Our Zoo Visit

We spent this past week at the beach. It's an 8-hour drive, which can feel like an eternity with two small girls. We left out early and spent the day at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, which is the halfway point. Thankfully, the girls were exhausted from our zoo adventure and slept the rest of the way to the beach!

It was hot, really hot! This thermometer was actually in the shade...I don't want to know the actual temperature that it was in the sun!

We spent a little over 5 hours there and only tour the continent of Africa.

The first animal that we saw was the ostrich...

There were suppose to be giraffes and zebras in this exhibit, too. But, they were not there at this time. The entire 5 hours, Izzie begged to go back and see the zebras and Mac kept saying, "Me want see giraffes!" Lesson learned: Don't mention the animals that are "suppose" to be there!

Looking for the lion...

Found the lion...sleeping in the shade.

They both loved looking at the map! Izzie was fascinated by trying to figure out where we were on the map by locating the pictures of the animals that were close to us.

Making silly chimp faces!

Seeing the newest exhibit, the Swap Ghosts.

We've been to this zoo before and really enjoyed it. This trip, it was hot...the animals were scarce due to the weather, it was crowded, and we were miserably hot. Thankfully, the girls enjoyed playing on/with the statues throughout the zoo, which helped!

Checking out the rhino...

And the elephant...

As we were completing the African continent circle, heading back to the entrance, we saw...

Mac's giraffes!

And, Izzie's zebras!

We did have a great afternoon at the zoo, even if it was miserably hot!

Our only family photo at the zoo and I didn't double check to make sure it turned out...oops!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I'm a huge Eric Carle fan. I absolutely adore his books. We own many of them and I read them to the girls frequently, so there's no surprise that many of his books have become their favorites too! At the moment, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, is Izzie's favorite bedtime story. During the day, I've caught her playing caterpillar. She'll wiggle around on her belly (she's a caterpillar, of course!) and munch everything in site. Then, she'll crawl under our big fuzzy brown blanket (her cocoon) and wait, wait, wait...then, she'll burst out of her cocoon and spread her arms (wings) and fly around the house, chanting, "I'm a beautiful butterfly!" Repeat. And, repeat. And, repeat.

So, to jazz up the day and to let her rest her wings, we decided to create butterflies!

Decorating a coffee filter with Dot Markers.

Place a pipe cleaner in the center to complete the beautiful butterfly!

Advent Day 3: Noah's Ark

The girls are really enjoying our nightly Advent activities! This evening, they were ready to roll right after dinner...Izzie grabbed the Bible binder and Mac got the Bible!

After reading about Noah's Ark, we placed our special ornament, The Ark, on our Jesse Tree.

Izzie colored a Noah's Ark page...found here.

Then, she retold us the story using her sequence cards.

I found this adorable Noah's Ark skipping counting activity. Izzie had fun lining the animals up in the correct order to get on the ark!

This was also a great review for her Skipping Counting by 2's song!

In addition, she completed this Noah's Ark file folder game.

She had to sort the animals...she did very well with this activity with my simple explanations. I told her that mammals have hair, birds have feathers, and reptiles have neither.

However, she was confused about why a bat is a mammal...

Izzie: "Mommy, bats don't have hair! They have wings, so a bat is a bird."

Me: "Bats do have wings, but they don't have feathers...they actually have body hair."

Izzie: "Ummm"....(I don't think I convinced her!)

The whale also gave her problems.

Izzie: "A whale is a fish. Where do fish go?"

Me: "That's a tricky one! Whales are mammals."

Izzie: "Whales don't have hair, that's silly! A whale is a fish!"

Me: "Nope, whales really do have body hair, so they are mammals too."

Izzie: "Ummm"...(again, not convinced!)

stART: Mouse Shapes

For Izzie's stART project this week, we read Mouse Shapes.

She made an awesome abstract piece of art out of shapes!

