What is an Ark?

This week's theme is Noah's Ark!  I was very much looking forward to talking about this with Abbie.  She is very intrigued by this story.  Our letter this week is Dd, our number is 4, and our color is green.  After circle time, I did a basic introduction to all of our "of the week" items!  She counted to 4, and showed me something green in the room.  We also reviewed that dentist starts with a Dd.

On her first birthday, we gave Abbie a Noah's Ark Little People toy.  She has gotten a lot of play out of it, and it came in handy today!  I pulled out the ark, and asked... "What is an ark?"  Abbie answered in almost a shout... A BOAT!!!  We counted the animals, and talked about the different ones.  Donkey starts with Dd, so I used that opportunity to practice Dd again!

She also colored her own ark, and we attached 2 of each of the animals!  She helped me sort and handed them to me when I named them!  I dabbed glue on the page, and she glued them down!

It felt great to be back into the swing of learning again, and I think she enjoyed our lesson!

Ready for Circle Time!

Reading the story of Noah.

Counting animals, and discussing what they are!

Coloring her ark.

Finished with her animals!

It looks great!

Dd is for Dentist!

For Christmas, my wonderful family, gave me the best gift I could have ever asked for... a Mommycation!  It was amazing.  I spent 4 days, KID FREE, in Salt Lake City, Utah, visiting my mom & her fiance!  It was such an amazing trip.  I didn't have much time before or after the trip to work on lesson planning!  It has taken me a few weeks to get back into the swing of everything, but we have finally recovered!
Due to lack of planning time we took one more week off, last week!  We did however take a field trip to the dentist!  Abbie had never been to the dentist before, so she was excited and anxious both!  Sadly, I hadn't been to the dentist in about 8 years, so I was just as anxious!!!  I did my cleaning first, and Abbie watched.  She saw it wasn't so bad, and she laughed and laughed at me while the polishing brush tickled my gums!

She was up... so, we went into a new room, and she hopped right up into the chair!  No hesitation was a good sign to me!  When the chair laid back, I busted out laughing!  As the chair reclined, Abbie's feet went straight up into the air.  They literally stayed up in the air for the majority of the cleaning!!  Even the dentist was laughing!  They started by counting all of Abbie's teeth, and Abbie thought that was very cool.  After her teeth were counted, the cleaning began.  She let Dr. George brush and floss her teeth like such a big girl!  I was seriously impressed with how well she did, and I always have super high expectations about things like this.  Before she got up, they did a flouride treatment, and she loved the taste of it!!!  She did so well, that she was able to pick a prize from the treasure jar.  She was so excited, but the cherry on top of the visit was a new toothbrush!  Abbie was thrilled, and couldn't wait to brush her teeth when she got home!  (Of course we had to wait 4 hours because of the flouride treatment...)

I was a very proud mommy, and Abbie can't wait to go back to the dentist!

Hopped up into the chair!

Showing the dentist all of her teeth!

Counting all of those pearly whites.

Brushing her teeth...

Using the suction with her feet up in the air!  

Someone is very excited about her new toothbrush!

Ice cream later that evening as a special treat for being so great!!!

Adam & Eve

I am a little behind!  This weekend sent me for a bit of a roller coaster ride, but we are back on track(ish)!!!  Monday was Brady's first birthday.  Since his birthday was Monday, we celebrated with friends and family on Sunday!  Even though Sunday was a day full of cleanup, and other fun plans... we managed to squeeze in a lesson!  This week we are discussing Adam & Eve.  On Monday, we talked about how God made Adam first, and he made Eve from Adam's rib.  Abbie showed me her ribs!

We started off our morning with Circle Time, and of course Abbie enjoyed it!  She sang all 3 of our songs with me... it still amazes me how many of the words she knows!  She sang her ABC's with no help from me!
After Circle Time was over, we breezed through discussing our letter, number, and color.  Our letter this week is Cc, our number is 3, and our color is yellow.  We do not really need to work on yellow.  It is Abbie's favorite color, and she distinguishes it easily.  3 is not really something we need to stress either, because she knows it very well!  She will be 3 on her birthday, and since I count to 3 often when she is in trouble... she is familiar with it!  Cc, however, is new!  We discussed that Cc is for Cookie or Camryn, one of her best friends!  Tomorrow we will bring Cinderella into the picture since her Cc makes a different sound!

Our craft was very simple, since I knew we were on a time crunch.  I printed a coloring sheet of Adam & Eve for her.  While she colored we talked about boys and girls.  We talked about how they are different, and as I named her friends 1 by 1, she told me if they were a boy or a girl!

We ended our morning with a rousing rendition of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.  Her version was precious!  She has sang this before, and knows most of the words... however... she placed her foot on the table to show me her toes!!!  I just love her...

Singing her ABC's at Circle Time.

Coloring her worksheet... she loves to color!

