A Little Time at Grandma and Grandpa's

If it seems that I have been missing lately, sorry. After Easter, the youngers and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a visit. Technically, for the whole month of April and we have been enjoying our visit. It just seems there is no time for blogging among all of the other activities we are doing. I apologize. I haven't forgotten about the blog. I am just enjoying my time with my parents:) See you soon.

Tot Tuesday

Riley got a special ride the other day....on Daddy's shoulders.

Loving those baby feet:) and those baby smiles :)

Human Body - The Heart

This week, in our Science Unit on the Human Body, we learned about the heart.

J put together a model of the Human Heart and added it to our skull/brain model.

We read some books about the heart. She wrote several facts about the heart on a heart shaped mini book for her Human Body notebook.

We watched several videos about the heart and took an online quiz.

She colored a diagram of the heart for her notebook.

She made a circulation wheel to follow the path of the blood through the body.

She also made a model of the heart and used red and blue yarn to model blood going through the heart.

J put together a puzzle of the Human Body by Melissa and Doug.

Lastly, she tried an simple experiment to see how strong the heart is by trying to "pump" the "blood" as fast as her heart was working. She didn't quite make it but she learned a good lesson - the body is amazing! The idea for this lesson came from Primary Theme Park (link below).

She added the heart to her body diagram. Moving on to the kidneys....

Links

Primary Theme Park - has a neat idea about racing the clock.

Cynce's Place - has free heart note booking pages and links to several videos about the heart.

Spell Out Loud - has some free printable for the heart plus several video links.

Fantastic Fun and Learning - has a neat stethoscope to make, if I had the tubing - I so would have made that!

Kids Health - had a wonderful mini videos about each organ and online quizzes.

Book Unit - Mouse Shapes

We finally had time to work on our second Mousey book - Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Kaleb has been busy "working" with his Dad so "school" has been waiting for him. We always start the day by reading the book. This gives him the exposure to the book every day. The sensory bin for the week was a simple one - black beans and lots of different shapes.

We used the sensory bin to determine how many different shapes we had. He used a spoon to pull out the shapes and then he "graphed" them to see how many we had. Using this graph, he was able to determine which one has the most and which shape had the least.

He practiced making shapes using popsicle sticks.

I found these mini shape links at Target last year. We discussed each shape represented and then he linked all of the same ones together. I love the look of concentration.

My smarty realized that two semi circles make a circle! :)

Using shape magnets, Kaleb made some of the pictures from the book - a house and a wagon.

We played a bean bag toss game. He tossed the bean bag and told me what shape and number it fell onto.

We played shape bingo by tossing the shape cube and putting a marker on the shape.

We played a Roll a Mouse Game - I made the pieces from foam. He rolled the die and added the piece of the mouse.

He sorted buttons according to its shape. We discovered that we had way more circles than any other shape.

I  made a simple name puzzle using foam egg shapes. We have been working on his name all year.

I made some simple shapes and 2 letters (M and K) on the floor using painter's tape. First, he traced the shapes with his trucks.

Then, he looked for the different shapes through out the house. He found Mouseys for the M's and keys for the K.

We made shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks. He enjoyed the mini snack - once I brought out the marshmallows, he was more interested in eating them!

He made a shape mouse as well as some Swiss Cheese, just like the book.

I left the shapes on the floor and later, I found him tracing them with his Mega Blocks.

Here is a picture of his mouse and cheese. They turned out super cute. We have one more Mouse book - Mouse Paint but it will have to wait a week or two. We are heading out of town for Spring Break to spend some time with the Grandparents! Yay! So, if possible, I will get to Mouse Paint at the Grandparent's house - we will see if that works out. Hope you are having a great week :)

Links

Or So She Says - has the idea for the popsicle shapes plus a free printable.

Mess for Less - has a shape contact paper art project that looks like fun.

Mama's Learning Corner - has a free printable shape sort game. You can use it as a cut and paste activity or as a simple game to reuse.

First Grade A la Carte - has the free printable Mouse Shape game.

Play dough to Plato - has a simple play dough shape activity using paper towel tubes.

The Pleasantest Thing - has the idea for the shape mice.

Growing Book By Book - has the shape name idea. I just used the egg shapes but it would be beneficial to use all of the shapes.

Imprints from Tricia - has the shape graphing idea.

Powerful Mothering - has a free printable - blocks with different shapes on them.

Living Worlds Apart Pinterest Board for Mouse Count, Shapes, and Paint

Tot Tuesday

My little one has just began to try new foods. He wasn't too thrilled with sweet potatoes at first but now, he loves them!

Love that boy!

Human Body Unit - Brain

We started our new Science unit - the Human Body. The first week of our unit study, we learned about the brain.

We started out by reading a ton of books on the brain. J learned that the brain is the command center. She started this unit not too thrilled but she quickly snapped out of it after learning how cool the brain was. J put together a puzzle of the brain while reading what each part does.

Here she is putting the brain back together!

I bought a 4 D human body puzzle. It was smaller than I expected but we will still work with it. I just wanted to explore the brain but she insisted she put the whole thing together.

I traced her body on brown shipping paper - that's not as easy as it looks. Her neck turned out to be somewhat misshapen. But it will work:) Each week we will learn about a different part of the body and add it to her body outline.

She put together a puzzle of the brain while using her brain to figure it out!

She tested her brain with this awesome color word test. The object is to say what color the word is printed in rather than the actual color word. She thought it was going to be easy but it was definitely difficult. I found this printable at  (link below).

She worked on her brain hat while listening to Ned the Neuron on the iPad.

Cute - huh? She thought it was a funny looking hat.

She worked on several sheets for her human body notebook. She learned about the brain by watching a few videos and playing a few human body apps.

We tested her reaction time with several games...catching the ruler at several distances...

balance....

And I couldn't help it...I found Brain Silly Putty at the Dollar Store. It was really something in the Zombie section but it looked liked fun. So, she played with Brain Putty. We are done with learning about the brain. Now, we are onto learning about the human heart.

Links/Resources

My Body Book by Patty Carratello - the will be the book we will use for the patterns to add to J's body outline.

Adorable Wearables by Donald Silver - the brain hat pattern came from this book. We will use this book throughout the unit.

Easy Make and Learn: The Human Body by Donald Silver - another main resource for some hands-on projects.

The Crafty Classroom - the brain puzzle and the color word test came from here along with other brain printables.

Kids Health - this website has some great mini videos about all of the body systems as well as online quizes and free printables. We will use this website each week.

Wheel School - Guy Stuff

You may have noticed that Kaleb has been slightly absent from the pictures this week. He spent a week of working with his father. He helped "mow" the church yard. He helped "paint" a house. He spent a week being outdoors and being a boy.....getting dirty and playing hard. I can say that I missed him but I was glad he could spend so much time with his dad doing guy things. That's so important too:)