Wow!! We've had a whole week off. The girls have had a lovely half term week, spent mostly catching up with their friends and/or at the park. Refreshing and fun.

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

We read the Lourdes story (although a little edited for little ears) and decorated a frame around a picture of St. Bernadette and Our Lady.

Painting sea pictures.

The girls played outside for most of the day today but they did make a funny fish picture with photographs of their heads as the fish's head. We talked about what it would be like to be a fish and Ballet Girl spent a while working out how she would escape from various nets and sharks and whales.

I cut out fish pictures from the aquatic centre brochures the girls were given and they made a collage.

Balloon volleyball at the park this afternoon.

This weekend my Ballet Girl learnt to ride her bike without stabilisers. She woke up on Saturday morning and decided, that was it, she wanted them off. She's been zooming around for 3 days now!

Yesterday we visited our local aquatic centre. The girls took their clipboards and drew their favourite fish. Panda Girl joined in too. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves and even got some fish stickers from the manager.
Today we watched dolphins and other marine life on the National Geographic website.

Working on her ship's log book. Over the past 3 days the girls have travelled from England-Iceland-Africa-Mexico, logging the date, direction, weather. They also saw a lighthouse, cleaned the ship, watched the fish, spotted a school of dolphins, looked at the anchor and the ship's wheel, and enjoyed the hammocks.

Monkey Girl reading a great sea book from the library.

Painting starfish.

A lovely walk to the park.

Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl made some sea themed sun catchers.

Our sea jar.

Pirate ship. This is such a great toy!

Shrove Tuesday - pancakes for lunch :)

This morning the girls made jellyfish. Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl worked on their maths, with their first look at odd and even numbers and some work on tallying.

Today the girls started a Ships' Log. We travelled North (ok, North northwest) from England to Iceland. The girls drew a compass, a picture of their ship (Ballet Girl called her's The Poppy and Monkey Girl The Diamond), the date, the weather and some pictures of their trip. Tomorrow we will go South...

Handprint crabs with googly eyes!

Shell Estimation. The girls had a look at the jar and had to guess how many shells they thought were inside. They then wrote their estimate, counted and wrote the actual.

Out with the polystyrene balls and in with the water. The girls, Panda Girl especially, have played with this for most of the day.

Fishing. Cardboard fish with paper clips on and pencils with magnets on string.

Last week,waiting for their Trampolining lesson, my 5 and 4 year old, Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl surprised me so much. They have been listening to Around the World with the Sticky Kids CD in the car, so I hear it every time they do. Without warning they both suddenly counted to 10 in Chinese!! I don't even know what 1 is. It was a brilliant moment!

Now they can count to 10 in French, Italian, Swahili, Spanish and Chinese. They love it almost as much as I do!

Today's work: map of the world's oceans, ocean mammals, sea things that begin with 's', bookmarks to make, maths work, a collation of dot-to-dots, mazes and spot the difference.

Beach and sea story books for my forever-reading-Panda Girl.

The Treasure Chest. We added pearls to this today after talking about how oysters make them and how precious they are.

Sea shell collection for the display. Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl have been listening to the sea in the shells and Panda Girl, copying, has been using them as telephones "ello?"

Break time: we played ship and used telescopes which the girls had decorated earlier to spot land. The girls shouted "land ahoy" and jumped on sea turtles (Ikea basket lids) to get to the island. We also played 'shark tag' and 'catch the fish' which ended up all very squealy and hysterical.

Fresh water or salt water? We discussed how the sea is salty and how rivers and lakes are not. Using 2 pint glasses we experimented with 2 eggs in salted water and fresh water and which one made them float. The girls drew a diagram of their findings.

We also looked at the Red Sea on the map and discussed how you can float in it because it has so much salt.

This afternoon I took Lucia and Dom to Playgroup. Papa has a week off work so he and Elodie went for a long walk with the dog across the fields and through the next village - about 2 miles away. Elodie called me to tell me where she was, so excited about how far they had gone :)

We are starting a new project this week - seas and oceans. We went swimming yesterday and Lucia, who is like a little goggled fish in the water, had a fine time. Elodie needs more encouragement so we spent a while being mermaids - there is nothing more motivating than that apparently.

Sea images and letters jigsaw. These are washable ones so I put them on the table for the girls to do during breakfast.

Polystyrene balls and sea creatures. Very theraputic.

Farm window display

Some of the farm books we read for our project.

Our memory tray. The girls had to figure out which farm food I had taken away. Lucia, in typical Lucia fashion, touched each one with her finger when I asked her to memorise the items.

Black card and cotton wool handprint sheep.

This morning the girls did a mini-workbook on baby animals. We discussed all the names and Lucia has now decided to pronounce 'lamb' with a 'b' on the end. They drew some lovely pictures of baby animals next to their mothers - and a picture of me!

Painting.

Today's work - baby animal booklet, farm worksheet, mice and cheese cut outs, foam stickers and mouse painting.

This afternoon we walked to the fields to 'The Puddle' which is invariably there. The two eldest took their fishing nets and Dom had fun with a pot and spade.

Today the girls made a scarecrow, stuffed with straw.

The finished masterpiece.

Outside in the sunshine.

We set up the play rabbit hutch for Dominique complete with straw, water and some grass from the garden.

This morning the girls worked really hard on their farm workbooks. Elodie took her French maths book to Playgroup this afternoon and did some good work while the other two played.

The girls cut out farm pictures and we created an open-the-door barn.

Peeling boiled eggs for lunch.

The girls, this evening after dinner.

Another party :) The girls danced so much :)

Food time.