Busy day

We had a really busy day here!  I feel good about the fact that we accomplished a lot but boy am I tired.
We are continuing to learn about winter here.  Today we read about birds during winter which was kind of interesting in a way because the book we were reading from pertains mostly to Canada and the Northern United States and well, yeah, I forgot to check that when I was getting our lesson ready so it was a little off for us here in the south.  It still worked out okay though. :)  After our reading we made pine cone bird feeders because unlike the book we read we have lots of birds here.

We gathered a basketful of pine cones from our yard.  We tied each one with a string so that we could hang them from the trees.

Next, we poured a bag of birdseed into a pan and spread peanut butter over each of our pine cones.

Then we rolled the pine cones in the pan of birdseed until they were covered.

We made a large bunch of them and put them all back in the basket to take outside and ...

hang on the trees!

We can't wait to see if we get some bird visitors tomorrow (probably some squirrels too).

Christian had some winter fun today too.  I was so thrilled to actually get some pictures too.  Usually I am the one that is helping him with things during the day and so I can't take pictures at the same time.  Tonight he decided to do his winter sensory box with his dad and so I was able to get some pictures.  Yippee!  Tyler made him this box for Christmas and he really enjoys it.

He was happy to hang with his dad for awhile and find all the hidden things esp. the snowflake beads.

Tonight Tim and I decorated cookies I had baked earlier today.  It was a good time.  We started off just icing and sprinkling them and then we got more creative.  Parents can have fun too!

Tim is definitely better at cookie decorating than I am.  Mine are mostly the ones to the right.

My favorites are the one he made look like the earth and the one that looks like a game spinner.

It was a silly good time.

We did a lot more than this today but like I said before I am tired so I am off to fill the workboxes and read and hopefully get some sleep.

Goodnight!

Really cool cards for our workboxes

I found these great cards from Usborne this summer and I am so impressed that I had to share.  They seem like they were almost created for Workboxes.  You could put a card and the supplies needed in the box and you would have a super fun project. 

The first set of cards we have is 50 Science Things to Make & Do .

I really like these because I like to make one day of the week in each subject an activity day and I think these are going to work out great.  The front of the cards have a picture of the activity.

The backs sides of the cards have the instructions.

The other set of cards we have is 50 Things to Make & Do . They are craft and art projects.  Some of them are seasonal or holiday activities also.

They have some other sets you might want to check out as well.  There are 50 Things to Draw and Paint , 50 Rainy Day Activities , and if you have a girl (I don't! )  there is 50 Fairy Things to Make and Do .

I hope you enjoy them as much as we are!

Easy Science Review for Workboxes

A couple of weeks ago with a 20% off coupon from Lakeshore Learning I purchased a great science resource for our workboxes. 

They are called Look and Label Science Photo Cards and I am loving them.  Here is the link: http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca%7CsearchResults~~p%7C2534374302095671~~.jsp  There are 50 write on/wipe off cards covering 5 science catagories.  The catagories and specific cards are listed on the back of the box.

I am hoping you can read them from the picture.  They are really handy for me because we can use them again and again and they are easy to slip in workboxes for review.  Right now we have been using the ones on the body systems as that is what we are studying.  Here are the cards in the weather category.

On the front side of each card is the write on labeling activity.

On the back side are the answers, explanation of the concept shown on the front, vocabulary words and their definitions, and some additional questions to ask your child.

These are a great resource for me.  I think something similar could be created on the computer and then laminated but if you are busy like I am they are a much faster alternative.  If you are looking for something like this I highly reccomend these.

Three More Nutrition Heros

We made three more nutrition action hero cards today.  I hope somebody is enjoying them as much as we are.  Meet the Big Fish (aka vitamin B12)Mr. Awesome A. Peel (Potassium)My personal fave for today The Germinator (vitamin C)

I am going to be kind of sad when we are done with these.  It has been fun to watch these evolve into characters.

Super Fun Science Cards

Last week I mentioned an activity I had found to learn more about vitamins and minerals.  The link is http://www.texasheart.org/HIC/ProjH/upload/Activity_5_C.pdf  Basically you make up action hero cards for each vitamin and mineral.  We have been having so much fun with this.  Tyler fills out the information with me and then comes up with a name for each action hero and then we hand it over to our computer whiz (AKA Dad) and he makes them into flash cards for us wich I am laminating so that they will stay nice.  We have done six so far and I thought I would share our progress because they are turning out super cute. 

Here are all our cards so far:First we did Milk Man (aka calcium) and he is my personal favorite.Next came the Eye Doctor (aka vitamin A)The Brain Surgeon (vitamin B1)Rythm Man (magnesium)Toxic Free (vitamin B3)And last for now The Strong Man (phosphorus).  We are going to try to do all the main vitamins and minerals.  I am hoping to come up with a game with them when we are done.  It has been so fun and I know he will definately remember them.  I will share some more when we get them done.

Trees Please!

We are studying about trees this week.  The reason we are doing trees this week is that last week we focused on ecology all week because of Earth Day and therefore we thought we would move on to Arbor Day which was actually last week also but we are doing this week.  Confused? Me too!

Anyhow, I thought I would share a little bit about what we have done so far.  Yesterday I pulled out a toy we have had for quite some time but we rarely use.  That's one of the reasons I think I like workboxes.  They inspire me to dig through all the resources I would otherwise forget about.  I pulled out our long lost little apple tree yesterday though and my son really enjoyed putting it together (as he worked on his fine motor skills) and using his plastic animals to tell great stories.  Here are some pictures:

Yesterday we also did part of the tree section out of Contenders for the Faith and learned how to tell the difference between decidous and coniferous trees.  Then in the last box of the day I put some baggies to collect leaves and a camera to take pictures of the  trees we collected them from.  We then went on a walk and collected our tree samples.  So today I put the leaves, pictures, and the Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Trees in a box so that he could identify the trees and make a poster to display his results.  Here are some pictures:

Tomorrow we will doing tree bark rubbings and learning about counting tree rings.  We are enjoying it.  I always was a bit of a tree hugger!