Yy is for Yellow Yarn

Today, the girls had fun gluing small pieces of yellow yarn to the letters Y and y.

Next, they took pieces of yarn, dipped it in yellow paint, and made pictures.  They did have fun with this, but eventually asked for paintbrushes so they could control the paint better.

Finally, the girls learned how to finger knit.  We used this video.  Originally, I had only planned this project for Arin. She picked it up right away.  While she was busy working on her bracelet, Ella got very interested too.  She took a turn at it.  I wrapped the yarn around her fingers and she would take it off each finger (the right way), but her hands are small and the yarn got too tight, so I ended up making the bracelet for her on my fingers.  I should have bought a thicker yarn for this project. 

L is for Lemons

Arin loves lemonade and has been asking to make some.  We bought a bag of lemons.  Arin (with my help) cut the lemons. 

We needed one cup of lemon juice for the recipe, so I asked her how many lemons she thought it'd take to make one cup of lemon juice.  She guessed two and Ella guessed four.  Arin squeezed two lemons and found that she was about half a cup short.  She juiced the other two lemons. Perfect!

She poured the cup of lemon juice into a juice pitcher.

Then, she added one cup of sugar.

She stirred them together.

Then, it was time to pour in five cups of cold water.

Stir again.

Then add some ice to make it extra cold.

Time for a taste test.

The results??  It was fantastic!

Next, we did a science experiment.  I asked Arin how to clean a dirty penny. 

She said, "Soap and water, of course!".  I gave her a bowl of soapy water and a wash cloth.  She scrubbed and scrubbed.  It never got sparkly clean. 

We squeezed more lemons and put the juice in a bowl.  Arin dropped the copper penny into the bowl of lemon juice.  We set the timer for five minutes. 

What were the results?  A nice, shiny copper penny!  She was amazed!

The reason for this?
"Oxygen in the air combined with the copper to form the dull copper oxide coating. The acid of the lemon acts chemically to remove the oxide - and the result? A bright coppy penny." - from 365 Simple Science Experiments with everyday materials

Q is for Quarter

We had another "take it easy" week.  Did we do a lot of academics?  Not so much.  Did we have fun?  Yes, of course!  During our learning time, we worked with the letter Qq and the theme of quarters.

The roll the dice, cover a letter game that we did for Rr week was such a hit with the girls that I repeated it for Qq week, except I made sure there were more spaces to cover this time. 

To make this game, simply cut out squares (or whatever shape you'd like).  Write a lowercase q on half of the squares and an uppercase Q on the other half.  Glue the squares to a larger piece of paper, alternating the upper and lowercase letters. 

To play the game, each player is given one playing board and a pile of quarters.  The first player rolls the die and covers that amount of letter Qq's on their playing board with quarters.  Then the play goes to the next player.  The first player to cover her board wins.  So simple, but the girls seem to really enjoy this game.

Next, we did a quarter toss.  I cut out a large letter Q and laid it on the floor.  One at a time, the girls took 10 quarters and tried to toss them into the center of the Q.  I tried it too and it is harder than it looks.  Arin was good at it and she was able to get three of her quarters into the center.

Arin really had fun with a game of Heads of Tails?  She made her prediction of which she'd flip the most.  She guessed Tails.  Then, she flipped a quarter ten times, recording the results each time.  She was right, tails won.

Then, we played a quick game of drop the quarter in the jar.  The girls took turns.  Each had 10 quarters that they were to drop into a jar.  Ella went first and she sat for the beginning of the game.  It proved too easy while seated, so she stood for a bit more challenge.  She did really good at this and Arin thought it would be a piece of cake.  She was a bit surprised when she stood and was not able to drop every quarter into the jar.

Finally, we worked on a very special project.  If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know that we try to teach our children the importance of giving.  We make and give things to our family and friends, but we also want to teach our children that it is equally important to give to those that we do not personally know.  Now, when we lived in Georgia, we had a great homeschool group.  We all miss them and Arin especially speaks of them often.  A few weeks ago, I read of this fun project that they were doing.  From January until May, they are collecting money to give to an orphan assistance agency.  When I learned that they were doing this project I thought it'd be perfect for us too.  It'd be a way to continue our "Better to Give..." lesson as well as stay connected to our friends.  This project is especially dear to us as many of our homeschool friends were once orphans themselves or their families are in the process of adopting orphans.
I gave each of the girls a jar and some stickers.  They had so much fun decorating the jars.  Once they were done, I gave them each some quarters to put in their jar.  Eventually, we will be filling the jars with other coins/bills as well, but for now we wanted to tie the project in with our quarter theme!

Over the past couple of days, I have been trying to explain to the girls (especially Arin) what an orphan is.  She cannot wrap her four-year old mind around the fact that not everyone has a mom and dad or enough food to eat, toys to play with, etc.  Yesterday, she suggested that we buy the orphans a television so they can watch kid shows.  Funny little girl.  I told her that I'm sure they would love a tv, but food and clothes were more important.  So as she was decorating her money jar, she asked if she could send the kids a snack along with the money.   She is sweet and her heart is in the right place even if she can't fully understand what an orphan is.

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Preschool Corner
Tot School

R is for Red

We kept last week's learning lessons very simple!  We chose the letter Rr to focus on and the theme "red" because it is easy and required very little prep work on my part.

I dyed rice red.

To dye rice:
Put rice in a bowl. 
Pour in a teaspoon or two of rubbing alcohol. 
Squeeze a couple of drops of food coloring into the bowl. 
Stir, covering all of the rice with color. 
Transfer to a plate and set in the sun to dry.  

The girls glued the red rice to the letter r.  Arin had the uppercase R (because she is the big sister) and Ella had the lowercase r (because she is the little sister).

The girls also kept busy playing with red playdough.  To aid in their play, they had plastic knives, small cookie cutters, and a rolling pin.

To make playdough:

1 c flour

1 c water
1 t oil
1/2 c salt
2 t cream of tarter
few drops of food coloring
Mix ingredients together and cook over medium/medium low heat until a ball forms. Cool slightly and knead for a few minutes before playing with the dough.

They also had fun with red paint.  The girls used regular paintbrushes, foam paint brushes, cotton balls, q-tips, and plastic forks to paint with.

The last activity was a game that Arin helped me make.  I cut out 20 squares.  On ten of them, Arin wrote the letter "R" and on the other ten, she wrote the letter "r".  I glued them to two red playing boards, alternating the upper and lowercase letters.  Then, I handed the girls 10 red buttons each.  They took turns rolling a dice and then covering up the correct number of Rr's on their playing board.  For example, if one of the girls rolled a 2, they would use their buttons to cover two of the letter Rr's on their board.  The first to cover their board completely would win.  I don't know how she did it, but the first two times that Arin played, she rolled a six first and then a four second (both times!).  I had wished I would have made more playing spaces on her board!

Linked To:
Tot School
Preschool Corner