The Owls Nest Returns to Earth

It's been an exciting week going through our Outer Space unit!  The Owlets have had a lot of fun and some new experiences that I hope made an impression on them.  Sadly, we have wrapped up our space theme and returned to Earth today.  The last day is space was certainly a fun one.  The Owlets painted with sponges and gray paint on a round sheet of white paper, the texture of the sponge resembles the texture of the moon.  They also did a little mining for moon rocks.  I crumpled up pieces of aluminum foil and hid them in sand.  The Owlets used tongs to move the sand around and take them out, then they explored the moon rocks with a magnifying glass.  Of course, this activity could be done with actual small stones!  I showed them how craters form and they got to take turns making craters in the sand.  It's so much fun to drop a big rock in sand and see the dents it makes!  The other centers were open as well, they have spent a lot of time at the pocket chart singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and pointing to the words with the star pointers!  We had a fabulous week! 

The Owls Nest will not be operating on Monday September 3rd, 2012.  I hope everyone enjoys their long Labor Day weekend!  Have fun and be safe!!

Out of This World Art

Yesterday we got a late start on school and ended up doing activities after Clever Owl got home for the day.  Our art activity was pretty cool, the Owlets (even Clever Owl) made a moonrock!  These are so simple but are fun to make and they look pretty awesome displayed during Outer Space week.  All you need is aluminum foil, black paint, and gold and/or sliver glitter.  The Owlets crumpled up the aluminum foil into a loose ball and painted it black then they rolled it in silver glitter.  We put them in a box and labeled it "Moonrocks".  We read Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, I'm Off to the Moon before we did this activity and then I showed them the page in the book that showed a box of moonrocks!

I revamped the control panel board that is in our Dramatic Play center for the week.  I covered a tri-fold board with aluminum foil and glued the pictures from the previous board to the new board.  The Owlets are loving being astronauts! 

How Do the Astronauts Sleep

This morning in our circle time we talked about how the astronauts sleep strapped down to boards, one on top of the board and one underneath the board.  I used a sleeping bag and wrapped the Owlets up tight, they put on sunglasses and headphones and pretended to sleep like the astronauts do!

Books for Outer Space Week

Zoom, Rocket, Zoom! by Margret Mayo
Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off to the Moon! by Dan Yaccarino
Astronaut Handbook by Meghan McCarthy
Another Day In The Milky Way by David Milgrim
Light Up the Night by Jean Reidy
Space For Kids Who Really Love Space! by Sarah Powell

Blast Off

This week we learning about outer space!  I am a serious space enthusiast, so I love this theme!  Recently I ordered a book from Amazon www.amazon.com, it is a Mailbox book called Prop Box Play, I was especially excited to see the awesome space themed prop box that was included in this book!  I have been preparing all weekend for this unit, cutting out stars and programming them with letters and numbers, creating and collecting props, and everything else that goes along with getting a unit ready.  Papa Owl was quite confused when I asked if he had any MRE's or emergency blankets I could have for my prop box!  I made a control panel for our space shuttle by folding a piece of poster board into three equal parts.  I glued on some lids and caps, but you could also use spools. I found pictures of a speedometer, clock, view of the Earth from a shuttle, and a control panel, printed them off and glued them to my poster board.  I also drew on some windows and controls.  In my space prop box I added backpacks, flashlights, water bottles, a magnifying glass, and tongs.  I am looking for things to use as space helmets, space suits, and astronaut food! This is our Dramatic Play activity for the week!  The Owlets had fun being astronauts today, flying the space shuttle, and doing space walks!  Hopefully tomorrow they will get to find some moon rocks!
I finally got my pocket chart hung up and it is getting used all this week for a literacy activity.  I wrote the words to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on sentence strips and placed them in the chart.  I made glittery star wands to use as pointers and the Owlets can use the wands to point to the words while singing the song.  Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is one of the Owlets favorite songs so you can imagine how much they enjoyed this activity.
Our letter for the week is "N".  So, we made nests our of brown lunch bags.  The Owlets glued three blue pom poms into the nest to look like little eggs.  Since we are trying to do a hand print craft for every letter, the Owlets used their thumbs to make a thumb print necklace.  
Art: I put white tempera paint into spray bottles and added water.  The Owlets sprayed the mixture onto black paper to create a solar system.  We did this activity outside because paint ends up everywhere!
Math: I cut out 20 star shapes, on 10 of them I wrote the numbers 1-10 and on the other ten I placed dots for each number.  The idea is to pick a star, count the dots, and find the matching star.  I laminated the stars for durability. 
Writing: I cut out 16 star shapes and programmed them with some of the letters we have been working on and some new letters.  The Owlets were encouraged to find the matching pairs of letters.  Again, I laminated the stars for durability!
Blocks: I found pictures of the International Space Station, the moon, and the solar system, I printed them out, laminated them, and put them in the block area with some play people.  The Owlets built space shuttles and sent their play people off to new planets, the moon, and the space station.
Fine Motor: I incorporated a Montessori activity into our fine motor center for the week.  I put out two bowls of water and some sponges.  The Owlets squeezed the water from the sponges out of one bowl of water into the other bowl.
This was a great first day of our Outer Space week! 

