Yellow

Little M&M is 22 months old

Discovery Bucket

For this week's color unit I used a bright yellow bucket, and filled it with various yellow things from around the house. I sat down with Little M&M while he explored it, and we talked about what everything was. I answered each "what's this?" descriptively with the word yellow before it. "That's a yellow bus." "That's a yellow car." "That piggy is wearing yellow clothes." Etc.

Silly boy!

"Catch."

He returned to this often throughout the week.

Yellow Coloring Page

I printed off a coloring page of a duck for him and supplied him with a yellow dot marker, regular marker and crayon. He enjoyed the variety of medium and was sure to color the eye!

Paper Plate Sunshine Craft

We made a simple sunshine this week using paper plates. Honey Pot joined us!

Once the plates dried, we taped on strips of yellow paper as rays. Honey Pot enjoyed using tape instead of the usual glue.

Ta-da!

Pom Pom Sorting

We like to do one activity in which we review each of the colors we've learned so far. So this week we did so with pom pom sorting! I decided to use our new cookie cutters, which Santa bought them for use with playdoh and cookies. But these worked perfectly for this game too! He began by using a pretend spoon, then just used his hands. He did incredibly well! As he picked up each one, we said what color it was.

He even wanted to play again later!

"Hot cereal."

Aaaand then he wanted to play a third time. So proud of him!

Which is Yellow? Game

Later I collected groups of three objects and asked him to identify the yellow one.

We were in Honey Pot's room...

He did great!

Yellow Bath

I don't have pictures, but we concluded our unit with a bath tablet again this week! The kids love these!

Bonus Question!

How many times did you spot Bubble Puppy in this post?? It's Little M&M's new lovey. Neither of my kids had ever had one before. Thanks, Santa. He's so cute with it.

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Christmas Advent Calendar - Part Two

We had such a fun Christmas season this year! We kept busy with games, crafts, etc. each day leading up to Christmas. To see the first half of our advent activities, click here! And here is what we did during the second half of the month:

December 12: Christmas tree craft
December 13: Have a "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" party
December 14: Visit [local park] for Christmas lighting, cocoa and carolers
December 15: Make bubble wrap Christmas trees
December 16: Drive around to look at Christmas lights
December 17: Play Christmas Actions Game
December 18: Bake cookies
December 19: Read The Night Tree and make bird seed ornaments
December 20: Decorate our own "Night Tree"
December 21: Make a paper plate wreath
December 22: Watch "The Polar Express" movie
December 23: Make paper bag reindeer
December 24: Make reindeer chow, and bake cookies for Santa

Christmas Tree Crafts

These were part of our Christmas tree unit. To view the full descriptions, click here!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas Party!

This was a wonderful theme! The kids had a blast. Click here to see the full party!

Pin the Heart on the Grinch Game

Grinch Slime

Christmas Actions Game

I came across these cute action cards from Oopsey Daisy, and I wanted to make a fuller game out of them. So I created my own game board in Photoshop Elements.

First, Honey Pot rolled a die, and then she drew a card from the pile. She needed to complete the action described, then she could move her pom pom that many spaces. Her first card said, "Spread your branches like a Christmas Tree." So here she is doing that.

Here she is after drawing the card that said, "Run like the gingerbread man."

Little M&M played with us too! Here are the both of them "prancing like a reindeer."

What an incredibly fun game! Honey Pot requested this a few times during the rest of the Christmas season. We'll save this for next year!

Night Tree and Bird Seed Ornaments

One book that we read last year really stuck with us, called Night Tree, by Eve Bunting. In it, a family has a tradition where they decorate a tree in the woods with bird seed ornaments, popcorn garlands, fruits, etc. so that the wildlife may enjoy a Christmas feast.

We love the idea! Since our kids are still young, we decided to just start with bird seed ornaments. Here is how they came out:

We followed the first recipe from this site, and allowed them to set overnight. Then we hung them on the branches of a tree nearby for the birds. I can't wait to go further someday with all the decorations mentioned in the book!

Paper Plate Wreath

This was a fun craft for Honey Pot! First she tore of bits of green crepe paper.

Then she painted glue onto a paper plate...

...and stuck them on!

Once she was happy with how it looked, we crumpled up red crepe paper for the berries. She counted how many berries we made in all before gluing them on.

Then I stole a small red ribbon from our Christmas tree (we had tons, anyway) and tied it onto the bottom. I love how this came out!

Paper Bag Reindeer

I found this image on Pinterest a while ago from Spoonful, but the link doesn't follow through to the craft. So here is my inspiration:

First, we traced Honey Pot's hands for antlers. Then she glued on all of his facial features. We used a red pom pom for the nose so we could make Rudolph!

Then we used tacky glue to adhere a few bells!

Ta-da!

Once it had all dried, she was eager to play with it! These are always such a hit. Do you remember Honey Pot's frog puppet?

As a matter of fact, Little M&M enjoyed playing with this puppet too. So much so, that it is now nose-less, ripped and crumpled. I see paper bag puppets in his future!

Reindeer Chow and Cookies for Santa

On Christmas Eve this year we started a new tradition. In addition to leaving cookies out for the big guy, we sprinkled some reindeer chow out on the lawn as well. First, Honey Pot and her little cousin mixed together some oats with red and green sugar crystals. (The original idea that I found here uses glitter, but we wanted something more environmentally friendly, so we omitted it.)

When they had mixed everything together, everyone bundled up and went outside to spread it around the front lawn. They really seemed to enjoy this!

And Honey Pot and her Pops whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies to leave out for Santa!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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