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.”
Chickens- 
Eggs– After hard boiling eggs we turned them into Easter eggs by decorating them with the 
Egg and Chicken Books– My daughter enjoyed the book 
Marble Painting- We do marble painting a lot (it is one of our favorite activities). Get a shallow box (a shirt box works perfectly), paper, paint and marbles. Place the paper in the box and after coating marbles in different color paints drop them in the box and gently move the box from side to side. Make sure you practice moving the marble inside the box without paint first to set proper technique. No two masterpieces are ever alike! We painted on cross shapes but you could use any shape or canvas. (eggs, shamrocks, flowers, hearts) You can also paint with other items that roll (a toy car or small ball). The results look like miniature Jackson Pollock paintings. 
Indoor Scavenger Hunt– Per her teachers suggestion we did an indoor scavenger hunt where we searched for things that began with L, the first letter in my daughter’s name. This was a great way to work on initial sounds and we will defiantly do it again with another letter. 
Pizza and a Family Meeting– We ended our day by making our own pizzas for dinner. My daughter designed a face on one and used pepperoni for eyes! After dinner we had a Talley Family 
Play Dough- – Is there anything better than a giant batch of fresh play dough? My daughter enjoyed helping me make homemade play dough. As I stated in an earlier post, the best play dough recipes are the ones that require heat. I used my tried and true preschool play dough recipe, shared with me by a former teaching partner twenty-five years ago!! (How can I be that old?) Play dough making is filled with countless learning opportunities… math, measuring, science (color mixing) and following directions. My daughter requested purple play dough and we added a vanilla scent. Don’t forget to add a color and a scent. Some people add glitter for extra fun! Once your play dough is ready, use cookie cutters, scissors and straws as play dough tools. We made pretend cookies and constructed numbers. (roll the play dough into long skinny snakes and then construct numbers)
Painting– People have posted some beautiful stained glass window creations on line. We used paint dobbers designed for windows and painted stained glass crosses on several of our interior windows. My daughter really enjoyed painting and said, “Now when we have church at home our house will look like church too!”
Muffins– My daughter loves to bake so today we made raspberry muffins. I pulled out the book 
Gratitude Journal– Per her teacher’s suggestion we began a Gratitude Journal. Her first entry was a picture of mommy and daddy and her beloved blanket! She knows how to write mommy and daddy on her own and I helped her write the word blanket. We will add a new page to the journal everyday. 
This is a photo from our weekend. Taken right before sunset it epitomizes the innocence of childhood, a care free little girl simply experiencing joy in her journey. The photo was taken as we walked (she ran) around the pond in our backyard. Earlier our neighborhood rang with dogs barking, children laughing and lawn mowers humming with the sounds of spring. In this scene people had retreated inside to start their evening routines and our soundtrack came from song birds proudly singing a tune and allowing us to listen in. The grass we walked upon, once dull and brown in color, had awoken to a luscious green. The smell of pollen from flowering trees was in the air giving us another reminder of rebirth. Spring is not in quarantine and neither is God. He created this beautiful day and He is with us on good days and in trying times. Love embraced me as I gazed at our house (shown here in the distance), knowing we would return home to a nutritious meal prepared lovingly by my husband. The wind began to blow indicating a spring storm was on the horizon. But when I looked up at the sky there was hope among the darkness. God was sending a visual reminder as rays of sunlight were peeking through a mass of clouds, reassuring me that we will all get through this.
Holes in the Jelly Beans?– We cut out our jelly bean shapes and punched holes in the jelly beans by using a hole punch to punch the correct number of holes on each jelly bean. Then we strung them together and made a necklace. My daughter needs to work on hand strength and this activity suggested by her teacher really challenged her. 
Backyard Animal Discovery– My daughter’s teacher shared the brilliant idea of watching for animals (in our backyard and on our daily walks) and graphing how many of each animal we found. We watched for ducks, cardinals, sparrows, robins, rabbits and squirrels and after printing out pictures of each animal my daughter helped me create a chart that we hung on the wall. We enjoyed looking out the window to see if another duck took a swim in the pond or if we could spot a robin on our daily walks around the neighborhood. My daughter loved adding tally marks on our graph and sharing the final count with her teacher. The activity was such a hit we are going to do it again next week!
Noteworthy Mommy 