Me Too, Woody!

Isaac is reading on a Level 1 in those leveled readers you see at Walmart. I found some books on that level at McKays and turned one of them into a Literacy Bag.



I chose this book because we already have a Little Critter book titled Me Too! on our Nook and I thought Isaac might be able to make a connection.



I typed up the words, added pictures from Goggle Images and Clipart, printed everything and cut them out, and voila!



And everything fits into a pencil case!



He has actually read this so many times that he has it memorized. (much like Aunt Boo had Hop on Pop! memorized) You can hear the twins wanting attention in the background. Well, you can hear Abby wanting attention in the background.

After reading the story, we spread out the story strips and Isaac had to put the story back together. (the video is a little shaky- it's was difficult to film and direct at the same time)


Click on the picture to watch the video!

I didn't film all of it, but Isaac did get it finished! I got the picture of him standing with it, I turned around for one second to tell Abby something and Isaac had already mixed the sentence strips. (I was going to have him read them to Daddy.) *sigh*





I've done this activity with my students and they have a good time with it since it's a Literacy Center that I take a picture of to put on my school blog. I used the sentence strips from 1+1+1=1 for my students, but since it was pretty easy to make my own, I'll probably do more!

You might be wondering what I had the twins doing during all this.



Abby chose robots for her activity. She has the robots shapes page and a pipe cleaner. Her activity was to try to make the shapes with the pipe cleaner. (yes, it is an advanced activity, but she really tried hard!)



She mastered the circle!



I combined Andy's love of pirates with his love of colored pom-poms. His job- match the pom-poms to the circles on the page. Hand-eye coordination.

Here's the problem that I'm finding with doing Delk Homeschool- I can't do all the kids at one time. They all need individual help with their activities. However, wherever Ike goes, so goes Abby. Wherever Abby goes, so goes Andy. If I leave anyone out, they scream and cry. I could send them to their rooms to cry it out, then call them back when it's their turn, but by then they are in bad moods and don't want to do their activity.

For anyone who wanted to know why I don't actually homeschool my kids- that's the reason. They get on my nerves.

Click on the links ( robots and pirates) to see where I got the great activities!

Fun with Food Coloring

I've been on Fall break all week, but this was the first day with the kids. The last 3 days have been cleaning and laundry days- kid free! I love my hubby! (he assured me that daycare was in the budget for this week)

So, today I had children and needed something to do with them. I had thought about going to the zoo, but it was cold and wet outside. I thought about being a good teacher-mommy, but I hadn't printed out and prepared anything yet.

Then I remembered THIS website. I considered this activity to be part of the Crafty Trinity- it was fast, cheap and easy. So, instead of going to the zoo, we made Aquarium Baggies. Great for... well, I don't know. But the kids liked it and now we have sun catchers that are sensory/ tactile oriented.

I collected my items...



I honestly can't remember when I bought that hair gel, but I'm glad I didn't get rid of it!
baggies
multi-colored sharpies
hair gel (the website said it would work with lotion too. but it wouldn't be as see-through for sun catchers)
food coloring to make the "water" blue
the white felt was for Isaac to see where he was marking

I stripped the kids of their shirts so they couldn't ruin them with the markers. I also read them their rights, should a marker find its way to a mouth, other body part, or the wall, all fun would cease for that child.



Abby chose orange and purple for her colors.



Andy chose blue and pink. He did well until I noticed him in his "thinking pose" with the marker tip in his mouth. No more aquarium fun for him!



Isaac had the rest of the colors.

I drew the fish, but they colored them and decorated the baggies as they saw fit.

Hmmmm.... what to do with Andy now that he can't have fun. Cupcakes. Multi-colored cupcakes.

I didn't take pictures as we made them, but we used a white cake mix, prepared the batter according to the box, then separated the batter into 3 bowls. Andy helped me choose the colors for the 3 bowls; blue, green and red.
Then we spooned 2 different colors into the cupcake cups.



You can't tell, but they are different colors on the bottom.



Abby loving her cupcakes. She's not exactly lady-like is she?

Here are the finished aquariums.



I'm so glad I thought to strip them first! Check out Abby's battle scars from the markers.



Ike is so proud!



My example is on top. They will look much better then the sun is cooperating!
Now Grammy Pat, don't you worry. I'll give Andy another chance tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, while the kids were taking their naps today, I jumped on the computer and printed their activities for the rest of this week and next week.



Abby chose robots for her activities and Andy has been on a pirate kick for a while, so Abby will be working on shapes, and Andy on letter recognition and hand-eye coordination. (matching colored pom-poms to the circles)



Ike chose circus for his theme, and I printed out the ones for pirate too. These are the Read, Build, Write mats from Homeschool Creations.



This came from a teaching blog that I came across. It's a sight word phrase game. Isaac knows a lot of his sight words already, and he's really good about recognizing new words when they are presented to him, so this game should be right up his alley.



