Last week we focused on the letter R and Rainbows.  See my Rainbow Trays post here for a look at our trays (activities for the week with links to the original sources). See my Fun Friday post here for a more thorough look at our science investigations- using shaving cream, color paddles and milk. See my ABC Nature Walk post here to check out a cool nature walk we took this week based on a book we read by Arlene Alda titled, ABC A New Way of Seeing.  Here is just a quick glimpse of us in action this week. Again for more specific information about what you see here click on a corresponding link.

We link up with Preschool Cornerat Homeschool Creations, 1+1+1=1, Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now, Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom, Fun Stuff Fridays at Toys in the Dryer, Teach me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets and the TGIF Linky Party at Living Life Intentionally each week. Be sure to check them out to see what others are doing.

So I know I am a little behind in posting on the blog but here are some of the Dr. Seuss inspired activities we did.
I'll do a separate post for our Ooblek Investigation.

I think this was one of my favorite tot school weeks so far and I really feel we have made the transition from "tot" school to "pre school this week. We got through a ton of Penguin themed activities, worksheets and books. The only thing we didn't really get to was the art projects I had planned. My Little Man is not a fan of the art currently, but The Princess is so I thought we would do a couple art activities.

The Princess made her very first lap book and she did it almost entirely by herself. She cut, she glues, she answered the questions and wrote her information. I am a proud mommy. I'll include a few pictures of the completed book in the slide show below.

I bought a Penguin activity kit on Amazon. It was $11.00 but only worth about $5.00 I was really disappointed. I hung up the life size poster of the Emperor Penguin with some velcro clips I had and let the kids take their picture next to it so they could see the penguin was taller than each of them. But the kit is going back because it was not worth $11.00.

I think everyone enjoyed learning about how Penguins stay warm. I did a whole separate Fun Friday post about this you can see it here.

Unfortunately we did not get to do a Dr. Seuss week for Dr. Seuss' birthday since we extended our Penguin theme so we will do a belated birthday celebration next week. ( I have lots of ideas for Wacky Wednesday).

Thanks for taking a peek at our week. Be sure to check out 1+1+1=1, Preschool Corner, Living Montessori Now, and the TGIF Linky Party to see what others are doing this week. I've added a Follow me on twitter button if you'd like to follow our journey. 

How do penguins keep warm in such frigid temperatures you wonder. Well we learned about three ways the Penguins keep warm.  The first way is by huddling close together. Penguins move to the middle of the huddle, when they get hot they move to the outside and other penguins move into the center of the huddle. We were able to experience this somewhat with three people. (Looks more like a sandwhich hug than a huddle.)

The second way penguins keep warm is the insulation their down feathers provide them with. We took some down feathers and a few ice cubes and did a little experiment of our own. In one hand we placed the down feathers and put an ice cube on top of the feathers. In the second hand we put an ice cube. The kids were able to feel that the feathers protected their hand from the cold. The Princess explained to me that her bare hand was very cold but the hand with the feathers didn't feel cold at all. Little Man dropped the ice cube out of his bare hand almost immediately- lol. You could kick this up a notch  for kids a little older by using a timer to see how long it takes for the feather hand to get cold or by using a thermometer in each hand (one under the feathers) to see the temperature difference. These feathers also keep the water from penetrating the penguin.

I've been seeing lots of posts about water beads (polymer beads) so I ordered some on ebay from China for only 0.15 a package. They came on Thursday and I couldn't resist so we had two science projects this Friday.

Check out what others are doing with Science this week at the Science Sundays Linky. What kind of fun are you having on Fridays? Check out others at the Fun Stuff Friday Linky.

The third way penguins keep warm is the insulation that their fat layer (blubber) provides them.  To experience this we used plastic baggies, crisco and a tub of ice water. We filled one baggie 1/3 full with crisco then inserted teh second baggie to act as a glove so our hands wouldn't get so yucky. We put our hands inside the second baggie and plunged our baggie/ crisco covered hand into the icy water. Amazing! The crisco insulated our hand like the penguins blubber and our hand stayed warm. I took quite a few pictures so I'll insert a slide show below.

I ordered some water beads from Ebay and they were delivered on Thursday. I couldn't resist pulling them out- so we did a second science investigation today.

Today for "Fun Friday" we spent some time talking about healthy food choices for our teeth and we discussed how to take care of our teeth. Thanks to Pinterest I found a couple great activities to include. Most of the printable stuff came from prekfun.com.
I made this activity where the kids went through the food from their play kitchen and decided if it was a food that was good for teeth or not. If it was a food that was good for teeth they got to feed the mouth by placing the food into the box. If it was not a good food they placed it in a bin under the box. This was  actually a lot of fun and there was some great discussion that took place (Particularly about breads, buns, and bagels). The Princess asked what would happen if a sugar bug started to make a hole in the tooth but then got brushed away. So we talked about cavities and fillings. We read The Tooth Book by P.D. Eastman as well.  I got out my flannel board and we did an introductory lesson on healthy teeth foods (we did this before the box activity). I also had them play a roll and cover game where they covered the teeth on the paper with healthy foods. Finally we did a counting sheet where they counted teeth and out the correct toothbrush (by number) on the mouth.  I almost forgot we brushed (painted) teeth with our toothbrush to make them white. Check out our activities below.

