At the Blueberry Patch

 Yesterday the girls and I took a trip to Gelena Illinois to a blueberry patch in the Wooded Wonderland area. We didn't take the time to check out the other attractions like the country store or the sawmill, we we're far more interested in picking berries and by the time we we're finished it was well past lunch time and we had to go!

The girls and I had such a good time. I was surprised at how interested and content everyone was while picking the berries. Even Kiliegh, who happens to be frightened by a fly at the time being was pretty brave when it came to the bugs that she encountered. Plus, the weather couldn't have been any more perfect!

Vada went back and forth between her sisters and I, she was both helping to pick and eat the the berries!

Kerplink! Kerplank! Kerplunk!

"Look Mom, a blueberry!"

Kiliegh was very proud of all of the blueberries that she alone harvested, even with her baby sister swiping some now and again, she did get quite a lot!

YUM!

We ended up picking a gallons worth of blueberries but I didn't feel right about the little's who happen to do a great deal of snacking as we were stocking up, so I paid for a little bit more -it was worth it, these berries were delicious and the experience and time shared with all of my girls was irreplaceable.

All Things Blue: Day Three

We started today off with a reading exercise. 

This activity had three main steps to it. 

The first step is the introduction card. This card has the picture and it's matching word on it. With this card I point to the picture and say what it is and then I point to the word and read it out loud to Vada.

The second step is to hand Vada the picture card. This card has the same picture as the main introductory card but it does not have the word on it. With this card I say "Look Vada, this is the _________." and then I ask her to put that card onto the first cards picture.

The third step is to hand Vada the word card. This card matches the word that is on the main card. I read the word out loud to Vada and show her that it is the same as the original card by rereading that card as well and then I ask her to put it on top of the original card. Once we have gone through these three main steps, I then ask Vada to push them to the top pile or to put them away.

We've have done this same pre-reading activity on multiple occasions while using many different sets of cards, today we worked from a set that I printed from Homeschool Creations (one of my favorite go-to blogs for homeschool printable's and ideas).

Next we worked on color recognition for the color 'Blue'. We used Vada's Rainbow Sorting Crayons to do this.

Vada and I had a good time exploring the contents of the blue crayon container. Our favorite blue find, were these blue glasses...,

We both had to try them on. 

After going through the different blue things we went on to practice cutting. Yesterday, Vada and I worked on putting "blueberries" into a "pail" and gluing "blueberries" onto the letter 'B'. Today, we used loop scissors and with my hand over hers we cut around each project from yesterday and then pasted them onto a new colorful pieces of paper that will go into her journal at the end of this week.

After our cutting and pasting activities, I brought out some freshly home made blue "Gak". (To make some "Gak" for your kiddo's here's the recipe!) I also used blue fishbowl "jewels" that I found in the pet section at a local dollar store. I used this activity for a fine motor and sensory activity as well as a counting exercise.

I had Vada help me push the jewels into the Gak by helping her to isolate all of her fingers other than her index, or pointer finger, and then I let her dig them back out using her pincer grasp. After Vada pulled each jewel out she would put it into the cup as I counted them out loud for her.

Our next activity was a Do-A-Dot craft, using only the blue colored wand. I printed a mason jar coloring page from a Google search and had her "can blueberries", like Sal's mom did at the end of the book.

Our final craft was finger painting. 

I brought out blue and green paint and gave the green to Vada first, telling her that I wanted her to paint a bush for her blueberries to grow, just like in our book. I then showed her some of the pictures from the book Blueberries For Sal.

As she was painting I kept on encouraging her to keep painting, to make sure to use all of the paint and to put it onto the paper. I also let her know that I thought that her painting in fact did resemble a bush. I was being honest, I truly thought that she was doing a lovely job but I also think that this kind of encouragement is good for younger children, especially when doing school work and projects of any kind.

After Vada used her green paint I gave her a smaller amount of blue paint to use for her blueberries.

After all of the crafts had dried they all went onto Vada's "I Did That Wall" and eventually they will go into her journal.