a language game

This was going to be part of my "busy hands" post, but it's such a fun (and important) game, I decided to give it its own post!

playing a
blending game
with a teacher

**How to play this game:

Set 3 cards in front of the child, saying what is on each card. Have the child repeat what each picture is of after you say it. For example: "Dog. Please say dog." Next, say, "Please point to d-o-g (saying the sounds of the letters)." They child must then blend the sounds together to figure out which picture you're talking about. To make this game more challenging, put longer and longer pauses between the letter sounds. It's also fun have the child close her eyes, and then, you hide a dot under one of the pictures. "The dot is hidden under the d-o-g." An abstract version of this game could be played without pictures. "I'm thinking about something, and I'll give you a clue to see if you can figure it out. I'm thinking about a d-o-g. " When the child is able to tell you the sounds she hears in words, she's now segmenting. Segmenting is the key to reading success!

busy hands

carefully sewing

a wreath for Christmas

Has anyone actually figured
out the plots of these
"Bob" books?

building equilateral triangles with
the subdivided triangle box

write your heart out, kid

snip, snip, snip

ta da!

making a chain
with Christmas wrapping paper

counting stamps
for a number book

giving some love to the

freshly washed baby

ski day #10

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...
keep on coming down, snow!

a snowflake tutorial

Yesterday afternoon was spent making snowflake garlands. I got the idea from maya*made. Check it out here. I am in love with the way they look, hanging in my front window. I couldn't get a good picture of all of them (I made 4 strands of 8 snowflakes). Anyway, children love making snowflakes, too, so I'm trying to fine-tune a snowflake lesson for the classroom in January.

Did you know that all snowflakes have 6 sides? So, I used the hexagon from the geometry cabinet as my snowflake outline.

I can't afford anything from Anthropologie, but I do love the beautiful pages of their catalogs. I traced a hexagon on this page with a pen.

After tracing, I cut out the hexagon shape. I think magazine/catalog paper would be easier for kids to cut through than regular paper.

I folded the hexagon in half, from corner to corner. ( I flipped it over first, so the picture would be right-side up after I folded.)

Then, I folded the lower right corner up and over to the upper left corner.

I folded the lower left corner up and over to the opposite corner to make a triangle.

Snip, snip, snip! These are fairly crude snips - do you see my huge, dull, kitchen scissors?!

It still turned out beautiful! :) I can only imagine the incredible snowflakes that could be made with sharp, little, scrap booking scissors!

After cutting out enough snowflakes to make a garland - in my case, 8, I strung them on nylon thread. I mostly laced the thread through the openings I had cut in the paper, but every once and awhile, especially near the edges, I sewed through the paper. By sewing though the paper, I am still able to slide the snowflakes up and down to arrange them, but they don't slide down on their own.

I finished each strand off with a sequin and a bead. This added weight helps the garland hang straight down, and it looks pretty, huh?

I set up a snowflake lesson for the kindergartners last week as an experiment. This is what it looked like.

The folding part was pretty challenging, but they figured it out after awhile. If I set this lesson up for younger children, I might pre-fold all the hexagons and just show them how to cut snips out of the edges. Hmmm... that would take away all the tracing and folding, though.

We used scrap booking paper, and it was really hard to cut through when it was all folded up. Magazine paper would be much more manageable.

Ta DA!
We love snow around here!

holiday traditions exchange part 2

Here it is!
The package from my
holiday traditions
swap sister and her 2 adorable daughters:

the unwrapping...
(love the hot pink bubble wrap)

Rosie gets in on the action...

My new treasures include:
1 quilted pillow & 1 quilted wall hanging
**perfect for my house because we're just
beginning to collect our holiday decor
1 felted (?) basket with handles
**I love all things knitted!
I didn't even know you could knit a basket.
a big handful of delicious chocolates
**Is that coffee I taste? Yum!
1 fragrant holiday sachet
**My whole living room smells beautiful.
1 description of their holiday traditions
**They make gingerbread houses every year.
photos of the decorating family in action
**Hmmm... maybe next year...
1 recipe for gingies (gingerbread men)
**I can't wait to try this! Maybe I'll post it, too.
1 fuzzy Christmas tree ornament
**Decorated with holiday buttons!

How lucky am I?!
I LOVE all of it!

How did they know I love buttons?

I hung the ornament up on our tree right away!


A big thank you
to Susan, Joeli, & Stephanie!

cleaning house

In anticipation of visitors and festivities at our house over the holidays, today was spent cleaning. Not just so-so cleaning, but

SUPER CLEANING.

Like the kind of cleaning where you take
the drawers out of the refrigerator.

Yeah, it was that intense around here.

Usually, I dread deep cleaning because I hate harsh stuff like windex, comet, and anything else that burns my lungs and makes my hands dry out. A friend gave me these recipes for an all-purpose cleaner and a glass cleaner, and I tried them out today. They worked like a charm, and the lemongrass essential oil I added made my house smell delish. :)

all-purpose cleaner
*does not need to be exact
2 T dish soap (I just added a squirt)
2 T Borax
1/4 cup vinegar
~32 oz. of hot water
a few drops of essential oil

glass cleaner
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup rubbing alcohol (70%)
12 -16 oz. water
a few drops of essential oil

For both recipes, just mix everything together in a spray bottle.

lock and key

This much loved

practical life lesson
is sort of like a sibling to
nuts and bolts.

