Paint Blending

This art exploration came from the book I Made It! Process-Oriented Art for Kids.

We squeezed small amounts of tempera paint onto construction paper.

After covering the paint with a piece of wax paper, the girls used their hands to blend the paint.

Once the paint was blended the girls peeled off the wax paper to reveal their design.

Lauren enjoyed using a paint scrapper to add texture to her designs.

Off She Goes

Julia started kindergarten and our family has begun a new phase of life. She was so excited that she practically ran all the way to school the first day. No tears from her but plenty from me!

Making Peanut Butter

With all the convenience foods on the market today, kids easily get the wrong idea that food just comes prepackaged and ready to eat. They are amazed to learn about the process involved and love to make their favorite food from scratch. After reading From Peanuts to Peanut Butter by Melvin Berger and Peanut Butter and Jelly by Nadine Bernard Westcott, we made our own peanut butter.

First the girls shelled and hulled 1 cup of roasted peanuts. What a great way to build those little hand muscles. I think more peanuts went into Julia's mouth than in her bowl!

We put the peanuts in the blender with 2 tablespoons oil and tried to grind them. We were not successful . We then tried using a food processor and had much better success. The girls loved our homemade peanut butter!

Poem Charts

We have fun reading our poem charts together. The poems on the charts are easy to memorize so the girls can successfully read along with me and even little Lauren feels perfectly confident that she can read them on her own. We read the same charts multiple times over the course of a few weeks and sometimes revisit old charts. As we read the charts, I am able to address different learning goals for each of my girls.



I use the poems to help two year old Lauren:

1) develop a love of language and reading

2) understand that print carries meaning

3) understand that we read the print from left to right and top to bottom

4) recognize known letters when embedded in print

5) begin to recognize rhyming words



I use the poems to help five year old Julia:

1) continue to develop a love of language and reading

2) recognize high frequency words

3) practice phonics skills within the context of meaningful text

4) practice reading fluently


How many other activities can you do with children of such diverse needs and be sure that you are meeting each of their needs? I feel so strongly about the power of reading poem charts with children that I am excited to share them with other parents and teachers. I would also love to see any poem charts that you have made!

Here are two charts that I have not published on this blog before:

Sheep poem
Horse Poem

To see previously published poems click here.

I bought my chart stand from Lakeshore but you can use the poems without a chart stand. They can be clipped to an art easel, attached to a wall with sticky tack, or attached to a refrigerator with a magnet.

Watermelon Seed Counting Game

Here's a fun counting game that we played with our watermelon counting boards. Each player used one board with twenty seeds.

We took turns rolling the die, counting the dots, and removing that number of seeds from our board. Play continued until there were no more seeds on the boards. This was an easy, quick way to practice counting!

Does It Get Any Better Than This?

I was busy making dinner when I heard Lauren's little voice say, "Julia, you read me this book?" A moment later they are cozy in the recliner enjoying a book together. Ahhh, mommy bliss!!

Bug Racers

These adorable bug racers are fun to make and fun to play with! This craft idea came from Evan-Moor's Crafts for Young Children.

I cut apart a cardboard egg carton and the girls painted each cup. We threaded chenille sticks through two holes that I poked in the top of the cups. We finished the bugs by adding googly eyes and drawing mouths.

We placed a marble under each bug and raced them down our ramp.