Tag: eggs

Kids Choice Day…Scooter Rides, Outside Games, Alleluia Shakers and Water Play… Day 17

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A brilliant mom friend of mine started “Kids Choice Day,” every Wednesday, so I thought my daughter and I would give it a try! Our children are in the middle of a world crisis so a day where they have a bit more “control” of their world will be good for the entire family! On “Kids Choice Day” the kiddos get to decide what their day is going to look like from what they eat for breakfast and lunch to what activities they engage in throughout the day. My daughter began by drawing a map of things she wanted to do. My picky eater had no special food requests.

Outdoor Play- It was beautiful weather so we spent the majority of our day outside. From scooter rides to playing on our backyard playground to water play, an afternoon of sun and fresh air was the perfect choice!

Outdoor Games– I printed out a bunny themed game board from my daughter’s teacher and we enjoyed playing this dice game while sitting on a blanket in our backyard. CLICK HERE to download the game board. We also enjoyed coloring and doing a puzzle outside!

Easter Egg Workout– Another great suggestion from Mrs. Stanglein, my daughter’s teacher, really got us moving! I printed one exercise on a slip of paper and placed a slip in an Easter egg. My daughter selected an Easter egg from the basket and I read the slip and we performed that exercise. You could include the following.. 5 sit ups, 10 jumping jacks, run around the house 3 times, do a bear crawl, 10 toe touches. Have fun making up your own!

Alleluia Shakers- During Lent we put our Alleluias away but on Easter morning every church family will sing “Alleluia!”We made Alleluia shakers by filling a plastic Easter egg with rice (you could also use beans) and then decorating the outside. We made some for our family of three but also made some to add to the weekly supplies we deliver to grandparents and to a family friend. We will shake our eggs whenever we say or hear Alleluia during virtual church on Easter Sunday.

Ms. Pac-Man– I love the game Ms. Pac Man so my husband (boyfriend at the time) gifted me with a vintage Ms. Pac Man machine many years ago. It sits in our unfinished basement but every so often my daughter and I will sneak downstairs and play a game or two. The machine has a special chip inside that includes a cheat mode so we could play the game forever! My daughter shares the love of Ms. Pac Man because she included it on her map for Kids Choice Day!

Keep Playing… I can’t stress the importance of play, especially during this time of added stress and mixed up routine. Children learn and grow through play. Play helps them make sense of their world and process what they are learning. We ended our day with water play. My daughter requested it and asked if she could play with her “My Little Pony” figures in the water. I sat back with an adult beverage, this Noteworthy Mommy needed a break after our day of play, and I simply observed her. I love when her animals have dialogue with each other. In this scene my daughter was pretending the ponies were Jesus and His twelve disciples. The pony playing the part of Jesus was washing His disciples feet. I heard her mention Simon and Judas. We had just discussed this event during Jesus Time last night. This unscheduled, unforced event was filled with the joy of learning and brought happy tears to my eyes! And in case you were wondering, Rainbow Dash played the part of Jesus. 

 

The Estimation Jar and Eggs, Eggs, Eggs…Day 16 Activities

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Today was an EGGciting day filled with math and science. The weather was beautiful so there was also a lot of time spent outside in our backyard.

The Estimation Jar- A wonderful suggestion from my daughter’s teacher and something I used to do when I taught kindergarten. Put a select number of the same item in a jar and have your child estimate how many items are inside. My daughter wrote her estimation on a chart, opened up the jar and counted the items and then recorded the answer. She was only one off! This is a great activity to build on estimation, counting and number writing and we are making the estimation jar part of our daily routine.

Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones– One of my favorite science books for young children is Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones by Ruth Keller. The book introduces readers to the wide variety of oviparous (egg laying) animals in the world. We watched an episode of Reading Rainbow on YouTube that highlighted the book. CLICK HERE to watch. We also read the book The Egg, a Scholastic Discovery Book. Oviparous or NOT Oviparous Game– I created a game out of a worksheet and plastic eggs. I used this Oviparous Animal Sort I found for free and cut out the animals, putting a circle around the oviparous animals to make them look like they were inside an egg. Then I took plastic eggs and wrote a different animal on each egg, placing the corresponding animal inside. Some eggs contained an oviparous and some were mammals. My daughter took an egg from the basket and had to tell if it was oviparous or a mammal and then she opened up the egg to check her answer. The whale was the only animal that tricked her. She thought it was oviparous but a whale is a mammal and has its babies born alive and well. Egg Shake, What Is the Sound- I filled plastic eggs with various things I found around the house (rice, macaroni, pennies flour, jelly beans, goldfish crackers, cotton balls) and my daughter shook each egg, making a guess as to what was inside. I made a chart that showed the possibilities. After she made her predications she opened up the eggs to check them. Egg Patterning– Another EGGcellent suggestion for her teacher was egg patterning. I traced Easter egg shapes on index cards and colored the tops and bottoms to match eggs I had on hand.  Separate the eggs and match them to the mixed up egg drawings. After my daughter completed my mixed up eggs, I gave her some blank egg patterns on index cards and she created patterns for me to solve.Jesus Time– Our early childhood director put together some valuable Holy Week resources. We watched a video about Jesus washing his disciples feet. CLICK HERE to view. Then we sang along to “What a Mighty God We Serve!’ CLICK HERE to view the song. We also used our Holy Week retelling cards to review the events that led up to Easter morning.

Good Night Moon– Before bed we viewed and talked about the full “Pink Moon” in the sky tonight.While it did not actually appear pink, it was the closest, biggest and brightest Full Moon of the year! A reading of Good Night Moon  by Margaret Wise Brown. “Good night stars, good night air, good night noises everywhere.”

Koo Koo Kanga Roo, Chickens and Easter Eggs…Day 15 Activities

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We suffered a manic Monday with Daddy going back to work after being furloughed for two weeks and my daughter and I missing having him at home. To cure the Monday blues we spent a lot of time playing outside and on our daily walk my daughter told me she was ready for all of this to be over. She wants to go back to school, she wants to get a forever hug from her best friend and she wants to celebrate Easter the way we do every year…by going to church and gathering with grandparents for an annual Easter brunch and egg hunt. All I could do was give her a comforting hug and say, “Me too baby, me too.”

Koo Koo Kanga Roo– If you like to dance you have to check these guys out! Described as the Beastie Boys meet Sesame Street, this dynamic dance duo is the perfect cure for a manic Monday! Our favorite dance songs are Cat Party and Double Scoop. You can find all of their videos on YouTube and their music streaming on Spotify. Chickens- Scholastic Learn From Home has proven to be my favorite on line resource during the isolation. Today we did the module on Roosters, Hens and Chicks. After that we used construction paper and markers to create a chick hatching out of an egg. Eggs– After hard boiling eggs we turned them into Easter eggs by decorating them with the Egg Mazing egg decorator. Purchased at a huge discount after Easter last year we found the Egg Mazing to be an easy, fun and non messy way to decorate eggs. My daughter has difficulty using a pincer grasp when holding a writing tool but to my delight the Egg Mazing forced her to hold the marker with a pincer grasp! She was having so much fun she didn’t even realize it and until her teacher pointed it out neither did I! We practiced patterning by creating AB, ABC and ABCD patterns on our eggs. We will decorate plastic eggs with the Egg Mazing tomorrow. Egg and Chicken Books– My daughter enjoyed the book Daisy Comes Home about a chicken that goes on an unexpected adventure down the river. Written by Jan Brett you can CLICK HERE to read the book. Before bed we read The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown (author of Goodnight Moon.) We read from the actual book that belonged to me when I was a little girl. I smile at the memory of my mother reading it to me when I was around my daughter’s age. CLICK HERE to have the book read to you.