Thursday, March 24, 2011

All about Clouds and more!

I am getting a little stir crazy here.  We have been home since Sunday night and Lord willing we will be leaving this house on Friday!  Katelyn was sick last week and Easton was sick this week.  I think he is better...today will be the day to figure out if we are stuck inside for another day.  I really hope not!  Poor little guy was sick on his 2nd birthday!:(  Since we were home bound and couldn't get out, we focused quiet a bit on school activities.  The girls learned about clouds as our theme for the week.  Here are a few fun activities that we worked on...and oh, yes sometimes we stay in pajamas until bath time and yes the girls have pretty messy hair...sorry if you are mortified:)

Bible Verse for the week:  

Matthew 7:7:  Ask and it will be given to you.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and the door will be open to you.

We picked a Seeds Family Worship song for our bible verse.  If you haven't heard of Seeds, they are awesome.  We all love their songs.  They are bible verses turned into wonderful music.  Click on the link below and find out more.  The nice thing is, that when you buy one of their CD's you actually get two copies so you can share the other one with a friend.

My friend Erin, also shared this great website with us that has some awesome printables that correspond to a few of the Seed's CD's.  You can visit this site here:  Bible Story Printables

Of course back by popular demand...here are my cheesy little girls saying their Bible verse.
A Few Learning Activities:
I labeled various size jars with numbers and the girls stood behind a line and tossed pennies into the jars.  Once they got two in the jars we worked on adding those two numbers together.  Jocelyn had to write her problems down and Katelyn and I just used our fingers to count.  They had a ton of fun and Easton loved chasing the pennies around the living room (these girls have horrible shots...I guess we have a lot to work on with Jocelyn before she starts t-ball this summer!)
Jocelyn worked on her addition problems on our Uppercase Living chalkboard.  I like to use a variety of different tools for when we do math.  Sometimes it is a simple notebook, dry erase board, workbook, manipulatives, or the chalk board in this case.  Helps keep the kids interested when I switch things up.
Katelyn then worked on some of her reading words.  I laid them out with our letter cards and called out some of her words and some random ones.  She then had to put a block on the correct word.
Jocelyn had to spell her words out with the same cards.  I called out the words and she found the cards.
The girls love playing Minute to Win it.  I laid out four words each and they had one minute to find the letters that matched the words.  Always a favorite here!
 The girls made little story books titled:  While taking a walk I saw...and then each page they wrote what they saw and drew a picture of the word.
 The girls then went around the house and found words on different items.  They then had to write those words and read them to me.  (Thanks Megan for that idea).

Cloud Activities:
We started off by talking about what the girls knew about clouds and what they wanted to learn about clouds.  
We then read about what a cloud is, how they are formed, the different types of clouds, and looked at various pictures of clouds.  We then looked outside and sure enough...it was a cloudy, stormy looking day.  Here is a view from our back porch of what we saw.
The girls and I then tried to make clouds in a glass jar.  It actually worked.  I filled the jar with about an inch of hot water.  We then covered the top of the jar with a thin cloth and put ice cubes on it.  The girls were really excited.
We then talked about why it is when we walk outside on a cold day and breathe, we see a little cloud.  Since it wasn't cold outside we did an activity with a spoon.  I put a spoon in the freezer for a few minutes and when we took it out, the girls blew on them...and saw how condensation (not sure if that is the right word) formed.
The kids then painted storm clouds and white clouds.
and last but not least we made cloud play dough using 2 cups of flour, 1/3 cup of water and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.  
Fun times!  I love being able to teach my little munchkins at home.  Such good times and good memories.

This blog post has been linked up to Homeschool Creations.  Click on the link below to get other great ideas!














4 comments:

  1. what a great time! We love SEEDS and what they believe in! I gotta try the cloud experiment!! Great photos!

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  2. I love all the ideas and fun you had with clouds!

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  3. The cloud experiment was really cool! I'm a little jealous that it wasnt cold enough to see your breath outside :). I think the minute to win it would do wonders around here, I'll have to watch for a way to incorporate it!

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  4. What a fun week! I love the stormy and white cloud paintings :-) Stopping by from Preschool Corner. :)

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