We are almost done with our school year. What I mean by "almost" is that tomorrow is the last day of school! It will have been 182 days of learning, adventures, memories, and family-oriented fun. I truly love teaching my children; about life, the Lord, and 'book' learning, too. Now that we are "almost" done, I will have time to blog about all that we did...well, okay, not ALL. A few glimpses, more like it. I mean, I want to enjoy the summer sun as much as they do- and get my revamped schoolroom into tip-tip shape for the upcoming 2013-14 school year this fall.....when I will be teaching a 2nd grader and a (gulp!) Kindergartener! I cannot believe my babies are this old, already... Pink Elephant is about to be 5 in July. How? When? WHAT? :( Bittersweet....yet, I am so excited to walk through Kindergarten with her. Can't wait to be there for her lightbulb moments, discoveries of new things, new ideas, new truths. I've been blessed to see her learn to read, already. (Totally unexpected and self-directed, I just followed her lead!) BUT I'm getting away from my original thought. (Not hard to do, if you know me! LOL).
OKAY! Now, what you've all gathered here for..... pictures of my beautiful little elephants. I mean, that IS why you're reading, right?!? Yep, I thought so! Here are a few things we did this year....
Part of our reading curriculum this year was an Eric Carle Unit...and I just can't resist the opportunity to turn something into a craft!
My budding reader...SO proud of my Pink Elephant!
The Very Lonely Firefly required a puppet show, of course!
Of course, we had to love on Stripes in the middle of things....
During our USA Exploration, I wanted to study the Iditarod in Alaska. We couldn't find a copy of "Balto" ANYWHERE....to rent, to buy, Netflix, nothing..so, we made our sled-dog snack and settled on "Eight Below"(set in Antarctica) which the kids loved!!
Blue Elephant went up to his room to play after the movie, and then came back downstairs with this....his own sled dog team, made of legos! I love the little lego man riding on it. Also, I happen to adore the little Elephant who built this.....
More Eric Carle, this time with a snack for The Grouchy Ladybug. I used this book as a spring board to discuss "politeness vs. rudeness" with both the kids. This is a hard to grasp concept for BE; with his ASD, he has to learn how to be mindful his tone and choice of words. I think the book helped him understand a lot!
Our USA Exploration brought us to Idaho the week before Easter, so I thought some springtime potato stamping might be fun.... (we also made mashed potatoes together, but that was a different activity, and hey...you'd rather see a cool potato stamp than a pile of mashed potatoes, am I right?!)
My favorite painting buddies....
Yes, I had to do one, too... what is parenthood but re-living your childhood through fresh eyes?
Another Eric Carle activity... I'm telling you, we did about 10 EC books this year, and I loved every single one! The kids looked forward to craft/snack day each week, almost as much as I did! For The Foolish Tortoise, we decorated (gluten free) pizza crusts to look like Tortoise Shells! :)
No, there isn't cheese, either. We've all learned to adapt to the GFCFSF diet...pizza is just a fun privilege, no matter the lack of dairy! :)
Pink Elephant enjoying her tortoise shell pizza.....
I leave you with a shot of my sweet Blue Elephant. This has been a 'slice' of our school year as a whole. Thanks for stopping by....be looking for our "last day" celebration pictures, soon!
I love my elephants!!
