gifts,  party favors, etc.

And don't even get me started on the homeschooling ideas...tot school, multicultural units (decorate one doll to represent each country you study), a family theme, an All About Me unit, community helpers, etc.  See, I told you not to get me started.  ;)

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Lesson Theme: Apples!

Yay for APPLE theme week!  I love apples - there were so many fun things to do and taste this past week!

Here's the traditional taste-and-graph your favorites activity which we did with our family!  :)

We made apple prints and applesauce (NOT using the same apples).  We just combined our cut up apples with water and cinnamon and cooked them in a pan on the stove until they were ready to be mushed!

Once the apple prints dried, we used them to make an "applesauce" wreath - a simple reminder of our fun time cooking together!  Plus, what better way to be welcomed home than with the autumn scent of cinnamon as you walk through the door!

To make our wreath, I cut out the center of a round pizza cardboard (what a frozen pizza comes on).  We then glued our prints and cinnamon sticks to the cardboard.  A burlap and gold ribbon bow gave it the finishing touch!

We made pretend apple muffins as well.  I put a number in the bottom of each muffin tin and wrote number sentences on paper apples (then cut the apples up).

Miss A had to match the cut up apple math sentences with the number on the bottom of the tin (ex. 7+8=  15).  Then she wrote the number word that corresponded with the number on the bottom of the tin (ex.  four  for #4) on a muffin top and placed it on top of the cut up pieces inside the tin to complete each "muffin".

Spelling pies were another part of our week.  I deviated from our normal spelling words to come up with a list of words related to apples.  I then wrote the letters of each word on paper apples.

After reviewing our new words, I cut the apples apart, mixed them up, and let Miss A piece each word back together using the spelling list and/or her memory.  Once she could do that, we would glue it to the chart paper.  She then colored a pie picture and glued it partially on top so each pie could be lifted to peek at the apples inside.

During the course of the week, I would check to see if she could spell one of her words without looking.  If she could do so correctly, we would add some real cinnamon to the top of that particular pie to complete it!  :)

Speaking of pie, we just HAD to make apple pie to go along with some books we read.  :)
AND...

We made an apple pie bracelet!  We used some letter beads and wood beads painted red (for apples) to spell out the main ingredients we used to make our miniature apple pies (we made them in a muffin tin).  Not only is the bracelet cute and a reminder of our time together, it can be used as a great re-telling tool as well!

We practiced fractions using apples and the book "Apple Fractions".  I LOVE this book!  Not only is it informative, easy to read, and helpful - the illustrations themselves are adorable (little elves measure and slice apples to go along with the text).

If you are unable to find this book in your local library, Amazon has it (see the link below).

We also planned an apple bar to go along with dinner since I knew we would have so many apple slices left after dividing them up for our fraction lesson.  The bar was a hit with dipping choices of caramel, hot fudge, and peanut butter - yummm!

I also had a surprise up my sleeve for Miss A.  While she was busy working on something else one day, I set up "Snow White's Apple Farm" outside.  Miss A loves stories and fairytales so I thought it might be fun to incorporate one in our week - Snow White seemed the logical choice.

I blew up some red balloons to about the size of a large apple and stuck papers to the bottoms of each with a math sentence written on the paper.  I placed a sign in the yard welcoming her to Snow White's Apple Farm and let her know she needed to help Snow White pick some apples.  However, the wicked stepmother had hidden a bad apple in the bunch so she had to be extra careful not to place that in her basket by mistake.

I told her a number and let her loose upon the field of apples on the ground.  Her goal was to find the math sentences that matched/equaled the number - anything else was a poisonous apple.

She did a fantastic job of choosing all the right apples and placing the "poisoned" apple back on the ground!  I would have liked to play the game again another day, but unfortunately I found many of the apples deflated later on.  Perhaps it had something to do with a certain little someone finding the place where I had hidden them and emptying them out to play with.  Oh well - no doubt Snow White would have been understanding so I tried to be as well.   ;)

Meet the "Autumn" family and enter the GIVEAWAY here to win a cute wooden doll family of your very own!!!  Make sure you scroll through the giveaway post to see the before and after pictures of these fun dolls!  :)



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Birthday Invitations!

Hear ye!  Hear ye!  It's birthday time!

My daughter decided this year she would like to have a royal masquerade party, but because we are in transition mode (not in our new home yet) - we decided to have a royal masquerade picnic at a park.  It was so much fun to meet the challenge of an unusual birthday theme request and turn it into a special day for Miss A and her little friends.

I think these invitations set the tone quite nicely...

Andrea from Where the Green Grass Grows is wonderful to work with!  She came up with our Nutcracker Sweet invitations last year and our First "Bear"thday ones as well.  So when this year rolled around, I knew it was time to check in with her again.

She created the cutest custom design for us (the poor woman had to endure who knows how many of my little e-mails requesting date changes, wording changes, etc. and met each request with such amazing cheerfulness)!  I loved the little gasp of delight from my daughter when she saw them.  :)

We added some sparkle of our own to help fit in with the gold and pink theme - plus extra sparkle seems to come with the territory when a little princess is party of your family.

