S'mores...Yummm.

CAMPING DAY!
Today we were really excited about having the group together for our Camping Day! Unfortunately, mother nature and I were battling schedules all week. When I wanted out, she wanted RAIN! :( But no worries! We had more places to pitch a tent in the house anyways!! :)

Christmas in July! 

While we were playing we got a visitor from Gigi Clause! After raiding Target, she brought us all sorts of new toys. Including our new pool! && just in time for the sunshine!! We LOVED playing in our new pool.

The baby, Sierra was FINALLY able to really enjoy her own water fun too, now that she has her own space to play!

Special Treat: S'Mores

So just another excuse to make something sweet and yummy that the kids (and I) could enjoy. I really was excited when I realized we could easily make this for our special snack, because after all what is a better camping treat then S'mores?!

So excited!! They could hardly stand it!!!

We didn't want to play with fire so I choose the easy route, and we nooked the mallows! The kids knew better, Payton informed me,"we need a CAMPFIRE!"

 But they are always curious about the microwave and when I told them the marshmallows were going to GROW in there...that got their attention!

I gave them each a chance to add the chocolate and make the "sandwich". We did in in the kitchen for easy clean-up and access to microwave.

Shae adds the chocolate!

Jax wanted to do add it one at a time

Ethan wanted to SMOOSH it!

Payton knew exactly what to do!

Now time to enjoy our FABULOUS treats!! 

It was a fun day!! && sooo Yummy! 

Have a great weekend! 

Camping Week!

We got off to a late start since we missed Monday. The kids were really excited about Camping Week, any excuse to make a tent!! I was excited about the s'mores we are going to make tmrw! I swapped days with some of the kids Monday so they are all here Thursday :)

Going on a Bear Hunt
We do this one often so of course since it fit theme we had to go on a bear hunt! The kids really love this! I have used a version of it in my preschool classrooms for sometime now. Its super cute. I will try to find a way to link it up on here!!


Time to go Fishing!! It was really buggy outside this morning so we couldn't set up outside like I had wanted. But luckily due to our 2-3 year old imaginations. The lake can be inside too!

Catching Fish

We caught a red one & a blue one!

I suggested we pretend and cook the fish we caught and make dinner! But Jax says "you can't eat fish, it's yucky and it will make your belly ache." I am not sure if he just can't fathom the idea of eating Nemo, or he just not that into fish.

Proud Fisherman!!

Ethan says "yes we can eat fish!" And was very happy to run off to the kitchen to prepare it. I couldn't help but laugh when he came back with a plate with grapes on it, he says"here CoCo, here's your hot-dog!" LOL! It all makes sense now! Now I know what's in a hot-dog, red and blue FISH! haha. It's a new Dr. Suess in the making Red Fish . Blue Fish.  Hot-dog. (oh jeez Im lame.)

Jax: "it wont bite you, its FAKE!"

Our lake was super shallow! We could stand to fish, and we found a black snake! "Oh my!" I shouted. Jax assured me not to be afraid. Then says "I can jump over it, it wont bite you, its fake!" 

Art Project: Binoculars

They were super siked when the paint came out. Even if they had no idea what we were doing yet. We had already discussed what things you need when you go camping so they were familiar with the word binoculars. I started to cut the paper towel rolls in half, handing each child 2 pieces. Naturally they just put them to their eyes to look through. We painted them.

When I got this idea from a website, it says to use green paint. But there is no reason why they can't choose whichever color they wanted so that's what they did!

This took forever to get!!! They can NOT stand still!! LOL!

Summer Virus!!

They are cute, funny, and loads of FUN! BUT they also can be sticky, slimy and VERY germy! ew, yuck! 

Seems like a few of the kids have to caught a little "summer virus" or so the Ped says. Luckily we had the weekend to get the sickness out but it seems to have crept into Monday!

Because of our sick policy here at the playhouse, some Moms have choosen to keep their kiddos home, which is always better than having to tell them they can't come!! Thank-You Mommies!! :)

That gives my Jax, who's last fever was yesterday a chance to really recover. && I can spend the day on GERM DUTY! I already have all of his bedding, pillows, froggy && the "illicit" BINKY washed and SANITIZED!!!

NEXT! on to the playroom w the Clorox clean up & Lysol!
Then I will finish with our room and bedding...Jax has been snuggling in here the past few days...and we MUST....I mean MUST keep MR JASON from getting sick.....cause we all know, if the daddy gets sick. Its the WORST sickness in the house! LOL!


WISH ME LUCK!!!

Ocean Life: Day 3

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

I have the majority of the kids M-W, so I try to do most of the activities on those days & since the kids are 2.5-3.5 years old, that's enough "school" for ALL of us. ;) When I taught preschool in the past I usually did a special treat on Friday to end the week. So since Wednesday is my new Friday lol I will most likely do a special treat on Wednesday! &&although not as YUMMY as our ladybug cupcakes last week; by the girls request (&since it went we the theme of course!!) we watched The Little Mermaid & had  popcorn for snack! :)

Circle Time: Ocean Life Letter Match
(Letter Introduction & Recognition)
I printed out 6 different sea animals on cardstock and created a Letter matching game using; Fish (F), Lobster (L) Octopus (O), Shrimp (S), Turtle (T), & Whale (W) and cut them out. I printed the same 6 creatures on another paper and kept it whole (game board)
I had kids take turns playing, matching the letters to the game board.

