Bees and Honey

I thought it would be fun to do a unit on Bees since it's Spring, and we are going to be seeing bees...maybe...if it ever stops snowing here in Wyoming. We read this fabulous book about a bee.
"The Bee and Me" by Elle J. McGuinness. This book is fun with it's "Animotion" pictures and lots of bee facts in the back of the book. Did you know that all of the worker bees we see are females? The males are called Drones, and they stay in the hive with the queen bee to make babies.

Then we made Peanut Butter Bumbles

Ingredients:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I had to add 2 extra tablespoons.)
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs softened butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
chocolate syrup for drizzling
1/2 cup banana chips
a handful of mini chocolate chips
Wax paper

Mix the first 4 ingredients. Roll into oval shapes. Drizzle with chocolate to make lines. Add chocolate chips for eyes, and broken banana chips for wings.

Yum! (Basically they are a peanut butter ball with bling.)

Then we tried some honey. They like it.

And then we watched "Bee Movie."

Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit just reminds me of Spring, so we did a few activities that involved Peter. We read the story of Peter Rabbit. The girls each have a stuffed animal bunny that they brought with them to hold while we read.

Then we found a printable that fit perfectly. You can find it HERE.


We also watched the Peter Rabbit Movie. I tried to google it but I keep finding a different one. But HERE is a link to a scene from it.

Then we had lunch, and made sure to include lots of vegetables from Mr. Mcgregor's garden!
I also colored and cut out some of the printable for my self! :)

More on Spring

This was actually a family home evening lesson. We talked about how a seed grows. We talked about the things a seeds needs to grow. (Dirt, water, sunlight.) We talked about things a plant might grow into. (A flower, a tree, a bush, grass.) I had this coloring activity from my Primary Partners manual help. We colored them when we were all done, while eating a snack of apples...that grow on a tree...that come from a seed. :) But first we did this:

My husband and I found these cute little green houses at Walmart in the gardening section.

They were very easy to do! All you had to do was add water and plant the seeds.

We also planted some pansies in paper cups. I will update you on the progress of our plants! :)

Play Dough

Ingredients:

1 CUP FLOUR
2 TEASPOONS CREAM OF TARTAR
1/4 CUP SALT
1 CUP WATER - ROOM TEMPERATURE
1 TEASPOON OIL
FOOD COLORING

Directions:
Stir all of the ingredients into a pan and cook over MEDIUM heat until smooth. Once the Mixture is cooled to the touch, lay the dough on the counter and knead until it becomes firm. This dough can be saved in an airtight container. Play Dough will last longer if you place it in the fridge.

I got this recipe from HERE. I thought it was a really good recipe. The only problem I had was the heating it on the stove part. You aren't going to cook it for long...3-4 min. The bottom started too cook, and the top was still soggy. But I just took it out, and kneaded it, and it turned into play dough anyway!

Another good tip to making play dough last longer is to put 1-2 drops of water onto the play dough before sealing it in air tight containers.

Working on Numbers and Spring

I did a little test to see if the girls really did know all of their letters, upper and lower case. They do!

But now it's time to really work on numbers with them. We are doing the NUMBERS PACKETS again.

I've been putting off a unit on Spring because we haven't really seen Spring here. It's still very much winter! But with Easter just around the corner, I figured I couldn't put it off any longer. We talked about the seasons and how they change. We talked about Spring, and what happens in the spring. Then we went outside to find hints of Spring. We found a few flowers!

We also colored a picture of a bird feeding her babies.

This is a paper that I got from the school-meaning the school that my oldest is going to be starting this fall. She already knows how to hold a pencil, but my youngest needs a little work. This has helped her a lot!