Dinosaur Unit

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May 27, 2013 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

This month’s theme is dinosaurs!

We’ve had lots of fun playing and learning about dinosaurs this month.

Alex’s Dinosaur work

D is for Dinosaur and preK Letter D

Alex (and Dad and the girls) loved this little dino book made like Brown Bear What Do You See?

Dino letter and number assessments from Making Learning Fun.

Matching dinos with cards and facts. Get these great dino cards at Montessori Print Shop!

Alex (and Dad) had fun with this printable dinosaur coloring book. And look at the cool crayons I found!

Discussing and coloring with Dad!

~Our dinosaur sensory bins~

The kids had fun brushing away the moon sand for these dino skulls. Kate was in charge of the card.

We gathered all our dinosaur toys and some pinto beans and moss pieces to play. Rawr

Tori and Kate’s Dinosaur activities:

We read and discussed dinosaur articles from Answers in Genesis.

We read and notebooked out way through the wonderful chapter about dinosaurs in our science book: Land Animals of the Sixth Day by Apologia.

We enjoyed many books from our shelves and the library.

Liz is reading Jurassic Park for fun and we watched the movie.

And of course, this Doctor Who episode:

Our awesome field trip: Ogden Dinosaur Park! And we got a discount for being homeschoolers. They counted us as a school field trip. I love it.

We met a T-Rex (and info plaque) at the trailhead.

I love this dinosaur.

PARASAUROLOPHUS
“Beside Saurolophus (Crested Lizard)”

babies!

We got a live one here! This little snake darted across our path. cool.

mammals

Trikey

We ain’t skeered.

I love how real this picture looks.

foot print plaques

going into the “tomb”…

a fossilized allosaur

BIG dinosaur

a big sandbox fossil dig area

Liz being goofy. I hope she didn’t steal those brushes from a baby.

watching real paleontologists at work!

a wooly rhino!

A fun new corner made to look like Jurassic Park the movie.

We had an amazing month studying dinosaurs!

Check out this interesting article about dinosaur skin!

~Visit the others to see what they did with our theme this month!~

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Royal Baloo – 3 Dinosaurs – Monsters Ed – Chestnut Grove Academy – Growing in God’s Grace – Royal Little Lambs – Life with Moore Babies – Teach Beside Me – The Usual Mayhem – Mum Central – Fantastic Fun and Learning – Kathys Cluttered Mind – Play Create Explore – Toddler Approved – Growing Book by Book – Adventures in Mommydom – B-Inspired Mama – The Fairy and The Frog – Edventures with Kids – Learning & Growing the Piwi way – A Gluten Free Journey – Mom to Crazy Monkeys – No Doubt Learning – Preschool Powol Packets – To The Moon and Back – Our Craft ~N~ Things – Farm Fresh Adventures – Proverbial Homemaker

Do you have a dino post to share? Link up here!

Linking up: Kids Activities Blog

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Wizard of Oz Unit

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April 29, 2013 By Jennifer 6 Comments

We really enjoyed our Wizard of Oz Unit Study.

When I think of Wizards, I immediately think of the Great Oz. The kids and I love that horse in the movie. Check out the meaning of the phrase.

Weren’t there lots of unexpected turns in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? {You can get all the books on Kindle for almost free!} Kate is already reading the 2nd one!

Of course, the girls and I saw the new Oz the Great and Powerful movie. Opening weekend!

I had loads of fun planning our Oz sensory bin.

Rainbow rice and pasta. Emerald beads in a bucket and bowtie. A wooden rainbow. Oz characters from Grandma and a lion finger puppet.

Oz preschool pack printables.

I downloaded them for Alex. The girls loved it too.

3 part matching cards. Alex is telling me they lost the match to the Cowardly Lion. sigh

We used the puppets to retell the plot and practiced the reading pages.

The kids are all coloring pages for their lapbooks!

least and most favorite characters pages.

Kate and Tori both loved Dorothy and Tori disliked the Wicked Witch. Kate said the Cowardly Lion was annoying and talked too much. ha!

map work: coloring in the state of Kansas and color coding the regions of Oz.

I really love this one!

Paying it forward. Did you know that last Thursday was The Day?

We discussed how Dorothy was so kind and generous. She could have returned home to Kansas at any time had she known how. She wasn’t resentful at all but truly pleased that she helped her friends.

Tori and Kate wrote some ways she could be kind to others. I love this Pay It Forward printable! I also love it that it has a hot air balloon!

Kate said she could give flowers, food, and toys to friends. She could help with cooking.

