Summer Themes

 Summer... We are in full swing around here... we've already started swimming lessons and next week is our last week of preschool (sniff, sniff).

But... in order for me to have fun and for things to go smoothly-ish I need a plan.  I'm a plannin' kind of girl!  It just works so much better for me if I know what to expect.  We can still be spontaneous but we have a general outline... and general outlines makes me happy.

This Summer is "theme" Summer... each week (or every two weeks depending how long it takes us) we'll have a new theme.  Each theme has crafts/activities/science/reading/food that go with that theme.
Most of the crafts and science are age appropriate for elementary age kids... but the books listed are geared towards preschoolers.  I found book suggestions on different preschool blogs and am planning to supplement with non-fiction books from our library.
Most items are linked to the source where I got them... sorry there aren't pictures posted below... it took me hours and hours to put our list together and I just didn't have time to post pictures for everything.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Summer Themes 2013

Weather
 Art/Crafts:
Sun with clothes pins
Kite craft
Cotton ball clouds
Puffy Paint Clouds
Book(s):
Rainy Day Slug 
The Very Windy Day
How the Ladies stopped the Wind 
Farmer Brown Goes Round and Round
Barn Storm
Science:
watch it rain (two liter bottles)
watch it rain (shaving cream)
Tornado in a jar
 Food:
Cloud jello


Dinosaurs
Art/Crafts:
Clothes pin Stegosaurs
Book(s):
Dinosaurs!
Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-Up
Dinosaur Roar! Board Book
Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs
Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs!
Good Night, Dinosaurs
Science:
Dinosaur Eggs (or these ones)
Dinosaur fossils
Food:
Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets
Dinosaur fruit snacks        
Dinosaur toenails (bugles)
Activity:
Dinosaur Museum

Bugs and Creepy Crawlies
 Art/Crafts:
Lady bug paper plate
Coffee filter butterflies
Sun catcher snails
Rock caterpillar
Playdough Bugs
Book(s):
Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!
The Grouchy Ladybug
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Very Lonely Firefly
Diary of a Spider 
From Caterpillar to Butterfly
I Love Bugs!  
 Science:
Live Butterfly Garden
“Fireflies”
Food:
Dirt with worms
Flutterby Franks
Edible Insects
Activity
Go on a bug hunt (plant a few fake bugs just in case we don’t catch real bugs)
 

Under the Sea
Art/Crafts:
Fishbowl craft
Paper bowl Jellyfish
Shaving cream starfish
Handprint octopus
Nemo Paper plate
Lobster footprint
Book(s):
Pout Pout fish
Baby Beluga
Clumsy Crab
some non fiction books
Science:
 Growing coral Wave bottle
 Food:
Sandwiches on Pepperidge farms fish bread
Sand crabs
Crabby Croissant



Patriotism/America (the week of July 4^th)
Art/Crafts:
Handprint flag
Patriotic Tie dye shirt
Tin can windsock
red white and blue "star-man"
Book(s):
Wow! America!
How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the U.S.A
A is for America
A couple of non fiction
Science:
Fireworks (how and why they work)
Food:
Star spangled rice krispy treats
Cupcakes/or sugar cookies with red/white/blue sprinkles
 

Space
Doing thing s a little bit different with this unit... dividing the subjects in to days... sun on one day, moon next day, etc.   Some days more activities than others.
Sun
Fingerpainted Sun
“Wake up, Sun”
Nonfiction books
Moon & Stars
Moon Paint
Moon Sand
“Papa, please get the moon for me”
“Our Stars”
Solar System
Planet Painting
 “Whats Out There?”
“Comets” 
Aliens
Alien Man
Alien headband
Alien Glow-in-the-Dark Slime
“Aliens love underpants”
“The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot”
Misc
3-D Space Shuttle (free printable)
Paint blob aliens
“On the Launch Pad” by Michael Dahl
 Food:
Alien Jello
Sun cupcake
Activities
Star and constellation gazing
Glow in the dark bath w/glow in the shaving cream (with neon food coloring)



Farm
Art/Crafts:
Chicken paper plate (free printable)
Corn Craft
Painted duck rocks
Cardboard pig
Cottonball sheep
Life cycle of a chicken
Book(s):
Big Red Barn
Barn Yard Dance
A seed in need
Pig’s Egg
Cluck O’Clock
Science:
Grow some Corn
Thirsty celery
Garden in a bucket (we bought a little kit at walmart that had seed/soil/bucket)
 Food:
Popcorn (not microwave!)
Yoohoo Milk (or other chocolate milk)
Pig bread
Activities:
Field trip to a farm
Old McDonald      

Happy Summer-ing!

Project Life

This is my fourth year doing Project Life (the first year was called Project 365)... but this is my first year doing my album digitally... It's taken me this long to figure out which direction I want to go.. so here's my one and only page for the year...but I think now that I've decided on which kit/products I want to use that it will go together pretty fast.

I'm definitely going to be keeping it simple.... mainly using the Colbalt kit and Ali Edwards word art... simple = done.

Love Project Life sooo much!!

 

Supplies:

Templates

Cobalt Kit by Becky Higgins

Go Outside Brushes and Stamps wordart by Ali Edwards

Little Bit of Messy Home Brushes and Stamps wordart by Ali Edwards

Father's Day Printables

This is a little Father's Day activity we did today.  You can paint the childs hands or trace them on scrapbook paper, cut them out and glue them on.  We did it both ways and they were both really cute.

And no, these are not my child's hands.... my camera charger is missing and I wanted to get these posted in case somebody wanted to use them for Father's Day.  So I "borrowed" some hands from the internet and stuck them on.

The "award" can be framed or it can slip in to a page protector to be put in to a scrapbook.

I also included a Grandpa version.

Links below.

I'd love to hear if you download it.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Father's Day!

World's Best Dad download

World's Best Grandpa download

Laundry Bins

 My new laundry bins are up and running!  They sit opposite of the dryer... I pull stuff out of the dryer, fold it and then put it in the appropriate bin.  A couple of times a week (depending on the need) everyone grabs their bins, take them to their room, puts their clothes in the appropriate drawers and then bring the bins back to the laundry room.

Right now my 3.5 year old needs help emptying his...  but he know its one of his weekly chores and (so far) he loves doing it.  

I use the miscellaneous bin for whatever batch I'm folding at the moment... wash clothes, bibs, burp clothes, etc.

I have a separate sock bucket and towels just get folded and put away.

The bins are working great and it keeps my laundry room nice and tidy! Plus the stick people are just so dang cute... it makes laundry so much fun (ok, now you know I'm lying... but the cute bins do make the room cute!)

To make the labels I just opened the stick people in PSE (you can do it in Word too), added the names, printed them out on cardstock, laminated them and then used double sided tape and stuck them on the bins.

Everything is from Ikea...stick people from Fayette Designs.  Links below.


 

 

 

 

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Stick People by Fayette Designs


Ikea: Trofast Frame and Trofast Bins