There Is No Better Way To Become A Saint Than To Learn From Their Examples

     This week has been such a crazy hectic week with doctor appointments to get to, physical therapy sessions, and morning play group. Add these things to the craziness that Halloween and All Saints Day week brings I am just ready for the week-end. Hopefully you all had a little less hectic week. With all the crazyiness I am actually relieved I made this another review week. Since we did lots of review the majority of the activities we worked on are repeats of activies you can find more specifics to in all my past weekly theme posts. Because of that fact I did not take hardly any photos.

     I know there are Catholics out there who are not huge fans of celebrating Halloween and there are also non -Catholics who do not celebrate All Saints Day. No biggie. There are things in this week for both.

Monday:Why We Celebrate Halloween and All Saints Day/Review "Aa" and "Bb" Vocab Words/Review Uppercase Letters A-J

Books: A is For Apple by Tiger Tales
Animal Orchistra by Tibor Gergely
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat by Lucille Colandro
Halloween by Molly Aloian
My First Dictionary
Saint story from child's saint book

Songs: Apples and Bananas by Raffi
Baby Beluga by Raffi
Purle People Eater
When the Saints Go Marching In

Activities: Review the letter "Aa" and "Bb" vocabulary from the picture dictionary

Art fun

Bubble play

Free block play

String beads

Review uppercase letters. Play matching game and take turns finding the matching letters. At this age I leave the cards face up for them to search for the matches.

Intro Halloween. What it is and why we celebrate it.

Intro All Saints Day. Explain what it is and why it is important. Explain how God wants us all to be saints. How every person who make ot to Heaven is a saint.

Tuesday: Jack O'Lantern Fun/Review "Cc" and "Dd" Vocabulary/ Review Numbers 1-5
Books:Corduroy by Don Freeman
The Ugly Duckling
1 2 3 by Villie Karabatzia
My First Halloween Book by Colleen L. Reece
Clifford's Halloween by Norman Bridwell
My First Dictionary
A saint story from child's saint book

Songs: Sally the Camel
Five Little Ducks
5 Little Pumpkins
For All the Saints

Activities: Review "Cc" and "Dd" vocab words.

Play with shaving cream

Play with corn kernals

Playdough fun

Review numbers 1-5. Write numbers 1 -5 on seperate pieces of paper. Have the child do a new action move on their way to whatever number you call out.

Pumpkin carving fun. Initially I was going to have my kid paint his pumpkin, but he had no interest in painting it. I finally carved it into a shape sorter jack o'lantern. He had days of fun playing with his pumpkin puzzle.

Play with pumkin insides

Jack o lantern activity. Cut out shapes for your kid to put together his own paper jack o'lantern

Wednesday: Ghost Fun/Review "Ee" and "Ff: vocab/Review Lowercase letters a-j
Books:Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John.Archambault
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
Halloween by Gail Gibbons
Franklin's Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark
My First Dictionary
A Saint Story from a child's Saint book

Songs: Willoughby Walloughby Raffi
5 Green and Speckled Frogs
Monster Mash
With All the Saints In Glory

Activities:

Review "Ee" and "Ff" vocabulary words with picture dictionary

Dried beans sensory play for empty/full

Review lower case a-j with the same type of matching game as Monday

Foot print ghosts-with a halloween type background use white paint on child's feet to make cute ghosts.

Halloween trick-or-treating night

                       The Incredible Hulk

Thursday: All Saint's Day Fun/Review "Gg" and "Hh" Vocabulary/Practice Tracing and Scissor Skills 
Books: God Made You Special by Greg Fritz
Eeyore, Be Happy by Don Ferguson
The Perky Little Pumpkin by Margaret Friskey
My First Dictionary
A Saint story from a child's Saint book

Songs: God Is Bigger Than the Boogie Man from Veggie Tales
Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli
Ghostbusters
Heffalumps and Woozles
Littany of the Saints

Activities:
Review "Gg" and "Hh" vocabulary words

Play with gak

Play with the hair gel packets

Play with saint peg dolls

Dress child up as a Saint for All Saints Day Mass

                      St. Anthony of Padua

Friday: All Souls Day/Review "Ii" and "Jj" Vocab/ Review all Aa-Jj Vocab Activity
Books:Insect Detector by Anita Holmes
The Lemon Drop Jar by Christine Widmen
My First Dictionary
A Saint story from a child's Saint book

Songs: Jesus Loves Me This I know
Inch Worm by Kenny Loggins
The Witch Doctor
We Walk By Faith

Activities:

Review "Ii" and "Jj" picture vocab from dictionary

Put up the both the uppercase and lowercase letters "Aa" through "Jj" throughout the house. Help the child review each letter's vocab coloring page and then find the right letters the work pages matched with.

