Only at Gigi's House

 

 Yes...that would be a tower of toilet paper!  Why didn't I think of that.  The fun never ends around here.  The best part is no one gets hurt and nothing breaks. 

Silly Sentences

I purchased this game years ago and used it in my classroom as a center activity.  Recently I brought it out for my son and he cracked up making silly sentences.  It reminded me of another activity I used with my second graders as an independent center using a file folder and index cards.  So we recreated the game this week.  Great for writing and reading!

Using a large piece of construction paper glue down 4 pocket envelopes.  Write or print out the words: Who, Did What, Where and When and glue one on each envelope.  We decided on a color for each group and began brainstorming words for each category. Came up with lots of ideas for each category - one idea per index card.  Then you can switch up your cards and make new, silly sentences.  Color code the top of the index cards to make it easy to form the sentences. Examples:
WHO:  The beautiful mermaid or The scary pumpkin or The hairy spider
DID WHAT:  had a party or climbed a tree or flew
WHERE: in the hot lava or by the jungle
WHEN: at midnight or on Halloween or on my birthday.

Have fun mixing up the index cards to make silly sentences.  You can have your child write their favorite sentence and illustrate it.

Summer Adventures Week 4

This was a big week for swimming...we have finally turned a corner and my son now LOVES the pool.  I guess we will be spending more time in the water!
Some of our highlights this week included:

Toothpick and gumdrop creations!  Hours of fun! See what structure can hold the most weight?  Which one is the longest?  Tallest...etc.

 Making and playing with playdough never gets old.  Our neighbor (age 12) loved making it!  Here is the super easy recipe:        http://mrsodaniels.blogspot.com/2010/08/playing-with-playdough.html They divided up the dough and made their own color by adding food coloring.

More adventure walks and climbing trees.

We continued reviewing sight words, played a dice game that covered numbers to 1 to 100, and made our own Silly Sentences.  

Summer Adventures Week 3

One of our highlights this week, besides the 4th of July, was vising our  Lafayette Community Garden!  They offered storytime, yoga stretching and planting activity for the kids.  After it was over we walked around the garden.  The boys helped harvest the beets.  They collected 15 pounds!  If you have not been...it is definitely worth checking out!   http://lafayettecommunitygarden.org/

We had a taste test when we got home from the 3 different varieties of beets.  The response I got was, "No thanks" after trying each one.  At least it was fun to pick them!  

We took advantage of the Summer Movie Clubhouse $1 movie and saw Turbo.  To top it off we ended it with a Slurpee and mustache straw!  Check out this link for the movie schedule:  http://www.cinemark.com/summer-movie-clubhouse

We continued with swim lessons, sight word games, July calendar,  visits to different parks, and celebrated the 4th of July!  Another successful week.

Happy July

Calendars are a great way to practice writing numbers, create patterns and talk about events happening that month, week or day.  We post this and cross off the days as we go.  We review the days of the week:  "Today is ...".   " Tomorrow will be...".   "Yesterday was..."  The art is white glue designs sprinkled with glitter to create fireworks in the night.