Pumpkins

We have been embracing all things pumpkin this week.

– pumpkin volcano

– pumpkin m&m colour run (instructions here, using Reese’s Pieces. We made one with cold water and a second with warm water to see if it reacted differently)

– pumpkin battery

– pumpkin word sort (words with /s/ sounds and words with /sh/ sounds)

– pumpkin maths (adding to 10)

– pumpkin patch collage

– pumpkin play dough (idea from here)

– painting pumpkins

– baking with pumpkins (chocolate cake recipe from here)

– movie night (Melendez, Bill, et al. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. 2008.)

– pumpkin bowls (a take on lawn bowls, rolling small pumpkins as close to the larger pumpkin as possible)

xo

Dogs

The little men have been interested in dogs lately so we made a kennel for some pretend play and a few other activities too.

– Sensory play with dog ‘food’

– building a kennel (idea from here)

– matching numbers with bones in bowls

– sorting dogs (mostly by size but also by colour or stance) and matching dogs with adjectives

xo

Magic Show

The little men wanted to do something special for me so they put on a magic show and organised a few other ‘magical’ activities for us to do together.

– magic maths questions (inspired by this)

– magic triangle maths (idea here)

– read-rhyme-write magic hats

– magically appearing star (instructions here)

– magically moving pepper (instructions here)

– magician’s rabbit craft

xo

 

Space

We’ve been exploring space here recently.

– Mission control station for pretend play

 

– Pop rockets (instructions here)

 

– Identifying space objects wrapped in foil (inspired by this and this)

– Adding to 10 with moon rocks

– One-to-one correlation with moon rocks in craters

 

– Rocket lunch

 

– Balancing planets (balls on golf tees in play dough. Inspired by this)

– Sensory space play with play dough and dried beans and space objects

– Painting moons (idea from here)

xo

Christmas Activities

We have been enjoying lots of Christmas activities and using them to to talk about Jesus as the joy, hope, peace, saviour, light, king and judge of the world (see here).

– tape resist Christmas tree paintings

– shadow puppet nativity

– decorating play dough Christmas tree

– decorating cardboard Christmas tree

– target practice (aiming for stars with the descriptions of Jesus written on them)

– bell maze (inspired by this one)

– trees from paintings with the descriptions of Jesus on them

We hope you are enjoying preparing for Christmas too. xo

 

 

Olympics

Like many others we are looking forward to the Olympic Games beginning. We had our own celebration afternoon tea today and a few activities hidden away in these black paper bags for the coming days. Hope you enjoy the Games too.

– Finger olympics: mini versions of some Olympic events using tiny balls, sticks, arrows, nets and so on

– Olympic countries: learning about different countries and in particular the host country, Brazil

– Olympic spirit: to install good sportsmanship

– Your Olympics: imagining some new ideas for the Olympics

– Olympic charades: acting out some key components and events of the Olympics

xo

Tigers

The little man brought the class pet tiger home with him this week which was all the inspiration we needed to have some tiger fun.

– tiger face collage

– sensory activities with jelly crystals and shaving cream with paint

– matching joke questions with answers

– tiger lunch

– paper tiger crafts

xo

Pancakes

 

Today is shrove Tuesday so we’ve been enjoying some pancake fun while talking about Easter approaching. I think this is a good time to talk about our sin and God’s great grace and forgiveness so we have been looking at 1 John 1:9:

But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing. (GNT)

xo

Back to School

We have been playing school quite a bit lately with a preschooler and kindergartener eager to start the year (which runs calendar year here in Australia).

– Story about what the little men are looking forward to

– School cake

– Noun-adjective-verb sort

– Tissue paper apples

– Dot number match

– Apple science (oxidation)

– Letter hunt

– Vocabulary expansion word profiles

– Letter stamp painting

 

We hope your little ones get off to a great start this school year!

xo