Meet Vinny

 Vinny is 28 months, has a lot of spunk, and possesses a wonderful personality. Vinny started here in August. When she first arrived her goal was to touch everything, leave it where ever and that was her work. Vinny has asked me several times to do wet pouring. I always responded by encouraging her to do other works. Finally after watching her do some dry pouring I gave her the presentation.

                                                                    
                                                                                         
                     After the presentation and it was Vinnys' turn she verbalized her self control. Vinny was shaking her head saying " Don't drink it". Vinny continues to repeat this phrase and action everytime she begins this work.

                                                                    

                          

                                                                               

Flower Arranging

My kids are getting very excited about Halloween. They have picked out their costumes and are getting ready for the big day. To help with our decorations for the party here Michelle has put together a beautiful centerpiece.

                         Using wire cutters to cut down the flowers.

                        A picture of the flowers after being cut.

                        Carving a pumpkin. This is not a real pumpkin.

                  Arranging the flowers to fit in the pumpkin vase.

                       Michelle with her bouquet of flowers.

                      A closer photo of  our Halloween party centerpiece.

           Here is a flower arranging work that I will be putting on the shelf.

                                                      

Emails/Comment Moderation

 I do not check my email account that is affliated with this blog on a regular basis. I really only have this email account so I can leave comments and join linkys on various blogs that require this information. During my giveaway announcement I checked it more regularly in hopes that I would be able to ship the giveaway to the winner in a timely fashion. Anyway this morning the giveaway was on my mind. I checked it one more time, no claim of prize. Unfortunately I found a really disturbing email. I then decided for the time being to change my comment setting to always moderation. I will also announce the new winner of Learning Feet sometime this week.

Wiggling Worms!! Composting?/Sensory Bin (Science Sunday)

     We are wrapping up our studies of vetebrates for now by doing some hands on activities with worms this week. I found the book Wiggling Worms by Wendy Pfeffer that was suggested by Nicole at One Hook Wonder when Nicole and her boys made a very nice wormery. What I liked most about this book is the illustrations which were done by Steve Jenkins. DJ and Ken both agreed that one of the most important ways  that worms help us is by fetilizing our soil. They loved the term the book used to describe worms "natures' plowers". To understand that concept in a concrete way they set up a sensory bin, that would allow observation of the worms in a fun way.

                                                      
          This is the symbol I used to introduce the concept of composting.
                             

                                            DJ is digging to get some dirt for our sensory bin.

                                             Found a worm!!

Here are our materials. Dirt and leaves from outside and sand. I also have a caddy with tools used  for exploring the bin. It contains a magnifying glass, stick, shovel, rake, and fake fruits.

                                                Mixing in the dirt and sand.

                                         Oh yeah, we have live worms their putting in the bin!

                                      
Now they are putting in the fake fruit, and compostable bowls. The bowls are made from sugarcane. Inside the bowl they have put a piece of a tomatoe so the worms would have something to eat right now.

                 The lid for the sensory bin with our symbol of composting taped on.

                                                  Enjoying their new sensory/composting bin.

                                                                     
To see other children doing science related activites please visit  Adventures In Mommydom  for Science Sunday.                            
                                         

A Few Halloween Related Works

            Times flies Halloween is next Sunday. I had some ideas about some work ideas related to Halloween. Here are a few that I have been able to put together before it becomes next years' work.

                                                 Dry pouring with beans, rice, and spiders.

              Scrubbing a pumpkin. Since this picture I have added a drying cloth.

                                            The classic Five Little Pumpkins with props.

                                   A placemat that I cut into four pieces to make a puzzle.

 Marble work. The child places one marble in each bucket then dumps them on the tray, and then repeats the work. When finished they place the marbles back in the bag.

                                                                    
I am linking this post to Whats' Out Wednesday hosted by Little Hands, Big Work.

What Makes A Shadow (StArt, Science Sunday)

    So finally our book order came in from Barnes& Nobles. What Makes A Shadow by Clyde Robert Bulla. It is in the Let's -Read- And- Find- Out Science series Stage 1. My son has been scared to sleep at night when he sees the shadows and becomes afraid of the images. I wanted to give him a clear understanding of what he was actually seeing on the walls in his bedroom at night. I came across this book and found out that they only published this book library binding. My library didn't have this book availiable so I anxiously waited for it to be avaliable at Barnes & Nobles. The story is wonderful and fact based. Throughout the story it gives plenty examples of shadows and a kid friendly explanation to What Makes A Shadow.

                                                         Here is a photo of the cover of the book.

           First thing the book points out is when the sun is shining everything and everybody has a shadow.

           When the sun is in front of you, look behind you. You can see your shadow.

There is a dark place where the sun does not shine through. The darkness is the shadow. The book then invites you to look for shadows.

The sun shines on one side of the earth. The other side is in shadow.

 Now after reading this book we the begin looking through this book to learn the Art of Shadow Casting.

 
                 DJ picked his favorite two shadows from the book. This is the Dove.

                                                                This is the Snake.

                                            Now it is time to put on his own shadow puppet theatre.

                                                                               
                                              This is his background stencils to choose from.

                          DJ putting on his first shadow puppet theatre show.

                                                                         
 This reminded me of a stunning work of Art that  About A Girl did with her daughter L. It is called The Carnivals Of Animals Part Two. Sorry I wasn't able to link to the exact post. I showed this to DJ and he is truly inspired to do more shadow art.

The best thing that came from this presentation about shadows is that when he was done with his performance he said " I wasn't even scared when I was doing that". 

I am linking this post to A MOMMY'S ADVENTURES where you can find art projects done by children inspired by books it is called StArt. I am also linking this to Science Sunday hosted by ADVENTURES IN MOMMYDOM where you can find children doing lots of science related activities.

How A House Is Built

       This week we have been reading  How A House Is Built  By Gail Gibbons. We have been reading a few pages at a time, the story is well written but I would lose the childrens' attention quickly due to some concepts that need to be talked about like the word Architect if we would read the book at one sitting. Of course the children have questions along the way so we are pacing ourselves I am still learning how to use amazon to get the picture of the book. So I took a photo of the book.
                                                              

               
This dollhouse and the paper house is some of our work for our studies on houses. The paper house holds the parts of the house cards.

                                       
The children label the house with the cards. The cards have the parts of the house colored, so the child knows to match the part of the house to the part that is colored. I have attached velcro so they can do this. Also the tape on the dollhouse is a control of error.

                                           
                                              Here is a close up of the parts of the house cards.

                             This is a language work on the shelf. The child matches the tools.

                                            This is how the work looks when it is completed.

                                                                         
  Please visit Children Grow,Children Explore,Children Learn  to see how other children are studying Geography and History.