Dinosaur Week Roars to a Close

We finished up our exciting week about the dinosaurs yesterday!  Before we did our daily school routine we went to the post library for storytime.  The Owlets love the library and they love storytime!  The librarian read books about caterpillars and then they made a caterpillar craft out of scrapbook paper circles, pipe cleaners, wiggle eyes, and glue dots. 
We came home and the Owlets were excited to start learning and playing!  For a math activity I made ten dinosaur footprints and ten dinosaurs, I numbered the footprints and dinosaurs 1-10.  I laid the footprints out in a line and turned the dinosaurs face down.  The Owlets picked a dinosaur, said what the number was, and then laid the dinosaur on the footprint.  I was impressed with how well they did on this activity and they had a lot of fun doing it!
Our art activity was pretty cool, I gave the Owlets a plate full of uncooked pasta in different shapes, some glue, a q-tip, and a piece of black construction paper.  The idea was to make a dinosaur skeleton, but the instructions were, glue the pasta on however you want so your skeleton looks however you think it should look!  The skeletons came out very interesting!  The Owlets also made Dinosaur Handprints for our letter "H" activity.  They dipped the side of their fist into green paint and laid it on paper then they used their thumb for toes.  Some of the prints had ten toes!
The Owlets had a lot of fun this week and I am hopeful they learned a little about dinosaurs!
We have a brand new theme for next week and some pretty exciting stuff to go along with it ! 

George Washington Obsession

I took all three Owlets to the post library yesterday, we returned some of our dinosaur books and looked for books to use for next week.  Clever Owl has a strange obsession with the first president of our country, Mr. George Washington.  I do not understand it, but she thinks he is the greatest!  We drove from Alaska to Alabama and stopped in South Dakota to visit Mount Rushmore, it was her favorite part of the whole forty day trip!  Anyway, at the library, she went on a search for books about the great American.  She wasn't having much luck, even though we used the computer to look some up, but all we could find were biographies written for adults.  The Librarian came in and Clever Owl asked her if she knew where any books about him were, the Librarian was more than happy to help her find the books she was looking for.  Finally, she found two, a very lengthy biography and a smaller, more concise biography.  She decided to go with the smaller book, she started reading it while I was still looking for books, all the way home, and when we got home.  I think she has almost finished it!  I may not understand her obsession, but I don't dare criticize it.  My Clever Owl loves to learn and that makes for one happy Mama and Papa Owl!

A Dino Good Enough to Eat!

As our dinosaur unit comes to a close we made added a cooking project to our list of activities.  The Owlets made dinosaurs that were good enough to eat!  We started with bananas and the owlets stuck Chex cereal into it so it looked like spikes, then they put a chocolate chip on it for the eye.  The Owlets enjoyed making this special dino treat, but the best part was getting to eat it up!
 The Owlets worked in the centers that have been set up throughout the week, but of course we did a new art activity and a new letter "H" project.  For art the owlets made dinosaur footprints using their hands and the Owlets made hula skirts out of paper bags, yarn, glitter, crayons, and stickers!
Gross motor activities are important to all child development programs and this week we have moved like dinosaurs and today we listened to one of the Owlets favorite singers, Laurie Berkner, and her song We Are the Dinosaurs.  The Owlets had fun stomping and dancing!  It was a good day for learning and we have more fun in store for tomorrow!

Dots, Paleontology, and More!

We are continuing our Dinosaur theme.  Yesterday we got out of the house and went to the Fort Rucker PWOC Kick-Off!  The little owlets had fun playing with boys and girls their own age and Mama Owl had a lovely time praising my Savior, listening to the information about the classes offered this semester, and getting to have some grown up conversation with other mamas!
 After we got home and ate lunch we did a short circle time, we are counting our days in school and I wanted to make sure we at least got our stick in the bucket so we can get to 100 days!  I cut out several shapes and let the Owlets glue them to paper making a dinosaur, they turned out to be very abstract dinos!
Today in circle time we sang a song and went a dino hunt.  The activity taught the owlets about positional words, above, in, under, beside, behind, ect.  They had fun looking for and finding the dinosaurs and using new words!  We used big plastic dinosaurs and brown paint to make dino footprints on white paper.  Another way to do the dino footprints would be to add soil to brown paint and encourage the children to paint paper with the mixture then walk a dinosaur through it.
Our literacy activity today was dot markers on a letter H and we read A House for Hermit Crab, then decorated a hermit crab shell cutout.  We tried a science activity, I found a picture of a dinosaur skeleton and printed it out.  I was a little small so I cut it out and enlarged it on my printer.  The owlets put glue on the skeleton (with some help) and then dumped sand all over it.  They shook the excess sand off the paper, but all over themselves, the chairs, anything in their path, which is the main reason we did sand outside!  When it was done it looked like they had just dug up these dinosaur bones!  They were so excited about it and had so much fun with this activity.  I love watching them explore, learn, and have fun!  It is such a joy to be their Mama Owl...I am truly blessed!!  

