Gourd Festival and Our New Birdhouse

Grandma came over this morning and joined us for a field trip to the Gourd Festival at the local Shriner's hall.  It was her suggestion, so I'm glad she joined us!  I have to confess, I wasn't so sure about a building full of gourds when we first made the plans.  But, I am so happy that we went!

Who knew the gourd was so versatile?  There were baskets, decorations, jewelry, and so much more.  We really enjoyed exploring the different sizes, shapes, and textures, as well.  It was amazing!  The gourd that the divas chose was about the size of a small soccer ball and was hollowed out to function as a birdhouse.  It was plain, so we decided to bring it home and paint it; inspired by some of the beautifully painted ones that were displayed for sale.

My original plan was to purchase some acrylic paints, but the older diiva was so excited to paint it that she got out the watercolors and went straight to work on it when we got home.  I decided that I will buy some acrylic clear coat instead and seal it so that the weather does not ruin it.  When the older diva was done, the younger diva added her personal touch.  

Here is the end result. :)

I love the natural feel of the water colors and how the divas seemed to intuitively choose earth tones when they were painting it.

What a fun way to spend this overcast, dreary morning!

We purchased our gourd from a lovely husband and wife team who own Front Porch Gourds, LLC. If you are interested in purchasing from them, check out their Etsy shop!

Blessings!

Writing station

The older diva has taken a strong interest in letters and writing lately, so today I created a writing station for her.  She has been sitting at it, working quietly (well, as quietly as one can work when they are whistling while they work) for about 20 minutes now with no signs of losing interest.  So, I would say it's a hit!

With little room to create new spaces, I usually end up swapping out one station for another.  This time, I swapped out the art station.  The divas tend to drag all of their art supplies to the dining room table anyway, so I decided it wasn't worth a dedicated space for those materials.  Now, to figure out where to house the art supplies.  Ha!

The writing station is simple.  I used a free-standing file organizer that was a thrift store find for most of the materials, which left most of the table free to use as actual work space.

The items in the file organizer are:

- Alphabet tracing mats (I have dry erase crayons in a flower pot for use with these)

- Manuscript writing paper

- Alphabet stencils

- My Little Numbers booklet (great little freebie on TPT!)

- Envelopes

- Index cards

- Foil stickers that look like stamps

I also added this cute little Hello Kitty mailbox that I got for less than a dollar on clearance in the Target dollar section.

Next up on the blog this week will be the sink station I created for the younger diva.  Both girls are really enjoying that one! 

Blessings!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and our coconut tree!

Wow!  It’s been a while since I’ve blogged anything.  Life has definitely been crazy around here.  The mancubs and divas do a fantastic job of keeping me on my toes! J

Today, I’m going to share one of the literacy activities we have going on in the house.  I am a huge fan of the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book.  Don’t believe me?  Check out my Pinterest boards and you will see that I have one dedicated to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom alphabet activities!  If you are not familiar with it, I highly recommend you check the book out.  It’s a fun way to work on letter recognition and learning the alphabet.  I will share below some ways that we are using the book and the extension activities that we have created (recently and in the past) to use it as a multi-faceted learning tool.

A few years ago, we had a sweet little coconut tree in our playroom that I had crafted out of construction paper.  When we moved, I threw it away and have missed it ever since. So, last week, I decided it was time to craft a new one.  Our original Chicka Chicka Boom Boom coconut tree was much smaller than the new version, so I actually like the new one better.

 

I drew the trunk freehand by laying three pieces of brown construction paper end to end (portrait layout).  I used this pattern to trace the palm leaves.  I drew the coconuts freehand, as well.  Easy peasy!

I found the awesome alphabet letters that we added at Dollar Tree.  They are wall decals, so they can be stuck and re-stuck however the divas decide to arrange them.  I love that it gives the tree an interactive element.  The current arrangement of the letters is the older diva’s handiwork.  She really enjoyed the activity and wanted to do it again as soon as we were done going through the alphabet!

So, here are some of the ways that we use the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book and tree:

> Letter recognition (asking the divas to point to or name a letter)

> Rote memorization (singing the Alphabet Song, using the alphabet in the back cover of the book or by pointing to each letter on the tree as we sing)

> Letter sounds (point to letter and say the sound it makes; say a sound and point to the letter that makes the sound)

> Color recognition (what color is the letter…  This would work better with the tree if the letters were a better variety of colors)

> Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom sitting next to the tree and point to each letter as it is read in the book.

The possibilities are endless and the above is just a sampling of ways that we have used the tree so far.  I’m sure we will come up with more fun activities as we progress with learning our letters.

Don’t have a copy of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom?  Get one here!  Or, do like I did and check thrift stores.  I scored our copy at Goodwill for a whopping 59 cents!

Enjoy!