C week

This week was the letter ‘C’. We focused on Clouds, Crystals, Cook/Cookies, Cat in the Hat, Colors, and CTR (Choose the Right).

CLOUDS – All the ideas for ‘C is for Cloud’ came from my sister’s blog (Preschool Alphabet). We kept this day pretty simple because I had some other errands to run. I went running before we sat down to do preschool and I told little G to look at the clouds. He likes to say what the clouds looks like, which I think he got that from ‘Daniel Tiger’ or some other PBS cartoon.

For the actual preschool, I sprayed some shaving cream on the table and the boys squished the ‘clouds’ and make an even bigger fluffy cloud on the table. They had a blast, aside from little B getting dirty (he’s a nut!). Then after that mess was cleaned up, I gave little G a piece of blue construction paper and some white paint. He painted clouds in the sky and then wrote C-L-O-U-D on the bottom of the page!

CRYSTALS – This day was mostly ROCKS, but we did a lot with crystals and talked about different rocks and stones. We read a library book about rocks (and pointed out crystals) then he glued “crystals” on the big letter C. After that he had fun digging in some wheat for crystals (found them at Michaels), they came in two sizes so he sorted them on a paper “big and small”. Next I put in different kinds of rocks and had him sort the different kinds.

COLORS – There is a lot we could have done for ‘colors’, but we limited it to these few activities. First I sectioned off a piece of paper and had him color a different color in each spot – the colors in the rainbow. Then he got to use scissors and cut each section out and cut them into littler pieces. I used a rainbow printout and put glue on each color which he filled in with the little pieces of colored paper. It took a while, and he kept saying he was “so tired and bored”! After that he woke up a little because I pulled out some jelly beans and had him sort them by color. He ate every other one, but did a good job putting the different colors in each spot and even the different shades of each color too.

CAT IN THE HAT – This was one of my chill preschool days. I let him watch a few ‘Cat in the Hat’ clips on pbskids.org. He really liked that. I printed off a ‘C’ twistynoodle.com page and he wrote some C’s then put a bunch of Cat in the Hat stickers on (from Oriental Trading). I also put together a little treasure hunt for him, using rhyming words (JAR, FAR, C__). He was suppose to rhyme and fill in the blank to find where the next clue was…I think he is a little too young still, doesn’t really get the rhyming thing yet! Their treasure was Cat in the Hat print pillowcases, which they are in love with now!

COOK & COOKIES – Yet another chill preschool day. We made chocolate chip cookies, little G helped pour in the ingredients and I told him what everything was. While they were baking he did a number activity with do-a-dots (love them, found at Michaels). I drew ‘cookies’ on paper and put numbers by them. He then added that many ‘chocolate chips’ to the cookies. Then we ate [lots of] cookies!!

CTR (Choose the Right) – This was our Sunday preschool. We have church mid-day, so the rest of the afternoon is rough. The boys are bored and tired so usually it’s just a really quick activity or project. I showed little G the CTR shield and pointed out the letters and told him what they stood for – Choose the Right. Then he painted it on his shirt (using a vinyl sticker stencil & fabric paint). The next day he got to wear it and loved it!

C week!
[for lots more preschool activities and ideas, visit PRESCHOOL ALPHABET!

DIY Silhouette Plate

I decorate my house with a lot of personalized things. I did this silhouette plate for my first boy when he was 18 months and I held off and waited for my second boy to turn 18 months before I made his silhouette plate. It’s a pretty simple project (if you have a Silhouette machine!!).

Start with a profile picture of your child, against a solid background (contrasting is better).

I don’t have any special editing programs so I use Power Point instead. Insert the image then under the ‘format’ tab, click on remove background. Edit until you have the silhouette you want.

Right click on the profile head shot and save the picture.

Now, in the Silhouette studio, add that picture to your library (File – Import to My Library…). Once it is in your library, insert it (File – My Library… – My Own Designs). When it is on your design page click on the Trace function (top right), and ‘Select Trace Area’. Make sure the yellow line goes along the perimeter of the child’s head and click trace. 

You’ll have a sweet little silhouette just like that. I edited a few things (his eye lashes looked weird so I go rid of them, even though they are adorable in real life). Then cut!

Cut the vinyl silhouette, apply transfer tape if you desire (I did it without since it is one solid piece, not too hard to lay down evenly), then put it on the plate. I got these plates at the dollar store.

Like I said, easy…if you have a Silhouette! And makes for great personalized home décor!

