Ocean Blue

PF made a request yesterday, while I was considering what theme to use for our Friday centers, she wanted on ocean theme. I didn't realize just how much ocean themed activities I had. We worked together last night to create 14 centers for our ocean blue theme. I wanted a mix of educational levels so that preschool to middle school were covered and everybody would have a good time.

We started the morning with blue oatmeal in blue bowls. I just added blue sugar sprinkles to the top of their oatmeal.

 After breakfast, the girls had their praise and worship time. Last years VBS was the High Seas so I had a DVD handy to go with our theme.

 Center 1: Cutting, pasting and coloring.

 Center 2: Memory

 Center 3: Sorting by color or animal

 Center 4: Tracing

 Center 5: Blue discovery bucket. The possibilities are endless.

 Center 6: Playdough and spelling ocean.

 Center 7: Play animals. Pretend play, sorting, size order. I also had information sheets on some of the animals to read.

 Center 8: Find it. Find objects and reading/vocabulary.

 Center 9: Geoboards

 Center 10: Ocean Life floor puzzle

 Center 11: Ocean Themed Connectogons.

 Center 12: Lace the whale.

 Center 13: Wrap-ups

Center 14: Collection of ocean themed worksheets.

Space Trays

We are studying Astronomy right now so I wanted to make our preschool trays this week space themed.

 Put the planets in order. I taped planets to bottle caps and then put the order number under the cap so they can self check. Added Pluto in because our book teaches both ways. I still want it to be a planet because that is the way I learned.

 Button the rays on the sun.

 Space puzzle

 Picture matching

 Lace the moon

 Space Dot (we use a stamp instead of Do-a-Dots)

Space Sensory Discovery Box. The game today will be to save the earth from the destructive blue balls by capturing them (with tweezers) and putting them in the blue holding container.

Activities for March

March is a fun month to remember how awesome it is to be Irish! Not that I think rainbows, gold, leprechauns, or four leaf clovers are really "Irish" things. I got a few activities prepared tonight. PF really wanted to help as well so I let her come up with some trays for her sister.

Sensory bin (PF made the rainbows)

Clover clothes pins

Clover counting

PF's sorting activity

By PF: Line the Four leaf Clover with beads. I great fine motor skill.

PF's color matching game.

PF's counting game. You can also match the numbers.

PF's Pot of Gold activity. First place a clothes pin on the pot then place the correct number of gold pieces into the pot.

PF's Letter activity.

I really enjoyed seeing how creative PF could be with these activities. I literally just put all the materials she could use out on the table and she went for it. Before I looked through all the pictures, I thought she was doing all counting activities but as I was looking through the pictures, I realized she hit on all the basic areas that Dragonfly needs right now. I love having creative children!

Valentine's Activities

I am so excited for a new month and to pull out the heart related activities. Dragonfly and I had been in Target this past month and found some really fun Valentine items.

I found a heart shaped mixing bowl that will be our sensory bucket for this month. I have a few different things to put in it but for this week it is filled with little plastic hearts. I also found heart shaped measuring cups. Dragonfly had the best time filling the cups and putting a plastic heart in each heart shaped spot in the ice cube tray.

The other ice cube tray that we have, I filled with a numbered heart. Dragonfly counted out the correct number of red beads into each heart.

Another counting activity using form hearts.

Heart Matching. This was a little tricky for Dragonfly but I am sure she will catch on to the difference quickly.
Thank you to a fellow homeschooling mom who posted some great worksheets that we enjoyed today. Click HERE to print your own sheets.

V is for valentine. Dragonfly used a valentine stamp to fill in each dot.

Cutting between the Love stamp. Dragonfly loves to cut so she was really excited to have a cutting activity today.

She needed very little help today. I love to watch her develop this new skill.

We had a very successful first day of February. Can't wait to spend the whole month talking about love. Most importantly God's love for us!

Dragonfly and the Box

Dragonfly LOVES to sort. I gave her the completed snow box for the first time and what does she do.....dump the whole thing out and begin to make piles to sort out the different elements of the box. It was so typical of her and really made me laugh.

Sensory Discovery boxes

Snow Themed

Christmas baking themed

I finished up the snow themed one minus some foam snowflakes that I would like to find and add. I was talking to my good friend about these boxes and she told me about one she made with flour. What a great idea so I copied :) The Christmas Baking one is flour with hidden red and green chocolates in it. I also added spices for smelling and sprinkles to make noise. I put in red and green spoons for searching for the chocolate and transferring the chocolate to the cupcake holders. For extra fun I added in a candy cane for digging. This box will probably be pretty messy but a lot of fun.

In case you are wondering why I am doing these boxes:
I have two girls with sensory processing disorder. They both display it in different areas and a few similar areas. They both need help with fine and gross motor skills as well. These boxes provide a fun way to provide therapy to them. We decided when we moved away from our last therapist to really try to incorporate therapy into our home and not take them to a therapist. I have become more familiar with my girls needs and how to help them overcome their weaknesses. I also have a good friend experiencing the same thing and still going to a therapist, who provides me with some extra tips.

For my other two girls who seem to be functioning without any sensory problems, these activities are just fun for them and a good change to the regular schedule. I think sensory activities are really beneficial to everyone.

Snow Box

Snow themed sensory discovery box.

I have found two blogs lately that I really like. Both of these blogs have pictures of these incredible sensory boxes with all kinds of themes and materials. Dragonfly loves these kind of activities....the ones where she can just explore and create her own thing. So I decided to go ahead and get one ready for January which is when I want to start a regular program with Dragonfly. Well she couldn't wait until then and started playing with the box as I was adding things to it. I have several things around the house that will work great for my first box and I have a bag full of stuff to use for future boxes. I spent awhile this morning going through the whole house looking for little toys and similar items to use for these boxes.

I have decided to call mine sensory discovery boxes because I think the boxes will take care of the girls sensory needs plus they will be discovering all the little hidden things I add to the box as well. I also thought about making Eye Spy Cards to go with each box that way it adds alittle more for my older girls.

The first one I am putting together is a snow theme.
Items in the box (so far):
-cotton balls
-white pom poms
-foil balls
-New Year's confetti
-spoons
-white streamers
-silver beads
-white and silver stones
-a couple snow themed toys (one makes noise and one is a tiny snow globe)
-Large silver ball
-small stuff bear with a snow hat

I am hoping to find foam snowflakes to add and maybe a few more snow themed toys.