Chronicles of Summertime: Day 4

Day 4:

Today was a very rainy day. We decided to make some multi-media artwork. First we got out the crayons and markers, then added some paint. Snugglepuppy creatively used many methods of painting including finger painting, brush painting, and stamping. I was surprised at how he was able to describe and label what he was painting. I dictated what he said on the paper. 

We did some gross motor in the basement where Snugglepuppy jumped on the trampoline, played in the ball pit, and played some baseball. That didn't last long though so we came upstairs and looked at some of the library books we got yesterday. 

Then we worked on the alphabet a little using the iPad and some magnetic letters. I showed him a letter on the ABC app and he had to find the correct magnetic letter to match. 

Then he stacked up the letters and made us each an "ABC Sandwich."

It was not a bad day despite the fact that we weren't able to go out at all.

Exercise Cube

What you need:

Scissors, glue stick, a cardboard box in the shape of a cube (taped ends) or you can also use an empty cube-shaped tissue box. 

Pictures of different movement activities or exercises.

Optional: Beads or beans to put inside to make it rattle when you roll it.

 The finished product:

Instructions:

Children will roll the cube like a die and do whatever activity it lands on. There are other ways to use the cube. Be creative. You can make a second cube with numbers and then roll both the dice. The children will do the activity they rolled the amount of times that comes up on the number cube.

Leave a comment if you come up with some additional ways to play with this!

I'm linking up at:

TEACH Awards September

Here are the much-anticipated TEACH Awards for September. Haha, actually I haven't done them since June, so I guess most people probably forgot about it. The winners can feel free to grab the featured button from my right sidebar. Congrats!

PS. TO ALL PINTEREST PINNERS:

If you wish to pin anything you find on this post, please click on the link to go to the actual blog that originally posted it and then pin. These are NOT my ideas, so please don't link your pins back to this page. Thanks!

T-Thrifty

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Headbands

I {HART} my preschoolers

E-Educational

Sight Word Boxes

A Mom With a Lesson Plan

A-Artsy

Johnny Appleseed Art

Blog Hoppin'

C-Creative

Autumn Crafts

Sunny Day Today Mama

H-Hands-on

12 Activities for Teaching Colors

We Can Do All Things

I-Inspirational

Inspirational and Humorous Photo Messsages

In Lieu of Preschool

N-Nature

Nature Walk Collage Craft

Tip Junkie

G-Gross (and fine) Motor

Gross Motor

ABC Bucket

Adventures in Reading With Kids

Fine Motor

ABC Tracing Book

Adventures in Reading With Kids

Thanks everyone who was featured for sharing all your wonderful ideas!

Trip to the Art Museum

We took a little trip today to the Columbus Museum of Art. While I've read some reviews of the museum that say it doesn't have a lot or that it's not as good as Cleveland or Cincinnati's Art Museum, and keeping in mind this is the only art museum I've been to, I think it is a good one. I love how everything is interactive. Most of the exhibits have a station set up where you can make your own art with various materials such as foil or mosaic tiles or a puzzle you can do that matches some of the art on display. 

Also, I love the kids area. There is a place where kids can climb through a "fun house" with all kinds of tunnels, walls at odd angles and tubes. Kids can also create doors or forts with curtains and pegs that they can hang up.

The kids area has a section with wooden animal parts that kids can put together to make regular or make-believe animals. 

They have a huge wood sculpture of a head and a giant metal head that kids can use lots of magnetic metal items to try to make a head to match the wood sculpture or just a silly face. Also, they have a station set up with play foam that children can use to sculpt into a creation of their own. 

They had a table with dishes that kids could re-arrange to make art. And last but not least, they have an area where kids can make a mobile by hanging shapes from a central hook using metal rods and s-hooks. And the best part is, there are people from the museum walking around and helping and teaching the kids.

All in all, it was a fun time! L enjoyed it.

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHERE I LINK UP

Bowling for Tots

We decided to take the little squirt bowling today. So, in preparation, I made him his own bowling set using circles drawn on paper, water bottles for pins and some tape to make the lane.

L really loved setting up the pins.

He didn't feel like rolling the ball down the lane though, he stood next to them and threw the ball at them. Thank goodness it wasn't a bowling ball!

Here he is pushing the reset buttons. He loved watching people bowl and watching the balls come out of the return.

L watching his ball roll slowly toward the pins.

We used bumpers for him and sat the ball on the floor and had him push it. Eventually he understood that he was supposed to push the ball toward the pins. He was good about not running down the lane. Though the ball rolled slowly, he thought it was great fun watching it hit the pins.

Wishlist Wednesday: Mama of Many Blessings

Nicole is my guest blogger for this week's edition of Wishlist Wednesday. There are tons of wonderful resources on her blog, so be sure to stop on over there and leave a comment or 2!


Hello everyone. I am Nicole from Mama Of Many Blessings, I was so very honored when Lori asked me to be Wishlist Wednesday guest blogger! Her Wishlist Wednesday series is a  wonderful series, I have enjoyed reading!

First and foremost I am a daughter of Christ, second I am a wife to an amazing husband of 13 years, and I am also a mama to 6 blessings, Serena(13), Dustin(12), Cody(10), Anthony(8), Ethan(4), and Gabriel (2). I blog over at Mama Of Many Blessings, sharing about our homeschool journey, arts, crafts, recipes, hands on learning, and of course our life with 6 kids (3 special needs) which can get quite interesting and yes, crazy sometimes. I started blogging as a way to connect with other homeschool moms, and as a hope that someday my kiddos will be able to have the blog to look back on all the fun homeschool experiences we have enjoyed during our homeschooling journey.

I had a hard time trying to think of 1 thing at the top of our classroom wish list, but I finally was able to come up with something that would be a huge help to our classroom along with our house, something I have wanted for a while now. An indoor sensory gym. First off we are a family who is not into much television, as the matter of fact we don't even have cable, we do have Netflix, but the kids are VERY limited on what they are allowed to watch, so keeping active and having other options for the kids is something that is pretty high on our list. Although having 5 boys is enough in itself to need somewhere for them to get their energy out on rainy days or during the winter when it's to cold to stay out for long, but having 3 boys with sensory issues just makes the need even greater.

The sensory gym is a kit you buy and put together yourself, my husband is good at that stuff, so he would be the lucky person to have to put it together for me. When you add in the gym, wood, ladder/monkey bars, a rope ladder, and a safe floor under the gym comes with a price tag around $500. Of course if you had to pay someone to put it together it would cost more.

Source: kidsdreamgym.com via Nicole on Pinterest

So there you have it our #1 wish for our classroom/home what child wouldn't love something like that in their house/school. I can't wait for the day my wish becomes a reality! Thanks for taking the time to hear our Wish. Please take some time to stop by and see all the fun we are up to at Mama Of Many Blessings!

Thinky Linky Thursday: Let's Move!

We are beginning to prepare for the long cold winter, knowing there will be plenty of days the weather keep us from going outside. So, we have been coming up with some indoor gross motor activities. Here are some posters that we use to show children how to do different exercises that not only get them moving, but thinking as well.

Also, you can get a couple small cube-shaped boxes and make large dice with the exercise on each side and have the children roll it to see what they get. Another die could have numbers on it which will be the amount of times the will do the exercise that is rolled.

Here are also a couple good online resources dealing with gross motor play and healthy eating for preschoolers:

PE Central

Healthy Children, Healthy Weights

(Based in Cols, OH)

USDA's MyPlate (for Preschool)

How are your kids moving? Link up below!

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