Special Activity: Ocean Letter Match II
(Letter Introduction & Recognition)
Using the same animals, I cut 6 more cards and taped each one to it's own water bottle. I then took 30 small craft sticks and wrote F, L, O, S, T ,W: one letter on  each stick (5 stick per letter)  Taking turns the kids dropped the stick in the matching bottle :)

Song: Animals of the Sea

(sang to the tune of Farmer & the Dell)

The whales live in the sea.
The whales live in the sea.
Heigh-ho, watch them blow.
The whales live in the sea.

The crabs live in the sea.
The crabs live in the sea. Heigh-ho, they scurry so.
The crabs live in the sea

The octopus live in the sea.

The octopus live in the sea.
Heigh-ho, they live in holes.
The octopus live in the sea.

The sharks live in the sea.
The sharks live in the sea.
Heigh-ho, watch them go.
The sharks live in the sea.

The oysters live in the sea.
The oysters live in the sea.
Heigh-ho, they burrow below.
The oysters live in the sea.

Jean Warren

They really enjoyed this one today! We did it about 5 times while they waited for lunch to be served!!

We have been doing our art projects before lunch, but today we ate early.  The kids just seemed HUNGRY! Sometimes its better to stop and switch it up rather than be married to a schedule and loose them to madness! Which I know can happen very quickly when you have 4 hungry tots. Im happy we waited because it was worth it!!

Art Project: Ocean in a Bottle ("Under the Sea")

First we added shells of all sorts shapes and sizes to our water bottles

Next, I let each child fill up the bottle at the sink

We added blue food coloring to make our OCEAN BLUE!

They were AMAZED & wanted their turn to FLIP it OVER!

They were cool like this, but we weren't done yet!!

They added foam stickers of all types of sea creatures
Dolphin, Sharks, Sheahorses, & Starfish to name a few!!

Under The Sea Bottles COMPLETE!

I think because we watched the movie today...the girls kept singing, UNDER THE SEA, UNDER THE SEA! as they decorated their bottles!! :)

SO CUTE! 

See you Next Week!!

Tuesday! Commotion in the Ocean!

Oh jeez! How annoying. I totally thought Tuesday's Blog posted last night, but looks like its posting as today....(<----this is me editing! lol) So looks like we will have 2 blog posts today. Lucky YOU! haha.
Circle Time: 

We read Commotion in the Ocean 

By: Giles Andreae & David Wojtowycz

The kids LOVED this fun ocean story! It's always such fun when they really understand  what's going on. :) This story is especially great because the kids love to join along for the sound words..."SNAP SNAP" goes the CraB!! 

No matter how many toys I will have...they will always create!!!  DVD City & Bridge!! :)

Art Project: Fish Baggies

This is a SUPER easy and pretty much free craft, depending on what you already have! I saw something similar online and with a little CoCo tweak these "Fish Baggies" really came out CUUUUTE! We used sandwich sized ziplock bags, tissue paper, & lil glue -n- google eyes! That's it. LOL Not that they look so complex! I just love free stuff and considering I keep a bag and I mean a BAG 

of left over used tissue paper I almost had everything. One should ALWAYS have google eyes, and as most homes in america do I had  ziplock baggies (mine of course were great value brand ;)! 

The kids crumbled, balled, and scrunched the tissue paper (fine motor)

They added the tissue to their baggies

I pinched the end with scotch tape then they added the google eyes!

Ethan: "My Mommy Will LOVE this!" He is SO PROUD!!! :)

Special Activity: On Land or In the Ocean?

(Gross Motor/Group Movement) 

We played the game on land or in the Ocean. The kids absolutely had a BLAST! haha. And it is sooo easy! First I had to explain the rules, then I had to explain them AGAIN!..lol  

It's simple, I call out a name of a animal; if it "walks" on land then they walked in place, if it "swims" in the Ocean they move their arms in a swimming motion. I wish I had caught this on video. They were cracking me up!! Even helping me come up with different animals to call out! 

Ocean Life

This week we are learning about Ocean Life.
Today we focused on whales.

Circle Time:
We read "Secrets of the Sea" by: Christian Riese Lassen

The kids love this amazing pop up book with all its colorful illustrations! They awed at the different underwater life. Some they knew and some they wondered, "What's THAT!?!" As we read along they tried to find new creatures! 

They especially loved the sea turtles. 

And of course we found a Nemo!!  

At the end of the story the last 2 pages fully POP OUT. It's such a cool book! The kids just wanted to look and find all the different fish and underwater fun!

Song:

Let's Go Diving Down
Tune:  “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
Let’s go diving down
In the ocean blue.
See us swimming with a fish
And with an oyster, too.
                        Liz Ryerson
Each time you sing the song, let your children substitute a different undersea creature, such as “crab” or “shark, or “fish”

Art: Whale Puppet

I had the kids finger paint blue on to a small paper plate. Then I had them color a print out whale then cut it out & Glued it to a craft stick. After the glue and paint dried I was able to make a slit in paper plate and stick whale in slit in plate. Kids can make whale jump up and down.

Special Activity: Ocean Life Matching Game
I've printed out different sea life on card stock and had the kids take turns matching them.