Happy Birthday, Ella!

Some Things We're Learning

practicing sight words with matchbox cars

some fine motor cutting for a rainbow

spelling cvc words

body awareness with mat man from handwriting without tears

and, of course, we always have a little music in our day :)

cooling off

Funny how the blow up pool was as much a hit with Leslie as it was with Ella!

Back to the Garden

I am surprised by how much Ella loves the botanical gardens.  She leads me through, stopping to explore her favorite spots.  She likes the butterfly house, the child-sized house with little brooms and furniture, watering the children's garden using a water pump to fill her watering can, swinging, stepping stones to cross a little brook, running down a grassy hill, relaxing in a hammock, trying out the steel drums in the Caribbean garden, and the list goes on and on.  She has an amazing amount of energy and can always outlast me on garden outings!  During this visit, it was fun to check out all of the gnomes they've added to the children's garden and the African statue exhibit that is going on in the main gardens.

Bird Unit

Last week we made birds with Crayola air dry clay.  We used a drinking straw to poke a hole for wings and an eye and then left them to dry.  This morning, Ella painted them with watercolors and then poked ribbons through the wing hole for the wings :)

We made a bird book using our sight words this and is.  Ella illustrated the book with some of the different types of birds we've been learning about.

We found the idea for these paint splotch birds on Pinterest :)

This & That

matching capital and lowercase letters

creating a field of poppies with oil pastels and paint

grow capsules

Ella lost her first tooth at lunch!

Jelly Stones

Ella loves it when we do science experiments.  She couldn't wait to try the Jelly Stones that I bought at Hobby Lobby over the weekend.  We were both amazed at how much water those little gel stones could hold.  After trying it in the test tube we poured the rest of the stones into a large bowl and added water.  And then we added more water.  And more.  And more.  The package claims that the stones can hold 90% water - - - and seeing was believing.  Oh, and they were kind of fun to play with, too :)

Ella's Favorite Part of the Day at Ms. Kath's

We do a lot all morning long.  Ella works really hard - always trying to do her best and always up for anything I throw at her.  We also go on lots of outings - zoo, parks, botanical gardens, Target :)  Afternoon is for eating lunch (in or out) and a quiet rest time.  But Ella's favorite part of the day is the Leslie part of the day.  After nap, Ella starts wondering aloud what Leslie might be doing at the moment and if Leslie will be able to play after we pick her up.  Most days, Leslie is able to put off homework and go out into the backyard with Ella where they create magical fairy worlds, swing in the tree swing, blow bubbles, kick the ball, or just read a book out in the fresh air.  It's so nice to see them playing together.  One who is happy to step back into childhood play for a few moments and the other who loves having an older - but not quite an adult - playmate for an hour.

botanical garden