B is for Bear

Kate painted a cardboard cave for her bears to hibernate.

They look so cozy in there.

Kate tried to fit in another cardboard cave, but it wasn't big enough for her, so she moved on to an end table covered with a blanket.

She made a bear craft and enjoyed a bear snack.

Reagan felt like hibernating too.  Maybe it's all this cold, snowy weather, or maybe hibernating just sounds like fun.

B is for Bears Part Two

 Kate did great sorting counting bears by color.  She knew exactly what to do, and went right to work!  She would even look closely at the orange and red bears to make sure she didn't mix them up.

We played with the bear family puzzle some more.  I tried to read Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? while we worked on the puzzle, but she wanted no part of that book.  She has strong opinions about books, and if it does not appeal to her right away then there is no way that it will be read.  She pulls the books she disapproves of out of my hands and puts them away!!!!  Reagan was like that, but not quite as bad.  Tyler and Collin would have let me read War and Peace; for them, I think it was more about being held.  They didn't care what I read to them, as long as I would hold them.  My girls like to be on the go, and will only sit for books they really want to hear!

Kate had some bear sensory play with bear shaped ice cubes.  She LOVED this!!!!!  I found this bear ice cube tray at Ocean State Job Lot and thought it would be fun; now I am so glad that I got it!  They also had apples, cats, dogs, and peace signs, all of which I got for less than two dollars total.

 Kate immediately made an observation that the ice was cold.

 She likes that Teddy Bear Counting book, so she let me read it, but she insisted on counting the bears herself.  She can count to ten, but she doesn't really get the 1:1 correspondence thing yet, so usually she insists there are either two or five of everything.

 She liked putting the ice bears into this little cup and then dumping them onto different parts of her body.

 This gave me the opportunity to tell her that ice melts and turns into water.

 Time to go refill the bear ice tray!

B is for Bear - Part One

This is the first time I made a theme lunch for Kate, and she thought it was so funny.  She LOVED biting off the bear's arms, legs, head, and then eating up his belly.  I ended up making it again the next day per her request. 

I also made her a bluebeary (ha ha ha) pancake with chocolate chip eyes, nose, and mouth.

Yes, I realize this bear looks a little weird.  Actually, it looks like a bear that got into a nasty fight! Whatever!  She liked it!

My bear cookies look much better!  They are peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips added for details.

 I didn't use a cookie cutter; I just made the head out of a regular ball of dough and then added two little balls of dough for ears.  The first batch looked weird because I forgot to account for spreading!  These look cute though.

This next sentence is for Tom.  Kate has not figured out puzzles yet.  Tom used to make fun of me because I always talked about Tyler and Collin being so good at puzzles when they were little.  Well, Kate doesn't have that spatial reasoning skill yet.  We're working on it.  (She actually spent some time working on puzzles with Grandma this morning!) Kate got this cute bear puzzle for her birthday, and it's perfect for working on puzzle skills and for our letter Bb fun.

I made beary (ha ha ha again, I crack myself up) blue play dough using my regular play dough recipe and adding about a tablespoon or so of grape Kool Aid powder for scent and a lot of blue food coloring.  I only had grape Kool Aid powder and I only used a little because I didn't want to turn the dough purple.  We don't drink Kool Aid; I use it for crafts like paint and play dough.

 We used play dough stampers to make bear paw prints and bear faces (Kate got these for Christmas from Papa and Grandma, and she uses them every time she plays with play dough).  They are super cute.

I am having so much fun coming up with themes for Kate!  I love it!  Stay tuned because I have a lot more bear fun to share!

Letter Bb Play

 I love the look of concentration on her face.

 She tries so hard to put the caps on the dot markers.

She may only be two, but she likes to have "homework" to do when Collin and Reagan do their homework!

Sensory play:

 I gave her a plastic cup and a spoon in the bin with the water beads.  On her own, she decided to transfer the beads into the cup with the spoon (I had assumed she would just scoop with the cup; she's so clever).

She also played with homemade blue play dough scented with a little Kool Aid powder.

We are also having fun with a bear theme this week, but I'll post that separately after we finish all of our activities!

B's for lunch

R is learning the letter "B" at school this week, so I made her a special "B" lunch at home.  She loved it!  I used her Barbie plate and bear muffin cups to hold bear toast (toast cut with bear cookie cutter and then covered with peanut butter, chocolate chip eyes, and a candy mouth), frozen blueberries (this was R's favorite part of the lunch; she loves frozen blueberries even more than she loves fresh berries!), bunny snacks, and bumblebee bananas (banana slices held together with chocolate hazelnut spread).  While she ate, we took turns naming "B" words.