Our Language Arts & Art/Drawing Centers

The more independent Tyler becomes, the more work he is doing on the computer.  The past year we have really struggled with finding him an area he could spread out comfortably on while using the laptop.  We looked at several options & decided on expanding out Expedit section.

The top section holds each of the boys’ binders, our dictionaries & thesaurus’, & writing materials.

Beneath are computer CD/DVD’s & craft bins.

To the right is our printer/copier, laminatorz, preschool packs, FIAR printouts, etc. 

On the other side is our art/drawing center.  I had little cubbies (from Big Lot’s) that fit perfectly inside to organize everything.  The top 2 shelves have drawing books, paper, & notebooks.  The bottom shelves have paint & stamping supplies. 

 

 

 

The other cubbies are mostly language arts – letter activities, phonics, & thinking skills, etc. 

I still have some organizing/re-arranging to do in this area, but at least now Tyler has plenty of space to spread out & get his work done.

Our Building Center

Since we don’t use our IKEA Trofast bins for “workboxes” anymore I decided to use them to organize our building center (mostly the Legos).  I found these cool labels at (Yellow Mums), but I need a couple colors that weren’t included in the FREE download, so I messaged Laura at her Etsy shop - she was super sweet & not only made me the extra colors, but also custom labels for the rest of our building center.  (*You gotta visit her Etsy shop!  She has some VERY cute printouts!!)

The top half is devoted completely to Legos.  Each of my boys have 2 shelves for completed projects & their own personal bin for their “work-in-progress.”  We spent an entire day sorting Legos by color!  One of my friends warned me that it would not stay this organized, but I have to tell you – they do a great job (on their own without any prompting) keeping it organized.  In addition to the color coding, we also made a bin for instructions, Lego people, & Big Legos (for Truman; however, he his very close to needing his own bin as well.)

The bottom portion of our building center includes:  gears, super structures, trains, tinker toys, wedgits, blocks, drill set, pegs, & lincoln logs. 

This center is by far their favorite & most chosen 99% of the time.  They spend hours in the floor building & creating & playing with each other.  Priceless memories!

Phone Center

I have long planned on making a little Phone Center for the kids or sitters & just continued to put it off, but then I gained a little inspiration from HERE.  This is a blank copy of my version.  I printed it out on a 4x6 sheet & put it in a picture from next to the phone.  The frame is a double picture frame, but I’m trying to decide if I want to use the other side for a picture or “frequently called/important numbers”. 

Baa, Neigh, Cock-a-doodle-do

 

My little Buckaroo is quickly following in his big brothers footsteps.  He is 20 months old & ready for a little farm theme fun!

Truman is such a busy boy – rarely in the same spot for more than a few seconds, but he loves farm animals.  So I decided to use this to my advantage.  His little center in our schoolbarn got a little toddler updating this winter. 

I plan to use a farm theme as a mini VERY relaxed tot-school to teach Truman:

• colors
• counting to 3 (then maybe 5, and so on . . .)
• animal names & sounds

We will do various age appropriate activities including:

• storytime
• sorting
• matching
• picture discrimination
• big/small activities
• coloring
• sensory (touch & feel)

Animal Recognition & Learning to say their names:

DK – Touch & Feel FarmPicture Cards, Moo Moo What Are You?, My Little Farm book , Barnyard Hullabaloo, & My Barnyard Friends plush toys

                                        

Animal Sounds:

Who Says Moo, Morning on the Farm, Listen to the Farm, Magic Sound Blocks, & My Barnyard Friends 

Colors on a Farm:

Big Red Barn & several of the books listed above in addition to bean bags & our color bags (*I LOVE HWOT new bags!!)

• red – barn, tractor
• orange - cat
• yellow – baby chicks
• green – tractor, frogs
• blue – bird
• purple – flowers
• pink – pig
• gray – goat, donkey
• black – cow, bull
• white – sheep, chickens, rabbit, goose
• brown – hen, horse, dog, duck, goat, barn

Other animals I might add are:  rooster, turkey, owl, fox, mice

You could also add:  grass, wheat, hay & farm foods (*once we get these goals met I will add fruits & veggies)

Numbers & Counting 1, 2, 3

               Counting Chickens, Old MacDonald’s Farm A Counting Book, Discovery Toys Meaure Up Cups, & Farm Animal Counters (*This hand puppet is on the “Wanted” list!)

