La la la la....

This was a huge project us mommas got ourselves into, but it turned out way better than we imagined. We spent weeks learning lines, music, and motions. And the kids, too - ha ha. 

One of the local churches graciously let us use one of their facilities to host this musical extravaganza. We invited all the kids' families to come watch. I think the grandmas and grandpas truly enjoyed seeing their babies sing their hearts out.

Our musical had 5 songs that we learned with lines in between each one. Each child got to have a few spoken lines. We had "grumpy" characters and thankful ones to teach them the meaning of Thanksgiving. That's me on the ivories accompanying them.

We had a guest co op join us for our musical, too. This pretend preschool group performed one song all by themselves and then they joined us again for the last one. They were all SOOOOO cute!! They are all about the same age as Ben, so he helped them out.

Each family brought a few dishes and after our musical, we had a delicious pot luck lunch.

We decorated the tables with Mayflowers, pine cone turkeys, some crayons, and coloring sheets.

I know what this guy was thankful for!!

Weather Center

To conclude our sky lessons, we went on a field trip to the local weather center. Hector was so gracious to  give a power point lesson, answer questions, and take us on a little tour of their center. The kids learned about what to do when the roads are flooded and if there is a lightening storm.

They loved it when Hector answer the question incorrectly and his little friend got struck by lightening.

Hector then showed us a weather balloon and explained how it worked. 

One of the kids asked about tornados, and he just happened to have a tornado maker that he pulled out. 

 Everyone got to touch it, too.

Watch out!! Tornado spotted at the Weather Center.

Then, Hector took us into the room where all their information streams to and from. He showed the kids their computers and how they send out signals to the city. 

Thanks, Hector. We loved our weather lesson. 

Sky - Week 5

Theresa did this week's lesson about sky scrapers. What a fun idea! First, she gave the kids some sky scraping vocabulary and rules of the sky scrappers. 

Notice how none of the kids are sitting next to a sibling and that the boys and girls are segregated? 

We pretended her door was a sky scraper and talked about everything it must have in order to considered a sky scraper.

Then, she passed out pictures of different buildings a we voted weither we thought it was a sky scraper or not.

Then, we built our own sky scrapers out of mega blocks. First, we discussed which would be the best base to start with. 

 Each team was giving a different base and then set to work building.

The babies even got involved in this activity.

And lastly, we tried building sky scrapers out of marshmellows and toothpicks. It's harder than it looks. Remember those strong triangles.

We might just have some engineers in this bunch.

Sky - Week 4

The pictures from today are missing most of the girls from our group due to doctor's appointments and another not feeling well. :( Part of life, but still a bummer. 

Wendy taught our sky/art lesson today. She started off by reviewing the kids on the color wheel and the two sides it contains...Warm and Cool Colors. After a short review she had them place paint chips on the correct side of the color wheel.

After that she showed us a variety of pictures and paintings that either had primarily warm or primarily cool colors and had the kids tell her which on it was. There was one photo that we all thought was really awesome with both warm and cool colors.

We moved to the table for the next activity creating a warm and cool color window. There were a variety of colors for the kids to choose from. They tore pieces off and glue it on one side or the other creating a "cool" window pane and a "warm" window pane.

Wendy had us do another project with chalk pastels. There were puzzle pieces with a "C" or "W" to indicate if they should use a warm or cool color. The kids used a color(s) from the correct palette to add to their puzzle piece, then the used their hands to blend them and cover the piece. 

There was a little mess involved... their hands and noses aren't normally that color, I promise. :)

Here are the beautiful works of art they created when we got them all put together. 

(please pardon the blurriness of the warm color tree...I was trying to hold back my 16 month old from attacking it...real life here people)

I think it was a tie on which one everyone liked best.

Wendy had the kids come sit down to read a story about the artist Degas. I'm not sure what they were looking at in the particular picture. (possibly because I was distracted by my youngest son walking up behind them, sucking on a hand soap bottle...remember...real life). Anyway, their faces crack me up. Any idea what you were showing them here Wendy? 

Here are what the miniature homeschoolers were doing during the lesson. Kara was even reading to them, so sweet. Thanks Brandy for keeping up with them today!

Sky - Week 3

On week three of our sky lesson, we got to meet at the park for Cheri, our fitness expert, to talk to the kids about how our body uses the air around us. She passed out different respiratory vocabulary words printed on mini lungs. When she used one of the words in her lesson, the kids with that vocabulary word got to hold up their lung. 

(I really don't think Julie was confused. I think the sun is just right behind Cheri, making it hard to see.)

Next, we got to see who held the most air in their lungs by breathing into party blowers and seeing who could hold theirs the longest. Moms won that one. Must be because our lungs are bigger.

The kids felt the weight of a bucket of water. So what happen to our lungs if we go deep under water? 

True to her trade, Cheri had the kids measure their breathes before and after different exercises. Why did you breathe faster after you exercised?

Then Cheri spread out lots of red balls to represent oxygen. The kids had to pick up a red ball, run it to a bucket filled with blue balls (carbon dioxide), and swap out a blue ball for their red one. 

Couldn't end our lesson without a little teamwork hand huddle.

Sky - Week 2

Our co-op has mini members, too. They don't show up very often in the pictures, but I did get one sitting in our circle this time.

Brandy started her lesson by reading the kids this book about clouds and how they are made. 

She taught about the water cycle with this chart and a song we sang to the tune of She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain.

Then we got to make our own cloud: boiling water, a match, and a bag of ice. The hot air in the jar and the cool air of the ice mixed to make clouds that we could touch with our fingers. 

Next up, getting an egg into a jar, but not without wishing one of the moms, happy birthday, first. 

The lit candles went into the jar with the egg attached. The warm air expanded, then as it cooled and contracted, the air pressure pulled the egg into the jar. Am I getting this right? 

Time to get the egg out. This one didn't really work. We think the jar was too small. But it was fun watching Brandy blow into the jar. 

Then we made cloud charts with cotton balls. 

And we got to take home cloud viewers to decide what type of clouds were in the sky. Unfortunately, yesterday, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Maybe another day.

Sky - Week 1

And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And is was so, God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning - the second day.  Genesis 1:6-8

Last week, we started Creation's Day 2 Theme: SKY. Jenny started our theme with a cooking lesson. We made sky jello.  First, we had to make heavy cream and blue jello. Nice that Brandy had a kitchen aid mixer. It had to stir a LONG time.

We layered jello and heavy cream in our cups to make our cloud snack. 

Jenny taught the kids the second verse of our creation song and a little on how clouds are formed. She read from two books and had a Creation coloring page for them to complete.

After all that, our snack was ready to eat. YUM!!!

The mommas put some of that cream in our coffee. That was even yummier!