The Clock
Monday, March 26, 2012
Hey Diddle Diddle Stick Puppets
Friday, March 23, 2012
Sharing with you our activities to go along with Hey Diddle Diddle nursery rhyme. Actually, this is just part of our Before FIAR Goodnight Moon unit study. We completed this today and my son loved it to bits! So I might as well share it...
After reading the book for days (until my son can read them independently LOL), I started by collecting images from Google and printed it on a cardstock. The characters I printed were: the fiddler cat, dog, moon, jumping cow and the dish with the spoon. Once ready I had Mavi color them. I made him choose whatever color he wants. He was so delighted to color the characters in the nursery!
The dish with the spoon is his favorite. He tells me that the dish looks like Daddy and the spoon is Mommy. I love it that he associates me and his Dad to two objects holding hands :)
I cut each of the characters.
Then I made him help me attach each on a popsicle stick using a sticky tape.
And we started reciting the rhyme using these puppets! Oh aren’t they the cutest?
And then here’s another version wherein I made them stand using egg carton box so we can do some theatrics with out puppets.
For reading comprehension and inference, I have my son answer these questions as we go along with the rhyme:
- Who jumped over the moon?
- Why do you think the cow jumped over the moon?
- What instrument did the cat play
- What kind of music do you think he was playing? or What do you think his favorite song was?
- Who laughed in the rhyme?
- Why do you think the dog was laughing?
- Who did the spoon run away with?
- Why do you think they ran away together?
Some of these questions were really tough especially for a 3 year old, but it was funny to hear his answers. And would you believe, I end up being asked as well.
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Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day
Friday, March 16, 2012
I’ve been busy these days, my son will be starting Montessori preschool this coming September so I’ve been running around processing papers and requirements. So pardon me if I have no relevant updates at the moment.
Anyway we did some crafts today... one in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day this coming Saturday and the other one is dinosaur related, which my son still can’t get other (see our activities here and here).
Since last week, we’ve been reading books about Ireland, talk about it’s culture and the festivals they celebrated. And from here, we chose among some crafts I pinned on my Pinterest and made him choose what he wanted to do.
He wanted to make paper-plate shamrocks. Instead of using paper-plates, I decided to use an empty cardboard box.
Cut out three circles and paint them with green using sponges.
At first he wanted to use our paintbrush because he doesn’t want to stain his hands. Eventually, he realized that it was fun. (We’re using Crayola’s Washable paint)
We added glitters.
And glued them together. Sorry the the glitters weren’t visible enough.
This is what we ended up later on. We made several of these and placed them around the house.
This was just a simple craft, tomorrow we’ll do another one... hope it will be more interesting though LOL.
We’ll be heading out to the city center this weekend to enjoy the fun and celebration. Hope I can get some decent photos to share :) Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!
Garlic Press, Sponge and Water
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Since we’re on our way to spring, and it isn’t that cold to play with water anymore, I decided that it was time for some water play. This is a water transfer practical life activity using a garlic press and sponge. I placed a towel underneath to absorb water spills.
It was difficult for him to squeeze water out of the press. It was too big and heavy for his little hands.
With a little help (because he doesn’t want me to intervene) he successfully squeezed the water out.
But then he realized, why use a press when he can use his hands!
And thus the fun begin! Squeezing water out using his hands and it was more enjoyable that using a garlic press LOL.
Later, with all spills and mess... I was able to convince him that he should be the one cleaning up, not me :)
Learning how to Measure
Monday, February 27, 2012
Another activity we did for our Before FIAR unit last week was measuring fruits and vegetables using a ruler and a tape measure. I list the names of the objects that we used on a paper and added two lines for each object for the result (ruler, tape measure).
We used the ruler to measure the height and ended up measuring the circumference using the tape measure. Anyway, using the result I discussed why the the circumference has a bigger value compared to the height of the apple.
For the carrots, it was easy to measure the length using both medium.
Then he asked what’s the number on both sides of the ruler for. Though it’s pretty early for me to discuss centimeters and inches, I explained it a little bit to him. I realize that he gets confused on which side to use. Maybe I should have used a customized measuring tool wherein there’s only one unit to use :)
Our record sheet. It was fun! Am thinking of measuring his body parts the next time we do measuring. For sure he would love it!
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Bear in 4 Seasons
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Mavi is 41 months old.
We’re rowing Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? this week... and I included “the four seasons” as a side topic to go along with the book. We accomplished this today and I might as well share it here.
We started by making him color the four teddy bears which I printed out on a cardstock. It’s just a random clipart from Google... and I chose a simple image that we can simply cut and paste. He traced the bears when he realized that the lines were no longer visible (covered by the brown crayon).
And he got tired along the way so he decided to color the remaining two bears on the manner shown on the picture below LOL.
Once he’s done with the bears, I told him that we will be setting up the four seasons in each paper and place each bear on it.
He wanted to cut the yellow craft paper first so I decided that we should do “Summer”. Here he’s cutting the paper so we can have a sun.
Once he glued the son, I described to him what is summer. What can be seen on summer... and kept on saying “grasses, oceans, beaches and playing”.He made grasses, and glued them. I was just there to guide him, he did 90% the work :)
We did spring next, where I cut some flowers. When he glued it, he told me that the stems and leaves were missing, so he added those to each of the flowers. Love love love it that he includes the stems and leaves here, it’s unbelievable that he was able to absorb what he learned from our plants and flower units.
In autumn I made leaves from different crafting paper. I showed a leaf prototype and he made the rest. He wants his version to be as detailed as mine so he added veins on each one. Again, he enjoys cutting!
Winter was the last and I explained to him why we needed to use a blue paper instead of white. Then we added a few snows and a snowman.
And this is what we ended up afterwards. It would have been better if we dress up the bears according to season, but I wasn’t in the make one. Maybe you can try it :)
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