Julie and I recently decided to try having a super fun, abnormally awesome day for our kiddos. We've been wanting to try some "Theme Days" inspired by The Poe Family blog (link on my sidebar). We settled on Bug Day as our first try at this, and it was a great success! I don't know that I could do all this on my own but it was actually pretty simple working together and dividing up the work--finding ideas, books, supplies, etc. We were glad, though, that we weren't being evaluated on our "teaching." Things were a little disorganized and we were interrupted by babies. There was quite a bit of downtime between activities. :) Oh well--Sophie and Ori had a fun day, and so did we!
We had a bug craft that Julie found online.
Julie and the kids went outside for a bug hunt. I stayed in with the babies and cleaned up from the craft. I guess they had tons of fun out in the crazy wind! My dainty girl also dug up a junebug. Go, Sophie! She was the proud keeper of the bug container.
We had a bug lunch. This was one of my favorite things. Julie also found this idea online. Who knew you could paint the bread for your grilled cheese sandwich? (melted butter mixed with food coloring)
Ori's beautiful lunch. You wouldn't know he mashed a hole through his bread with the paintbrush. It grilled quite nicely.
Sophie's lunch. Can you tell what color she liked? And don't call it red--it's PINK.
For dessert we made ladybug cupcakes. Poor Ori has such a mean mommy that he didn't seem to know what to do with his unfrosted cupcake. ;) My girl was anxiously awaiting permission to dig in to her treat.
We ended our activities with letting them play in shaving cream. It didn't really have anything to do with bugs...they pushed some plastic bugs around in the shaving cream, and I showed Sophie that she could write letters in it (like "b" for bug) but she didn't really care. I was surprised with how much she liked this! I thought she would think it was too messy.
Above is a picture of the bug books I found in the three big boxes of books I used to have in my first grade classroom. A delightful mix of fiction and nonfiction. :) We had to paraphrase the nonfiction quite a bit, but the pictures were the coolest part anyway. Such a fun day! I'm really glad we gave theme days a try. Looking forward to the next one! We already have some ideas...
6 comments:
You guys are awesome... What a great idea. I wish I had neices and nephews to share my days with. I might have to get some neighbors involved!
I didn't know you taught 1st grade! Something else we have in common! :) Love the bug day. I may have to try some theme days this summer!
How fun! Looks like so much fun! I checked out the blog you mentioned and wow. Makes me feel like a loser :) So much I could be doing with Kate, should be doing with Kate... do you ever get overwhelmed like that? I see what other moms are doing and then feel bad that I haven't done this or that...blah.
How fun!! I think I will borrow this idea either at playgroup or with a little girl that we get together with quite often.
what a great idea! You are so creative!! :)
Cute. It looks like you and Julie are playing "Day Camp" or something!! :) You two are so creative. Way to go moms!!
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