Dinosuar Week

Sassy Owl, Monkey Owl, and I had a great time searching the library for books about dinosaurs.  Here are the selections we are using this week for our theme:

Dinosaur Dinosaur by Kevin Lewis

Brontorina by James Howe

Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp by Margaret Mayo

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

Too Many Dinosaurs by Mercer Mayer

Here Come The Dinosaurs!

We kicked off Dinosaur Week today!  The owlets are super excited about this week so that makes it even better! In preparation for this week the owlets and I spent a morning at the library looking for books on the subject of dinosaurs, buying plastic dinos at the store, and picking up sand!  Sadly, we don't have many books at home on the subject and we didn't have any plastic dinosaurs. Yesterday after church we ran to Lowe's to get some sand.  50 pounds of sand is not a light a load to carry, but Clever Owl and I made it happen, next time though I will send Papa Owl in for it!  I spent last night cutting out dinosaurs, I was glad that Papa Owl helped or I would've been up all night!
During our "circle time", we talked about what we knew about dinosaurs, I think my favorite answer came from Sassy Owl: "Dinosaurs live with Little Einsteins."  Then we discussed what we wanted to learn about the prehistoric creatures. 
This morning I added colorful dinosaurs to two dish pans and filled them with sand.  I gave the owlets paintbrushes and shovels so they could be paleontologists and dig for the dinos.  They got so excited when they found one!  This is also a good dramatic play activity!  For art, I added food coloring to spray bottles and cut out an egg shape, the owlets sprayed the egg shape and when they are dry we will cut them with a zig zag pattern and glue a baby dino coming out of the egg.  The owlets enjoyed doing these activities outside.  I copied a pattern of three types of dinosaurs onto construction paper, numbered them 1-10, laminated them, and finally cut them all out!  This is our math activity for the week and the owlets are going to sort the dinosaurs by type and then put them into sets.  Today they just sorted them by long tails, horns, and spikes! I'm sure our letter for the week should be D, but it's not, we are learning about the letter H.  For our literacy activity the owlets made hippos with their hand prints.  I love the idea of using hand prints to make something for each letter of the alphabet!
We have many more exciting plans for the week and I can't wait to share them with Sassy Owl and Monkey Owl and of course with all of you!  Have a fabulous Monday!!

About This Blog

Welcome to The Owls Nest!  I am a stay at home mom to three little girls ages 7, 3, and 2!  You can imagine that they keep me hopping!  They are super sweet, funny, creative, energetic, and so much more!  I am married to the most amazing man in the world!  He is the love of my life, my soul mate, and my best friend!  We are a military family and have made it through several deployments and moves that separated us from family and the family that the Army gave us!  I feel very blessed to be able to stay at home with my girls right now!
I have always known that my calling was to work with children in some capacity.  I received my Child Development Associate and taught preschool until the Army moved us to El Paso.  While my husband was deployed, I realized how much I missed teaching...so when my neighbors got jobs at a local diner I was thrilled when they asked me to keep their kids!  I saw this as an awesome opportunity to teach!  So every day my daughter and my neighbors kids would do fun and educational activities!  I loved it, the kids were learning and having fun, and their parents were thrilled!  When the Army decided that we needed to experience Alaska I started toying with the idea of starting an FCC (Family Childcare), but with a 4 year old, a newborn, and a deployed husband (again) I decided against it.  My daughter loves to learn, so I continued to do activities with her.  When my middle daughter was old enough I started doing age appropriate activities with her.  13 months after my middle daughter was born, we had our third, and last little owlet!  Now, we are settled in a new location for a little while and I am in teacher mode again!  The office/dining room of our beautiful post house is a classroom and my little girls look forward to going to their "school" everyday while their sister is at her school! I am also in school, getting a degree in Psychology, specializing in Child Psychology and then hopefully get my Masters in Art Therapy.  I've also started the process of finally staring a FCC at this duty station and I can't wait to get that up and running!  I like to swim, read, listen to music, hike, scrapbook, bake, cook, and work out!
This is not my first time around the blogging block, I start them, make a few entries, and then abandon them...I am going to make a point this time to do better!  I want to chronicle the learning activities I do with my kids (and hopefully soon the kids I get through the FCC) in our own little school!