Tag Archive | A Little Elf

Fall in the Air

October 17-18

This longer fall is still an adjustment for us. Where is the snow??? So we started our newest group project… this one a fall tree. Each of the kids got their own 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of white paper and some leaves to rub. Ken myself are doing our part by creating the trunk to assemble our branches and leaves on! 

Of course Emanuel had his dinosaur and the kids their book work. We had a slightly less enthusiastic spelling test with Zander getting 2 wrong. He focused on two words and didn’t pay attention to the sound the y makes in boy and by. BUT we are still happy to see he is reading the words that he has tested on later successfully and is proud of the words he IS getting right!

We had a few errands to run, our tulle stash was short a black… and we needed  to scope out the costume options at Target for the twins… and buy our trick or treating pumpkins. A dollar a piece and LOTS of options! 

Pumpkins!

I also had the twins decorate the poem sheet for Monday’s recitation… Their very own Elf up in a tree. I think they did a great job with the picture. Zander and Gavin worked together on it!

Great art

We have returned to Minnesota with a wonderful library book. Minnesota by Amy Van Zee. We are taking a lot of our larger books and more information packed ones step by step lately. Today we talked about the shape of the state and focused on the fact that there are over 10’000 lakes. I am hoping if we keep trying to come at the information about our new home from different formats and angles we will eventually get it to stick.

Ken and the kids finished up the day with Lego time! His special Legos!

LEGOS

We finished our special family tree on Thursday complete with a cat (Trinity), bat (Emanuel), pumpkins (Zander) and a squirrel with his nut (Gavin). Echo contributed her own leaf picture (at least we ASSUME it is an abstract representation on how leaves make her FEEL). 

Leaf assembly

Complete!

We started our Halloween themed poem memorization as well. A little more complicated as there are words like goblin in it which they are not used to using. I am so proud of Emanuel for standing with with the big boys and learning along with them.

As it was a day that started with the letter T we had our Minecraft day for the boys as well. The agreement is that they get Minecraft time and then draw a picture of progress or a favourite thing done and write about it in their journals. I am hoping to get them thinking more about processes, progress and other problem solving type things. 

Spontaneous mask creation via Zander

We had another art completion as well – Art for Kids is awesome. This time a junior Frankenstein! 

So well done!

We have had a bit of progress with Gavin’s cross stitch. He is thinking of gifting it to Daddy for his birthday on the 23rd but the big question is whether or not it will get DONE in time. I am hoping we can get it done. A completion is always a boost to the confidence and he has already picked out his next project! So with spontaneous crafts, continuing with the “master plan” and finding learning in unexpected places I am starting to feel like our feet are getting under us once again! 

Yah baby!

Working to Begin the Week Right

October 15-16

Monday was a GOOD day, education wise. We had a teacher helper today – Ken cleared his schedule up to help out and watch how we do things. It was nice to have another adult to field questions. That is one thing I struggle with with the boys – the idea of needing to wait for your turn, the rule of putting their hands up and waiting their turn is a  tough one. 

Emanuel with his supervisor

 

We had lots to accomplish though… Emanuel had his dinosaur as usual… Trinity her workbooks… And then we went onto the fun stuff. After a Sunday of learning we HAD TO get going on the journals, the process of the apple cider making AND the best thing of the day. Of course we had to sit down and work on those Zombies for Cousin David. Gavin and Zander are becoming pros with the terrific instructions Art for Kids has up on their site. Definitely bookmark them!!

Cousin David’s Zombies

The 3 boys got to recite their newest fall poem for you all to enjoy! A Little Elf which can be found HERE with a whole list of fall poems! 

We had TWO crafts for the day. Our first was a repeat of Sunday’s leaf rubbing. The boys went out into the yard and grabbed leaves from our yard. These pictures are going to be mailed back up north to friends and family. 

On its way to Aunty Xinny

Note Aunty Karyn in the scene

The other craft is from Activity Village… spidery fingerprints. You can find the instructions HERE. A definite repeat for our family. I managed to get the ink pad from Jo-Ann’s with a terrific coupon AND it is washable off the fingers. We used baby wipes and had zero problems and great results on the paper.  

Dirty fingers!

Completed bugs

Tuesday was a bit of a lax day as yours truly was unaccountably wiped out. BUT we rallied after a brief period of Lego/iPad fun while Mommy napped. Echo has FINALLY figured out the sit and spin. 

Spin baby spin

We have decided to get a move on on the Halloween decorations… so today was a garland made out of pumpkins and bats. The twins traced and cut out the template shapes and everyone pitched in on the feature creating. I opted to snip the feet off our bat template to make the cutting out a little easier. You can find templates etc. HEREon the UK site.

Twins stapling while the littles sort out the pattern

So proud!

Our corner

I had the kids help me on a book review that was posted HERE on our site. It was our first kids’ book and it was seasonal! We really enjoyed Into the Pumpkin by Linda Franklin. It was fun to ask them what they thought and then simply write it out to share! I have a few more books  to do this for, all advanced copies so I am sure there will be more posts to share. 

We read more of Judy Moody, the book is one huge giggle for the kids and they are constantly brain storming for their me collages that they are working on.We have taken the angle of the joy of listening to a story and reading with the family over a lapbook intensive unit with this one. Next week we will take a break in our Judy Moody story to listen to our HALLOWEEN themed book! 

Add in a finish by Gavin of his review reading book (so much progress!).

All done!

And we are feeling like things are progressing! 

Looking forward!