The Art Box – no box week

 

The Art Box actually did come back out this week… because M was asking for it.  Thank goodness!  But he did so much non-box art this week, that I’ll save the rest for another post.

 

M’s Grandpa turned 76 last week and there was a small party for family.  M asked me that morning who was going to be there, then he proceeded to create a piece of art for each one.  And, amazingly enough, he remembered who was to get which one.  Ever since Valentine’s Day he’s really, really, seriously, been into creating little things for other people.  I LOVE it! :)

 

Most of these were drawings with sparkly pens, but there’s a watercolor painting in there too, and some marker drawings too.

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Later in the week, we were still playing the “there’s nothing to do” whining game, and I suggested painting.  Like in the old days before the Art Box kind-of-painting. :)  So I put a large piece of freezer paper down, some fun painting utensils, and a plate with paints neatly arranged… and this is what happened:

And I thought he was past the mixing it all together stage!  Apparently not! :)  He had a ton of fun doing this; I have to make sure we do it more often.

He created this masterpiece:

And this one, which is a row of sheep on a hill, or a caterpillar in grass (see the cotton balls along the top?):

Have some children’s artwork you’d like to share?  Link it up below, and make sure to include a link back here in your blog post! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Preschool Corner - Bunnies

M is 3.5 years old.

This week we had an impromptu bunny theme going on.  You can see the many (very good!) bunny books we read in this post.    

I created an indoor hopscotch on an old roller shade:

M loved this.  L-O-V-E-D it. :)  We had a couple of rainy days and it was the perfect game to play inside.  He’s actually gotten very good at hopping in the past week.  Just like a bunny! ;)  This was a fabulous gross motor skill workout – for both of us!  It also is a good help for number recognition.

After we played this a few times, he decided to get out our buttons and count them out onto the squares:

By the way, he really doesn’t wear jammies all day, every day.  You wouldn’t know that from reading this blog though (sigh).

We sorted these “If-Then” cards for The Runaway Bunny: I found these in a lapbook file at Homeschool Share.

 

As well as this patterning worksheet:

And this counting, cut and paste worksheet from Bry-Back Manor:

We also did a leftover Easter activity – a matching egg designs game: I believe this was originally intended to be a file folder game.  I’ve had this for at least a year if not longer, and think I originally found it at Childcareland (check out the free printables there!).  This time I gave all the mats and all the eggs to M at once so he had to sort through everything to find the right matches.  He did great of course, and most likely this won’t be coming out again.


Other activities this week…

Playing Bingo:
And lots of fine motor work, like sharpening crayons:
Sewing yarn through a foam tray:
Lacing beads (and drinking a smoothie):
Putting together elaborate Kid K’nex structures:
Punching holes in foam strips:Sorry the photo above is blurry.  I wanted to share this activity anyway because it was definitely a favorite!

And I put together this little cardboard rectangle and ponytail holder activity.  He really enjoyed doing this also (no action shot, sorry!).  Work those little hand muscles by stretching the elastic bands over the cardboard and pushing them down.  This would be fun patterning work too!  This idea came from Nicole at Mama to 3 Blessings.  She used a star shape; she’s much less lazy than I. ;)  
For more Preschool Corner posts, go here!

Have a beautiful day! :)