Burlap, burlap, burlap!

Letter Find

I made these little letter chips a while ago. I made them and realized shortly after that I have absolutely no use for them. I contemplated taking them apart and making something else out of the wooden chips, but I didn't have time for that. Yesterday I was at Joann Fabrics, and look what I found! 

I was a fan of burlap already, but now I am in love. I had no idea they had patterned burlap?! There are some really cute patterns out there too - I may need to cover some more diaper boxes and make some bins with the great burlap patterns I found! I'll put that as #101 on my list of things to do ...

I secretly set this up during rest time. It sat there for a while, but eventually someone was curious enough to sit down and see what's going on here.

I-Bell matching some letters.  

S and I sat down for quite a while and played with this. She took this letter find a step further and found letters that were close to each other to spell her name. Then she wanted to find other names. I wished I had doubles of each letter so it would have been possible to do more.

Hoping this will be more interesting to D when he starts recognizing more of his letters.

 

Burlap Sewing

 

OK - confession. Our sensory table broke in half. However, it's still usable on the one half, so today we did some sewing!

 

I hot glued burlap to the bottom and added some plastic needles and some thread. On the other side, I set out D's favorite tree beads and shoe laces.

This is the first time we've done a sewing activity. S was so excited, saying she has some sewing sheets at school to make butterflies/bugs.

Getting started. 

S said she was going to make a circle...  

D and I-Bell getting to know sewing. 

S's circle:) 

She was pretty good at threading her needle! 

Look closely, S made a circle and a square. I-Bell's work is found at the lower right, and D's is the lower left. So cute! 

Tree beads were all over the floor.

 

 

Bird Houses and Bird Seed

Today we painted bird houses, and I finally let the kids dig in to the bird seed.

 

Little bird houses from Joann Fabrics.

Picking their colors..

I-Bell started the bird house painting conversation with, "When I grow up and have babies, I'm going to tell them all about how I went to my auntie Jill's."

Then S began with, "So, D, what are you going to be when you grow up? A dentist? A doctor? Maybe an artist?"

Here D said, "Look. Red!"

Maybe a future artist?

S always adds such detail:)

Can you guess whose is whose?

 

We got the sensory table out for the bird seed play.

They have tweezers (that I call our bird beaks) and little eggs to play with.

D filled his egg right up!

Got one!

S liked to fill hers up half way and shake it to make noise. I-Bell liked to fill both sides before putting them together.

I haven't included a picture of my little L - she's getting so big!

I just missed a smile here - she smiles all the time - how to I always miss them?

Time to play on the slide!

Is it just me, or does he have the best smile?

:)

 

 

 

Bird Week

Bird Week

It's finally beginning to feel like spring, so Bird Week is just in time!

 A while ago, I had this great idea for a bird house (with no back) to put on our window. Thankfully, I have a wonderful uncle who was able to make one for me. Here it is:

Once this was made, I began thinking of many other activities for the kids. Especially bird watching and learning. For the last few weeks, I-Bell and I have been keeping our eyes peeled for Robins. I have a feeling she's going to love this.

 

I borrowed these books from my parents:

 

The Dollar Tree has birds and these natural materials. I couldn't wait to get this out with D and I-Bell.

First, I let them hold and play with the little birds:)

 I pointed to all the parts of D's bird as I-Bell named them. We also talked about where birds make their nests.

We talked about how some birds nest in bird houses and others nest in trees/bushes.

I-Bell wanted to make a nest right away.

As she made it, we talked about what birds use to make their nests, and how they are important for keeping eggs warm.

I-Bell's nest:)

Here is the nest that D and I made:

Then D said, "Baby bird sad."

Me: Why is baby bird sad?

D: Mommy.

Me: Your baby bird wants its mommy?

D: Yeah. Hungry.

 

So we let D feed his baby bird...

♥

While D was busy doing that, I asked I-Bell if she'd like to help give our birds outside some materials to use for their nests. She was excited!

I introduced measuring last week, so this was a great opportunity to revisit. I had I-Bell measure 4 inches in length. 

And cut! 

Mixing her yarn with natural materials.

Hung up outside.

Our bird house on the window.

And then two really happy kiddos running around, pretending they are flying birds yelling, "Tweet, tweet, tweet!"

 

Peeking into the bird house. We checked that bird house all day long.

 

Time for a new activity!

Bird seed, peanut butter and toilet paper rolls.

Spreading the PB, and adding bird seed.

I-Bell spreading PB ...

And adding bird seed ....

Adding bird seed to the peanut butter???

Oh man.

Time to hang them!

We've had some visitors!

This one we looked up - a House Finch! 

Later, she wanted the bird book back out. I showed her a cardinal because it looked like her red bird that she was playing with. She also wanted to see the robins.

The rest of the day, I-Bell was spotting birds. She saw a seagull and she saw three pelicans flying in the sky while we were on our way to pick up her sister from school. We came back home and looked them up right away!

 

I-Bell seemed really interested in how the Seagulls and Pelicans eat fish. Earlier in the day we talked about how the birds we usually see outside of our houses eat worms or bugs.

In the afternoon, after snack, we got out our bird beaks and picked up some worms!!

 

 

This birdy doesn't like worms, she likes fruit! 

My baby bird:) 

More to come!!