Toddler Play Time with Nursery Rhymes

We used the rhyme "Little Miss Muffet" and a song called "Five Little Pumpkins" for this weeks nursery rhyme time. It was all about emotions, counting and number recognition.
Georgia loves this time and finds it really fun to teach / play with Emmy.
This is a spider craft that Emmy and I made to play Little Miss Muffet with.

Here is Emmy picking out the

number one for the "Five Little Pumking song".

It goes something like this:

One little pumkin smiling, smiling

One little pumkin smiling, smiling

One littel pumpkin smiling, smiling

One little pumpkin is, happy.

It continues with pouting / grumpy, yawning / sleepy, crying / sad, and laughing / playing.

If you click the link above their is a video to the song.

Emmy being grumpy. Come on Em it's not a stretch for you to be grumpy!

Trying to get those fingers to cooperate. That's tough.

Finding number four and matching it up.

Now she is Little Miss Muffet sitting on her tuffet

Eating her curds and whey.

Here comes the spider.

Emmy looking a little frightened. She loved "playing" this over and over and took turns with Josie being the spider. So far all the girls enjoy our nursery rhyme time.

Yep Jessie - they are similar!!

Magic Wands

We made a Halloweeny snack called Magic Wands in a cookbook Jessie had. She let us borrow it and this is the only one I could remember how to do from the kids list of favorites. Oh Well! They were yummy and the kids kept "poofing" every thing in sight.

Margie is crawling!!

Look at this girl. She has been creeping along on her belly and every now and then was able to crawl a little but then last night she just started crawling all over the place. Brad and I were watching a game the other night while she was playing on the floor and I turned and looked at her and she was sitting up! I said" Brad did you do that?" surprised that he would ever just sit her and leave her but he said no. We watched her get right up and sit there by her herself. She just turned 7 months on the 25th! Hip hip hooray Margie Sue!

Pan de muerto

Senora came over and gave another wonderful lesson AND some culture to go with it. She taught us about El Dia de los Muertos or All Soul's Day. See below for a description of the holiday. Above the girls are shaping their dough.
Can you guess what this is. It is a sugar skull with bone pieces.

Boy was it yummy. Thanks Senora this was awesome - you're explanation was beautiful and I love that you will teach us the culture too!!

Day of the Dead, or el Dia de los Muertos, is a happy celebration in Mexico. That's when the souls of the dearly departed return home to the world of the living. All of them. From Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, they descend upon their families and for two days, November 1 and 2, they rejoice together.
Even though a family is saddened by a loved one's departure, they do not cry on the Days of the Dead. The elders say the path back to the living world must not be made slippery by tears.
There are actually two Days of the Dead: November 1 and November 2, and the tradition dates back to the Aztec civilization. Coincidentally or not, these days are also the Catholic holy days of All Saints' and All Souls' days. In Mexican culture, the lines between ancient folklore and the customs of the Spanish Conquistadors frequently blur.
The first Day of the Dead, on November 1, is usually reserved for the children, for honoring the souls of the little angelitos. The next day, the adults are remembered. You will see both young and old in the night's rituals, holding vigils in the town cemetery. Everywhere, round loaves, dusted with colored sugar, are shared with both the living and the dead.

Visit here for a recipe and more information.

blocks

What better way to play with blocks than to build towers.
We watched Elsie Rae for Jessie the other day and the girls just kept building tower after tower.

Then Emeline branched out and made a train. Wow Em good job.

Josie made this playground. Pretty good use of blocks Jo.

Nursery Rhyme Time

I have decided to do something just for Emeline and I'm calling it Nursery Rhyme Time. So far so good. This was our first week. What I did was found this list of rhymes and used the first one which was All Around the Mulberry Bush. I figured out some activities that we could do together based on that rhyme and that was it.

All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel.
The monkey thought 'twas all in fun.
Pop! goes the weasel.

A penny for a spool of thread,
A penny for a needle.
That's the way the money goes.
Pop! goes the weasel.

Up and down the City Road,
In and out of the Eagle,
That's the way the money goes.
Pop! goes the weasel.

Half a pound of tuppenney rice,
Half a pound of treacle,
Mix it up and make it nice,
Pop! goes the weasel.

Of course I found a coloring sheet of a monkey and a weasel for her. We also looked at many pictures of monkeys and weasels online. We turned a plant into our mulberry bush and acted out the rhyme.
I also printed off a big penny for her to use.

This money chart has been lying around for a while and she learned to pick out a penny (and other money values).

We also got to use vocabulary words up and down. (It is in the rhyme).

Here she is putting the monkey down.

We practiced "in and out" also.

A pound is mentioned in the rhyme so I thought we could work on heavier and lighter. Here she is picking up a heavier can of oranges.

Good job Emmy that is the lighter one.

We'll see how it goes!?

learning about leaves

Josie gave us a tutorial about leaves. We gathered a whole bunch and she taught us the parts of a leaf and also quizzed Georgia. (She wants me to make sure to add that Georgia got one wrong!) We also did some leaf rubbings which the girls loved but in my business forgot about my camera and taking a picture! Josie wants me to add that doing the leaf rubbings hurt her hand from all the coloring. They only made a 100 a piece!!!

PE: Soccer

The girls got to play soccer at Dad's school yesterday because Dad is offering volleyball after school for anyone who wants to play. Russell stayed and played with us and did a wonderful job. It is nice to see him relaxing again.

Brendan's Awesome party 2

Here are the rest of the pictures. Stacy treated everyone to a lunch of pizza!

Cassie and her friend (I'm so sorry I can't remember her name.) came after a bit too. It was sooo very nice to see you Cassie. Glad you could stop by.

Brendan got some monster trucks. Emeline liked these too.

Remember I mentioned hillbilly party. Look at us!! We are singing happy birthday in a parking lot and his cake is on the back of Stacy's car!!!

It is lit for a second - sing real quick!

Brendan's tailgate birthday 2009!

The final picture is quite a sad one. The poor birthday boy. I picked him up off the trunk because his mom walked away to put something in the car and asked me to watch him for her. Well he has a little separation anxiety and when I picked him up he screeched and threw his cupcake into the pavement. What a way to end your birthday party huh? I'm sorry Brendan. I will NEVER forget your second birthday!!

Thanks for everything Stacy.

Brendan's Awesome Party Part 1

Brendan had an awesome birthday party this Saturday. Look how much I enjoyed playing at Velocity! I'm sliding down an inflatable slide with no cares in the world. I thought the place was terrific and I think I will reserve an hour of play next year to celebrate my 33rd birthday!! (thanks for the pic Brad!!)
Brendan turned 2 Saturday and Stacy brought us all to a place called Velocity which is sort of like a big hamster cage for kids! This is an inflatable bouncy thing.

Emmy and Brendan - best friends for the day. (Until Emmy touched his trucks! BACK OFF EMMY!)

This is the hamster cage part.

Are those some faces you recognize?

Gold medalist Emeline.

No messin' around there!

Joyride with a headless cop close behind.

Picture perfect.

Taking a breather.

Margie got to be a big kid too and bounce a little.

More to come of this hillbilly birthday. You'll see what I mean later.

HAPPY 2ND BRENDAN!!!