alphabet blocks

We are reviewing the alphabet this month and I thought it would be fun for Ella to make her own alphabet blocks.  I bought photo cubes (in the scrapbook aisle of Michael's) to use for this project.  For each letter of the alphabet, Ella affixes an alphabet sticker and draws a picture of something that begins with that sound.  I add the word for her because the print needs to be small.

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head

I'm not usually attracted to plastic toys - but there are exceptions . . .  I love Mr. Potato Head.  There is something really cool about all of the possibilities that those funny bulbous bodies and all of their limbs offer.  Today, Ella and I dumped out the Mr. Potato Head bucket and had fun sorting and counting body parts before we started a Mr. Potato Head assembly line.

trying something new

Last year, in the classroom, Ella rarely ventured into the block area.  Housekeeping was pretty much where she wanted to be each and every day.  Now that she is in a home setting this year, I thought it might be nice if she had an opportunity to check out all that blocks have to offer.  I have a decent set of unit blocks and two sets of natural blocks (that still look like the tree they came from).  We've been talking about houses and I asked Ella if she'd like to try building a house for some of our dolls and animals.  She came up with this gorgeous "tree house".  She was really engaged for almost an hour, arranging and making patterns, deciding where dolls and furniture might go.

Piggies by Audrey and Don Wood

Today we read one of our favorite books - Piggies by Audrey and Don Wood.  It's such a playful book with lovely full-of-detail illustrations.  When we finished reading, I gave Ella some piggies (that I found in a February 1999 issue of Mailbox magazine) to watercolor.  As we waited for them to dry, we painted her hand and made a handprint.  Once the watercolor paint dried, Ella added details to the pigs with colored pencils.  We cut the pigs out and added them to the fingers on her handprint.

house of cards

I have such fond childhood memories of creating elaborate card houses all over my grandmother's living room floor with my brother.  Yesterday we made card houses from card stock . . .  I pre-cut colored cardstock into 6 x 3 sheets and then cut half inch slits around the edges.  Ella decorated the cards with stickers (you could also use markers or paint) before building her house.

the dollar store comes through again . . .

I ran into the Dollar Tree for a tablecloth and came upon these cute wooden plaques with ribbons attached for hanging.

Ella and I looked through magazines for pinks and reds to cut out and collage.  Once we had a nice pile we applied a glue and water mixture to the surface and then started adding the magazine pieces.

Ella applied a second coat of glue/water and we let it dry overnight.  The next morning, we added a photo of Ella and she spelled out her name with alphabet stickers.  One more coat of glue & water finished it off.  And for only $1 she has a cute name plaque to hang on her door :)