Play with insects in a sensory table

Work on jigsaw puzzles

Introduce All Souls Day. Pray a family Rosary together in honor of family members who have passed away.

How did you all celebrate Halloween and All Saints Day. Any cute costume ideas for future reference? Please share your ideas.

Happy All Saints Day!

Just For Fun

    Here is a little fun for your Halloween.                             Enjoy and stay safe!

Intro to Reggio Emilia Learning Style Approach

   

     Unlike the majority of learning style methods being named after the person who founded them, this learning style is actually named after the city of the founder. This is actually done for a very significant purpose. The founder, Loris Malaguzzi, believed that children learn mostly from their culture around them. This means no two Reggio- Emilia schools should be identical in how they are run as each culture works differently. Even in the same country there are so many different cultures and so that is key which, unlike Montessori educators, there is no formal training to be a teacher in this style.

      Along with culture being a key feature, this being very much a child-led learning style. Adults are there to help the child come to their break throughs. The children watch and learn, but with no official teaching lesson plans or timetable. The child follows what he/she is interested.

     Nature and the arts play a huge role in this learning style. Adults document in so much detail the journey of communication each child goes through while exploring with tons of sensory play. They make sure that each piece of art is documented with the stories the children share about them.

     In so many ways a person may think Montessori and Reggio-Emilia are basically the same so why make them seperate? The fsct is they are very close, except that celebrating the local culture and using that as a tool to help children breakthrough their learning is not as important in Montessori schools. That fact actually changes a lot as far as how the two methods differ.

   

Experimenting With Science Is Fun

   

     This week has been a crazy week in our home. Our washing machine hose got a hole in during the middle of the night which meant lots of cleaning and pulling out caroet in the laundry room. This also meant a more topsy turvy home as far as mess goes. I guess it made a perfect week for a more messy type of theme. Science week to be more specific. To be even more specific it was more like science experiment week. Scince experiments can be as messy or hardly messy at all depending on what type of experiments you wish to explore with your kid.
     Another big event happening for our family is that our son turned three! Yes, hus birthday was this past week. My momma heart is filled with lots of emotions about another birthday coming and going for my sweet and fun kid.
     Along with science being a focus this week we also learned more about the letter "Jj" and the number 5.

Monday: Magnet fun/Intro Uppercase "J"
Books:My "j" Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
Magnetism by Mari Shuh
My First Dictionary "Jj" words only
Children's Bible

Songs: Jesus Loves Me
Jesus Loves the Little Children
The Catholic Mass Parts-Gloria...the Glory to God,Glory to God, Glory to God in the highestm And on earth peace on earth. Peace to people of goodwill version. For those of you who happen to not be Catholic, the Gloria is a song/prayer that celebrates and hobors the Holy Trinity. You are welcome to google tge lyrics if you are curious what it says.

The Magnet Song (Tune of I'm A Little Teapot)
I'm a little magnet
Can't you see
Anything metal
Comes right to me
If it is not metal
You will see
It will not stick to me

Activities:
Intro uppercase "J" and go over "Jj" words in the picture dictionary

Work on "J" coloring page

Explain how Jesus' name starts with J. Explain why Jesus should always be special to us. Read a Jesus Binle story from my son's Bible

Work on jigsaw puzzles

Intro magnetism. Read the book. Use a kitchen magnet to help your child explore household objects to find out what will stick to the magnet. Cut up pipe cleaners and then let the child have fun watching them stick to the pipecleaners. My child on his own decided to have fun watching the pipecleaners fall through his straw which helped him experiment with gravity.

Work together to make jello for activity on Tuesday.

Tuesday: Explore Vibrations/Intro Number 5
Books: Jazz Dancing by Mark Thomas
2 Is For Dancing by Woodleigh Hubbard
Vibrations by Lola M. Schaefer
Children's Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs: Peanut Butter and Jelly by Raffi
Jig Along Home by Raffi
Five Little Ducks by Raffi

Activities:
Review "Jj" vocab words in picture dictionary

Intro number 5 and work on the number 5 coloring page

Jelly bean counting activity- cut out different colored jars with five matching colored jelly beans. Work together taking turns to seperate the jelly beans in the corrosponding jars (you can do sizes instead of colors too if that is what you prefer). After they are all seperated count the jelly beans in each jar together.

