Archive for April 2010
These are all fun activities to do with those plastic Easter eggs that were so intently hunted for yesterday! Have fun and be creative before packing them away for next year. Click on the pictures below to be taken to the step by step instructions for each activity!
Make these super cute Egg Bugs with left over plastic eggs, pipe cleaners and stickers! These were a huge hit with my Sunday school kids last year !
Make a bouquet that won’t wilt or need a single drop of water with tissue paper and eggs!
Get into a scientific mode with this experiment using eggs to answer the question “:Sink or float?”
Have fun with numbers, letters and shapes with this discovery game using eggs!
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Family Time!
On our way to church this morning
I hope all of you whether this is a holiday for you or just another Sunday are enjoying time with your family and friends. Since holidays tend to be low traffic days I don’t want to spotlight a blog today, since they wouldn’t get the exposure they deserve. So instead I am spotlighting all of us and our families. Feel free to add your comment about something special your family did this weekend, feel free as always to include a link!
Our highlight was dinner last night , I made my boys their favorite crab stuffed ravioli and the hour it took to make them was well worth the exclamations of “Yummy” and ” Is there more?” . The other highlight was dying eggs after dinner, my son pretended the wire lifter was a forklift and we mixed all the colors together dying and re-dying the eggs until most were a nice shade of gray. I hope your weekend was as sweet, happy and filled with giggles as ours!
With April comes Spring and with Spring comes thoughts of warmer weather, the environment and Earth Day. Spending time outside in the garden is a perfect way for my kids to understand the life cycle of plants and how we as people impact that cycle. It may be too early to start gardening (we can’t start until the end of May) but learning and planning and preparing your outside space can happen now that the temperature is warmer and the sun is out longer. Here are a few books to get you and your kids ready to explore the garden and plants in your backyard.
Seeds! Seeds! Seeds!
by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
picture book (age 3-7)
published by Marshall Cavendish
Buddy Bear receives a package from his Gramps; five bags, tagged and tied with string. Each day Buddy Bear opens one bag to find a seed activity his Gramps has created as a way to celebrate the arrival of Spring, including creating a seed collection. The illustrations are paper collages with the exception of the seeds, which are photographs. The seed photographs give kids a great reference to the different seeds in common foods tey probably eat. The activities created by Buddy Bear’s Gramps could be recreated for your own gardening season countdown.
Zinnia’s Flower Garden
by Monica Wellington
Picture Book (4-7)
published by Culton Children’s Books (division of Penquin)
Spring is here and Zinnia is getting her garden ready. She prepares the soil, plants the seeds, waters and watches it grow. Even in the Summer, Fall and Winter there is always something about the garden for Zinnia to enjoy. Created like a garden journal, the day’s entry appears on the left with a large image of Zinnia and her garden on the right. The illustrations are simple and colourful and include photographs of actual flowers and plants. On the left journal side of the book you’ll also find a few visual references to key garden vocabulary. If you’re starting a garden in Spring, Zinnia’s Flower Garden is a great book tallking about the stages a garden goes through and even includes some reference dates during certain stages of gardening during the year.
Up, Down, and Around
written by Kathrine Ayres, illustrated by Nadine Bernard Westcott
picture book (3-5)
published by Candlewick Press
Corn grows up. Carrots grow down. Cucumbers climb around and around. Kids will enjoy this catchy rhyming story as it explores with a family how different plants grow in their garden: up, down, and around. Kids will learn a variety of plant names and how they grow (as in above ground or below). The words are simple and limited and the illustrations fill the page. The book ends with the family enjoying the rewards of their garden for lunch.
Seeds Sprout! (I Like Plants!)
by Mary Dodson Wade
picture book (4-8)
published by Enslow Publishing
Part of the I like Plants series, Seeds Spouts is a great non-fiction book ideal for your little gardener. It talks about different seeds, how they travel and how they grow. The text is large and uses simple vocabulary. The close-up photographs give kids a view of seeds they may not be use to seeing, especially the image of the seed sprout at various stages. There’s also a great seed experiment at the back , along with a list of suggested books and websites for additional information.
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Carrie Anne is a contributing writer on No Time For Flash Cards , she is a mom of 3 , Managing editor of EverythingMom.com and an avid reader. You can catch up with her on her blog Another Day. Another Thought…Or Two .
We try to eat healthy, and during Easter it’s hard with all the candy everywhere! I adore candy and my pregnant will power is um… not really strong. So when I decided to make some fun treats I wanted at least one of them to be truly healthy! The other could be if I had made it from scratch but I didn’t- but you can ! Either way they are both super simple and very very tasty!
Carrot Cupcakes
- Gather your materials. Grab your favorite carrot cake and cream cheese icing recipes or boxed mix and a tub of icing, orange and green jelly bellys . I should note that although I did use a mix I also mixed in 1/4 cup of crushed pineapple and it was very very yummy.
- Bake and cool your cupcakes.
- Ice them and add your jelly beans in the shape of a carrot!
- Eat more than you care to admit and send the rest to your husband’s office.
Frozen Yogurt Eggs
- Gather your materials. You will need a silicone mini cake pan ( they still have Easter themed ones at both Target and Walmart in my area), a blender, low fat vanilla yogurt, and frozen or fresh fruit of your choice.
- Pop 2 scoops of the yogurt in ( about 3/4 cup) and 1/2 – 3/4 cups of the fruit.
- Blend
- Pour
- Freeze ( we froze ours for 2 hours and they were perfect- formed but not rock hard.) If you freeze them longer just let them thaw for 30 minutes in your fridge before serving them so they are soft enough to eat with a spoon.
- Pop out of the mold and enjoy ! These were a huge hit with my son.
Since my son was tiny I have pointed out letters, signs, colors… now that he is too big and I am too pregnant to have him in the Ergo we still play this game. Today we went for coffee ( apple cider) and found lots of letter along the way. The small pad we used fits easily in my purse and also serves as a doodle pad if he’s getting antsy while we are out.
- Gather your materials. You will need a pencil , a marker, and a pad of paper.
- Write the alphabet on your pad with your marker. You can do uppercase, lowercase or a mix!
- Go run your errands. When you have a chance find some letters. This sign was a gold mine!
- Don’t forget to check them off your list.
- A fun variation would be to take pictures of the letters, print them off and make a poster or book. Once my little guy is a little better with the camera we will be tackling this one.
Look and Find Books
Animalia 
In the Town All Year ‘Round
Clay Quest Minis: Search for Shapes!
