Week of March 17, 2014: Weather Week

We had a wonderful week learning about the weather and enjoying lots of outside time.

 Katie practiced number recognition and counting by counting raindrops.

 

 

 We made a raining cloud...we filled a jar with water then added shaving cream (our cloud) on top.  Katie mixed up some green water and used her dropper to fill the "cloud" with "rain".  When the "cloud" was fully saturated it started "raining" into the jar.

 

 This activity quickly turned into almost two hours of shaving cream fun.  Katie made clouds by mixing glue and shaving cream and then she just played with shaving cream on her picnic table.

 The girls have enjoyed watching all the birds and the squirrels that visit our feeders.  We've also had lots of outside time since the weather has been so nice.

We visited the nature center by the zoo with Naomi, Boaz and Selah.  The kids loved being able to touch and explore all the different exhibits.  There was a whole tray full of animal bones, feathers, nests, shells, fungi, rocks and more.  The kids got to use magnifying glasses to check out all these objects in more detail.

 Audrey was able to watch the big kids and got to touch a few of the items like the deer antlers.

 There was a craft table set up in the back with a few different activities.  Katie colored a paper sack for a few minutes but, was much more interested in going outside to explore.

 Boaz and Katie had such a great time together.  They held hands a lot on the trail and shared all of their nature finds.  I put together a quick nature hunt for the kids before we headed out.  They each had a bag and their nature hunt page so they could keep all their findings.

Inside the kids played on a tree sculpture that had a tunnel and windows. 

When we got home from the nature center the girls explored all their findings.  Katie wanted to get out the brown playdoh...she made prints of most of her sticks and leaves in the playdoh.

We had ordered math manipulatives quite a while ago but they were on back order.  We finally got them this week and Katie and Audrey have both enjoyed playing with all the fun toys inside.  Katie's favorite is the balance and bears.  She quickly discovered how to make the balance even by placing the same amount of bears on each side.

Katie is starting soccer soon!  She is going to be playing with her friend, Evan on a noncompetitive team for 3 and 4-year-olds at the YMCA.  She is so excited to play although she keeps calling it her baseball game.  We got her a pink ball and she got to pick out some new tennis shoes (of course she chose pink).

 Daddy, Katie and Audrey practiced kicking the ball around in the backyard.