Playing with Leaves

  We had some downtime this week and through in some different leave art.  I enjoy using nature in art projects and the kids are amazed that it's even possible.

  We collected leaves and continue to collect them randomly for projects.

  I started with introducing my daughter to shading the leaf.

  She thought this activity was neat.  We had went outside and collected three different leaves.  Different sizes and shapes are the best!  I then showed her how to hold the crayon and shade over the leaf in order to get the best result.  After that it got better when we used several colors to shade one leaf versus one color.

  Next we taped a leaf to the window and she traced it.  This opened up new opportunities to her because she understands we are using the light from the other side to allow us to trace.  She is ready to trace everything now.

  Lastly I saw this activity on Pinterest.  Using coffee filters we drew leaves and cut them out.  Then dropped paint on the leaves allowing the colors to blend then dry and that's it.  We used food coloring which gave it the same effect I believe just a little messier.  Because of the filter the paints blend nicely and it looks so close to a real leaf.

  

The kids enjoyed their leaf play day.  I can't wait to do it again and am patiently waiting for some leave changes!

Letter B at Preschool

  Although we just started last week we are on a new week with a new letter.  I am going to play it by ear as to when we stay on a new letter and when we move on.  We will also review if not daily weekly on what we have learned so far.


  Little man has been informally in and around school at home for a couple years so I expect him to pick up things quicker.


  He knows colors so we won't spend a lot of time on that but knows the names of shapes but maybe can't identify all of them; so we will work on those.

 His vocabulary is beyond his years so we will work on phonics and letter recognition.

This week will be fun as the letter B is plentiful in our home.

Tracing is the best way to learn! B is for butterfly.  Learning shapes along the way to make pictures is fun too.

  Adding pictures of b items to his little B book.  These are perfect for his hands and based on the pictures he can read it himself.

Even simple tasks such as scissor skills need to be taught.  This will be a more interesting challenge for me as he is left handed and all I can do is show him finger placement and wait till he finds a comfortable position.  For this activity though he kept changing his hands.  I don't know what that was all about.

  I think we will finish the week with letter B as there are plenty of things for us to do outside.  We have yet to take advantage of biking, playing ball, bouncing and badminton!