Monday, May 24, 2010

Drawing

A drawing of ME. The first one that is an actual attempt at making something look like me.

He drew the oval and hair, and told me it was a picture of me. So I sat across from him and asked him what else was on my face. He said 'mouth' and chose red, and added it on. Then "eyes" and drew some eyes with blue (one is on my forehead), and then drew a nose dot.

Afterwards, he wanted to draw himself, so I let him look in the mirror. He got bored of the idea after drawing the oval though, and ended up drawing a bunch of rainbow ovals all over.

We used crayon rocks for this activity.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Charlotte's Web - Children's theater

We read the book Charlottes Web, and found out that the Children's theater program at the King Center was putting on the play! So a group of us got tickets and took the kids!


I made Levi this shirt the morning of the show (on the front there is a pig applique with a curly tail!), and he insisted on a matching hat, so I told him to make it! I drew triangles on pink paper for him to color and cut out, and then he traced the words 'Some Pig' on a strip of paper. A little glue and some staples and he had a hat to wear!


This is one of the characters from the show - 'Uncle'

Anna and Levi waiting for the show to start!


Insects


Using the insects 'toob' and some other random plastic insects, we sorted insects into matching pairs. We then sorted by insects that fly, and ones that don't fly. We looked at body parts (antennea, legs, head, thorax, abdomen, wings etc.)


Levi found the tweezers on his own and decided to dump all of the marbles in the tray and then transfer them to the jar. This was difficult because they were slippery from the paint.

Another sorting activity, this time using tweesers to transfer the insects to the ice cub tray, and carefully putting them side by side. Here he accidently put the last lady bug in the wrong spot, but didn't notice until he had almost filled the tray. Some insects were harder to hold than others.


The tray is lined with paper cut to size (I traced the tray). A couple small globs of paint and marbles to roll around. Sprinkled with a little glitter, and a pompom with googly eyes added in the center, and you have a spider web!


This time Levi is the spider! A few bugs and lengths of string were in the tray, and his task was to wrap up each insect. When he was done, he of course unwrapped them to set them free!
He is also wearing butterfly wings, made at his request to attend a butterfly garden meeting at the library. I just cut foam into a wing shape, and added velcro straps.

Let's go Fly a Kite


Levi's first kite! This one cost $1 at walmart, and has a HUGE tail. But I held it up and it took off right away! Levi ran all the way down the beach and back again and had a great time.

Easel

Levi's new easel! Thanks to craigslist! It folds easily so we store it behind the door. The other side is a chalkboard.
I have been giving him two different colors of paint, so Levi can see what happens when colors are mixed. Painting, and drawing on a vertical surface helps develop wrist strength and coordination needed for learning to write.

The Letter S

S is for:
snake
sweep
sleep
sing
sand
sun
star
sorting



Here Levi is practicing sweeping. He is to sweep the beans into the blue square, and then carefuly pour them into the black container. This is quite a challange!

I got Levi some dot markers, and this is the first time he used them. He got the idea right away and compleated the task in a very short time. Next time I am going to try to encourage him to start from the top of the letter and work his way down, because this time he did the middle first, then the top, then the bottom.

Sand play - here he is filling an ice cube tray with sand. He also has a letter 's' stencil which he used to practice tracing the shape of an 's' in the sand.


This is a snake cutting activity. First he decorated it, and then Levi had to concentrate in order to cut the spiral shape to make his snake. Once cut out, we glued a tounge and googly eyes on where I had drawn the dots, and attached a string to the center for hanging.



I'm not sure what these pegs are called, but they look similar to thumbtacks only they are plastic. They can be placed into the plastic board which is full of holes. To get them out, you push them from the other side (and it helps to hold it over the storage box so they don't go flying!). I simply drew the letter 'S' onto the board with a whiteboard marker, which wiped off when he was done.
I've had this peg set sense I was a little kid!

Fixed up the School area

On the side by the door, there is a bookshelf with montessori type activites, and Levi's desk. I'm planning on painting a calander on the back of thise shelf. The pocket holder on the back of the door just has random stuff in it now, but I need to re-do that to organize better!


This is the opposite side. On the left of the shelf is his Montessori rug (some sort of doormat I believe), and more activites for Levi. The top shelf is too high for him to reach, so right now it holds lesson plans and a basket that holds whiteboard markers/erasers.


And this is the wall I decorated with scrapbook paper! The whiteboard and corkboard are at his eye level (he is short!). The corkboard holds his artwork most of the time!