Posted by Cindy on July 19, 2011
During our Red and Green Walk from Nature Study Through the Holidays, we collected several cones for this activity. It’s mentioned for use during the 4th week of Advent (next week), but my preschooler was raring to go last week. So, last week it was! This is a glimpse at glittery pinecone ornaments as done by a three-year-old. Older children can take the process up a notch and make the ornaments something really spectacular!
Roll the cones in glue.
Then roll them in glitter - or sprinkle the glitter on.
Once dry, pile several cones prettily in a bowl or tie them with string to hang on your Christmas tree.
Posted by Cindy on
Whether you’ve begun Nature Study Through the Holidays: Easter yet or not, you’ll likely be on the lookout for death and decay this week as you discuss Jesus’ death and burial. I wanted to share some photos of our fascinating finds this past week to give your some inspiration during your walk.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 1 Corinthians 15: 54-56
He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. Isaiah 25:8
Posted by Cindy on
It’s been awhile since my Creation Club met for nature study together. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share the Easter story with them and do some mini-hunts based on some of the ideas suggested in Nature Study Through the Holidays: Easter.
Looking for purple flowers to represent the color of royalty in honor of our King Jesus.
Finding signs of death and decay when considering Jesus' burial.
Exploring large rocks to go along with the resurrection.
For the class, I created a simple scavenger hunt sheet. It’s not included in Nature Study Through the Holidays: Easter (yet), so I’d like to share with you for FREE! It can easily be used for a group or a single child. Simply click on the graphic below to download it.
The Easter Story in Nature
Posted by Cindy on December 22, 2010
There’s a delicate balance to be made between getting a preschooler geared up for Christmas and keeping him geared down at the same time! We chose to do a craft or activity everyday so we could talk about different aspects of Christmas and prepare his little heart for the celebration of Jesus’ birthday. However, the activities were mixed in with “regular” school to keep the excitement factor under wraps. Why? I’ve been there and done that with two preschoolers in the past and too much excitement leads to crazy little people who can’t control themselves! lol
A construction paper count down chain
Play dough Christmas trees with jewel ornaments
Jingle bell bracelet
Christmas foam sticker graphing
Glittery pine cone ornaments
Measuring Christmas ribbons
Patterns with linking cubes
A relay with bows held by tongs
Christmas ornaments added to the tree from the roll of a die
A torn paper wreath
Water dropper ornaments - place waxed paper over a tree template and drop red colored water on the tree as ornaments
Simple construction paper gifts (that happened to turn into birthday thank you notes)
Christmas card collages
Hole-punch star decorations
Handprint, shoeprint reindeer
Pattern block pictures
The pattern block templates came from PreKinders.com.
Several Christmas printables
These printables came from 1+1+1=1.
Eli was a shepherd in a simple Christmas drama at church, too!
Posted by Cindy on February 12, 2010
Today is bittersweet for us. As you’ll see below, the boys and I have been having lots of fun celebrating Valentine’s Day. However, today is Mahayla’s 13th birthday and she’s sick. She and I were supposed to be going to CIY Believe together later this afternoon with the Jr. High youth group, too. Oh well, there will be plenty of time for celebrating birthdays and worshiping our Lord when she’s better. I just hope I can convince her of that.
On the happier side of our day, see what the boys have been up to…
Caleb’s Activities
Candy hearts are a fun tool for finding area and perimeter.
They're also fun for creating patterns.
We worked on using Excel to create a bar graph from a handful of candy hearts, too.
You can find the area/perimeter sheet and patterning sheet on my Homeschool Launch page. Look for The Measure of a Heart and Candy Heart Patterns.
Another fun math activity was Pascal’s Heart Triangle from Mathwire.com, where you can find several great ideas! We also did a fun language arts activity called Heart Idioms.
Eli’s Activities
Have you heard of Confessions of a Homeschooler?? If you’re a mom of a preschooler, head over there right now! She has SUPER ideas and FREE reproducibles that go along with the letters of the alphabet and seasons or holidays. I can’t tell you how wonderful her ideas are!! Just about every idea below came from her Valentine’s ideas and resources.
We sorted candy hearts into color groups.
We used candy hearts to make a physical bar graph.
Eli wanted to paint his graph while his bubby made the spreadsheet graph.
These patterns to match were wonderfully challenging for Eli!
Candy hearts come in handy once again!
Add glue and glitter to anything and Eli is HAPPY!
Usually, we have a fun V-Day themed meal, but none of us have been much in the mood for eating this week. I’m hoping everyone is well by Sunday because the big kids are supposed to take part in preparing a spaghetti dinner for all the adults at church as a Valentine’s service project. I hope your Valentine’s celebrations are healthier than ours!
