Ballet Girl's Easter poster for our window display

Monkey Girl's

The Resurrection. Monkey Girl made this jigsaw over and over again.

The beginning of a very hysterical egg and spoon race around the house.

The girls worked really carefully to make these Easter egg bookmarks - very fiddly but they were really chuffed with the outcome :)

The girls had their first look at a bar graph today, and answered some observational questions. Monkey Girl did her first word search and Ballet Girl did subtractions where she already knew the answer but had to work out the missing number in the sum.

Monkey Girl and Ballet Girl sewing Easter animals.

Ballet Girl's rabbit :)

Monkey Girl's chick :) They played with them all afternoon and took them to gymnastics so they could 'watch'. :)

Making things with boxes and paint....,
I have started our Easter project a little early this year but hopefully it will mean we will have time to fit it all in and have a little holiday at the end of it.
I have been 'uum-ing and aahh-ing' about this project and how much to include for my sensitive Monkey Girl and deep-thinking Ballet Girl. Eventually I came to the conclusion that we would base our work around the fact that Jesus died because he loves us and that is wonderful! We will do lots of craft, happy bunny and chick things, gentle pictures about Jesus, Palm Sunday, The Last Supper, a little about Good Friday and then lots of fun and love on Easter Sunday. We can increase our depth each year, so hopefully they will develop a fuller understanding as they grow.

Rainbow scratch Easter eggs. These were great fun to do - you use a wooden stick to carve away the black surface revealing a rainbow pattern underneath. Monkey Girl especially, was fascinated.

My busy painters this afternoon.

Paintings

Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl made chicks while Panda Girl was napping :)

Panda Girl made her chick this evening with a little help from Ally :)

So proud!

Our Lady window display

The girls made these Rosaries last year. As a family we only say a decade together as the children are still quite young. Today was a good opportunity to discuss the whole 5 decades, the Mysteries and the reason why Our Lady urges us to pray the Rosary.

Today we learnt about St Dominic of the Rosary and Our Lady of Fatima.

Panda Girl's beautiful colouring.

This week we started a new project about Our Lady.

Firstly we talked about St Anne, Mary's Mummy and then how Mary was a good girl, and helped with all the housework. We spent a long time looking at and talking about the Visitation. The two eldest also drew a picture of what they thought Our Lady may have been doing when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her.

(Monkey Girl's colouring picture)

We discussed how Mary worked really hard and how maybe she was doing a daily chore when the Angel Gabriel visited. It seemed fitting that we all have a go at some tough housework. They cleaned, 'ironed', washed, scrubbed, dusted and swept -maybe we should do this one everyday!

Cleaning the walls.

And then they made bread. Monkey Girl had fun poking it, as you can see.

They listened to Ave Maris Stella while they kneaded away :)

The girls' bread. We ate it with our lunch (saving some for Papa at his request) and it was yummy!

We discussed the Nativity and how Our Lady looked after Jesus like all Mummies do. (Ballet Girl's picture)

And then we looked at the Assumption. We discussed how Mary is the Queen of Heaven. The girls made her a beautiful crown (designed by Papa and decorated by les filles). (Ballet Girl's picture)

The girls love these books - gorgeous pictures.

The two eldest made stained glass windows of Our Lady and the Baby Jesus.

We said a 'Hail Mary' and gave these tissue paper flowers to Our Lady.

Also today Monkey Girl did some sorting, all three listened to a Postman Pat story-tape...

...and Ballet Girl had great fun with number rods. She was so imaginative.  Great visual tools.

Sea and Ocean window display.

Todays' work: making a jigsaw, a mobile, sea vocabulary, sea stories and beginning letters.

Sea face painting. Ballet Girl asked to be a mermaid...

... and Monkey Girl asked to be a pufferfish!

Playing 'beach' outside in the stones.

Some seafood we have eaten during our project. The girls are asking for crab next which they haven't tried before. My husband is a seafood fan so the children also enjoy mussels, oysters and cockels.
When Ballet Girl's first tooth fell out she asked if she could buy Papa a rainbow trout with her tooth fairy money. The second tooth bought squid which she loves. All 3 girls love the fish counter at the supermarket. I am not a fish fan so I have to smile sweetly and cook all this food for my fish fanatics without giving away the fact that Mummy does not like it!

The two eldest did some lovely work in their ship's log. Today we travelled South East (progression from our normal N,S,E,W), to Australia. The Great Barrier Reef was an obvious place to go and the girls recorded some of the things they saw.

Today's worksheets.

Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl's turtles.

This afternoon we looked at how to use a compass. I found the girls using it later trying to 'find their way' on their hobby horses.

Sea books. We have been working our way steadily through these. We have also been singing lots of sea songs...

When I was one,

I'd just begun,

The day I went to sea.

I jumped aboard a pirate ship,

And the Captain said to me

We're going this way, that way

Fowards and backwards over the Irish Sea

A bottle of rum to fill my tum

And that's the life for me!

Sea stamps. The girls made some lovely sea pictures and got very inky in the process :)

Making waves.

We did a Float or Sink experiment. The girls guessed what they thought would happen and Ballet Girl recorded our findings.

I put Boogie Beebies on the lap-top and the girls practised their dance moves for the Ocean Motion:

Do the ray fish

Do the tail swish

Do the jellyfish

Do do do do do the Ocean Motion.....

On Saturday my wonderful Husband took us all out for a yummy meal.

On Friday, I made a last minute decision and we went to the play gym. A nice break from work and some good energy spent!