There are Abbie's toes!!!

Creation Day 7 & Review

Today was our final lesson with our 7 Days of Creation theme.  Abbie has really enjoyed learning about it all.  I am not sure how much she actually retained, but I am not too concerned about that at this point.  During our review she told me that God made Dark & Light, and animals, and flowers, and water!  I feel like if she retained that much information over 2 weeks... I'm proud!

Abbie did well with our songs at Circle Time.  She sang almost all of the words with me!  She sang her ABCs in their entirety and I am excited each time she does it!  After Circle Time we did some basic review.  We talked about the letter, number, color, and all of the Creation Days.  After our review, she worked on her number 7 Poster number!  I cut the number out of white paper, and used a white crayon to draw Zs on it, you know... God rested... Zzzzzzzz!  I didn't have any water colors, so I mixed a little poster paint with water!  It worked.  Only issue was, I am not sure I pressed hard enough with the crayon!  The Zs did appear, but not like I was hoping for.  She enjoyed it, and when she was finished... we displayed it with the other numbers!  We sang one of my favorite kid songs "My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty... there's nothing my God cannot do"!!!  I love to watch their faces when they sing this!  And, we finished our morning off with some name writing practice!  This week went well, and she seemed to enjoy each lesson!  I am very excited to change themes, and continue our lessons next week!

Singing her ABC's!

Painting her last Poster Number!

The Z's are hard to see, but they are there!

All 7 days of creation!

Working on her name!

Creation Day 6 - Animals

Abbie seemed to enjoy today's lesson more than our previous lessons! She did a few extra activities that we don't usually do! Our focus today was animals. She loves animals, and learning about them proved to be just as fun!
Of course we started our morning out with "Circle Time", and she did so well with her ABCs! I was so proud of her! When Circle Time was over, we reviewed Days 1-5 of creation and began talking about Day 6. We sang 5 Little Ducks & Old McDonald. I was a bit surprised to hear tat Abbie knows the words to Old McDonald!
After singing, I broke out her Little People's Noah's Ark. We talked about all of the different animals and how God made each of them. When we were finished we pulled out animal puzzles & she was thrilled! She loves puzzles :)

After our activities, we had a few "art projects" to do! We worked on her #6 Poster Number, and a worksheet for the letter Bb. I found some cute foam safari animal cutout & we picked out her favorites! She glued them to her number, and it looks great! We finished up our morning with a worksheet. Bb is for Baby Brother... How appropriate, right?!?!
We had a spontaneous play date immediately following school this morning, so this afternoon, she will get animal crackers for snack. If she wants to watch anything, she can watch The Lion King! I think today was another successful lesson.

Showing me the Letter Bb... mental note, no more purple chalk!

She picked yellow again for circle time, but showed me where blue and green were!

She loves to sing... singing Old McDonald.

Sad Mommy Duck... she does a pretty good sad mommy duck!

"That is a Zebra"!  She loves Marty from Madagascar!!

Counting and arranging the animals...

I love this picture!  Both of my babies focused and playing!

Working on puzzles... which she loves! 

She is pretty good at them too!

Bb is for Baby Brother worksheet.

Days 1-6... tomorrow is our last day learning about creation!

Creation Days 4 & 5

We had another great lesson today.  Abbie was a little bummed that she didn't have a friend to learn with today, but after a few minutes... she was over it!  We reviewed what we learned last week about Creation.  She remembered that Day 1 God created light.  She also remembered flowers on Day 3!  Our letter of the week is Bb, and we learned several words that begin with Bb.  "Brady, Baby, Brother, & Ball".  After our lesson was over I asked her if she could tell me a word that started with Bb, and she said "Ba Ba Brady", so I guess it stuck!  Our number this week is 2, and our color is orange, but we didn't do anything with those today.

We worked on Creation Poster Numbers for Days 4 & 5, and she really enjoyed it.  On day 4's poster number she glued on a sun and a moon, and stuck star stickers to it as well.  For Day 5, she placed birds in the sky, and (since we were out of staples) we taped them down.  We also made thumbprint fish.  I used an ink pad to ink her thumb, and finished them to look like fish!  She really enjoyed that part!

After we were all finished with our lesson, I made her a snack... goldfish, and she gets to enjoy it while watching Finding Nemo.  She was very excited to watch Nemo!!!

Today's Focus...

Circle Time with Abbie!  She was tracing the word yellow!

Baby Shark (do do ddddo :) 

Grandpa Shark...

Shark Attack!!!

Skidamirinky dinky dink, Skidamirinky do.

I LOVE YOU... she really liked that song!

Working on Creation Day 4 poster number!

Brady participated in school today too!  He LOVES the Baby Shark song!

Putting stars onto her Number 4.

I didnt get in pics of #5 in action, but they both turned out cute!

Goldfish snack & Finding Nemo... not a bad way to end the morning!