In true Montessori fashion,
the locks are lined up
across the top of a felt
left to right,
largest to smallest.

The child then determines
which key will open which lock.

The challenge of our lock and key lesson
is that two of the keys fit into the same lock,
but only one is able to twist it open.

The children love to listen for the
"click"
the locks make when they are
opened and closed.
The large lock makes a
big "click"
and the small lock makes a
little "click".

The children also enjoy
locking all the locks together. :)
Who wouldn't, right?

h-o-l-i-d-a-y!

9 tired teachers
after the holiday performance

exhausted, but also

proud
relieved
happy...

Christmas break
is finally in sight!

Yessssss!!!!!!!
The kids were saying the exact same thing! :)

holiday traditions exchange

I finally mailed off my holiday traditions

swap package today...

...sorry, Susan, it's a few days late!

The little package I mailed off included:
3 delectable recipes
1 homemade card
1 Ray Charles: The Spirit of Christmas CD
1 Doll Baby milk chocolate and caramel bar
1 copy of Carve (a local ski mag)
*you guessed it, skiing is my fav holiday tradition :)
1 homemade (mostly by my mom) Christmas ornament


baaaah!











My mom sewed his body out of black felt. Then, we wrapped him up in fuzzy yarn and tied a bell around his neck with jute cord.

the recipes

sweet potatoes
**serves 10-12, 375 degrees F oven

4 lbs. sweet potatoes (6-8 med.)
1/2 c. oj
4 oz. mascarpone
1 orange (for zesting)

1. Bake sweet potatoes for ~1 hour or until a fork can be inserted easily. Remove peels.
2. In a food processor, combine cooked pulp, oj & mascarpone. Puree just until mixed.
3. Heat through in a baking dish for ~15 minutes.
4. Garnish with orange zest.

mixed greens salad

mixed greens
pomegranate seeds
avocado, chopped
bacon, crumbled
red onion, chopped
* quantities are up to you :)

dressing:
3/4 c. oil (1/2 veg & 1/2 olive)
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
pinch of pepper

banana nut muffins
**12-15 muffins, 400 degrees F oven

2 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1 egg, beaten
1/3 c. mashed bananas
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

1. Grease muffin pan or use liners.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder & salt into a medium bowl. Make a well.
3. Mix milk, egg, oil, banana & walnuts in a small bowl. Pour into well.
4. Mix until just moistened. Spoon into muffin cups (3/4 full).
5. Bake for 15 minutes.

what color are your cowgirl boots?

Every year, the children
all make something
extra special
to give to their parents for
Christmas.

This year, we painted ornaments, and they have been a huge success.


















We took the tops off of clear glass balls and filled them with a few squirts of acrylic paint.The children covered the openings of the balls with cotton and shook them to make the paint swirl. After they reached desired swirly-ness, we put the tops back on the ornaments and let them dry.

Aren't they beautiful? What a quick, easy, and totally classy project!

Melissa at Chasing Cheerios made these ornaments with her sweet little girl, and she has some great pictures on her blog. Check them out here. :)

random information
part I
This is how cold it was out on the playground today:

That's right, -20 degrees (F)!
YIKES!

random information
part II
Hubs and I went to an ugly sweater party tonight.

I said,
"Are you sure it's an ugly sweater party?
What if we're the only ones wearing something weird?"

We went to the thrift store
and bought the most fabulous sweaters we could find.
The woman at the register said,
"Oooo... I think that's rabbit fur."
I was like,
"This aqua blue poncho is totally NOT made out of rabbit fur."

The moral of the story:

1. We were the only ones at the party wearing ugly sweaters.
2. The label says 100% rabbit fur. Eeew!
3. I have no shame.
4. I found these purple cowgirl boots
at the thrift store, too. ($5)

I think they totally make up for everything.

catch me if you can!

5 little gingerbread men on the tray.
One jumped up and ran away.
Catch me, catch me, oh catch me if you can!
I'm pretty fast, I'm the gingerbread man!
4, 3, 2, 1...

Zero gingerbread men on the tray.
I'll have to bake more some other day!

I made the manipulatives for this
gingerbread man fingerplay this afternoon.
They're quite simple little men. :)
I cut them out of felt,
glued on the buttons,
fabric-painted their faces,
glued their bodies to card stock,
and stuck magnets to their backs.

I used manipulatives for a Halloween fingerplay back in October,
and it was a huge hit with the children.
It's such a concrete way to sing a song,
and the children can still use their fingers if they wish.

the coldest day ever...

...maybe not EVER,
but it is extremely cold here.
It's 15 below 0 (fahrenheit).
Brrrr!!!!
Here are some pics of how cold it is in our house:

Hubs left his hand prints
in the frost on our back door.
Let me clarify, the INSIDE of
the back door.

Our frosty peephole -
once again, this is the inside
of our house.

Yes, another inside pic.
This is our front doorknob.

Frost on a window - doesn't actually look
too bad comparatively, does it?