I also made a sight word game with a dental health theme- check it out under resources. We didn't get to it today because we met some friends at our local kids gym so I don't have pictures yet.

We really had a good time this week with all our Valentine's Day activities. I think my favorites were the Pine the Nose on the Valentine and the homemade lava lamp. Both were inspired by ideas I saw on Pinterest. I felt like we were hearts galore this week, so I was really happy when I found the I Love Trucks pack from 2teachingmommies. Although it was still pinkalicious and absolutely adorable the trucks, trains and helicopters made it tolerable for the Little Man.

I can't believe we are already thinking about Kindergarten for the Little Princess we went to our first Kindergarten Introduction meeting at our local fundamental school this past Wednesday. Admission is by lottery so we will know next week (Probably on Valentine's Day) if she will get it or not. We hope that she does because we are considering home schooling as a viable option. Our little baby girl is reading, already has over half the Kindergarten sight words memorized and is doing addition and subtraction. We are now working on teen numbers and looking at base ten, counting up from 10 etc. Tonight she was doing introductory algebra on her Innotab tablet (9 - ? =3 and 5 + ? =7). I was amazed that she was getting about 80% of them correct.

Little Man has mastered colors and shapes and his counting (1 to 1 correspondence) has improved tremendously. He is still struggling with patters and find the one that is different type activities. He is also beginning to recognize what letter some things start with. He was not very interested in tot school this week so I didn't really push it. I was able to engage him a few times by beginning an activity by myself and narrating out loud what I was doing until he was interested enough to come try it.
Also check out our trays for this week here. Check out our Fun Friday activity here. Be sure to check out 1+1+1=1, preschool corner and the TGIF Linky Party to see what others are doing this week. I've added a Follow me on twitter button if you'd like to follow our journey.

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We had such a fun week learning about Bears. Our focus book was Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We culminated the week with bear shaped pancakes (gotta love Pinterest) on Friday morning. The kids picked off the M&M's and banannas and just ate the pancakes. I must have the weirdest kids because when I make 'cute' food they don't really want to eat it-LOL.  We also made baked cotton balls, yep you read that right, and we completed a cute (EASY) craft of a bear in his den. Enjoy the slide show to see all the beary fun activities we enjoyed this week.

Be sure to check out 1+1+1=1, preschool corner and the TGIF Linky Party to see what others are doing this week. I've added a Follow me on twitter button if you'd like to follow our journey.

Well I am very behind in my blogging since the holidays so this week I intend to catch up and post a ton. Here is what is on our trays. Be sure to check back on Sunday to see what else we did this week (including Baked Cotton Balls!)  We are reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear while learning about bears and the letter B.
Come see what others have on their trays at H is for Homeschooling.

     My Little Man is turning 3 on Sunday. This makes for some changes around here.  The first is the addition of Calendar time to our daily routine. The Princess has been doing calendar time at school for the last year and a half; now Little Man has shown an interest in days of the week, dates and time in general (I think thanks to the advent calendar followed by the count down to his birthday). I decided to start incorporating calendar time in at the beginning of our tot school sessions this week. This is definitely a work in progress and I hastily put together a "calendar time center" for us to use. I took a tri-fold display board I had used for another project and covered it with felt. I then made all the labels and pieces you see in the photo and laminated them (and attached velcro). I also included a weather chart from Confessions of a Homeschooler and a temperature chart I found through google images. (we've yet to use this.)
    On another note, I also used a printable from 1+1+1=1 to make the story retelling pieces for Jan Brett's, The Hat . I have really fallen in love with our homemade felt board. I read a tip about printing on milk filters (used in dairies) so my hubby bought me a box of 100 for Christmas. I just trim them down to paper size and they go right through our printer and I have instant color graphics the kids can manipulate. 
     In addition to our tot school this week I've been busy making party favors for Little Man's birthday party which we are having next weekend. I am making "snowball in a can kits" and homemade "snowman wikki stix kits". I'll have another post on that when they are completely finished.
     Finally, we are in transition mode as I am trying to phase out the term "tot school" and start using "Preschool". (another change around here). We are already in a preschool co-op and a Mommy and Me Preschool class at our local adult school. Since the Princess is now with us two days a week and Little Man is turning three I figured we would change the name. His skills have also improved and we are ready to really focus on letter sounds, counting and learning to write our letters so it all just seems to suggest  a preschool overtone.  I will continue to utilize trays rather than boxes/ bins because that is what works for us.
     Before you take a look at the slide show with all our activities this week I just want to get this off my chest. My blogging pet peeve is when generous kind hearted people make their printables available to everyone but do not put their web site on them.  It makes me crazy when I have to go back and try to find it again to include a link. Soo time consuming and some things I save for months. SOOOOO this week there are a couple that do not have links and I have included downloads to those in the resources section. If they happen to be yours drop me a note and I will add a link for them.
     Be sure to check out 1+1+1=1, preschool corner and the TGIF Linky Party to see what others are doing this week. I've added a Follow me on twitter button if you'd like to follow our journey.