Thursday, July 23, 2015

Pirate Week!

Monday
Whew it is a hot one out there. We ate breakfast, watched a little TV and had some free play time, then put on our bathing suits and went outside to water the flowers and play in our pool. We were in by 9:30 but it was worth getting outside before it got too hot for us. We got dressed into our clothes for the day and updated our calendar. I cannot believe it is July 20th already! Where is this summer year going! We did a good job counting all the way to twenty and we even remembered that it was July. We had some snack and read our first pirate book of the day, Twenty-Six Pirates by David Horowitz. Each pirate starts with a different letter and there is a cute rhyme for each one. Of course “Pirate Lee has to pee” was their favorite. After we met all twenty six pirates, we assembled our own paper plate pirate, complete with a bandana and an eye patch. Then we got ready to do an experiment. We talked about how pirates sail on the ocean and the ocean is full of saltwater and then we talked about when we swim in pools or our bathtubs, we are using freshwater. We filled two clear Tupperware containers with water, then took turns adding salt to one. We (carefully) dropped an egg into our freshwater container and it sunk straight to the bottom. But we (carefully) dropped our egg into the saltwater container, it bobbed and floated! I was all ready to tell them about how once salt is added to the water, the water’s density becomes higher than the eggs causing the egg to float, but for the first time ever, they didn’t ask why. We did practice saying the word “buoyant” a few times though! Before settling down for a story and nap, we pretended we were pirates and ran around the house looking for land, treasure, and crocodiles.

Tuesday
Today was another pleasant and fun day! We barely had any issues or fights. It’s slightly bugging me out. But I am enjoying it while it lasts. We ate breakfast, had some free play, then got dressed and started our first project/experiment of the day---making salt dough. We’ve made this before so I knew they could handle it. I got out their Mickey table and let them be ‘free’ aka non-high chaired. They took turns measuring out and pouring in the ingredients and then stirring and then rolling the dough out to a flat pancake. We took one of our play-doh toys and cut circles out of the dough and put them on a cooling rack to dry out. We are in the process of making our own treasure to fill in our not made yet treasure chest! Once the dough dries (in about two days) we will paint it gold and use it as our gold debloons, just like Jake and the Neverland Pirates (and meeeeee). After our dough was all cut out, we had snack and read our book of the day, Class Three at Sea by Julia Jarman. Another silly book about pirates trying to overtake a ship, complete with seagulls pooping and booger-nosed pirates. We finished snack and our book and played a little more. Then we were on to our next project, coloring a treasure chest and filling it with gold. While they were coloring their chests and gluing on some gold coins, I asked each of them what they would keep in their own treasure chest and I got everything from race cars (Tristan) to dog food (Lily). Then I asked where they would hide their treasure and Lily replied with “in the sea” while Tristan made me cover my eyes while he said “over there”. We did some paintings of pirates and pirate ships to complete our craft time, had some free play and TV time, then read a story and took some naps.

Wednesday
The humid sticky weather finally broke last night so we were able to really enjoy the morning today. After we ate breakfast and got dressed, we lotioned up and traveled to a new park. We played there for a good chunk of time using our listening ears and having fun. They actually put themselves in a timeout during our walk around the path. They weren’t listening to my directions to FREEZE and wait for me, then they started swatting at each other, then they both started crying they didn’t want to leave because they were being bad. But we took some deep breaths in the car and headed home for ice pops. I was proud of them for recognizing they weren’t being nice, but I felt bad for the unneeded crying and tantrums. We came home and ate some popsicles, then headed inside to talk about treasure maps. I drew up a quick one of the living room and we colored it in. Tomorrow we will be using those maps to find our treasure!

Thursday

Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day! If the weather could stay like this for Lily’s birthday party Saturday, I will be as happy as a clam. We ate breakfast, did our calendar, had some free play fort building, then we sunscreened up and headed outside to enjoy the day! I wanted to assess the yard and straighten it up a little bit for the party, so we brought out the bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and opened up the sandbox. We ended up slaying bubbles for a good half hour until the bubbles ran out. It was the perfect day for bubbles! We came inside for snack and a story. Today’s story was Pirates, Ho! By Sarah L. Thomson. We talked about how pirates treasure is often called “booty” and giggled over that for a bit. Then I gave them the maps they colored (and I laminated) yesterday. On the map, there were 3 X’s where the treasure could be found. In one tiny treasure chest (made from a recycled amazon box and some hot glue) there were two packs of fruit snacks. In a second tiny treasure chest, there were ABC puzzles for us to do, and in the third large (recycled box from our case of Not Your Father’s Rootbeer) chest, was tons of booty in the form of costume jewelry, crowns, and septors. I also brought down a large Amazon box that we turned into our pirate ship! They had fun pretending to sail and loot and wear their booty. We read Pirate Boy by Eve Bunting before we took our naps to conclude our Pirate Week. Tomorrow, we are having Field Trip Friday for Lily’s 3rd birthday! Still not sure where we are going for the day, but I am sure we will have fun

Books Used:
Twenty-Six Pirates by Dave Horowitz
Class Three at Sea by Julia Jarman
Pirate Boy by Eve Bunting
Henry and the Crazed Chicken Pirates by Carolyn Crimi
Pirates, Ho! By Sarah L. Thomson

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