Magic inflating balloon

 Amazing magic inflating balloon

Here is our day in a nut shell:

Math

We played memory and counting bears

 Another math game we played was rolling a dice, counting the number of dots, then getting to pick out that many snacks. It's a fun way to incorporate math into other activities. 

 Reading

We read for 25 minutes followed by a lesson in Reading eggs.  Fluttershy's favorite.

 Sensory

We revisited out Cloud Sand

Science

The magic inflating balloon.

Our inspiration for today's science experiment came from a fun site Juggling with kids. 

You'll need the following:

Empty plastic bottle

Vinegar 

Baking soda

Balloon

 First place fill your bottle with 1 or 2 inches of vinegar.

 Second put 1 Tablespoon of baking soda in your balloon.  You could use a funnel or like we did.  I stretched open the balloon and had Fluttershy using a spoon pour the baking soda I had pre measured into the balloon.  Carefully put the balloon on to the top of the bottle without letting any of the baking powder get into the bottle.

When your ready, shake the baking powder into to bottle and watch the exciting looks on the kids faces. 

 Super fun activity and fun day.  This all happened before lunch and nap time.  Fun day!

Free shopping

Shopping for free

Many of you know that I love to coupon shop.  It's how I can make my budget work for my family. I especially love getting groceries for free.  All the products in the picture I got for free last Saturday.  I received these coupons by mail from the products company because I had given them feedback on their products.  I found a wonderful website that has a compiled list of dozens of product websites that links you to the feedback or contact form.  You'll find the website here. 

The receipt for this shopping trip was $26.  I only had to pay $0.78 which was the tax. 

I spent a week of my girls nap times filling out each of these and was pleased to find that 80% of them sent me coupons in the mail.  It does take some time, but it was worth it to me.  I've received buy one get one, free, and several $'s off coupons.  The coupons I received was a bit different than that website got.  

Here are some of my results:

Bar s- $1.00 voucher

Michaelina’s- 2 free items coupons

Malt o meal- 2 $0.75 coupons

Lakeview farms- 2 $0.55 coupons

Beech nut- Free product (up to $3.00 value)

On cor- 2- $.050 coupons

Super pretzel- 2  Free product coupon

Bushs best- 2 $0.55 coupon

Jack links jerky- free product coupon

Dimond nut- various coupons, Free product coupom ( up to $5.99 value)

Gimmway farms- (2) $0.50 Off coupons

Balmex-  (2) $1.00 Coupons

Aquafresh- various coupons, (2) $0.74 off coupons

Chobani- (3) $0.35 coupons

Dial- Various coupons

Contessa- (2) $0.50 coupons

Bumble Bee- (4) $0.25 coupons

Smithfield – (2) $2.00 coupons

Tylenol – (3) $1 coupons

Abreva- $2 coupon, various misc coupons

Johnsonville- (2) $1 coupon

Sara lee- (1) $1 coupon

Blue diamond – (3) $1, (4) $0.60 coupons

Nivea- Bunch of various coupons

Kings Hawaiian- (2) free product coupons,  $1.00 off coupon

Sea pack- $3.00 off coupon

Lindsay olives- $0.55 off coupon

Seventh generation – bunch of coupons

Ocean spray- free product coupon

Nestle pure life water- free product coupon

Rhodes (2) $0.50 coupon

Florida naturals- (2) $0.50 coupons

Ball park- $1.00 coupon

Hidden vally- (1) $1.00 off coupon

Ragu – lots of various coupons

Dannon- (2) $0.50 offcoupoms

Purina- (2) $200 off coupons

Sunspire- $1.00 off, Various coupons

Cheese heads- (2) $2.00 off coupons

Driscoll- $1.00 off

Stubbs- (3) $1 off coupon

Shout- $0.55 off coupon

Ore-Ida-  (2) $0.75 off coupon

Bayer- Many $1.00 coupons

Stonyfield – Pack of coupons for their products

Immaculate baking co- $1.00 off coupon

Campbells- $1.00 off coupon

White Cloud - $2.00 off coupon

Lea & Perrins- (2) $.50 off coupons

Palermo’s – (2) $1.00 off coupons, (2) $0.50 off.

Bionaturae- (3) $0.50 off coupons

Barbara’s – (2) $1.00 off coupons

Tie Dyed Shamrocks

Tie Dyed Shamrocks

 We have had a lot of fun playing around and discovering fun ways to make these tie dyed shamrocks.  

First of all you'll need:

Coffee filters

Markers

food dye

water

Spray bottle

Scissors

 First of all you'll need cut cut your coffee filters into your shapes.  We cut ours out like you would a heart.  Once you have you shape try to press your filter so it lies flat.

Our first technique we used Crayola markers.  Color the filter with lots of color.  Makes sure that most of it has color so that the colors should blend together most of the filter.

