C is for Cashier

For our second C Community Helper we talked about Cashiers.  We see cashiers all the time, and we never think much about them.  We probably take them for granted really as it isn't a very glorified position, but we do need someone to do the job!  We decided to bless the cashiers at a small store here in town with some cupcakes we got while we were grocery shopping.  They were quite surprised!

I also set up a little store for the girls in our living room.  I took a few of their toys and grouped them with a price tag in front of each group.  I set up an area for the cashier and set out their little shopping cart for a more authentic experience.

 One got a pretend $20.00 bill to shop with while the other was the cashier.  Obviously they needed a lot of guidance with this activity. But with help we were able to practice greater than and less than to determine if they had enough money.

And some addition when adding prices.  They added prices when they were shopping to make sure they had enough, and the cashier added prices too.  I had the cashier draw dots to represent the cost of each item; then they counted the dots for the total. Most of the time they made sure to spend all their money, so no subtraction was needed.

They kept playing until the store was empty!

Milkweed Babies

 Our Bible story this week was Sarah and Abraham and the birth if Isaac.  Again this story is familiar to the girls, but I did try to talk more about Sarah and how she would be feeling during it. This is something I am going to try to do as much as possible, in hopes that the girls will learn to see how others feel and learn to empathize. Since the main point of the story is the fulfillment of God's promise for a baby, we made babies!

I actually found these cute little milkweed babies a few months ago, and have kept my eye out for a chance to use them (and for some milkweed)!  This past weekend while driving I spotted some milkweed, and of course made Nathan turn around to grab some.  Amazingly my mom had these huge acorns that would work perfectly for heads instead of the little wooden balls. They even looked like they had hats on!

To make the bodies I looped a pipe cleaner around to form a tear drop shape.

 I used yarn to wrap around the pipe cleaners. I started by hot gluing one end of the yarn and then wrapping, gluing where needed. I went over mine twice to make sure it was all covered.

Then I nestled it into my milkweed pod and hot glued on my head,

Obviously when I let the girls make theirs I did the hot gluing, but they picked out their supplies and wrapped their yarn.  They wanted pom poms for their hats too.

They loved the little babies even wrapping them up in blankets.

Even Eli wanted one, but only if it had the pom pom on its hat. He seriously wouldn't take it without the pom pom. he handed it back to me and pointed at its hat. He was quite happy with it once he felt it was complete.

I think they turned out pretty sweet, and we still have plenty of acorns for Bria to feed to the squirrels. I just hope none of these have Acorn Weevils in them!

C is for Chef (or Cook)

Our first community helper for the letter C is Chef.  I had to tell the girls it started with a C though because of the ch- blend, so Cook works just as well. The girls did know exactly what a chef (or a cook) does, so that part was easy.  They always love helping cook. that would be an obvious activity, but instead I decided to let them play around with some of the tools needed to cook with.

I started by making them paper chef's hats and having them put on aprons. (All except Eli who doesn't have an apron, and won't leave a hat on.) To make the hats I just stapled strips of white paper together to make a band the size of their head then folded three sheets of paper lengthwise like an accordion, stapled them together, and stapled them to the band.  Nothing fancy here!

I put out some small pots, water, measuring cups and spoons, whisks, and a bunch of spices I have had since I was married (you know the ones that came with the spice rack but never used).  I threw in a little sugar and flour too.

They had so much fun sprinkling and measuring and whisking.

 They actually played the entire time I made dinner! I asked them to try their creations because I could tell they were definitely over seasoned. Bria liked hers (I have no idea how), but Nadia did NOT! Maybe she at least learned a little goes a long way with some spices.

Luckily they helped clean the giant mess too, without being asked (a miracle)!

Letter C Sensory Bin

This week we move on to letter C! Our letter C bin was really easy to put together; apparently there are a ton of things that start with C! The girls easily came up with car, cat, cow, carrot, and corn.  I threw in a camera, the letter C book, the singing magnet and foam letter C's.  I could have kept going though; cookies and cupcakes came to mind (but when aren't they in my mind)!

Eli enjoyed exploring it; especially the cars.  His little motor noises are so cute!  He was quite interested in the book this time as well!

I know he isn't learning a whole lot about the actual letters, but I can't help but think he is making connections somewhere in his brain to use later!  

For more sensory fun (including all previous letters) visit my Sensory Page!