Erin's Preschool

Happy Groundhogs Day ~ love Erin

We started our week off with Groundhogs! We made these cute little groundhogs that would pop out of their burrow (paper cup!). We read Gretchen Groundhog who was so scared to "Come out" but after seeing that all of her ancestors were just as scared she is able to overcome her fear. Of course our favorite part of the book is that we have an Aunt Gretchen and Gretchen Groundhog is almost as cute as our aunt!

Erin had fun coloring groundhogs that I printed off of Enchanted Learning. She followed the directions and colored the holes brown, the shadows black etc. She loves having her own work!

Oh no! Six more weeks of winter!


Today we went to the Pickerington Library to meet with a naturalist from Pickerington Ponds who talked about winter animals. Erin makes me proud! She answers questions and actively participates.

"Do you wear fur in the winter to stay warm?" the naturalist asked.

"No I wear a coat," Erin called out.

She had so much fun feeling all of the different animal skins and seeing the skulls. There was a toad, Mr.T, who was adorable (never thought I would describe a toad that way!) and made his cute toad noises when he passed Erin.





Coyote and Red Fox








A beaver, check out the teeth!







Mr. T the toad!








The red fox






And last the black bear!

They finished the hour reading Bear Snores On which she was able to recount for Bill this evening.

We headed to the library this afternoon where she read her huge stack of books and then came up to me and wanted "a card to check out". She does not understand why she does not have her own library card yet. It drives her crazy! But she can check out her own books so she is almost ready for one.

After we got home the kids were working on a neat art project and Erin worked along water coloring.

That was her little week in a nutshell. When you add in her sugar cube castle and the ice sculptures that explains the next picture!

I had a really fun week but I am exhausted! Love Erin

Ice Art

Frozen and ready to create!


Warning: This is messy but so much fun if you don't mind food coloring all over everything! Another Crafty Crow project that tied in perfectly with our snow and ice theme from January. Sounds crazy that we are making more ice when we just had an ice storm!

Last week we mixed the water with food coloring in as many different sizes and shapes of containers. We put them on the porch to freeze and yesterday we finally got around to building our ice sculptures.

Paige and Erin mixing the water. Erin had so much fun making orange and green. It was a great lesson in colors!

Ready to freeze...

Half the fun was popping the ice out of the containers. Little bit of science and why the salt melts the ice and helped us reattach the ice.

Our creations....

Until they melt they decorate the porch!

Home Sweet Home

Lindy's sugar cottage


We were going to make the Rice Krispie Treat Cottages for Valentine's Day until I saw these sugar cube houses on The Crafty Crow. Lindy, Paige, and Erin spent all afternoon making their sugar castles. Paige wanted to make a castle without a roof so that she could make furniture to go inside. Erin opted for the castle too but Lindy wanted a cottage with a roof. Not eating all the supplies was a challenge especially for Erin! They turned out cute and we now have a little Valentine decoration for the kitchen!



A pile of sugar



Our decorations



I made the meringue icing that was suggested on the Web Site.
Glad I did, it was like paste and held everything well.
















Lindy worked patiently on this roof. She had a vision and
saw it through to the end.

Erin's castle with a red hot walk way.

Paige's castle

Paige's interior complete with refrigerator, table and

chairs, bed, and a potty!

Erin also made a bed and table and chairs

Our completed village!



Paige and Lindy with their creations. Erin was off buzzing on her

sugar high!

Icicles! Icicles!

Ethan proudly holds his treasure!


Ethan loves his icicles! He went running out the back door with no coat and barely had his shoes on last Friday. He was back in with this huge icicle that caught his eye hanging off the slide on the swing set. He promptly put it in the freezer to keep. That was tricky to fit without breaking a point!
He then returned later that evening from being out with Bill with an even larger one that they had taken down from one of the garage coach lights. This too has a home in the freezer. Not sure how long they will be part of the family but he checks on them regularly!

We need to measure this one!

Erin's Preschool

Erin and I started our week off reading The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This led to our own science experiment. Peter brings his snowball inside and keeps it in his coat pocket. In the morning it's gone! Erin and I made a snowball and put it in a bowl to see what would happen. Her theory with Peter's snowball was that a burglar had come in and taken it. She was pretty sure this was going to happen to hers as well. Every 10 minutes we checked to see how the snowball was. After 45 minutes the snowball was getting smaller and smaller.









All of the kids were so excited to see Erin do her experiment! They could hardly stand to not tell her what would happen. After seeing the pool of water and her snowball almost gone she very quietly whispered, "It melted!" To which there were loud cheers for her in figuring it out!

Paige and Erin discussing her snow findings.

We then moved on to sorting M&M's by color. Erin worked on this while we were studying New Jersey which we learned is where the Mars Co. is located, the maker of M&M's. She had so much fun doing this. Even though she knows all her colors it was still a great project for her. When she had all of the candy sorted by color she "filled orders" for the kids. They would tell her how many of each color M&M they wanted in their bowl and she would count them out. Great practice with counting, sorting, and direction following.

Ezra Jack Keats illustrates with collage and paint. The collage is often a torn paper look. To tie in our color theme, we tore construction paper in the colors of the rainbow and created our own rainbow. I used a big sheet of paper and drew a rainbow and then gave her a glue stick and she went to work! Paige likes to be her Preschool helper so she couldn't resist helping.

Art that is bigger than the artist can be challenging!

Erin finished her week snuggled up with Kyle reading books. Kyle needs to read to someone for his Reading Merit Badge so Erin has been benefiting and getting one on one time with Kyle. What a perfect ending to a snowed in week!