Fluttershy was working on her's while I tried out a rainbow.  

Once your filter has a lot of color, place it on a pan and lightly spray the filter so that the colors bleed and spread.  I placed the pan so that it was slanted encouraging the colors to run downward.

The marker was fun and got really good results.  Our next method was food colors.  Drop several colors all around your filter.  The food color immediately spreads and covers the filter.  To get the colors to completely cover the filter use the spray bottle on the pan and lightly spray it.  The colors will spread even further.

Lay them on a towel to try.  They dry very fast. Taking about 20 minutes

Here is our favorites

I hung these up on our window and with the sun shining through they looked really neat.

What's a glog?

I am so excited to share with you my new found hobby.  I had never heard of Glogster until just recently and wanted to share with you a wonderful resource that could benefit any homeschooling family.  And to share my very 1st Glog I made.  So what is Glogster?

"Glogster is a social network that allows users to create free interactive posters, or glogs. A glog, short for graphical blog, is an interactive multimedia image. It looks like a poster, but readers can interact with the content.

Glogster provides an environment to design interactive posters. The user inserts text, images, photos, audio (MP3), videos, special effects and other elements into their glogs to generate a multimedia online creation."  (Source site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glogster.)

I find it especially fun to create a interactive poster to use with my 4 year old who loves the computer and preschool.  I've started creating Glogs that are easy for her to use.  I'll pick a subject I think she'll enjoy and find activities, videos, songs, lessons, and interactive games that she'd have fun doing and include images with a click able link to each fun activity.  

If you click on an image you'll be taken to a link of a activity.   

Here is a link to this glog: Jelly fish. Your welcome to check out my other glogs from this link as well.  Just click "all glogs" toward the top of the page.

It's a fun way for me to create fun preschool lessons for her and make them into a format that is easy to use and fun for her.  I like how I can collect all my activities into one location too.

Most Glogs I've seen have a lot more text in theirs then I do.  My goal is to make mine easy and visually fun for her.  Get it on her level.  Fluttershy can't get enough "preschool" lately so I've had to get really creative.  This is one way I have found that has excited her.  As I create more I'd love to share them with you and your kids.  

Today's Glog was a collection of Pre-K activities from http://www.pbs.org/teachers/ that covered these areas of study as well as a national geographic kids video : 

• The Arts
• Health & Fitness
• Math
• Reading & Language Arts
• Science & Tech
• Social Studies

For those who already know and love this site, I'd love to see your creations as well.  Please share your link in the comment box.

Smell this

Discovering the link between sight and smell

 Another great teaching resource I want to share with you is the PBS teachers site.  From the main page http://www.pbs.org/teachers/ you choose the age the child is you from the top menu and a wonderful drop down menu drops down with

• The Arts
• Health & Fitness
• Math
• Reading & Language Arts
• Science & Tech
• Social Studies

 There are lessons, videos, and links to all sorts of great ideas.  

For our lessons today we used the Prek Health & fitness lesson.  I chose smell this!  I thought with it so hands on that both my girls will like this activity.  I idea behind this activity is to understand that we use not only our mouth to taste things, but that we use our sense of smell as well to identify what the item is we are eating. 

 Our items we smelled was vanilla, lemon juice, and vinegar.  Fluttershy couldn't identify exactly what the smells were, but enjoyed trying.    Our foods were carrots, cheese, and strawberries. 

 Trying to guess what she was eating with her eyes closed.

 On the activity page they also included this video of the dinosaur train which talked about smells and tastes.  To access this activity page use this link:  Smell this!

Winter Sensory Bin

 Winter themed sensory bin

As I was thinking about what to use in our bin today I kept hearing the wind from the pending storm that is supposed to hit tonight so I started with a wintery theme.  Then just for kicks I added in the blue tinsel and let my kiddos make is snow with them.  I'm not sure what is so intriguing with tinsel, but it always make them want to make it dance.

 Rarity and Fluttershy really had a fun time with mixing everything up.

  Items in this sensory bin:

Blue Tinsel

White Epson Salt

Clear and White Stones

Flower Beads

Soft or Hard Sensory

 Soft or Hard, Rough or smooth?

 When it comes to sensory bins options are endless.  Today's bin included things that were soft, hard, rough or smooth.  Rarity really enjoyed playing with the soft fluffy pom poms.  She was also the stick gatherer.  I've given each of them silicon cup cake holders to store their prizes. 

 Rarity is really into those little cups and even is starting to separate them into different kids of things. We talked about which items were rough or smooth.  I put some color samples from the paint store that had a rough texture in the bin.  Both my girls were intrigued with these paint chips.    

We will continue using our bins till they are no longer interested.  Even my 4 year old still loves them.  There is always something new to look at and play with.