stART ~ The Dot

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds.  This is a wonderful story about a little girl that thinks that she is not very good at art.  Her art teacher helps her realize what a great artist she is.  I really liked this book, because it reminded me of how Emily feels about her artistic abilities at times.

Of course after reading this book Emily was able to create her own Dot.  Emily used a paper plate and some watercolors for hers and I love how it came out!

stART ~ Wiggle

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we have been enjoying Wiggle , by Doreen Cronin.  This was one of Emily’s first real favorite books.  She would cry when we had to return it to the library and remembered it every time we went to the library.  It is a simple rhyming text about wiggling.  I love reading it and have read it so many times that Emily follows right along.  Soooo…..”Do you wake up with a wiggle?  Do you wiggle out of bed” I highly recommend getting a copy of the book to see all the fun wiggles!!  (BTW ~ I will be reading this book to Emily’s preschool class today!!)

I have wanted to use this book for stART since I began stART, but never really thought of something to go with it.  But really there are so many open ended art projects that could go along with it.  We decided to wiggle around some yarn on a paper to make beautiful pictures.

Emily picked the colors and the paper and went to work.  Her yarn was wiggling all over the paper!

Juliette loved wiggling the yarn around the paper too. 

 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Cousins

My little niece’s face says it all!!!

Alphabet Hunt

Emily loves doing mazes and working with the alphabet, so I thought that this would be a fun way to put the two together.

 (click on the picture above to download)

I started with the letter “A” and continued with the whole alphabet in order, but it zig zags around the page like a maze, until you reach “Z” at the bottom of the page. 

  I originally planed on having Emily color in each box, but she asked to use her dot markers and they worked perfectly!

Check out other great activities for Tots and Preschoolers:

Story Time Under the Stars

We recently went to the Vanderbilt Planetarium for a Story Time Under the Stars program.  This was Emily’s first trip to the Planetarium and although I don’t think she really understood what we were going to be seeing she was so excited about being able to wear her pajamas out and listen to stories. 

The program began with our educator telling us a little about the dome and the star projector.  Then she showed us some constellations.  My favorite part was seeing how many stars there are when there is no light pollution.  It reminded me of camping upstate when I was little!

I was not sure how Juliette was going to like it and even thought about not bringing her at all.  I am so glad I finally decided to give her a chance because she LOVED it!

  They read 4 stories to the children and projected the pictures from the books onto the dome over the stars.  It was really a cute way to have bedtime stories read!

Having Fun Learning

 

Our Week Having Fun Learning Together!!!

Emily is 4 years old and Juliette is 20 months old

This week we have been very busy, most of the things we do are spontaneous with some planned activities thrown in for good measure.   Emily has been enjoying working on some letter games on her learning laptop and also working in some of our preschool skills workbooks.  She loves them and can do page after page of them.

Juliette has been  a handful the past few weeks, gearing up for the terrible two’s maybe.  So at this point I am happy with whatever we fit in between crying fits!  She is saying so many more words and really just wants to do EVERYTHING that Emily does.

Emily and I went to see Cinderella at the Plaza Play House, our local live Children’s Theatre. Emily is using her Learning Laptop to find the missing letter.  I am not crazy about this toy, because I find the graphics very hard to see, but she loves it.  She is so happy to have her own little computer.  For the game that she likes it give a series of letters and she has to fill in the missing letter.

At Sarah’s house Emily and Juliette played with Play Dough.

Juliette loved emptying all the packing peanuts from the sensory tub. Juliette loves putting straws in the small holes in this container, which is an amazing fine motor skill activity!

The kids painted with Green Paint.  First we made handprint shamrocks and then they were able to do some free painting.

On St. Patrick’s Day the girls woke up to find Green Leprechaun Gold hidden all over the house.  They both had so much fun finding them.

It started when Emily woke up and found one on her pillow.  She then noticed one on top of the toilet bowl.  Then when we went downstairs there were some of the steps, in their green cereal bowls and even in their shoes!

We had a beautiful end to the week with an almost 80 degree day.  The girls were so excited to get outside and play!

 

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking these buttons!!

stART ~ I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More!

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!, by Karen Beaumont.  This is a really cute story about a child that is not allowed to paint anymore because his mom found him painting all over the floors and walls.  So he decides he is going to paint is body instead.  He is just going to paint his head, but can’t resist covering his entire body in color!  I read this book to our Art Group and then after each child was able to paint their hands and then print them onto a piece of paper.  Or they could trace their hand on the paper and paint just the paper.  Off course since painting your hand with paint is so much fun, they all opted for that option!  Emily did decide that she wanted to try both since there was room on her paper.

   

Juliette’s Hand Painting

Emily’s Hand Painting

Wordless Wednesday ~ Juliette’s Nook

 

I often find Juliette (and Emily) hanging out in her little nook.  She has filled this spot up with her favorite things, toys, books, blankets and Boppy all on her own (well maybe with the help of a certain older sister).

I love that she found this little spot behind the rocking chair in her room all on her own, or maybe with Emily’s help too.  Sometimes when I walk into the room I can hear them giggling together and playing with whatever they have tucked away into their little hide-way at the moment.

It really is just a little nook in the corner of the room.  I actually joined them in it and I have to say it made me want to be a kid again.  I remembered all the neat little nooks we would hang out in around our house when we were growing up and all the fun we had when we were little! 

St. Patrick’s Pokey

I wish I could take credit for this, but Emily actually did this activity at school.  I thought that it was really cute and she had so much fun with it I figured I would share it.

First they made a Shamrock Paper Plate Shaker.  All they did was staple to paper plates together and fill it with dried beans.  Then the children decorated it with a construction paper shamrock.  The Shamrock is made from 3 hearts for the leaves and a strip of paper for the stem 

On the back is the Song.  I love that her teacher always sends home the words to the songs they are doing in class so that we can do them at home too!  They used the shaker to go with the song.

St. Patrick’s Pokey

(sung to the tune of “The Hokey-Pokey”)

You put your shamrock in,

You take your shamrock out,

You put your shamrock in and you shake it all about.

You do the St. Patrick’s Pokey and you turn yourself around.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 

You Shake your shamrock high,

You shake your shamrock low,

You shake your shamrock high; then you shake it to and fro.

You do St. Patrick’s Pokey and you turn yourself around.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 

You Shake your shamrock left,

You shake your shamrock right,

You shake your shamrock left; then you shake with all your might.

You do St. Patrick’s Pokey and you turn yourself around.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 

Check out other great activities for Tots and Preschoolers

stART ~ St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read St. Patrick's Day in the Morning, by Eve Bunting.  This is a sweet story about a little boy who was told that he was to little to participate in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  He sets out to prove that he is able to and it very proud of himself when he does succeed.  To go along with this book we made some egg carton shamrocks to decorate our house for St. Patrick’s Day.

First I cut up an egg carton so that I had 3 parts together in the shape of a shamrock.  Then Emily and Juliette painted both sides of the egg carton with light and dark green paint.  Once they were finished I gave them gold and green glitter glue to add some sparkle!  Both Emily and Juliette worked on this project, but I didn’t get any pictures of Juliette painting.

After the shamrocks dried we added pipe cleaner stems and a gold pipe cleaner at the top to hang them.

Juliette’s Egg Carton Shamrock

  Emily’s Egg Carton Shamrock