A is for Airplanes

Yesterday's lesson began with reading

by Patricia Hubbell

It was a really cute book, with a good rhythm.  The Princess' seemed to pay attention and they enjoyed finding all the A's on the pages.  After we read the book we got ready for our "field trip".  We headed up to the Hill Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base.  I love that we live so close to something so cool.  This museum is just full of different planes, jets, and helicopters.  The girls had a lot of fun.  We got to have a little lesson on propellers and how they push the Air.  Eventually we ended up in their education center, where the Princess' played with some blocks and mini airplanes, while daddy played on a flight simulator.  One of the volunteers then asked us if the girls would like to get in a little airplane....Yeah, of course we did!

(you can sort of see the little airplane in the background)  They reminded me of the flintstone's car, but with pedals.  Very cool!  

Accordian

Today's A lesson was the Accordian.  Since Daddy-o is the musician we had this lesson when he was home.

The best part of this is that the Accordian uses Air to be played. So we got another review!  When I asked the Princess' how they thought it worked Princess V examined it and then discovered it uses "GAS....AIR GAS!"

Then we found a fun youtube video with the accordian and a musical saw that the Princess danced around to

Aerobics and Air

Tuesday we talked more about the letter A, and then did some aerobics.  Princess C rarely is still, so she does "aerobics" every day, but I was able to get Princess V to follow a youtube video and do some aerobics.

She makes me smile.  I love that Princess C eventually made it over too.

Wednesday we talked about Air.  I pulled out some balloons and we had a review on what we put into a balloon "GAS" they yelled!  Air is a Gas, so guess what we're putting in the balloon?  We then swung our arms around in the air, and just "felt" the air.  Following that, we blew up a balloon and I let them really feel some air as I let it out on their hair.  They thought that was pretty fun.  Last we ended with a balloon race that we found HERE.  I didn't get video since I was busy attaching the balloons and letting them go.

Letter A

We're going to start doing a letter a week.  Each days activities will somehow incorporate that week's letter.  This week is A.  Today we just did an introduction.  We looked at a capital A and small A, then practiced writing them.  Here's Princess V's work.

Princess C and I worked on the chalkboard, with me guiding her hand.  I then wrote a bunch of different words on the chalkboard, and had the girls find and underline both the big and little A's.  Last we ended with a little Apple math.  The look of "AH HA" on Princess V's face when we did this was so warming to me as a parent.  I drew 3 apples on the board.  Princess C helped me count them.  Then I drew a + and one more apple.  I asked Princess V how many Apples we had now...answer 4 ("Hey that's just like me!").  Then I showed Princess V how it looks in number form.  We added one more to 5 just for fun.  Princess C was with us, but she likes to do her own thing, so I'm not sure how much she got out of it.  

This is my tentative plan for the week - 

Tuesday - Aerobics

Wednesday - Science: Air

Thursday - Music: Accordion and Alto Saxophone

Friday - History

Saturday - Airplanes with a trip to Hill Air Force Base museum

Any suggestions would be appreciated.  I'm not really sure what we'll be doing friday, possibly some history lesson, maybe something else.

Princess C

Princess C makes me smile.  Especially when I go in her room to find this

She fell asleep with the ukulele.  This girl loves music.  Music starts playing and she starts dancing.  Last week she walked around singing a little song about instruments.  "I play guitaaarr.  Venice took the croowwn.".  She's inserted other instruments such as drum, flute, violin.  I really want to get her into some kind of music lessons, but most don't start until age 3 at the earliest.  So we'll just continue encouraging it at home.

Baking Science

Today, thanks to Elizabeth, we baked Science.  She left me a link to www.scienceforpreschoolers.com, where we found a recipe for Irish Soda Bread. It takes the concept of mixing baking soda and vinegar and bakes it into bread.  So before beginning our "experiment", we made a predictions.  I reminded the Princess' about yesterdays balloon, and then asked them what they thought would happen to the bread.  Princess V predicted the bread would "POP!".

Mixing the bread

 ready to bake the bread

eating the bread

What did we learn?  The bread didn't pop like Princess V predicted but "It popped INSIDE the bread!!!".  We examined the air pockets left inside the bread and thought it was pretty neat that the vinegar and baking soda still made gas, it just got stuck in the bread.

We'd love some more ideas for Science projects you may have.  Join us tomorrow as we celebrate Veterans Day!

Balloon Experiment

Thank you Anne over at Some Kind of Wonderful for todays Science Experiment.  It tied in nicely with yesterdays yeast experiment.  We got to talk more about gas and how different chemicals mixing can turn into gas.  Here is our vinegar and baking soda balloon!

Put 1TBS baking soda inside balloon.  Pour 4TBS vinegar into bottle. Without spilling baking soda into bottle, stretch the balloon over the bottles opening.  Then dump the baking soda in and watch in amazement. 

A special thanks to Aunt A for helping dump so I could get some pictures!

Science Week

The planetarium at Weber State University has free science saturdays once a month.  This last saturday was the first I heard about it, so we went.  It took a bit wandering around the wrong building, but we didn't give up, and eventually found it (thanks random student for pointing us in the right direction).

Princess C checking out prisms

 Rubbing of a dinosaur fossil

 Checking out the cougar..."How did he get in there?"

After looking at the displays, we went to some of the "classes".  The Princess' learned about germs with flashlights (so gross!), and they brushed their teeth with a dinosaur.  Princess C even chewed a purple tablet to see the germs left in her mouth.  Then we went to what we thought was going to be a star show, and instead was a video about why science.  It didn't really hold the girls attention, but I was able to feed Princess R in the dark, so it worked out well.

They gave us a bag with a science experiment in it.  So that is what we did today.  It was a yeast lab.  We added the same amount yeast, baking soda, and salt to a test tube.  Then added varying amounts of water and put a balloon over the top.  When the yeast ferments it is supposed to give off gas and fill the balloon.  I'm not so sure we did things right, but we're still giving it a couple of days just in case.

Excitement getting it ready!

 not so exciting waiting for something to happen.

I would welcome any comments and suggestions on some experiments to do the rest of the week!!

Primary Talk

Princess V gave her first Primary talk yesterday!  She was asked to give it on service.  Thanks to some friends, I got the idea to have her color a picture to hold while giving her talk.  She did excellent.  We talked about service all week, and I finally came up with a short talk for her that incorporated what we had been discussing through the week.  She did great.  She was so excited to give a talk and "talk in the microphone".  When she said the last line she smiled big and gave a little happy jump.

"Service is love.  Jesus taught us to serve and love our neighbors. 

I can serve my neighbors by taking them cookies.

I can serve my family by cleaning up my toys.

I can serve others by being a good friend.

When I am older I can serve the Lord by going on a mission.

Giving service makes me happy."

We even took the time to curl her hair with a curling iron for the first time ever!  I love this girl! 



Princess Masks

Last night Princess V told me she wanted to make a prnicess mask.  Since we were on our way to bed I told her we would in the morning.  I don't know why this specific project had me so excited but it did.  I started envisioning making masks equal to those in the movie Ever After - A Cinderella Story.  Keep in mind ours were made by a 4 and 2 year old.  However, I think they ROCK!

Really?  Can you get any cuter than this?!