Sunday, April 28, 2013

Science Time!

 
A couple of months ago I started Science Journals with the girls. They have math and literacy journals that they enjoy so I decided to create a science one to put all of our science related learning.
 
I gave Finley this little assessment and she enjoyed it. We talked through it together and she wrote the beginning letters of each word.
 
 
 

My girls love picking flowers so on this day I had them draw their flowers (with a little help) and write a sentence about it. Rowynn told me about hers and I wrote it down for her.
Finley's entry about her flower.

They love to plant and Finley had been asking to plant some seeds in dirt...we do this every year and she loves digging in the soil. Their Mommy has a black thumb....seriously, I can't grow anything (except babies) but I love flowers and love letting my girlies get dirty!
Finley's entry about planting her seeds and the steps we took.

 
 
I think it is so important to have a house full of mixed media for my kids to explore. We have a TON of books in this house, but I also want access to magazines, newspapers, restaurant menus, brochures, etc. My parents got the girls a subscription to Highlights a couple of years ago and recently we got a subscription to Ranger Rick Jr based on a friend's blog post.
The girls are enjoying their subscription to Ranger Rick Jr. and learning about different animals.
Here they are "flying" backwards just like the hummingbirds in our magazine.


 

This girl LOVES animals!

We counted the zebras and then practiced counting by twos to count their legs.
One of the issues talked about Rhinos so I had Finley draw one and write a sentence about it. She wrote the word Rhino and a "L" for like, "T" for to, and "E" for eat.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Build-a-Bear

A few weeks ago we met my parents and sister in Tyler, TX (a good halfway point between them and us) to visit. We ate lunch and then did a little shopping at the mall. While there we let the girls go to Build-a-Bear. They each have a stuffed animal (a monkey and dog) from there that Aunt Sissy & Uncle Ben gave them on their first Christmas but they've never actually got to build one their selves.
 
They had such a fun time! Finley picked out a white dog covered in red and pink hearts with a Cinderella dress and Rowynn picked a pink bear with a crown and a picture of the Disney princesses on one of the feet with a Rapunzel dress. They even got cute little flower panties for their animals. Finley named hers "Princess Anne," and Rowynn named hers, "Princess Bear."
 
 
Putting the stuffing in.

Finley picking out her heart.

Finley making her wish. Apparently Rowynn was ready for it to be her turn!

 


Rubbing the little heart on her face so her bear with be pretty like her.

And rubbing the heart on her heart so her bear would be loving! So fun.

Possibly on of my favorite pictures of this little girl. She was making her wish. It was so fun watching her; she was so serious and concentrating so hard!
Rowynn with Princess Bear and Finley with Princess Anne.

 

What a fun day and such sweet memories! We'll have to take Emerson back on his birthday so he can do one!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Random Learning!

 
Here are some pictures of "school" time at our home :)
 
I found this alphabet stamp sheet and it was great for Rowynn to practice letter recognition. She enjoyed hunting for the letter stamps and stamping the letters. She is slowly but surely learning her letters! 

Finley doing some word work. She gets so excited when she sees one of "her words" in a book or on a sign. She loves that she can read and spell words and I love her enthusiasm!

I dug out this activity from the closet; Finley did it a couple of years ago. It was simple to make. I just printed out pictures and Rowynn sorted them on the paper plates. Easy, cheap, and educational....I like it!

Writing her words. I found dry erase boards at the dollar section at Target!

Finley put the words in order after reading one of our Bob books.

She did great sorting her words!

And I leave you with a picture of my sweet cutie!!!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Math & Numbers with Finley & Rowynn

Here are some activities that I've done with the girls over the past few weeks. Some of these went into their math journals. Rowynn is working on number identification and counting and Finley is doing kindergarten math. We use Horizons Math & Investigations Math for our curriculum and packets found through friends or online. Most of these activities were found online.
 
 
Number Surprise! I bought this packet from TeachersPayTeachers. I wrote several numbers in white crayon and then the girls painted over them with watercolors to reveal the hidden number. A great way to work on number identification with Ro and for Finley I did increments of 10 to practice counting by 10's to 100.



Rowynn practice counting and then finding the correct number.

Working on patterns with Rowynn.

I love these! We use these two sided counters and dot paint to see all the different ways we can make numbers. In this one we are looking at different ways to add numbers to equal 3.

Different ways to make 5.

Finley does this 100% indepently. Crazy!  I love the top right corner of her drawing of 6+1=7. She is getting so good at drawing numbers.
I love how for number 4, she drew four lines.
Rowynn finding numbers and coloring them according to the key at the bottom of the sheet.

 

I bought this little pack at the Dollar Tree and wrote the numbers on them and let Rowynn put them in order.

The pack also came with bananas and Rowynn practiced counting by giving the monkeys the correct number of bananas to "eat."

I would ask her to find a number and then she would circle it.

 

Friday, April 12, 2013

Easter 2013

I love Easter. I love the promise of Spring, the colorful clothes, and all of the wonderful traditions. Every Easter my parents come and spend the weekend with us, we go to our church's Easter Egg Hunt, everyone gets new outfits, we take a picture in front of our tree, and go to church. The girls get baskets full of goodies, we bake, and spend time with family. As fun and wonderful as all of that is, the number one reason I love Easter is of course because of what that day means to me as a Christian. My savior paid the ultimate price for me and then conquered the grave. What a marvelous love!


This Easter was special and unique for a couple of reasons. First, it was sweet Emerson's first Easter. So fun to get to dress-up a little boy! And second, this is the first Easter since we moved into our house that we didn't get a picture in front of our tree. That's because we have been living in a hotel due to a busted pipe and flooding at our house. I was a bit disappointed a first, but like Kyle reminded me, we were all together and would always remember our little adventure in hotel living!

Here are some pictures from our Easter weekend!

Their baskets from Mimi & Papaw.


Sweet boy with his goodies from us!

The goodies from us...and yes, technically Emerson didn't have a basket. But he's six months old and I just ran out of time with the whole house flooding thing. The girls still had theirs from last year.

Finding eggs with Mimi.




Finley with the bunny. Rowynn REFUSED to go anywhere near the bunny!




Sweet girl hates bounce houses, didn't want to play any games, was terrified of the bunny...but she sure enjoyed some cotton candy!



That evening we all relaxed in our hotel's hot tub.



Easter 2013
The Davis Family
Kyle & Wendy
Finley, Rowynn, & Emerson