To see more stART projects, head over to A Mommy's Adventures!

stART: If I Were A Lion

Izzie is studying the letter "L" this week. So, for her stART project, we read, If I Were A Lion. It's a cute book about a little girl who has to sit in time-out. While there, she let's her imagination run wild...pretending to be different animals.

Izzie really wanted to use scissors for her craft....

Ummm...as you can see, she's still having a difficult time cutting. However, she really likes using scissors! I did find these Maped Koopy scissors with a spring that are super easy to manipulate....but, she still needs some more practice.

So, while she was punching out the little circles, I quickly cut out a non-destroyed circle before she noticed.

On to gluing the mane...then, adding face features...

The completed lion....GRRRRR!!!!

Be sure to stop by A Mommy's Adventures to see more stART projects!

Letter "L" Crafts

This week, Izzie is reviewing shapes and working on the letter "L".

We had a blast reading books about llamas! We read an old favorite, Is Your Mama A Llama?, which Izzie really enjoys! She loves guessing the mama for each animal after listening to the clues. We found two more books about llamas, Llama llama Mad At Mama and Llama llama Misses Mama. Both are super cute rhyming books and have become bedtime favorites this week.

Izzie's capital letter "L" llama...made out of shapes (rectangles, squares, and circles).

And, her lower-case letter "i" lollipop!

Oops! This is what happens when a newly turned 4-year old is given the entire tube of glitter, while, Mommy is hoping to get a great action shot!

Letter inspirations from Totally Tots!

stART: I Wanna Iguana

For Izzie's stART project, we read I Wanna Iguana, which is the cutest book that I've read in awhile! I laughed and laughed as I read the book to Izzie for the first time. Then, when my husband came home, I begged him to read the book with me...meaning he had to pretend to be the little boy and I was the Mommy. With some hesitation, he agreed and within a few pages into the book, he was chuckling too!

She created a capital letter I to look like an iguana. Inspiration from Totally Tots.

To see more stART projects, visit A Mommy's Adventures!

Math Links: Graphing

Recently, Izzie has been very interested in measuring objects around the house with her ruler. However, she refuses to allow me to show her how to properly use the ruler. So, I decided I would at least teach her the concept of measuring.

I found this fabulous book, Inch By Inch, which tells a story about a little inchworm, who was getting ready to be eaten by a bird, but was able to talk his way out of being lunch by showing the bird that he was important because he could measure things. The book then shows illustrations of 5 different animals that you can measure with any unit because it does not state the correct measurement.

I found these adorable inchworms (not truly an inch in measurement) that were labeled 1-10 for Izzie to use to measure the animals. As you can see in the above picture, the number 2 inchworm is missing..."she" is pink; therefore, Izzie had to hold her, the inchworm, the entire time!

I created an Inch By Inch Graph (Microsoft Word) for Izzie to record her data.

The completed graph. I liked Izzie being able to see the results in a bar graph. As we analyzed the data, she was quickly able to determine which measurement was the longest, shortest, the same length as another, etc.

I created another graph (Blank Graph), so she could measure various objects around the house and record the data. However, after the book, she was done "measuring" for the day...

Visit Joyful Learner for more math ideas!

Science Sunday: Biomes

This week, Izzie has been learning about the different biomes around the world. To introduce the vocabulary, I printed off pictures for each biome and laminated each onto construction paper. I added a color coordinated biome name. She enjoyed matching the name tag with the correct biome picture. We talked about the different features of each biome and she really liked telling everyone that we live in the Deciduous Forest biome with all the pretty leaves!

I found these two packs of flashcards at Target in the $1 section. They're really nice and heavy flashcards with a lot of information about each animal on the back.

I found five animals that live in the Tropical Rain Forest and five that live in the Savannah. Izzie was able to quickly determine which animals lived in which habitat.

We discussed why each animal lived in that particular habitat....introduced the term, adaptations.

To see more Science ideas, check out Adventures in Mommydom!