Badges

Apple Pie, Apple Prints, and Apple Trees!

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Today was our apple day! 🙂 We made some pie first thing this morning with the kids! Bug and Pup washed the apples, and Bunny learned how to put the crust in the pie plate. Then all of the girls got a chance to peel the apples and cut them up. I also let them mix in the sugar and cinnamon, and make the crumb top! They had fun and it was such a great practical life project! 🙂

While our pie baked, we made apple prints. Now as a mental note to myself NEVER DO THIS AGAIN!!!! I think I said this to myself the last time I tried this project, but I mean it this time! It is such a fun idea, but unless you are a able to cut the apple exactly straight, it just doesn’t work. If you try this without having great cutting skills (like me) you will end up with red and green blobs that don’t look like apples and some disappointed kids! 🙂 They did have fun putting the paint on the apples however, so it wasn’t a total fail! 🙂 Here are the pictures of our apple prints.

Finally we walked down the road to the an apple tree that just happens to live by the street! Talk about perfect! The girls were really excited about seeing the apples growing! I made up a song about the life cycle of an apple that we sang as we walked. The girls really loved it! Bug even remembered it later on! Music is such a great way to help kids remember information! If you want to sing our song I will write it at the end of the post! 🙂 Here are the pictures of them observing the tree. I took along our recycled crayons so they could do some rubbings! This was a hit too!

Life Cycle of an Apple Song
Sung to the song Farmer in the Dell
The farmer plants a seed
The Farmer plants a seed
Hey Ho What do you know?
The farmer plants a seed.
The seed becomes a seedling
The seed becomes a seedling
Hey Ho What do you know?
The seed becomes a seedling
The seedling grow into a tree
The seedling grows into a tree
Hey Ho What do you know?
The seedling grows into a tree.
The tree grows a bud
The tree grows a bud
Hey Ho What do you know?
The tree grows a bud.
The bud becomes a blossom
The bud becomes a blossom
Hey Ho What do you know?
The bud becomes a blossom.
The blossom becomes an apple
The blossom becomes an apple
Hey Ho What do you know?
The blossom becomes an apple
The apple grows a seed
The apple grows a seed
Hey Ho What do you know?
The apple grows a seed.
So there you have it! That about wraps up the apple activities that I have planned! 🙂 I am trying to keep my weekly projects simple so I dont get overwhelmed! Today was almost too much for me! I did tell Bunny that she could earn her Apple Badge by telling me what she learned. Here is her report on apples! I think she learned more then I knew!
Here is her new badge! 🙂

Sewing Badge!

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Well as many of you may be wondering, Bunny still is working on a badges. She really wanted to learn to sew a while ago, and after much thinking I decided to help her learn to hand sew embroidery first! She needs a few more years of growing till she is big enough for my sewing maching! I started her slow with holes punched into fabric to string yarn through, but this was way to easy! So I drew a disign out on a cloth napkin for her to sew in and out, then to fill in the gaps she went back through it. She loved  it!!!! She did all four corners, then she started to sew some dsigns on squares of fabric and has plans to make a quilt. I am amzed at her ability and her love of this work! I found her the other morning, sitting in her PJs in a piles of pillows, sewing away! 🙂 As she has moved forward in this she has learned how to do a running stitch, and a satin stitich. She also has drawen her own design! I am really proud of her and I cant believe that this is something she is loving. Bunny is easliy frustraed and I thought that this was something that would be hard for her to stick with, but it has turned out to be a ralxing expirience! Who knew! Here are some of the pictures of her work! I havent gotten pictures of her quilt squares, but I will add them when I get them taken.

Here is Bunny sewing. Most of the time she sewed while I was sewing!

Here is her first project fininished! She loved it!

Here is a close up!


Here are my girls sewing together!

Pup wanted to sew really badly too, so I got her some plastic canvas and yarn. It took awhile for her to master putting the needle through a hole and pull it through.

She did it! I love this look of discovery! 🙂

This was her finished project!
This is the detail pictures of Bunny’s finished napkin. She gave it to her Grandma to decorate her table! 🙂

I think she did such an amazing job! I love that she put so much work into this and that it is somethig she enjoys doing! I hope that she will enjoy it for a while!