 

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B week

Instead of posting each day of our preschool, it’s just going to be a weeks worth (or the majority of the week). If you want some good, in-depth and well-put-together preschool ideas, check out my sister’s blog – Preschool Alphabet. This week we tackled the letter B. We did Balloons, Body/Boy, Balls, Birds, Butter and on Sunday we did Baptism.

BALLOONS – we played with all sorts of balloons: birthday balloons, water balloons, and huge bobber balloons. We started with the big letter B and taped balloons on it. Then colored a picture of random shaped balloons I drew. I tried to make him draw ‘B’ in the balloons, but he only did it in one! They we played with all the balloons. He found all the Blue Balloons with B’s on them and then got to pop all of them! Water balloons were a big hit too.

BODY/BOY -  I think the best part about this ‘B’ day was looking through one of my anatomy books. Little G was pretty intrigued by the bones and muscles under the skin. I printed just a picture of my boys heads and had little G draw a body and put hand and feet stickers on them (makes me laugh!). I also made some magnets, one of each of us, they are covered with contact paper so he could use a dry erase marker to circle body parts on each.

MAGNET HOW-TO: I used label sticker paper (half sheets are what I have, found HERE, or full sheets HERE) and a sheet of magnet (like THIS). Using power point, nothing fancy here, I used the “remove background” tool under the ‘format picture tab’. Print the picture on the sticker paper then put it on the magnet sheet. I covered it with contact paper then cut around the image.

Other things we did – sang ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ and traced his body on a large piece of newsprint.

BALLS – This could also be a great "S is for Sports" day. We talked about basketball, soccer, football, and baseball. I did each sport separate and first showed a youtube video of the sport being played. He got to see the field or court, the ball, and how they played. Then I gave him the ball stickers for that sport and he put them in the square on the ball paper. After that we played the sport for a little while. It was a rainy day, so all of it was inside…and nothing was broken at the end!

Baseball is by far his favorite right now, probably because of the bat. He doesn’t get soccer yet, he kept picking the ball up and throwing it at the goal.

BIRDS – This was a pretty fun preschool day. We read a Zoodles magazine we recently got on Backyard Birds. Then little G colored a TwistyNoodle.com picture and wrote uppercase and lowercase B’s. After that we went outside and checked out the bird house that was occupied earlier in the summer. After dealing with a bee hive and a stubborn roof, I finally got into it and found an awesome nest and 5 little eggs. We are assuming our neighbor cat got to the parents while we were on vacation, kinda sad! Anyway, he got to see little bird eggs and a nest and lots of feathers.

We went on a bike ride before lunch and a drive after lunch to go “bird watching” (and to fall asleep for nap time!!). We found a few and heard them chirping and tweeting too. For our snack we made some bird nests with marshmallow eggs. Their favorite part was probably the dollar store fake, crafty birds. At the park they were taking them on all the swings and slides and being so nice to them. Pretty cute!

BUTTER – I didn’t know what else to do for butter besides MAKE it! All you need is a jar with a lid, whipping cream, and to speed things up, a marble. Then you shake and shake and shake until it solidifies. Little G was pretty impressed. Butter is one of his favorites for sure. We all took turns shaking it and once it turned into butter I let little G man spread it on his toast. Then he painted “butter” on pictures of other foods (using yellow paint).

BAPTISM – We did this on Sunday as well as for Family Home Evening. We watched John the Baptist Living Scriptures movie then “colored” the picture. Little G preferred to cut and glue instead of color. That was about it, aside from talking more about baptism and showed him how to do it.

‘B’ week!

Menu Chalkboard

I made this menu chalkboard with a little help from Grant. Overall it’s a really easy project. Grant milled the lumber (of course) and I cut it to size and cut the ‘frilly’ parts on the top and bottom. I was inspired by the Organic Bloom style, but I didn’t want to go straight up Organic Bloom style, so I only cut the top and the bottom corners using a template I got online. Then routered the edges and sanded, A TON!

[family silhouette HERE]

I used chalkboard spray paint and it was pretty darn easy if you ask me. I had to put 3 or 4 coats, just to get it all even and smooth (I sanded in between the layers a little). Grant also put in a keyhole in the back to hang it up (using the router), similar to THIS one.

This is always hanging in my kitchen now. Most weeks I write up a new menu, sometimes it doesn’t change or even get looked at for days and days. These are some more past menus, if you care!

And another great use for this menu chalkboard is for the little ones learning their letters! I’m tempted to use more of that chalkboard spray paint and make a longer board for him to practice his letters on! Something about writing on a chalkboard, I tell ya!