Doctor Seuss Week, make-up day

Last week started out as a lot of fun.   But after a few sick days it was less fun.  And in the end, instead of a Doctor Seuss Party, I got the flu.  So I decided to have a do over day and use my unused ideas.

We started with a Seuss inspired lunch.  feet shaped tortilla sandwiches( for the foot book), vehicle shaped cheese (for Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!), and tuffula seeds to plant in apple sauce (for the Lorax)

 After lunch we did activities to go with each of those stories.  The foot book is one of my favorite Dr Seuss books (as you may recall I have two copies.)  The first activity was foot prints.  I labeled the paper with places for their left foot, left foot, left foot, RIGHT.  They stepped in a plate of paint and then put the correct foot print in the correct spots.

 We did this in the bathroom with a tub of warm water at the ready.  I don't let the kids use paint very often and I was a bit nervous.  They did a great job and knew left from right with no problems.

 We kept working with our feet, tracing and cutting them out.

 The boys did the tracing themselves but I helped with the cutting.

 Once we had a pile of feet we did some measuring.  I let them tape the feet to objects so we could count how many feet we had taped on and compare which was tallest.

 They ran out of feet before they lost interest so I call this activity a success.

 Next we read "Marvin K. Mooney Will you please Go now!"  while it may not be the book Seuss is best known for it is a great story.  And the ending was surprise to the boys.  It is all about the different ways Marvin can leave.  The boys drew pictures of how they thought Marvin should leave, one real way and one imaginary.  Toby drew bumper cars (the real way) and in a hat (imaginary way).

 Then I let them watch the Lorax being read on my ipod.  Times like these I wish I had an I-Pad, but oh well.

 I had scratch and reveal paper, so the boys replaced the pollution with tuffula trees.

It was a fun, busy day and I am so HAPPY everyone was healthy finally.

Preschoolers, little bundles of interruption

Last week I started watching my nephews each afternoon, just for a few hours.  But this means loading up the girls and their school, having lunch with the cousins, and trying to finish whatever we hadn't gotten done in the morning (which last week was lots) with a 3 year old and a 4 year old underfoot.  The first few days were sketchy but I think we have it worked out.  Jelly Telly has a blog and once a week or so they they highlight some great family resources.  Last week they had a link to free fall preschool printouts.  That came at the perfect time for me.  I quickly used up all my ink and had three sets of worksheets ready to go.

 Soon They were gathered around the little table working away at what ever I put in front of them.

 Finger prints

 Scissors (she really does know how to hold scissors I don't know why she had them facing the wrong way)

Odin needed a little more help/instruction with most activities, but Aunt Coral helped, so it was fine.

Charry had the peace and quiet needed to concentrate.  Top is how she actually looked, bottom is how she wants people to think she looks, my little poser.

The worksheets worked so well I already have a pond unit printed for this week and Star Wars downloaded for next week.  We only spent half an hour or so each day just enough for Charry to finish a subject or two.  But having all the worksheets on hand was a big help.  If you're looking for something fun and simple to keep kids busy you should check out all the  Preschool Packs the gal at Homeschool Creations obviously put a lot of work into them so you don't have too.