Learning with the Octonauts

 

We don’t watch a ton of T.V. at our house……enough for sure, but not a ton. However there is one little show that my kids discovered and after previewing it…..I found that I kinda like it too.

The Octonauts are a crew of eight adorable animals who explore the ocean in search of adventure and fun! From their undersea "Octopod" base, the eight talented critters (including a valiant polar bear, daredevil kitten, and big-hearted penguin) are always ready to embark on new exciting missions. The show is actually very educational and teaches the kids a lot of underwater sea facts that qualify it as “educational” T.V. in my book 

So I beyond thrilled when Carisa released The Octonaunts Kindergarten Printables. This was the perfect way to start our summer learning!

We started by reading the names of each of the Octonaunts and matching them to their picture on the easel.

Then we decided which was our favorite and wrote a sentence about it.

Next, we cut out and assembled our early reader.

We also found the easy reader on the I-pad that went with our book.

We also practiced writing the names of each of the characters.

For Ava, I wrote the names in yellow and let her trace over my letters.

Finally, we worked on our money skills. The kids are learning the names of the coins and their values. We used this activity along with our money poems bags I made up for Zachariah. Each time, he finds a coin, we add it to his bag and recite the poem.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly Fun

A few months ago, I bought a hands-on kit to teach the children the life cycle of the Butterfly. One day after pulling up the house, the children discovered this on the front porch!


Inside were 5 LIVE caterpillars crawling all around.

This was truly a miraculous transformation. I have had textbook knowledge of this process my entire life, but watching it happen before my very eyes made me once again appreciate the wonder of God’s creation.
We combined our learning with a TLC Art Project.
Of course the very first stage is the little egg of the leave.


I did not get a great picture of the chrysalis stage, but here is Zachariah’s interpretation through art.

About a week later, we woke one morning to find this beautiful butterfly and 4 of his friends waiting for us at the breakfast table.

After we watched them and fed them for 3 days, we invited some friends over and released these beauties into Nature.



And this little guy wasn’t sure he wanted to go…..

This was a super fun way to learn about one of many of God’s creatures!

Kicking Off Summer!

“Oh Mama, wasn’t it wonderful that Nana could join us?” was what Ava had to say after our latest adventure. 
The TripleSmiles had a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the end of another school year at The Great Wolf Lodge.

I have wanted to take the kids for a while and finally had a great opportunity to go with some friends and their grandaughter whom Ava has friended lately. To say they had fun is a complete understatement, it was a BLAST.

After a long first day in the water it was time to head to the lobby in our PJS for a bed time story.

But back in our “kid cabin” no one was really ready for bed at all…….

Until…..Nana read us all a Goodnight story.

The next day was another full day in the water and sun and by the end of the day we were totally wiped out. 

While we were packing to leave, Zachariah already had visions of our next adventure in mind…..