Pumpkin Rice Tub

This work is super easy to whip together to give your little one endless sensory play. You need 2 bowls. 1 needs to be larger and deeper. The other bowl should be smaller than the first. You need rice and the objects I chose were small plastic pumpkins I bought at A.C. Moore. You can make this work stationary or put it on a tray like I did.  Put the objects in, then add the rice. Mix and there you have it. 

You could use it all year long changing the objects out and/or the rice to beans. If you have a child who's funny about getting things on their hands you can also use a small strainer to sift the object out. 

P.s. Be prepared to clean up lots of rice/beans. If it becomes too messy just put it away and say "we will try again tomorrow." 

Use Of A Crumber

Showing your child how to use a crumber is a great way to show them how to independently clean up after themselves when they have finished eating. This work will allow your child some practice before actually using it to clean up crumbs. 

When I was teaching I usually had 2 of these or the smallest dustpan and brush set labeled "table" and "floor." You could easily have a set positioned somewhere in your house where your child could find it when they are finished eating. 

For the practical life work...you'll need a tray, painters tape, a container, some beads or other easy to sweep object (i.e. beans or rice), and a crumb set.

You take the crumber off the tray...take the basket in both hands and gently pour the beads onto the tray scattering them neatly.

Then you take the brush and sweep them gently into the square....

After you've got the objects into the square you take the crumber in one hand and the brush in the other and sweep them gently onto the crumber...

You put the brush down and then with both hands pick up the crumber and pour the beads back into the basket...

Repeat these steps until the tray is clear. 

Button Flowers

I was on Pinterest and saw the cutest work that could easily fit into practical life or sensorial. The Kavanaugh Report made the cutest and most simple work using popsicle sticks, buttons, felt and a hold glue gun. I adore these button flowers. Ava could easily match the colors but the work gave her some great practice with buttons.

First Day Of Kindergarten

Be still my heart! I can't believe my oldest started kindergarten last month. I mean seriously, where does the time go? Ava woke up that morning ready to conquer the world. She got dressed, ate breakfast, put her backpack on, grabbed her lunchbox and was ready to hit the road.
 I on the other hand was having a much different experience. I held it together all morning. I took deep breaths and smiled a smile that only a proud mother has. As scary as it is to let your little one grow and spread their wings there is a peace in knowing you've done your part and you're allowed to be on this journey "with" them.
Ava waited in line eagerly awaiting the doors opening. We walked into her classroom and found her cubby. She hung her backpack and lunchbox up properly. We found her seat and she sat with such confidence as if to say, "I've got this mom and dad." It was at this point that both Chris and my eyes watered up. We took our pictures, gave our hugs and kisses, and reluctantly left the room. The clock never moved so slow. Looooonngest day EVER! haha Finally 3:00 rolled around and our sweet girl came out all smiles. Here are a few pictures before we left the house.

Color Wheel

I have been working with Lucy and her colors for quite some time now. She is catching on rather quickly. We started her off using the color box I. We have moved on adding more colors. She can identify red, yellow, orange, purple, blue, green and occasionally gets red. (sometimes she says pink.) I wanted to do other works that included matching colors. I found this color wheel on Natural Beach Living's site and had to make it. My mom is much craftier than I so I enlisted her haha

I got the felt at Michael's and mom cut them into triangles. She used a piece of cardboard and elmer's glue spray adhesive. I took blocks I had from a lacing work. I used 2 of each color but you can do as many as you want and different objects as well. Lucy loves this work and can successfully match them.
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Ocean Unit

To conclude our summer session of school we covered the ocean. I managed to take some photos of a few of the works we did. The rest I'll just try to provide links that I found on Pinterest.

I can't seem to find the link I found this work from. We used it as a matching work.




I found this starfish at the Dollar Tree and we put it in water to watch it expand. I didn't get a photo of the final growth that it did but here is a picture from it expanding a bit.

I was in the dollar aisle at Target and came across this number sequence puzzle. Ava really enjoyed practicing the numbers 1-20 to see the final product.














I brought out the life cycle of a sea turtle again. It had been a while since Ava worked with this so it was like new. She was able to repeat what the cards said this time and explain in her own words the life cycle of a sea turtle.



I used memorizing the moments ocean vocabulary cards and ocean toob to complete this work.



We also used The Helpful Gardens parts of a fish printable and Ava made her own booklet. We used natural beach livings shark printable to cover the different types of sharks. I brought back out our seashell counting work from last summer and added more numbers. Great work for a child to learn their numbers and quantities.

We got to visit the The Aquarium at Pine Knolls one last time before the summer was over. It's always nice to see what you've been discussing in real life. Our girls had so much fun!