Use jello to help put a visual of vibrations. Also use jungle animal cookie cutters for fun. Also let my child explore the fun texture of jello through sensory play.

Explore vibrations through playing with music instruments.

Dance party fun

Wednesday: Sink vs. Float/Intro Lowercase "j"
Books: Jonah's Trash God's Treasure by Joel Anderson
Jesus Bible story from Children's Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs: Leaving On  Jet Plane by John
Denver
Singing Scientists (Tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Will it sink or will it float
Like a rock or like a boat
Clever scientists, we are wise
Think and then hypothosize
Sink or float which will it be
Experiment and we will see

Activities:
Review "Jj" words in picture dictionary and intro lowercase "j" and work on coloring page.

Play with jet airplane

Experiment together to find out what household objects or toys sink or swim and talk a little about why that happens.

Thursday: Gak fun/Tracing Lines/Scissor skills
Books:When You Look At The Moon by Allan Fowler
Jackrabbits by Emily Rose Townsend
Story of Joseph and the coat of many colors in children' Bible
Jesus story from Children' Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs: Five Monkies Jumping On the Bed
Jiggidy Jill by Raffi

Activities:

Review "Jj" words in picture dictionary

Jumping activity: write numbers 1-5, one number each on a separate piece of paper. Have the child jump like a jackrabbit over the pieces of paper

Practice tracing lines and working with scissors

Make gak together and then have fun playinh with it. There are lots of different gak recipes out there when you google it.

Zoo day

Friday: "Jj" Vocab Review Day
Books:The Lemon Drop Jar by Christine Widman
Energy From the Sun by Allan Fowler
Jesus story from a children's Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs: Oh Mr. Sun by Raffi
Jack and Jill

Activities:
Review "Jj" picture vocabulary words and color the vocabulary coloring page.

Jar painting: use a glass jar and dip the top into paint and than make circles with the jar on paper.

Water color dancing project: fill three jars with water and a different food coloring in each jar. Use a paper towels and dip each end into the jars and watch the paper towels soak the colored water up to make dancing colors.


These are juse a handful of ways to make science fun for 2 1/2- 3 1/2 year olds. Do you have any more suggestions for science ptojects to share or ways to help learning the letter "Jj" or number five more fun? Please let me know in a comment.

Happy Birthday To My Not So Little Guy

Today is my son's third birthday, so I wanted to do a little shout-out here to him.

Like 15 minutes old. 

After 75 hours of labour I could not be happier to meet my sweet boy

1 yr. birthday

2 yr. birthday

My kid wanted to go to the zoo to celebrate turning 3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE LOVE!!!!

J Is For Jigsaw Puzzles

   

     Jigsaw puzzles are one of ny favorite relaxing ways to pass my time. In fact there are oy two games I play on my phone. One os Words With Friends and the other is a jigsaw puzzle game. As a mom I do not have much free time, which is why the perfect amount of puzzle pieces for meto do is a sinple 100 pieces. It is enough though to exercise my brain. It is always fun to see how quickly I can get them done on my phone. It is a challenge to beat times.

      Jigsaw puzzles are so great for everyone, but really help toddlers and young kids developmentally in so many ways. Maneuvering those puzzle pieces to fit correctly strengthens both their gross motor skills and their fine motor skills. Figuring out how puzzle pieces fit together works their spatial reasoning skills as well as strengthens hand-eye coordination. When a puzzle piece initially does not fit correctly where they want it than they practice their problem solving skills. It takes sometimes many tries to make the puzzle pieces fit correctly which also helps them learn patience and keeping emotions intact while things do not go their way. The more times they work on a jigsaw puzzle the more memorization begins to kick in for them. Lastly, they receive a sense of accomplishment when they complete a difficult puzzle.

      Young toddlers tend to start working on jigsaw puzzles by working on the simple ones that have one piece per one cut out shape and large knobs. Usually by age three children can complete simple jigsaw puzzles that have up to six pieces per puzzle. By age four children can usually learn to complete the more difficult Melissa abd Doug wooden jigsaw puzzles. Some children excel in jigsaw puzzles and can complete difficult ones faster than others. What matters is you see them trying to work. A lot of times they will need some help when introducing more difficult puzzles, but the more you work together the faster they will prefer to finish them on their own.