Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears

We were supposed to make crowns out of paper bags today, but based on the moods of the kids, and how I feel, we are switching to a simple worksheet today. We've already read Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears this week, but we read it again this morning. Then I printed out the pattern worksheet from this free downloadable worksheet pack. This is from the pack labeled "Part 1."

The Princess and the Pea

Today we read The Princess and the Pea and did a worksheet where you matched the shapes to the crown. The shapes were smaller than our usual ones so it was a good exercise in fine motor control!

Lucian has not done his worksheet yet today. Nothing I said could get him to do it. He didn't sleep well last night, so maybe after nap he will try. Sutton finished hers up quickly though. 

Some of the books we are reading this week came from the Scholastic Easy Readers Folk & Fairy Tales Pack from Amazon.

They aren't first readers, but the story is written simply, they are condensed to keep the child's interest and there is a great variety of stories.

3 little pigs

My kids love the story of The 3 Little Pigs, even though they are scared of the big bad wolf. Today after reading the story (for the 639th time), we did a project to go with it.

I cut out the houses and they helped redetermine the correct order to glue each one on. They were supposed to color their wolves while I cut the "building supplies" but my kids are not fond of coloring.

They were given yellow strips for straw, brown strips for sticks and red squares for bricks. Lucian said his wolf had those items all over him, so his looks a little crazy. 

I gave the almost two year old her colors one at a time and she was able to get them places on her houses herself once I showed her what to do. 

I enlarged this worksheet for the houses and wolf. 

Fairy tale/fable week

This week we are focusing in fairy tales. I have a stack of books we will be reading this week. The kids are also really into fairies and elves, so we will focus more on those later this spring.

Today we made simple little magic wands. The kids were given the option to paint the wand (stick), and then had a few things they could glue on to the star. 

It was a messy project (painting a small stock, beads everywhere), but they had fun.

Handprint mittens

Continuing with our hats and mittens week, we made these simple handprint mittens this morning. These would be a cute Christmas craft also.

I used the template provided and printed them out on some bright green paper. Each child did their handprint and I filled in their name. This would be cute if they were laminated as ornaments as well. I decided to put magnets on the back of ours, since our artwork display is very full and I'm having a hard time parting with some of my favorite snowman, penguin and other winter artwork.

Pom-Pom mittens

This morning we made mittens decorated with Pom-poms.

I used a folded piece of construction paper and traced one hand for each kid, so I would have two mittens when I cut them out. Card stock would be sturdier, but I don't have any. 

Each kid picked out their own color mittens, and what color(s) Pom-poms they used. I put glue in a cupcake liner for easy dipping. 

When the mittens were done we used a paper punch and yarn to string them together. 

Sort by color worksheet

We did another worksheet from that great Winter Worksheet pack from Totschooling today.

This one was a sort by color worksheet featuring hats, gloves, mittens, scarves, etc.

It appears some of the yellow pictures printed orange though, which was initially confusing for the kids, but they finished these very quickly. 

Winter hats

This week we are still exploring winter, but focusing on hats and mittens. This morning we did a fun little winter hat project.

This kids were given the options to use finger paint, water paint, crayons, markers or to gllue things on their hats. Two picked paint, and one "colors." Lucian did decide later to color a second hat with crayons for his grandma.

After the hats were done (or dry) I cut them out and the kids glued some cotton balls on them.

More Winter Worksheets

I'm not feeling well today, so luckily, I had some extra worksheets printed out from the Winter Worksheet packs that the kids worked on.

Sutton had her pattern worksheet compete before I even finished cutting out their puzzle sheets. 

Also, this time she put her puzzle together on the table before trying to glue it to the sheet. She doesn't normally do that. I'm not sure if it was just how she did it today, or if it was because the puzzle went a different direction that the others we've done.

Winter worksheets

Today we did 3 worksheets from that great Winter Worksheet pack I talked about last week. I have some printed out for tomorrow too. There will still be plenty left to use next year as the kids get older. I highly recommend this free download!

Sutton did all 3, but Lucian didn't want to do the tracing worksheet. Both did the puzzle by matching the picture, not spelling out "winter" and both needed a little help with the abc sheet. 

Cardinal handprints and a winter worksheet

Did you ever start a project and then part way through you ask yourself, "Whose idea was this anyway?" This handprint project was one of those instances.

Three little kids running around, a lack of artistic talent, and what I assume is carpal tunnel does not make for a fun painting project. The cardinals themselves were quick and easy, it was the branches I struggled with. 

I painted each kids hand and we put them on paper. By the time I got that done I was able to put a beak and eye on. After a break I came back and painted branches. Another break (to play) and I finished the branches. 

While I was helping each kid get their handprint, my two also did a worksheet placing snowmen in order of shortest to tallest. 

Q-tip painted snowflakes

This morning we painted snowflakes as part of our winter theme.

The kids used q-tips instead of paint brushes, but on his second one Lucian mostly used his fingers.

Winter is here

Fittingly, it's "winter" week this week. Friday it was so warm it was raining, but yesterday the cold hit and we have wind chills in the -20 degree range now.

This morning I put three bowls of water outside for about 90 minutes which did not freeze solid as I thought it would. It did make ice shells though which is all we needed for painting. 

Each kid got some washable paint, a brush and an ice chunk and they were able to experiment with painting the ice, watching how the paint rain more as the ice melted and painting inside as a hole formed in the top.

More penguin worksheets

We did some more penguin worksheets today. There are so many adorable penguin crafts, but the kids aren't really big enough for them yet. Maybe next year we will spend two weeks on penguins.

First we did an ABC dot-to-dot penguin. Sutton could see the shape and just drew it without realizing what we were doing, but Lucian understood the purpose behind it.

Then we did two pages from this Do-A-Dot Penguin Pack. My color ink should be arriving today, so my pages will look better soon! I think we will do some more from this pack even after our Penguin week is over since the kids like it so much.

The kids love anything having to do with Do-A-Dot markers. I make them wear jackets/old shirts when we use them though because they do stain clothes.

If you need some of these great markers you can always get them on Amazon. That's where I got mine last year. They look like this and if you click on the image it will take you to the Amazon search for these types of markers.



This is what their worksheets looked like when they were done.

Penguin worksheets

I'm feeling unwell this morning, so I switched to worksheets today instead of a project. I think I spent more time cutting things out for the kids, than they did doing the worksheets!

I downloaded this winter learning pack and love it! It has a lot of great worksheets that we have used and will use in the coming weeks. It's free to download once you sign up. I just selected the two (actually 4) pages we wanted for today and printed those out. I'm out of color ink, so my sheets don't look as cute as they could, but the kids liked them anyway.

Cotton ball penguins

This morning we used this great template to print out penguin shapes. I am out of color ink so I had to use a marker to put the feet on. Then the kids glued cotton balls, beaks and eyes on their penguins.

Penguin feet

Today's project was to make penguins from footprints.

I painted each kids foot black. I did my own kids' twice because my mom loves penguins so she needs a set of these. The kids held each other's hands and giggled since it tickles. 

Once they dried I quickly had Sutton help add an eye, drew on the belly and glued on a beak. Then while the kids had dance time I cut each one out. 

Penguin puzzle

After almost two weeks of being off schedule I'm struggling to get us back into our routine today. I actually did have stuffed planned for last week, but we all shared a virus and didn't do much of anything except rest and play with the kids new Christmas toys.

This week was supposed to be week two of penguins, but I ended up just picking 5 of the things I had scheduled. 

Today I am easing us back into things with a simple penguin puzzle and we will read a penguin book during reading time later.