Thursday, July 31, 2014

What it Feels Like to be a Bird

Today we did a life-sized bird's nest sensory bin.
 
 I covered a pool with a tan blanket and filled it with shredded paper, feathers, twigs and plastic eggs.
 
I wanted the kids to see what it feels like to be a bird:
 
I think Princess thought we were egg hunting because she started opening the eggs at a frantic pace:
 
 
Some of the eggs were filled with coins, rice, or dried beans so they would make noise. I hot glued them together. Son loves the sounds:
 
 
My two little birds shared the nest. I had planned to feed them a few gummy worms, just like a mamma bird would, but SOMEONE got into my stash and ATE THEM ALL before we did this activity:
 
 
I'm sorry about this, but my baby birds got into a big fight over eggs and space in the nest:
 
 
Here is Son trying to push his sister out:
 
 I told Princess to make her best bird face and this is what she did. I think it is perfect. Wish I had those worms to feed her: 
 

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Bird Unit Sensory Bin

 Okay. It is miserably hot outside AND there are a million bugs that want to bite us BUT we ventured out to do a fun sensory bin for our bird unit. I filled the bin with bird replicas, feathers, a real nest and letters to spell bird:



Princess has hair issues. She hates to have it pulled up and she messes it up when I comb it and in her defense it is way too hot to worry about hair anyway:




I had scoops and spoons and bowls that they played with:




Son enjoyed scooping:


Princess loved to inspect the seed:


And she got into her work:


So did Son...not on purpose:


Well, maybe he did:



Practicing his spoon skills:


They took turns getting into the bin and NOT nicely...it was a pushing and shoving and wrestling match:


Princess doing a 16 piece puzzle. Son and Gizmo are working in the background:


She is getting better at working independently:


Showing off her finished work:


A discovery basket I made for Son:



Tuesday, July 29, 2014

A Few of My Favorite Things

My three favorite TV shows are Hoarders, Hoarding: Buried Alive, and Clean House. I'm not sure why I can't get enough of watching people surround themselves with mounds of stuff, but its just mesmerizing to me!!!!!
 
I NEVER want to be a hoarder, but I have to admit that I tend to "collect" a lot of things that I label as "art supplies".
 
I have a cool art room and as soon as its painted and set up properly I will post some pics. I probably won't actually have the time to do an art project for another TEN years, but hey, it still is an awesome room. So for now, here is my favorite "non-hoarded" stuff in my art room.

I LOVE vintage valentines and I have about 100 or so. I cut these and use them for cards. Some are too cool to use, but most of them are fair game:
 
 
I have a big box of faucet knobs. I am using these to make a giant cross, but I'm still searching for a board to attach them to:

 
 Marquee letters from an old sign:

 
My pregnant old lady salt and pepper shakers. Fertility luck Im guessing:

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Dad sent me this awesome blanket...filled with photos from Humble Hearts!!!!

 
My marker collection!!!!!!! This is only about a third of it. Is it still hoarding if I really do use all of them often????



Changeable Charlie blocks and his aunt (Thanks Dad):

 

The rug that I LOVE that Boss hates with a passion (and he was still kind enough to buy it for me):

 
I have lots of old record albums with cute pictures that I will use for a project someday:

An old intelligence test:


A bunch of old children's books that I cut apart for cards:

 
I like old tool boxes and I fill them with supplies for cards and other strange things I make. I have tiny envelopes in here too. I really have a thing for interesting envelopes:

Bird Unit Day 1

 I am exhausted from our long drive back and forth to Fort Lauderdale and I have stayed up very late for the past two nights preparing for this bird unit. I lost my steam a bit, I think...but thats okay. I just need a day or two to recover and we will be back in action around here.
 
Today we did a bunch of our shelfwork for the bird unit. I knew Princess would choose the scooping activity first and she did. Here is the montessori scooping tray:
 
I think she worked on this for about 45 minutes:
 
This was the calm before the storm because trust me...a ROYAL bird mess was made:
 
 
As an extension activity we got out a funnel. This is Princess's first time using a funnel. She really liked it, but the bird seed kind of got stuck because there were sunflower seeds in there and they were clogging up the funnel:
 
 
This is how I decorated the empty wall in our classroom. We will be using the letters to do phonics. The bird photos were cut out from books and calendar pages. The little circle is our bible verse for this week, which is:
 
"He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings". Psalm 91:4
 
 
Here is Son working on pushing pipe cleaners into small holes:
 

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Road Trip

Here are a few of the stops we made on our recent trip to Fort Lauderdale from St. Augustine:
Miramar, Fl:
 
Great park with really cool astroturf flooring. We had a wonderful time here and I never ever saw such clean restrooms at a park EVER!
 
 
They have a fun splash pad:
 
 
Saw Grass Mills Mall, Fort Lauderdale, Fl :
 
It was hard to get a good photo in this place because everything was pink!!!
 
 I think the dreamhouse was a bit expensive, but I lucked out because Princess was only two and she was free. I got a military and weekday discount, so I paid $14.00, which was great...but if you have a couple kids and two adults, I can see how it would be expensive.
 
It is a 30 miute tour that leaves every half hour. I'm glad we went, but I don't think we would go again.
 
 In Barbie's closet:
 
 
 
 We saw a massive iguana outside of the Fishing Hall of Fame:
 
 
And Son liked hanging out inside a big shark's mouth:
 
 
 Dolphin fountain at Jesen Beach:
 
 
Jensen Beach, Fl:
 
This was a great detour (even though it was 20 minutes off of the highway). It was well worth it. There is a splash park, a beach, several museums and the children's museum was excellent and inexpensive.
 
We got the military discount and paid $9.00 total for all three of us to get in:
 

The kids liked the grocery store best:
 
 
There is a vet clinic, a dental office, a fire station, a puppet area, a train set, a big pirate ship that shoots balls to the lower level and a toddler area:
 
 
Palm Bay, Fl:
 
Love, Love, Love it here. There are lots of trails to run/walk on and a ton of wildlife. There is also a cute little nature center with things for the kids to do and best of all, its FREE!!!
 
 
 
Princess liked using these blocks to create animal tracks:
 
 
 
Playing with snake skin: