Fish Week!

I just can't seem to surpress the teacher inside... So I've decided to do a few theme weeks with Lily. Last week was Fish Week and both she and Wade really seemed to enjoy it! Wade had some school delays and would join us when he was home, and the other days, he would come home in the afternoon asking what we did and if he could do it too. I took that as a good sign!
I would pick a book for each day, then we'd do an art activity, a math or some other type of game and a sensory activity. Or any combination of just two of those, depending on our schedule and the attitude of the two-year-old in question. Here's what my "lesson plans" looked like for Fish Week:

Day 1: Rainbow Fish and Swimmy by Leo Lionni

We painted our very own Rainbow Fish on bubble wrap

Then Wade decided to add a background. To which, he painted his hands, made more fish and did some diagramming.

Very proud of his "masterpiece"

Our completed Rainbow Fish, each with their single sparkly scale

Then we played with water beads. Making our own aquariums and just pouring and re-pouring and pouring...

A shark in his aquarium

Oh no! Water beads on the loose! FYI- they REALLY bounce...

These are not water beads. They are the fish bowls we made with Jello and red Swedish fish.

Wade's fish face

 Day 2: 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Counting out goldfish for snack time

Handprint fish!

Then Lily wanted to make a collage

 

Love her concentration!

All her completed artwork. Notice my handprint on the top painting, I had to make a handprint fish too!

Magnetic fishing game. This one was very cool, both kids enjoyed it.

 

 Day 3: Pout Pout Fish and the Big, Big Dark (you can also find this story on YouTube set to music, it's pretty cool and very catchy)

We made spiny starfish with rice and added seashells at the bottom.

Then I showed them what pearls were and they added a pearl bead into one of their shells, just like Ms. Clam in the book.



Very proud of her starfish

(Ms.) clam snacks!



Then we made ocean slime

Ours was pretty sticky. And I was a little overzealous with the green, so our ocean was mostly dark green. And it stained our hands.



  Day 4: The Very Silly Shark (a pop up book we have, that has lots of ocean creatures in it)

Fish lunch!

Making octopus's (octopus' or octopi??)  with 8 legs and 8 noodles on each leg

 

Lily's finished octopus- with a pretty good face too!

 

Jellyfish in a bottle. I just made these and gave them to the kids. They're ok. The pictures online look better than they actually are. I think they will not be missed when they find their way to the garbage...

 Day 4: Fish Out of Water and Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni

Counting out fish to put into each "fish bowl"



Contact paper and tissue paper aquariums. She's really not a fan of doing this for some reason, but I really like it!

And they sure look pretty on our windows!

 We ended Fish Week by watching Nemo and eating a few more fish snacks that involved frosting. Very appropriate, I think, plus it gave Momma a little break ;-)

Next week is Winter/Snow/Ice week! Super excited about that one and I hope it goes as well as this week!

Lego club

So they have TONS of stuff to do for kids at the local library. Lily and I will usually go to the story time during the week, which is about 45 minutes and includes multiple stories, songs and a craft. Last week she got to make a princess crown. She. was. in. heaven. And it really completed her outfit, don't you think?

They also do a Lego Club on Friday's from 3-5 pm. Perfect time to grab Wade from school and head over. Lego Club is actually just 5 large Rubbermaid tubs filled with Legos placed in a play room. But, I have never seen this many accessible Legos in one place. And the kids LOVE it. At first, I thought it was just for the older kids and took Wade by himself. Come to find out, it's basically for all ages as long as you don't mind the constant, "No! don't put that in your mouth!" that comes along with the babies that are a little too young to be in amongst the little tiny building bricks. So, Wade begged me to bring his sister from then on (I thought maybe he'd enjoy a little time to himself- wrong) and she has a blast too. It's a really nice change of pace and something that gets us out of the house and meeting new friends.

Garden of the Gods

We finally crossed another thing off of our list of "Things to do/see in the Springs or Woodland Park that everyone has told us to do/see."

 

Garden of the Gods. I have no idea what the history or geological explanation for this awesome place is. I only know there is a lot of really huge, very cool rocks. With a trail to walk on and signs that say, "Unless you have the proper climbing equipment and experience- STAY ON THE TRAIL." No worries, we stayed on the trail. Mostly.

 

Lily- look at me & smile! Ahhh so it's going to be one of those kind of days...

Now that's better

Back to square one. I will look at you, but I will NOT smile.

Someone had made little snowmen and placed them along the fence. So cool.

The one place that I let them off the trail, as the danger of breaking a bone or falling off of something seemed to be minimal here