Spring Work in the Sunshine State!

This is a book called Creep! Crawl! by Karen Pixton.
Can I just say that I love this book?

The illustrations are beautiful and very child friendly. The book is made out of something that feels either like rice paper or Tyvek, if you have ever felt that.
The illustrations are collages placed on what looks to be almost watercolor backgrounds.
Even though the book is intended for babies, I bought it because the artwork and layout are so nice.
It is a wordless book, and has so many possibilities.
As far as work, you can use the pages as story starters and let your child select a page to write about.
You could use the pages as three part cards for little ones by attaching Velcro dots to the pages with words for each little creature...
You could have older children sort the creepy crawlies into different categories, such as arachnids / insects, etc. or by pattern (stripes, spots, etc.)
You could also use these to inspire children to make their own creepy crawly collages.

There are two other books in this series: Flutter! Fly! and Wiggle! March!
If I can find these two in the store, I will be purchasing them as well.

This is one of my favorites from the book...a very cheerful caterpillar...love the eyes and the eyelashes...Little Bro is usually afraid of insects and having him use this book is great, because the artwork is so inviting.

Here is another...notice the beautiful background for the grasshopper.
Think that this book is such an awesome addition to our current garden themed collection of books.

This work uses a 1 to 20 number line and tiny little clothes pins. They can choose to do a pattern to make the number line, but they do not have to make a pattern.

Here are the clothes pins...so tiny, cute, and colorful!
They also provide both Big Bro and Little Bro great fine motor clipping practice.
These insect cards are actually cards that are intended to be used with a pocket chart.
This is a finger puppet from IKEA.
Another finger puppet from IKEA.
Another finger puppet from IKEA.

This is a Spanish work on our shelf. There is a little reader called El Puntito.
After reading the story, they have to spell the words with the Spanish magnetic letters, similar to the idea of a movable alphabet, but they are in green and orange instead of red and blue. I tried to find red and blue ones, but could only find this color combination for Spanish. Actually, I think it has worked out for the better, as it is easier to distinguish if you are spelling a word n Spanish or English depending on the colors you are using...
Cover of El Puntito by Natalie Whitney. Found this at a consignment store.
These are word cards for In the Garden. I took the sheets and made them into three part cards.
This is the illustration that goes with In the Garden. This works well as a starter for writing or as a card to use to encourage discussion about gardening.

Some lovely flowers for our yard. Gotta love Gerber Daisies!
Big Bro picked out the yellow ones...

Little Bro picked out the red ones. Since they each selected a different color, they get to be resposible for watering their color of flower in our yard. I will water the other ones.

This is a very cool 3D wooden puzzle.
The insects stick out from the background almost like knobs.

It is FINALLY starting to feel like Florida again.

We had a record cold winter season for our state, and although compared to many other places, it still was bearable.

But what was hard to deal with was to see so many of our plants and trees take a nose dive from the cold temps.

Everything was dull, dried out, moldy, brown, blackish-gray, and just not very nice to look at in our yard.

Well, luckily, the weather has turned around just in time for Spring and now, things are starting to perk up a bit. Yippie!

We have planted some new flowers, have purchased a power washer and Dear Hubby has worked very hard to make everything look clean and beautiful once again.

We also have some new sunny work on our shelves to go with the theme of Creepy Crawlies and Fiesty Flyers in the Garden.

Seeing the colors both in our home and outside just makes everything feel so alive again.

Thought that some of you might enjoy seeing these cheery photos, along with some of the descriptions of the work on the shelves.

Happy Spring!

Solar System Work - An Easy Art / Science Project Great for the Montessori Classroom or Homeschool Environment

This is Big Bro's Solar System project (on its side to fit the screen).
Will write out directions and will make a template for you to use with your children.
As far as materials, you will need:
Black heavy poster board, glitter spray, foil, glue, permanent markers, templates for the planets and the sun.
This is a closer shot of his project. the permanent markers worked great on the aluminum foil. Gave this work a neat effect.
Here is a little glimpse of some of the projects and space themed things in Big Bro's room.
Big Bro's reading shelf, on top of his night stand. The shelves contain space books, Magic Tree House books, a few Bible stories, and some bedtime story collections.

These are some of the books on his shelf. Mostly at his independent reading level, although some are a little easier than where he is at with his reading...but some books he is not willing to part with just yet...


This Alphabet of Space Book is put out by the Smithsonian. Has a CD and a cool poster that goes with the book.
Found these plastic mats but cannot remember where...may have been Target, but not sure... in three languages: English, French, and Spanish. This is the front of the mat...
This is the back side of the mat.


Big Bro loves to learn about the Solar System and anything and everything that goes along with that...so much so that he wanted the theme of his bedroom to be space and then, he threw in robots for good measure.

Since he enjoys reading and learning about space so much, instead of having books related to this theme in our classroom, they are stored in his bedroom.

Yesterday, at his homeschool co-op, they happened to make a neat Solar System project.

Thanks to Ms. Traci, I will share the directions with how to make this project. I am going to make a template for you for this...will post the template later...

Thought that some of you might enjoy seeing this and the templates of how to make this with your children.
Also, thought that I would share some links to other websites and blogs about the solar system.

Here are two with great ideas to go with the space theme with young children:

Solar System Art Projects by Mrs. Strange's Second Graders
Really well done and easy to use. Click on the photo of the child made project and the directions and materials needed to make the project pop up. Very cool!

Lapbook Lessons has some great free printables related to the Space Shuttle theme.

Homeschool Share also has a neat lapbook on Space.


Enchanted Learning Astronomy Crafts
Enchanted Learning requires that you pay for these...but even looking at the main page will give you some good ideas for free.

NASA has a neat interactive page full of activities for children.
Very fun and educational!
NASA Kids Club