Then we made glittering masks for each young princess invited to attend and tucked them under the ribbon with the invitation.  The girls were sooo excited to receive these!  It was cute to listen to their comments.

Andrea also came up with the adorable invitations below for my son's party.  I decided to turn the invitations into a banner being flown by little wooden planes, so I attached some blue and white twine to both the plane and the invitation for a little different way of delivering our message.  :)

Now on to the parties....

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Happy First Day of Autumn!

I love the fall season!

I look forward to the first day of it...

A delicious breakfast...

(Recipe here)

Slipping into some cozy socks...

(My mom made these - isn't she AMAZING?  She likes to make me a different pair each Christmas, and I literally love them to pieces -wear holes in the heels. )

Throwing dinner in a slow cooker and smelling it simmer all afternoon...

And indulging in a little treat of the season!

Welcome AUTUMN!  I'm so glad you're here!  :)

Lesson Theme: Fire Station and Firefighters!

We've been taking some time over the past couple of weeks to begin discussing different community helpers.  Of course, firefighters were on that list!  :)  

There were just SOOO many fun ideas for firefighters, fire stations, and fire safety that I decided to spend more than one week on the subject and just wait until we were done to share.  Thus, the ideas would be grouped in one large post so you wouldn't have to go hopping around my blog searching for all the little posts.  You can thank me later...or now...;)

I titled this game:  Ready...Set...Dress.   It could be played together as a timed contest or individually.  

The goal is to keep rolling a couple of dice until the two numbers add up to the number on the dressing list.  The item beside the number is the piece of clothing the firefighter can put on next.  The game is done when the firefighter is dressed and ready to go!

The pieces of clothing were items I drew on colored paper and cut out.  The reflective stripes were made from aluminum foil.  

Uh oh!  Time to fight some fires of our own!

I believe this flame was discovered in a workbox of all places!  Of course we needed to put it out...

Miss A would roll two dice, write a number sentence about the numbers she had rolled, and answer the number problem.  The answer was how many dots of water we were allowed to "spray" on the fire to put it out.  It took quite a few dots but eventually our fire was extinguished!  

Hooray for my little firefighter!  :)

Ah yes, duty calls again!  In this case, the fire was in the form of spelling words and flames written in red washable marker on a white vinyl tablecloth (check the party section of Walmart or Dollar Tree for these dollar tablecloths).   This was a much bigger fire so a hose and real water were called for of course.  ;)

What a hit!  You can do so many things with this concept - have your kids practice writing their spelling words on the tablecloth, math facts, etc. using red and orange markers to create the "fires".  Then at the end of the lesson, they get to "put out" the fires with real water (just make sure you use a WASHABLE red marker or your fires might resist the water).

For this activity, I printed some fire engines and hydrants which Miss A and I colored.  I cut them out and also snipped out some small words, number sentences, etc.  On the hydrant, I would place the "answer" to some of the math sentences, words, etc. and each fire engine would have a "problem/question".  

If the answer on the hydrant matched the problem/question on the fire engine, the engine could hook up to the fire hydrant via a hose (blue bendy straw).  If the engine could not match up with the hydrant's answer, they could not hook up to get water.   For example:  if the hydrant had the word "rage" on it and you were practicing rhyming words, an engine would have to have a word on it that rhymed with "rage" in order to hook up its hose to the hydrant.

A pretend play bin fit for little firefighters (I found the hats at the 99 cent store or Dollar Tree - I cannot remember which).

I saw this idea on Pinterest (here is a link) and thought it was soooo cute!  I loved the idea of making my kids' footprints into fire engines!  They helped of course.

And when one has a fire engine, one should certainly have a fire station in which to put said engine.  Thus, we built a fire station by rolling some dice, adding the numbers together and then using the answer to figure out what we would get in order to build our station (example:  roll two numbers which added together equal seven = building).  

Sometimes we would just have to hold onto an item until we had another one on which to put it (example:  holding onto windows until you have rolled a building).   We then glued the items on a paper bag (one end is open so you can slip your fire engine in and out as you please - see picture above).

This is a fire collage that the kids worked on together - torn paper, red and shiny gift basket shreds, etc.

The point of this game was to practice the concept of Stop, Drop, and Roll.  I cut out pieces of red and yellow flannel and we took turns being "it".  The "it" person would chase someone else and put the flannel pieces on their clothes.  That person would then need to stop, drop, and roll until the felt flames came off.  Then THEY would be "it" and chase someone else, attempting to get those flames onto another person.  :)

These activities were all good, but I don't think any could hold a candle to the actual day we visited a fire station (it was a surprise for the kids).  It was definitely a highlight of our week to be shown around by a real firefighter.  Lots of fun!  If you have a fire station near you, you might want to check to see whether they could give you a tour.  :)

Do you have any fire safety, firefighter, fire station ideas or crafts you would like to share with others?  Feel free to post about it in the comment section below!  :)

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