Tori wrote that she could bake cakes and pick flowers for neighbors and friends, help Dad in the garden, clean up, help with Alex, and doing chores without being asked.

Liz does research on Oz Wikia to compare movies to the book.

I found these awesome stickers of original illustrations! Love Dover!

I’d gotten these fun glasses around Easter. Perfect for Oz play. Emerald goggles!

The girls finish up their lapbooks and notebooking:

Tori is a “cowardly” reader. I gave her “liquid courage” to help. It’s just mango juice with some sweet and sour. I would’ve added some 7Up {‘cause fizzies always help!}, but we’re all out.

Resources:

Check out the other posts!

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom – Royal Baloo – 3 Dinosaurs – Monsters Ed – Chestnut Grove Academy – Growing in God’s Grace – Royal Little Lambs – Life with Moore Babies – Teach Beside Me – The Usual Mayhem – Mum Central – Fantastic Fun and Learning – Kathys Cluttered Mind – Play Create Explore – Toddler Approved – Growing Book by Book – Adventures in Mommydom – B-Inspired Mama – The Fairy and The Frog – Edventures with Kids – Learning & Growing the Piwi way – A Gluten Free Journey – Rainy Day Mum – Mom to Crazy Monkeys – No Doubt Learning

Linking up: Kids Activities Blog

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Giving a Heart

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February 6, 2013 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Sweet Sisters on Valentine’s Day playing with our Valentine’s Sensory Bin…

Katie gave Tori:

A blue heart jewel for Valentine’s Day.

Follow Jennifer Lambert (Royal Little Lambs)’s board Be My Valentine on Pinterest.

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Winter Theme Fun

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January 6, 2013 By Jennifer 2 Comments

We’re having fun with winter art and nature study! We plan to learn about wintry themes all month long!

I used painter’s tape to make snowflake shapes and the kids finger-painted the poster.

After the paint dried, I pulled off the tape, and voila! lovely wintry decoration!

The kids loved coloring in their winter colors grid. We’re using ideas from Winter Nature Study eBooks.

Alex saw orange and purple among all the gray and white. He looked really hard out that window!

a fun magnifying and matching activity with Snowflake Bentley’s snowflake pictures. We will read that book later this week! It’s on hold at the library. also from the winter nature study eBooks.

our winter sensory bin table.

When Alex tells you that he’s “making dinner” and then you hear water running, please know that the sensory bin will be soon destroyed. I had originally put packing peanuts in the bin for “snow.” Yeah, those were disintegrated.

a fun craft on clearance. little snow fuzzies

our January poem on our monthly theme board

our January calendar about the Arctic and Antarctica

Check out my winter Pinterest board with all the fun ideas I hope to make use of this month!

Linking up: Kids Activities Blog

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October Tot School Montessori Works

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October 8, 2012 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

Alex (Bubba) loved our Halloween sensory bin.

Thank you, Wal-Mart and Target! There are oodles of fun little things at their dollar spots right now!

Our October Tot School and Montessori Works:

Halloween Sensory Bin!

He copied my pattern with erasers and beads

Then he wanted to “stack” them

Sorting apples and leaves. He also told me their colors.

Coloring a pumpkin page from the Letter of the Week curriculum

Sorting hot and cold for fire safety

Matching shadow leaves. He thought this was great. Did he want to do it again? Nope.

Pin pushing a pumpkin page. How do you like that alliteration?

Floam. He wasn’t sure what to do with this.

Matching shapes. I named them for him. He knew most of them.

Words with Tots app. The only thing I don’t like about this one is their picture of a chimpanzee: they call it a monkey.

Dot painting an A with apples

Scarecrow tot pack. He did this letter maze finding all the S’s! I was impressed.

He loved cutting these fall leaves on their lines.

He was so happy with himself doing his school work.

He woke Daddy up super early this weekend and demanded to do his schoolwork. He cried when Daddy told him it was still dark and too early. It must’ve been before 5 AM! That’s my boy.

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Fall Sensory Bin and Light Table

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September 28, 2012 By Jennifer 1 Comment

Alex is busy, busy, busy!
He loves helping me make dinner and he loves to cut veggies with own little doggie knife!

He was SO excited to color with markers and watercolors with his sisters!

I finally found all the pieces to this Lauri shape and color sorter.

We tried to learn about seasons and appropriate clothing. This game lasted only a few seconds and he was “done.”

Our fall sensory bins. Alex loved playing with these clear plastic acorns and pumpkins on his light table.

