Square Lacing

I used an old diaper box (we have way too many of these hanging around) and cut off one of the top flaps. Cut that in half, then used a hole punch to punch circle holes all around the perimeter of the square. Then I took some yarn taped one end to the cardboard and with the other end I wrapped tape around it. The boys loved lacing their square cards and was amazingly the longest activity of the day!!

Tuesday: Squares

We started this activity by reading about squares in one of our shape books. Then we had an exemplar and sang a square song
This is a square, this is a square.
How can you tell? How can you tell?
It has four sides, All the same size.
It’s a square, It’s a square.
(found HERE).
Then we went on a square hunt using the exemplar.

More Changes

So I want to start a monthly topic share. This will be outside of what I "normally" do but rather an opportunity to explore an idea more in depth and hopefully get lots of ideas to use in our mommy schooling endeavors. This topic can be used as a jumping off point for activities this month or just a way to gather a lot of ideas on the topic to use through out the year. Comments are a great place to add your ideas.

This month's topic SQUARE!

What are some ideas to learn about squares?


Here are some of our posts already written about squares.

Easter Crafts

DLTK's Site is a favorite resource for fun crafty activities to do with my kids. They have a ton of great ideas. This weekend we are having an early Easter Celebration with the grandparents and some of the cousins (wish you were here....). I decided to find some fun easterish activities to do with the boys to get them introduced to the idea of Easter Bunnies and egg hunting. I found templates on the DLTK site for an Easter Egg Mosaic and a bunny hat. So, I got out the craft supplies and we made some Easter crafts!!

We first did the Easter Hats. I printed out the ears template and let the boys color them. Then they helped me cut them out and I let the one waiting continue to color their ears. They did a much better job with coloring when they were cut. Then I taped two halves of a piece of white card stock together and let them color that. Then I taped the ears onto the hat, and taped the hat around their head. They love their bunny ears.

Next we did the Easter Egg Mosaics. First I cut the egg template out. Then, I pre cut strips of colored card stock for the boys to cut from. We took turns choosing a color and then cutting 'squares' out of it (reinforcing yesterday's learning). Of course not all were squares but this is only their third time using scissors. I helped them and said open, close, open, close.

(forgive the clothes, hair and makeup less face...., oh and the mostly naked children....)
Thing 1 opened his mouth along with the scissors each time I said open :)

Thing 2 got a very concentrated look on his face.

I let him try to open and close the scissors by himself and was a little afraid of loosing some fingers....thus the look of fear on my face. No worries, no one was harmed while using the scissors ;)

After cutting their 'squares' out I covered the egg with glue stick. Then they could just stick their 'squares' on. It was nice to have one gluing while the other cut, keeping them both happy and occupied. After they were all finished I put three strips of clear packing tape over their egg to keep the pieces on.

Here are the proud boys with their completed projects!!

(Thing 1 was a little concerned that his 'squares' kept falling off, but some packing tape solved the problem and now I don't have to worry about their little sister finding a bunch of 'squares' to put in her mouth....)

I think this was a very fun, successful project. I will be reading them some stories about Easter, and Christ and talking more about the Easter Bunny this next week.

Squares

Today we learned about squares. I checked out a video from the library that taught shapes (along with colors, and some numbers but my focus was for the shapes). I also checked out a book on each of the shapes- triangle, square, circle. We have previously talked about shapes and they know a heart and star, and Thing 2 can sometimes identify triangles, squares and circles. During an hour and a half drive we watched the shapes video twice. The boys seemed to enjoy it (although for an adult it can get a little annoying ;). After we got home we read the square book -'Squares: seeing squares all around us' by Sarah L. Schuette. The boys enjoyed finding the squares in the book and I think it helped them to be able to find the squares in everyday objects. After the story we got out our special finder glasses (found in the dollar bins at Michaels) and we went on a square hunt! We went to every different room in the house to find squares.



I was really impressed by some of the things they found. Thing 1 found the squares on our tile floor, Thing 2 found the squares on the washer and dryer. It was a lot of fun. After our square hunt I printed out a square picture found on this website. I also tried to get them to trace an outline of a square but we aren't there yet. I plan to continue to help the boys identify squares all around. I am not sure if I will introduce circles tomorrow, or if we will just continue with learning about squares until we hit mastery.

Tuesday: Squares

Tuesday we sponge painted. In particular we used square shaped sponges. I had a large square sponge and a few smaller square sponges. I held up the big one and reintroduced her to the word square. Then asked to make squares on the paper. She seemed to enjoy it a lot.