Saturday, November 10, 2012

An Enchanted Childhood Playschool ~ November 5th-9th ~ Winter Birds

This past week, Monday morning arrived and we had no definite plan for the week.  We had books organized in a crate for the next few months.  We knew that next week we would be concentrating on Thanksgiving.  We had bird and owl books, but that would take two or more weeks.  We had animals and hibernation, but it still seemed a little early to dig into that...   

It didn't take long for the children to show us what to study.  Over the weekend, we had filled the birdfeeders and early each morning the yard comes alive with Blue Jays, Cardinals, Black Capped Chickadees, Woodpeckers, and more.  Monday morning, within a very short time of arriving, the children became so excited about the party of birds right outside the window.  They proudly shouted out the various names. 

And right then we knew we were studying this week .... winter birds!!  Then after Thanksgiving break, we will spend a week or so on owls and then hit up hibernation, before starting on Christmas books!!




Our first book of the week was Wild Birds.  We remembered a "birds on a wire" craft we had seen on Pinterest, using all black birds.  We changed it up a bit by making various "winter birds" on a wire.





The following day, we re-read the same book, played with our Audubon Birds, and then made handprint birds.  Each child picked which "winter bird" they wanted to do.




Later in the week, we read Goodbye Geese and talked about migration.  In the book, the authur and illustrator paint a picture of winter, with frosty fingers and an icy stare.  After reading, I asked the children to draw "winter".




Funny how their "winter" pictures look a lot like fall!

Our last "winter bird" project was to make a handprint goose!




The "School Boys" have been wanting to learn to read!  They have known the letters and their sounds for quite a while.  So, this week we started on Bob Books. We used our self correcting ABC Puzzle and Alphabet Cards to practice the letters and sounds for the first book.  They were pretty proud when they managed to work their way through the book!

Tuesday's Tots


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32 comments:

  1. What a great idea! Birds on a wire:) They look so sweet and I really like the idea of doing winter birds. I think they turned out great!

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  2. They are great! Yes I agree the birds on a wire are my favs. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. Oh wow, what wonderful ideas. I love the bird hand prints, they are so cute. Thank you for sharing at my Our Favorite Things Link Party.

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  4. We love our wild birds around here too! That looks like a great book- off to reserve it at the library now. And what fun activities to accompany it!

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  5. LOVE this...Thanks for sharing this on Hey Mom, Look What I Did (I posted this on fb too).

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  6. I love the ideas that you (so quickly!) come up with for the children to do! Your themes are great. The geese handprint birds are very clever!
    Thank you so much for sharing your ideas at the Sharing Creative Ideas Link Up!
    ~ joey ~

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  7. I love the paintings you did to go with the stuffed birds, and the finger print paintings. Cute!

    We have done a few bird studies too.
    http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Birds

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  8. All of these are great ideas. And I love that they are based on the interests of your children. Happy I found you on tip-toe thru Tuesday!

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  9. I loooove the birds and the hand-print birds. We must be on the bird flight pattern here for flying South because sometimes our yard is filled with THOUSANDS of birds. It would be a perfect time to do a bird unit. I think I will stop by the library today!

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  10. What great activities to tie in with reading wonderful books.

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  11. My 7 year old LOVES birds and I know he will like this book. Thanks for sharing it at The Children's Bookshelf.

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  12. I love all your bird crafts (the fingerprints are really cute). I've seen the Audubon birds, but haven't bought any yet. They would be a fun Christmas gift for little ones. Thanks for sharing at the AfterSchool party.

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  13. Wonderful! You know I am gonna have to try this! We LOVE hand stuff around here! Thanks so much for linking to Mom's Library!

    Be blessed,
    Julie @ Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk

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  14. I can't tell you how much I LOVE this post. I pinned it and had a hard time deciding on what image to use! Thank you so much for sharing such fabulous activities.

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  15. Oh I love the hand and finger print birds. They're adorable.

    I have pinned t the Sunday showcase board.

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  16. What a great topic! I haven't put up bird feeders since we moved, but we have a particular blue jay that is pretty fond of our dog house! This might be an interesting study for us too!

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  17. I loved the winter birds you did they look so great!

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  18. I love the birds on the wire, are those their finger prints for bodies?

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    1. Yes they were! We used various fingers to represent differnt bird sizes!

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  19. Your bird crafts are amazing! I love them! Thank you for sharing them on Read.Explore.Learn. I will be featuring them on the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page.

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  20. The handprint birds are a fantastic and creative idea. Love all the variations.

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  21. I love your birds on a wire. So sweet. Thanks for linking up to tip-toe thru tuesday.

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  22. Birds are so fun to watch! We have some backyard chickens that the kids adore. I love the hand print birds. Thanks for sharing at Mom's Library!

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  23. Beautiful paintings - I love your combination of science, books & art!

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  24. Loved it so much, I am featuring it this week on Mom's Library. Come on over and grab a featured badge from Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk! Can't wait to see what you will link-up this week!

    Happy Thanksgiving,
    Julie

    http://heymommychocolatemilk.blogspot.com/2012/11/co-hosting-moms-library-link-up-6-for-me.html

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  25. What a fun week!! We are going to be checking out those books next time we got to the library! Thank you so much for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!

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  26. I've said it before but I'll say it again-- your program is pretty amazing!

    Thanks for linking up on Waldorf Wednesday. I hope we'll see you back this week! Feel free to add multiple links since we were off last week.
    http://ourseasonsofjoy.com/waldorf-wednesday-link-up/waldorf-wednesday-13/

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  27. These birds are stunning! They are so beautiful and the hand ones look so realistic - WOW!

    Just wanted to let you know I featured you at TGIF this week: http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2012/11/tgif-linky-party-56.html

    Thanks for linking up & have a GREAT weekend,
    Beth =-)

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