I raided the dollar spot at Target. Lots of great stuff!

H is for hippo. We started I for Iguana. We watched videos on BBC about hippos and iguanas. He actually narrated to Dad what he learned!

These little beetles took over the park. They were all different shades and patterns of red and orange and black. I think they’re fire bugs. Perfect name.

Alex loves watching Abby and Dinosaur Train and Diego.

Alex says he’s DONE WITH NAPS. Lord help me.
Alex’s attention span is about non-existent. I hope that changes over the next few months. Our schedule has been crazy keeping up with him and trying to get the girls’ schooling completed and chores done. He begs for constant companionship. He will not play alone so someone always has to be with him. This makes for sporadic lessons. Right now, it’s barely working for us.
Tori, Katie, and I do morning school with Alex while Liz gets her math, Greek, and other work completed. When she’s ready, she takes Alex outside or somewhere to play while I get some reading and lessons done with the girls. Then we have lunch and we try to get “one more thing” done after that. Some days we do. Often, Liz completes some history or science and the girls play with Alex.
So, this means no rest time or alone time for Mama or the girls.

Can you say exhausted?

Linking up: Kids Activities Blog, The Resourceful Mama, Life of Faith, Written Reality, Kiddy Charts, The Educators Spin On It, ABC Creative Learning, Living Montessori Now, Simple Life of a Fire Wife, Los Gringos Locos, Growing Hands on Kids, JBMumofOne,

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Fourth of July Fun

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July 8, 2012 By Jennifer Leave a Comment

I made a Fourth of July sensory bin and the kids loved it!

A flag bucket, star ice cube trays, some red bowls, sparkly pom poms, jewels, an eagle beanie baby, some ribbons and bows

Alex loved putting the pom poms on the spots

Alex loved the most: covering up the Ff’s for fireworks. I was so impressed he knew both the capital and lower case F’s!

Fireworks displays didn’t begin until 10 or 10:30 PM here so we didn’t go. again. this. year. Alex has never seen fireworks. sigh

We did go over to an older church friend’s house for a BBQ dinner. They borrowed a kiddie pool and slip and slide for our kids. They had bubble wands and a cute monster hands catching game (the ball stuck with Velcro to the mitts). They gave each of the kids a flag and pinwheel too! It was fun! We all had a great time!

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Busy Tot Week (23 months!)

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March 4, 2012 By Jennifer 2 Comments

Alex had a fun week and we did lots of activities together and with his sisters.

“painting” with shaving cream at co-op

Star-bellied Sneetch! (love his “camera” smile!)

Our March sensory bin with lentils, shamrocks, pom poms, black cauldrons, and a wooden rainbow. Alex loves filling the cauldrons with the lentils.

Moon balancing game

Playing with Geoboards and rubber bands. Alex’s favorite color is orange!

Excited about new light box tools!

Matching colors: plastic stir sticks (from Wal-Mart) to clear bins (from Dollar Tree)

Making his name with plastic stir sticks (I did this). He LOVED this! Alex tried to make his own letters and got the X down!

Making circles (Alex calls them “O’s”) with half circle transparent blocks. And playing Peek a Boo.

It snowed Thursday and Friday, so there was snow play!

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Christmas Sensory Bin

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December 12, 2011 By Jennifer 1 Comment

My husband created a sensory table for us!

I put a Christmas sensory bin in there and Alex LOVES it! (So does Tori!)

I have glittery pom poms, red and white beans, green glass rocks, glitter tree stickers, 12 Days of Christmas and Nativity printables (scaled down and laminated), a tree ice cube tray, two Santa candy holders, jingle bells…

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March Preschool Corner

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March 12, 2011 By Jennifer 1 Comment

It’s March already and we’re so ready for spring!

Almost all the snow is melted and it’s been gorgeous the past few days!

We love our sensory bins. Here’s our March one with green and yellow lentils and shamrock stickers with gold and green glitter puffs. I am excited that I found this mini Montessori wooden rainbow. We all love it.

Tori and Katie practice their writing. We did K for kites this week. I get most of our preschool curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler and 1+1+1=1. I also use the writing pages from Homegrown Hearts. I’m still waiting for those March winds to try to fly the kites I bought…

Victoria turned 5 years old on Thursday. She got a Hello Kitty bowling ball from my parents and, of course, we had to go test it out. Love her stance, eh? I think she could go pro!

For her birthday dinner, she requested Texas Roadhouse. Here she is in the birthday saddle. Yeehaw!

Happy Spring!

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