I got this idea from the 1+1+1=1 website. I chose a Level 1 book from McKays that I knew would keep Isaac's interest and had words that he could read. I typed each page and added pictures I found from Google Images and clipart. I cut the strips and now Isaac has a fluency game he can play!



And, I love how the book and sentence strips fit perfectly into this 97 cent pencil case! I can definitely see myself doing more of these! (another Crafty Trinity activity!)



Last, but not least, Isaac's new Memory verse. This is for the letter 'C'. Of course, this is also from the 1+1+1=1 website.

I think I have enough to keep the kids busy! :)

The power of Pinterest

If you are unfamiliar with Pinterest, let me enlighten you...

It is the BEST. WEBSITE. EVER!
I'm am by no means a crafty person, but after a mere 2 hours on Pinterest, I feel like I can make anything! Who knew someone could make a wreath out of ______! (fill in the blank with something off the wall, and I'm sure someone has done it! And posted it on Pinterest!) It's only slightly addictive, and I can stop at any time... but I don't want to!

As you know, my children are addicted to Aunt Beth's felt board. While I am glad they enjoy the quiet activity, it made me sad that I could only have one quiet child at a time. So, today I decided to rectify that problem. I looked on Pinterest for some felt craft ideas, mostly for any patterns to follow. (I can craft or cook anything as long as there is something to follow!) I found some easy picture ideas, and made a shopping list. Here are the pictures I found. You can click on the pictures to see their blogs.



Cute, huh? Unfortunately, no patterns to follow- I'd have to wing it!

Joe is working this weekend- all weekend. I have no felt at the house, and I needed some other crafty materials, so I packed up the kids and we braved Walmart. On a Saturday. In the middle of the day.

Good news- we survived! Bad news- it was 2:30 before the kids finally went down for their naps, and I was so busy crafting that I didn't get my nap. :( But I got some great crafting done! :)



Felt. I wasn't sure how much I was going to need, so I only bought a pack of 12. I should have gotten other colors too!



I had this butterfly template from another craft I did for the kids. I cut 2 butterflies out of card stock, and cut one of them into pieces. The top tan butterfly is the felt one I cut out.



I cut another piece of felt into the different parts of the butterfly.



More shapes for decoration. As I worked on the different projects, I added more decorative shapes into the butterfly bag.
So, that was Abby's butterfly. Next, on to Isaac's monsters.



I had to free-hand the template for this one. I cut the tiny pieces out in two different colors so he could mix and match.



What would monsters be without googly eyes? I glues felt onto the backs so they would stick.

Here are the two monsters I created. I'm guessing Ike will be a lot more creative when he makes his.




And since I cut into the blue and yellow, Abby had blue and yellow pieces to add to her butterfly bag!

Andy's house was fairly simple. The house scene will have to fit on Beth's board, since it's too big to fit on the ones I made!



Not bad, if I do say so myself! I have 3 new felt activity bags.




To make my own felt boards, I needed directions. I found this picture on Pinterest, and followed the link to the blog that gave a short tutorial. (click on the picture to see the tutorial)



So, here is mine!



I bought the frame at the Dollar Tree 2 weekends ago for a different project, but it got used for this one instead! I bought 3 frames total, but only converted 2 into felt boards.

I did this while the kids were napping. As soon as Abby woke up, she came downstairs and demanded school. Here she is playing with her new butterfly board.



She liked it, I think, but she moved on to another activity I had bought at the Dollar Tree.



I bought one for each of the kids, and once the boys saw Abby with hers, all felt was forgotten. *sigh. I'm not too worried. They will come to their senses eventually.

Remember when I mentioned another Pinterest project? Well, once I finished this one, I decided to do the other. It's simple, really. You take a picture frame, some scrapbook paper, and some glue. Cut and glue the scrapbook paper onto the inside of the frame (on the backing) then you can write on the glass with a dry-erase marker! It's pretty and useful!



We are going to use ours to show Ike's memory verse of the week. This past week was Matthew 5:9.

I love Pinterest!

Pinterest is a wonderful website where people from all walks of life (mostly women) come together to share what interests them. In other words, it's a bigger time killer than Facebook. I have a few boards that I update: Classroom, My Style, Homeschool... and I love finding ideas of things that would make my life easier.

Remember how I was complaining in a previous post about how we never know where the mail is in our house? I found a solution, and I found it on Pinterest!

Another blog did this activity first and shared a tutorial. Basically, she turned a cereal box and some scrapbook paper into a handy-dandy mail holder for the fridge! Here's mine!




Cute, huh? I tried using magnet clips, but the box ended up being too heavy. I found a strip of magnet tape and glued it on the back instead.

While bragging about my new crafty side at school today, the new first grade teacher (male) stated that Pinterest was a wasteland of married women who have turned their backs on their husbands in order to stay glued to their computers.

I didn't appreciate the accurate comparison, so I stole his Cheerios box from his classroom and turned it into something useful.



Tee-hee. I did make sure to use masculine colors!



Ta-da! His wife is going to love it! :)

That will teach him to mess with General Delk!