School Plan 2011-2012

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Like I said a few days ago that our cupcake study was my trial run for this year’s school plan and I think it will work out really well! I have made a list of badges that she can earn during the year as she chooses. I found the basis of this idea on The Crafting Chicks. There are some in all different subject areas, math, language, science, art, geography, history, and other random subjects that we might feel we need to hit! 😉 I have a ton of badges that can be earned, some will take a few days like the cupcake one, and some may take alot longer. Bunny is really excited, I am really excited, and this this will give us the freedom to study what we have a fancy to while still being able to show a little of everything for records! I know that this idea is not completely Montessori since she didn’t believe that children needed or wanted rewards, but this is where following the child become more important. Bunny is very goal oriented. She love a finish line and to earn things. This just a part of her personality. So I am going to tap into this talent she has to stay focused on her goal. Once she finishes I have a bulletin board in the main hallway of our house for her to display the ones she has earned (the calender was there, but that has moved down to the school room).
Here is our “Learning Badges” board!

Here is the” cupcake badge” and her “swimming with swimmies badge”!
So far my plan for badges are this:
Math:
Golden Bead Addition
Golden Bead Subtraction
Golden Bead Multiplication
Golden Bead Division
Stamp Game
Bead Stair Addition
Bead Stair Subtraction
Teen Board
Tens Board
Money
Telling Time
And any other math works she gets to
Language:
Letter Sounds (more of a review. She knows them, but I want to be sure)
Double Letter Sounds
Writing
Reading short words
Reading a book
Labeling
And any other
Geography:
Maps/ Directions
Landforms
Biospheres
Africa
Asia
Australia
Antarctica
Europe
North America
South America
United States
Ohio
Science:
Matter
Air
Water
Light
Energy
Electricity
Magnets
Gravity
Sound
Simple Machines
Universe and Stars
Solar System
Rocks
Layers of the Earth
Plants Habitats
Plants or flowers
Care of the Earth
Food Chains
Invertebrates
Insects
Vertebrates
Mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fish
Other Badges:
Sewing
Story Writing
Color
Dance
Time Periods (she can choose something we are reading about)
Any other ideas she comes up with!
So this is my plan. I really hope that she will choose a few from each category. I know that we wont even get to half of this and I am sure that Bunny will come up with a million ideas of her own! 🙂 This I hope will really make a good year for us! Next year we will for sure be hitting the Great Lessons and I cant wait! But this will be a ton of fun too!
For Pup I am keeping it really simple. I will make trays for and Bunny as usual, but I don’t know that they will have a definite theme! She will do those and work with more sensorial material. I also will be starting more beginning reading work (eye spy, letters, etc) and I will do a sound a week. I want to make her a sound basket for each week. This is my plan. She may LOVE it or she may not be interested at all! 🙂 We’ll see!
 So this is my great plan for our 2011-2012 year. I don’t think I will be starting for a few weeks still. I really wanted to get to the zoo again and some other things before the summer is over. But I think that we will be starting sooner rather then later!
What is your school plan for this year?

Cupcake, Cupcakes, Cupcakes!

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Recently we got a book out at the library called Tina Cocolina. This book is about a cupcake who is trying to find her topping. I must admit that it is not well written, nor is the content particularly good, but for some reason it captured Bunny’s imagination! She has thought about all the details of this book. She has even drawn a picture of Tina and made up a story with both of them in it! 🙂

So I told her that she could earn a cupcake badge! She was SO excited about it. The goals to earn the badge were that she needed to read a book (or I read it to her), make cupcakes, and write a report. She did all of these things really well and I think that there was alot of good learning that happened! I was happy about that because this was a test to see if my idea for next years school will work. Here is what we did for our cupcake badge:

Bunny did almost all of the work of making cupcakes alone!

After that we learned about the 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup, and the 1/3 cup!
I also taught her about a teaspoon and tablespoon!

We also experimented with the different measures in some beans!

She frosted them by herself too. This was tricky for her. I think I see a work in this! 🙂

Here is the finished cupcake, topping and all!
 The frosting was a strawberry buttercream and was amazing!

And here is her report!
I am really proud of her! I think she did a great job, and now we are both really excited to start our year with this new plan! I cant wait share it with you all, but you will have to wait a day or two till I get it all together! Stay tuned!