Curious George goes to a Costume Party

10/23/2012

Curious George Goes to a Costume Party

I thought we had a lot of fun this week. On Tuesday we painted a big orange pumpkin. I was very impressed that most of the kids painted with in the lines that I had made. 

For the activity, I put an item into a closed bag and had the kids guess what it was. We shock the bag and then put our hands in it to feel the object. (Ava seemed a little scared to put her hand in the bag.)

On Thursday we learned the difference between a pumpkin and a jack-o'-lantern. We worked on our shapes and then added a face to our pumpkin to make jack-o'-lantern.

All the busy bees were so excited to make their pumpkins. 

(Just a cute picture of Addison, the extra busy bee for the day.)

On Thursday we made some monkey masks. 

We had 6 very cute curious monkeys running around my house.

 A group shot that was very hard to take the suck wiggle monkeys.

The Napping House

 This week (last week, actually) we read The Napping House by Audrey Wood.  It's about a grandma, kid, and a bunch of animals that fall asleep on top of each other.  They all get awakened by the one sleeping above them. 

We had Margaret and Ava pretend to be the grandma, and then each of the kids had a different stuffed animal to place on top of them as we read the story.  As each of the animals got startled awake, the kids got to throw their animals off.  They thought that was pretty fun.

 

These kids are SOOOOO different from last years group!  Tuesday they were all pretty quiet, and I got a lot of blank faces throughout the day.  I introduced them to the weather lady on Tuesday (last year the kids loved her, and thought she was hilarious), and they didn't know what to think.  Thursday they wanted her to come back, and gave me a few smiles as I made a fool out of myself. 

This is going to be a FUN group! 

After we read the story, we talked about the differences between day and night.  We discussed different animals and whether they sleep at night or in the day.  I talked a little about the term 'nocturnal' with them.  After a few of the comments like, "No, animals sleep during the nighttime (Blake).  It's too dark to be awake in the nighttime (Stewart).", I realized that I needed to bring it down a notch for Thursday.

 

We colored and pasted some animals to show if they stay awake in the day or the night.  I was really impressed how focused they all were with the activities/crafts.  Luke is amazing at coloring.  For the most part he stays in the lines (obviously Ava doesn't from the picture above - he he), and is very aware of what colors certain animals should be.  I was impressed.

 I tried to get some group pictures, so I can replace the blog header picture (bad lighting in that one).  The only time I could get Luke to smile was in this goofy one.

 For snacks we had crackers and cheese shaped like a house for the Napping house.  The apple we decided was a boat. Good kids. :)

 For journal writing and book look I made them sit on their hands, so they wouldn't move.  Is that considered child abuse?  I'm actually surprised they went for it.

 Thursday craft, we made pom pom suns.  We simplified the day and night discussion a little, and they had fun making these.

 Finished masterpieces.

 My elderly neighbor across the street fell on Thursday, so a firetruck and ambulance came and took her to the hospital.  All the kids lined up by the window and watched the whole thing take place. I'm sure it was just as much of a show for the other people looking into my house, with 7 tinies and their little peepers staring out the window.

 We also made noodle moon and stars. It's hard to tell from the picture, but Stewart, Ava, Grant and Blake have their mouths full of "leftover" noodles.

 More projects.  

It really was a fun week.  Not much drama, cute kiddos, fun story, cute crafts, and a fun time had by all. :)

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

 

A fun week of colors and bears!  I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking when I did this sequence necklace with beads.  The kids did pretty good putting the animals in the right order but they got bored trying to string it all on the yarn.  It kept them busy for a while :)

All the kids but Luke said they had seen a bear.  Whether it was in their backyard, at Mammoth camping or their favorite teddy bear.

Snack.....you ladies are so good at coordinating your snack to your book.  But I always tend to not even think of snack until the day of!  Pretzels were a hit for some reason this day. :)

Craft time!  We did a red bird texture craft with tissue paper, feathers and glitter.  The kids especially liked the feathers.  They are good at gluing!

I thought these hand print animals turned out cute.  We didn't get through every animal from the book but these were the ones we did.  The kids thought getting their hands painted was tickly or pokey.  Blake especially loved his hand being painted and was excited when there was another color to do.  

"Busy Bees, Busy Bees what do you see?"  We went a scavenger hunt around the block looking for things on our scavenger hunt cards.  We found things like a stop sign, a garbage can, a squirrel, a truck, etc.  This was a big hit!

Goodnight Moon

My first time teaching the little Busy Bees was so much fun! All these kids are darling and such good kiddos. All of you who have figured out the schedule and material the last couple years have done a wonderful job. Thank you! I've thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the group this year.

This past week we learned and read all about Goodnight Moon (one of my favorites). The first day we colored pictures and painted moons for our Lapbooks.

Is Stewart drawing with both hands?? Hilarious.

On Tuesday the garbage truck came which was very exciting... the kids got two honks from the driver.

Ava was calling her "people" while the action was going on.

For snack the first day we had a Bowl of Mush (applesauce). Poor Trevor and Luke did NOT want to eat a bowl of mush for our snack. It was probably because I was going overboard calling it MUSH. Look at this face... April how do you ever say "no" to him?

 

The kids were hilarious on the couch pretending like they were sleeping after we read Goodnight Moon. This was impromptu on their part. They all loved the page that reads, Goodnight "Nobody"... they got a kick out of that.

Then we walked around the house to see if we could find a room with a "red balloon". Yay! We found a room with red balloons for everyone.

One activity on the second day was to put our little pictures we had drawn in the right sequence as we read Goodnight Moon. I was not anticipating that it would get so crazy with all six kids spreading out their picture cards all over the floor at one time. It took a little bit of work keeping things in order but the kids were total troopers. Ava did the best job. I kept thinking she wasn't in to it because I'd see her doing little gymnastics moves but when I would ask her about her cards she would show me she had them in PERFECT order... with time leftover to dance.

Margaret and Luke were so cute sharing books with each other during reading time.

So I had to post this because I was thrilled someone was appreciating the little doll house I bought for Adelle a couple years ago. I spent A LOT of time finding the "perfect" doll house and Adelle has never been in to it as much as I was hoping. Thanks Margaret!

Playing outside was of course a favorite for the kids. I dont' know why but I got the biggest kick out of Luke. He pushed a little grocery cart around collecting items and he was so particular about keeping all the items from falling out. He was like a little bag lady.

I had a fun week with the kids!