A farm theme is so fun!!! Furthermore, there’re plenty of activities to do, but, sadly, we don’t have enough time for them.

We are getting ready for VACATIONS!!! Almost a month at our lovely island: Puerto Rico!!! I am so excited about it because Pinky will have lots of new experiences with nature: beach, lakes, river, mountains, farms, gardens, insects and if we are lucky enough, a RAINBOW!!!

So, here’s what we got to do so far:

Lacing:

This is the second time she’s exposed to a lacing activity and she did the 8 animals at one! As you can see the rabbit was the last one (oh, my little baby!). Also, the small lacing animals were suppose to being use as a matching activity or memory game but she decided to match to the big ones. Great imagination!.

For this unit we are doing lots of hands on activities (literally). Here are our 5 little sheep puppets. Using these for a line time circle time song (5 little sheep)

Felt puzzle: Horse

Phonics: She is really good!!! (beginning sounds!)

Homemade poppets!: We looked for our small farm stuff animals (plus an octopus and Elmo that got on the way), attached them to popsicle stick with pine cleaners and the puppet show can start! She loved it!

Crafts: Handprint-footprint Farm. Plus the grass has eyes looking at you!

An extra for you my friends: Farm animals in Spanish by Pinky and mommy! That’s how we learn around most of the time….of course, when we are not shopping lol

Farm animals (Animales de la granja)

• Sheep: Oveja
• Cow: Vaca
• Pig: Cerdo
• Rabbit: Conejo
• Duck: Pato
• Chick: Pollito
• Horse: Caballo
• Turtle: Tortuga
• Rooster: Gallo

Pinky’s learning her farm animals in Spanish!

Take care…..and maybe one more post before we disappear for VACATIONS!!!  I hope I can have an easy flight all by myself with a 3 yrs old plus all the bags and the flight stops…..

We have been learning about Vincent van Gogh!

I am NOT an art teacher or an expert, I am just trying to introduce my little one into some facts and history about the fascinating art world. Therefore, our learning time consist about:

- Reading a tiny artist biography (Pinky’s just turned 3 years old, so too many details are out of question)

- Admiring and talking about the paintings. For our first artist, I just printed 4 of his most famous paintings:

• Starry night

• Sunflowers

• Bedroom in Arles

• Self portrait

Note: It is amazing how kids can interpret feelings. When we were talking about his work; she took his self-portrait and told me: “Mommy, he is sad!”. In fact, he was mentally sick!!

Then, we just have fun recreating our versions of his art. Here’s a great site with his masterpieces and a short information about them.

Pinky’s Starry night version!

Pinky’s self-portrait! (Isn’t it cute??? She even painted her blue shirt and pink pants- we didn’t have a pink marker so she used red!) 

Pinky’s flowers on a vase version! (We don’t have any sunflowers.)

Pinky’s version of a room at home: The living room. Maybe you can see a sofa with daddy sitting on left and Pinky on right. Next to the sofa (at right) is the fan. There are some toys on the floor.

Our arty corner!!!

Here’s another art project. Finger-painting on canvas and after that pasting bottle caps, wiggly eyes, confetti, and buttons. Great collage and really fun!!

And, at last (for now), my favorite one: Mommy’s and princess’ hands collage! I found the idea at this amazing blog full of beautiful art to do with the kids.

It was a super duper fun one!!!!

Do you have any other ideas I can do with my 3 years old one to teach her about art?

Take care!

Here is what we have been doing in our new home….not just unpacking! It was a fun unit with lots of great activities to do. Oh yeah, sometimes mommy gets a little bit excited and wants to try everything she finds online or imagine. However, after almost 2 weeks with the same theme we just have to save for the next round! (We don’t do “school” everyday….we HAVE to play and go shopping...lol!)

Language:

Our Homemade- Parts of a bird puzzle- made of felt! I draw the bird on cardstock paper and Pinky colored each part. I just saved them (you can see the horse puzzle for our on-going farm theme) on a folder. Cheap and take less space! You can print out them at Montessori N' Such for free! (I was so lazy that preferred to draw them myself and don't have to connect the printer)

3 part cards- Parts of a bird (Sorry, I don’t remember from where are these!)

Update (Feb 2012): These cards are from Montessori Helper.

Plus these great activity (from Learning center world) where I read the statement and she just have to listen carefully in order to pick up the correct answer. I tried to turned into kind of Montessori by letting Pinky to use paper clips. (It was a little challenging at the beginning but she got it! And mommy got her proudly face on a pic!)

English/Spanish bird matching cards- I found these beautiful birds at a dollar store a few months ago (4/$1.00) and couldn’t help myself. So, I prepared these cards for a matching activity. Ok, it wasn’t a hit with Pinky! Also, she didn’t pay to much attention to them as a free play toy as she does with her farm or wild animals. (Maybe, those moments when she sees a real bird and shout: shoo, shoo birdie, go away!!! are saying something,,,lol) Maybe later??

Our homemade Beginning sound boxes are still an A plus!

Alphabet puzzle- practicing phonics. She loves to play “I spy”. We play saying: I spy a letter that says (letter sound)…and then she puts it on its place.

Sensorial-

Building a nest on the playground with pine tree leaves. The pinecone is mama bird and the rocks are her eggs. She had lots of fun! I love her concentration, plus the real birdies may have a new home!!

Tonging-

Egg carton and flamingoes from our Hawaii unit! Actually, Montessori Print Shop has a freebie of Flamingo 3-Part cards…I am saving them for our next round!

Tangrams-

Building an egg plus six different birds. It’s from Mathsticks.com! You need to open a free account.

Math-

We practiced some shapes pasting them on our book plus we counted birdies. Shape books from Time for tots. The bird counting cards are from the Birds unit from 1+1+1=1 and/or Homeschool creations.

Pre-writing-

Pinky’s getting better at making lines and after that, erasing them! Love those little hands at work!

Mix and Match Patterns with Plastic Eggs-

I don’t have any pic of this activity but I found it at Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers. I just grabbed 5 eggs from our Easter unit, mixed them, draw ovals on some index cards and colored. Easy!

We did more activities but I don’t have pictures since we were having too much fun. We did some lacing, more puzzles, lots of real practical life and pool, water park and playground fun!

Furthermore, if you are interested about some matching birds activities printables here are some great ones:

- Sunflower schoolhouse- Match the birds cards

- Sunflower schoolhouse- Bird color matching

- Montessori Print Shop- Free bird match up and memory game

Linking to:

Take care and have a great week or month? (Ops, I am sooo lazy to post! lol)