G is for Gas, Liquid, Solid

So this week was sort of a transition week -- did H for Halloween & saving I for Indian & needed to cover G.  I came up with G is for gas, liquid, & solids to have a break from fall crafts & get creative with how to cover the subject.  With it also being election week, I educated the crazies on the candidates & talked about what it means to vote.  They decorated some "Future Voter" badges & apparently it all resignated with them because even over the weekend Kennedy was asking about "Ronnie".  We did lots of melting & freezing & cooking to demonstrate the 3 phases of matter.  I found some great worksheets on education.com that helped Deacon learn about it all.  It was a fun way to fit in election discussion as well as have a break between Halloween & Thanksgiving!

They both colored one Presidential Candidate information sheet & learned who was running

We made our own "Future Voter" badges & they sported them proudly -- D wanted to know how many more years he has until he is 18 : )

 The worksheets full of pictures of gas, solid, & liquid made it easier for D to learn it all

We made our own freeze pops to teach how liquid could turn into solid... & of course they were eager to eat them when they were frozen! 

We enjoyed them with some friends we had over for a playdate

K getting her fix!

Of course I used water to show the ice, water, & steam -- I love how into it K is!!

I took a tupperware container & froze it solid with some of Deacon's army things in it...

And he chiseled it all out... again, we did this while some friends were over.

And when they got one out, it was like finding gold each time!  This went on for about an hour!

And we made rice crispy treats to show the marshmallows going from solid to liquid.

H is for Halloween & Harvest!!

Since this was the week of Halloween there was no skirtin' around a "H is for Halloween" learning week.  And because Halloween fell on a Wednesday, we used a "H is for Harvest" theme for the later part of the week.  The crazies did everything from making witch hats to learning about pumpkin life cycles.  Deacon was introduced to connect the dots & picked it up super quickly. Oopsey Daisy blog http://www.oopseydaisyblog.com/mommy-school has a great H is for Halloween packet with movement cards, puzzles, & printables -- I used alot of that with Kennedy & it's colorful & she loved it!  Deacon also learned how to draw a heart & I caught him writing his first "sentence"... it was too sweet to not post.  The crazies also played Hungry Hippos for the first time -- since it starts with "H" I thought it would be a fun game to introduce & they have played it daily since.  There was alot of fun in the house with the Halloween & Harvest theme & they learned more than they knew they did!

K using her fine motor skills to match candy corn to numbers

some of the movement cards from the blog referenced

K enjoyed putting these simple puzzles together 

D connecting the dots                                 D matching cards

 Cutting & pasteing the pumpkin life cycle

Edible witch hat assembly

Yummo!!  And Easy Peasy!!

D first "sentence"

Making those pumpkin seeds useful... another pumpkin craft

 An intense game of Hungry Hippos

 A fun handprint spider... then we practiced counting with it

F is for 4!!! F is for Fall!!

With Deacon's birthday fast approaching, I decided to make our letter "F" week a "F is for 4" theme as well as "F is for Fall".  We did lots of worksheets & crafts using presents, candles, & balloons as often as we used leaves, acorns, & pumpkins.  It got him really geared up for his big celebration & excited about the big "4".  He now knows how to write all of his letters through F & got lots of practice on writing the number 4.  My niece Paige was also around for most of the week so she sat in on some of our learning sessions.  Deacon was as excited to be able to help her as she was about getting into our sessions!  Below are some pictures of how we spent our time focusing on F, 4, & fall!

I always let the crazies watch a short video about the letter we are learning.

 We used some leaves to do math -- this week he was introduced to adding rather than subtracting.

Helping Paige color after a connect-the-dots worksheet

K used her fine motor skills to place "leaves" on the tree (m&ms)

We used these leaf cards a lot -- D played the matching game, K paired them up, & we did some color exercises with them

K practiced number sequencing with numbered leaves

A little exercise D did about his 4 years of life

Practiced our shapes making this Halloween cat

Our cooking craft was assembling acorn cookies... so simple!

 The busy artists... I had to place double the kisses as they used one & would eat one.

 Paige was ready to dig into the icing

Turned out rather cute!