April 3rd-5th

April 3rd
Today is National Find a Rainbow day.  Here is hoping for some showers to bring out a rainbow.  But if all else fails, we can use crystals or water, mirrors and light to make rainbows.  We are going to read Minnie's Rainbow which explains how rainbows are formed.  Then we will try to make our own rainbows.  If all else fails we can color some with crayons or paint, or maybe with chalk on our new chalkboard from Christmas.

April 4th
Little boy R is off from preschool this week.  I think we'll work on our letter book series- starting with N today.  For little boy A- I have a Sesame Street Alphabet book from scholastic. 

April 5th
It's National Read a Road Map day!  I remember my first real road trip was in the spring of '89 when I went with my Aunt and Uncle to Florida and Disneyworld.  I remember kind of looking at maps then my older cousin Jimmy helping to explain them to me.  Later that summer, we started our move across country from Labrador to Alberta and by the time we hit Ontario I was bothering my parents so much with "where are we now, show me on the map!" that they bought me my own road map atlas of North America for the rest of the trip.

My boys might be too young for those types of road maps just yet, but I am going to make a map of the backyard for them to help label (to learn about the concepts of maps) and then maybe they can make their own "maps"- be it of something imaginary or real.

April 1st & 2nd

April 1

Happy April's Fools Day 

Do you partake in any little silliness or pranks?  Swapping out salt and sugar is always fun.  I remember covering some toilets with saran wrap when I lived in university residence.  And then there was the hallway full of glasses of water.  I don't know if I'll try any pranks with the kids- my oldest would probably understand, my middle wouldn't and well the littlest one isn't even walking or talking yet so let's not get him involved.  I am however, going to read The Emperor's New Clothes to the boys.  It's a funny little prank the tailor plays and it also fits well with the fact that April 2nd is Hans Christian Andersen's birthday. 

April 1st is also one cent day.  Celebrate the penny!  First off, we pick up a penny when we see it because we believe it will bring us good luck.  Some other ideas of activities to do with pennies:

1) How many pennies make...? 

Find your change jar and shake out the pennies and a quarter, a dime and a nickel.  Ask your child how many pennies makes a quarter?  a dime?  a nickel?  Since I want to work on numbers to 100 with my oldest, I will also be adding a loonie coin and we'll count out 100 pennies and then group them into 5's, 10's and 25's.

2) Penny rubbings

Use sticky tack, tape or glue to attach a couple of pennies in a random order on a thick piece of paper or cardboard.  Next, cover the pennies with a thinner sheet of paper and use a crayon to rub across the faces of the pennies under the paper.  It works best if you take the wrapper off the crayon and put it long side down across the paper.  Try to make sure you put some of the pennies face up and face down on the paper so you can make rubbings of both sides.

3) Make your own penny
Using orange or brown construction paper have the child draw a circle like a penny.  It doesn't have to be to scale.  Have them cut it out and decorate it if they want.

4) Penny Drop

You will need some pennies, a jar and a chair.  Place a jar on the floor behind the back of the chair.  Let your child stand on the chair and drop pennies from that height and see how many of their pennies will end up in the jar. 

5) Find the Penny

Hide pennies throughout your home or room.  Please be careful if there are young children in your home or in your care, do not hide them where these children may find them and put them in their mouths.

April 2nd

Happy Birthday Hans Christian Andersen!  It is also International Children's Book day.  Celebrate by reading a favorite book from your childhood to your children.  I plan on combining the two by sharing the story of Thumbellina with my boys.  It was a favorite story of mine as a young girl and it is one of Hans Christian Andersen's.

Edited to add pictures.  Enjoy!