The 100th Day of School!

Today was our 100th day of school! Having done school for 100 days doesn't really have any signifgance because we live in a no notification state so there aren't any attendance rules. I just thought it would be a fun excuse to celebrate.

Yesterday Buzz and Boo got a 100th day package in the mail from Mimi (my mom) filled with collections of 100 bottle caps, beads, paper clips, beans, and stickers (Toy Story for Buzz and Princesses for Boo). I don't know how Mimi always knows to send packages for our special days at just the right time ;) Thanks Mimi!

We started the day with '100' pancakes

Decorated 100th day crowns

Filled out 100 charts. I filled 50-100 in for Boo and she did most of the rest and then practiced counting to 100 over and over. Buzz filled his in by himself and was excited to discover patterns as he did.

 

We had a lot of fun with our 100th Day Sensory Bin

It's filled with 100 each of critter counters, pony beads, plastic bottle caps, heart shaped "gems", legos, paper clips and craft sticks marked with the numbers 1-100.

Buzz and Boo both came up with lots of creative ways to play with everything:

Linking the paper clips together in one long chain

Practicing one-to-one correspondence with bottle caps and heart gems

Putting all of the craft sticks in order

As a special surprise they each got a 100-piece puzzle

I couldn't get Boo to take a picture with her eyes open :)

For dinner we had '100' pizza

(which looked a lot more like 100 before it puffed up in the oven)

We had a lot of fun and Buzz and Boo both got lots of practice with their numbers 1-100!

Linked to Preschool Corner

No-Bake Cookies

3 c. quick-cooking oats
1 3/4 c. white sugar
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. peanut butter
4 TBS. cocoa powder
1 tsp. vanilla

Bring sugar, milk, butter and cocoa to boil. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oats and vanilla. Drop spoonfuls onto wax paper and let cool.

Four Cheese Lasagna

12 lasagna noodles, cooked

1 (23oz) jar pasta sauce

2c. shredded cheddar cheese

2c. shredded mozzarella cheese

1c. parmesan cheese

1 (16oz) container cottage cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Mix pasta sauce and cottage cheese together. Spread a small layer of sauce mixture in 13x9 pan. Layer noodles, sauce mixtures and 1/4 of each cheese. Continue in this order, ending with the last of the cheeses. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Preschool Reading Activities

Boo spent a lot of time this week focusing on reviewing letter sounds and beginning reading. We used our Explode the Code Wall Chart to play a game. I hid the stuffed toys then Boo collected them in a basket and took them to the chart and put each toy in the right pocket. She loved getting to hunt for the toys and has asked to play over and over again.

Boo used Do-A-Dot markers to do the assessment sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I wanted to be sure that she can identify all of the capital and lower case letters and number 1-20 (she can!)

Boo loves to color, so she was excited to do the color by number sight words from 1+1+1=1

I wrote words on index cards that I knew Boo was able to read. I used words for small items I could find around the house and put the items in a plastic box with the cards. Boo read each card and then matched it with the correct item from the box. She thought this was great!

And perhaps most exciting of all: it was finally warm enough to play outside! We headed to a little playgroud near our house to burn off some energy!

I'm linking this post to Preschool Corner

stART: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

This week we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

This story is a classic and of course we've read it many times, but we hadn't read it lately. So when I found Buzz reading it to Boo one morning last week I decided it would be fun to make our own letter coconut trees.

Buzz and Boo cut their tree trunks, leaves and coconuts out of constructions paper and glued them on cardstock. Then they glued on foam letters.

 Boo's tree:

 Buzz's tree:

Check out more stART projects at A Mommy's Adventures!

Muffin Tin Monday: Valentine's Day



Today's theme is Valentine's Day

Heart toast with strawberry jam, cream of wheat with pink sprinkles, pink scrambled eggs (which turned out looking pretty unappetizing, but Buzz and Boo ate them anyway) and heart(ish) shaped bananas

Happy Muffin Tin Monday AND Happy Valentine's Day!

Family Traditions: Valentine's Day

Every year for Valentine's Day we have a treasure hunt for the kids. After breakfast on Valentine's Day one of the kids will find a paper heart somewhere near by (this year it was sitting under Ruben's phone when we asked Buzz to go grab it). Each paper heart has a clue about where to look for the next heart.

This year's treasure hunt was especially fun because it's the first year the Buzz is reading independently, so they didn't need any help from us to figure out the clues.

In the end the treasure is always books and candy. They were SO excited that they received The Doll People trilogy! They love love love these books and if you haven't read them to your kids, I highly recommend them.

We're all about making memories for our kids and the special little ones like these seem to be some of their favorites.