                                     

Inside our tot boxes:

Hide & Squeak Eggs, Farm stickers, Farm coloring books, My 1st Animal signs, Farm lacing cards, Farm grow capsules, Farm foam animals, Touch & Feel wooden farm puzzle, Barnyard Dance (*I LOVE THIS BOOK!!)

    

Story Books:

•  Who Took the Farmers Hat
• Click, Clack Moo
• Cows That Type
• Giggle, Giggle Quack
• Mommy, Do You Love Me?
• Icky, Sticky Frog
• The Hat
• Drive a Tractor

 

Over the years I have collected farm theme manipulative & books – 4 boys later I have quite the collection.  I will try to add another post of ideas for older children.  These are just a few things I have chosen to keep Truman’s from destroying the house days busy.  I don’t intend to use everything each day & will slowly work into somewhat of a schedule.  Currently, I am just grabbing one item from a couple boxes & tossing them his way as I divert him from coloring on the walls.  Eventually I will start a morning circle time with him & get a routine down (hopefully!) that includes him.  For now it is mainly just my sanity :)  I have found it is much easier to create business for a tot than it is to clean up their own creativity along the way.

Target usually has a great farm theme selection this time of the year in their dollar section.  I got the window clings, grow animal capsules, puzzles, books & sooo much more from Target for just a few bucks! 

Little Buckaroo’s Workboxes

Here is the youngest outlaw’s little area in our schoolroom: 

*Please note: this does NOT mean he just hangs out here perfectly content, playing with his workboxes all day.  No!  No!  No!  - that is what I’m saying 99% of the time.  He is ALL OVER THE PLACE.  This is his area, but not necessarily where he hangs :)

 

Considering we live on a farm, most of this is familiar to my Lil’ Buckaroo’s daily life, so I’ve created a little farm theme in is area:

 

*The rug, farm toys & barn are from IKEA.  The magnet board is from IKEA too & the magnets are so old they were Tyler’s (Melissa & Doug I think).  There is also more farm theme toys in his workboxes.

 

Here is the top of his workboxes – the stacking numbers are from Lakeshore, the stacking cups are from Discovery Toys, & the beaded maze & hammering toy are from IKEA.

 

Here are his shape sorting toys:

And more boxes:

Signing & Activity books, first words, colors, animals, lacing, blocks, & doodle tray:  

He does NOT rotate through all of these boxes every day.  In fact, he probably doesn’t even get to them all each week.  His favorites are the animal touch & feel cards & talking farm toy, the balls – he loves the oballs, & the doodle tray. 

Truman is definitely in the wild toddler stage.  He is a complete terror!!  Outside of his area he love the Montessori stuff & playing the sand trays . . . more on these soon!

Morning Routine

My goal was to start school – dressed (*make-up is a bonus) & in the schoolbarn at 9am AND -

WE DID IT!!!

Here is a peek at our morning activities wall:

First we pray.  Then we go over the boys’ AWANA verses.  Then we pick who the sheriff for the day is.  Next, we start with the calendar – What’s today, what was yesterday, what will tomorrow be?  We say the months of the year (every month very quietly until we get to the current month, then they shout it).  Then we do a little time telling activity.  I love this magnetic chart.  I wish I could remember where I found this one.  It is awesome – you can’t tell from this picture, but it is even color coded. 

I will be adding more to our morning routine soon – including light-switch plates :)

Writing Center

Our writing center is kinda pitiful right now.  Currently this is what is included in our writing center:

• dictionary
• journals
• stationary
• envelopes
• address book
• cards
• lot’s of paper
• pens, pencils
• stamps
• picture file (pictures of ideas or people to write about/to)
• Queen Homeschool Copywork books
• You Can Write A Story book
• Writing mini office with printables from The Busy Teachers Cafe Writing Printables & worksheets  *Also includes journal prompts for the ENTIRE school year!!
• Encouraging Young Writers Pre-writing ideas for K-4th by WriteShop
• writing folders from Write Source 
  • Topics: for FREE WRITING
  • Express Youself

*Click HERE for Writing Topic suggestions.

Here is a list of printables I have (mostly from The Busy Teachers Cafe) :

• Writing Checklist (K-1, 2-3)
• Writing Chart (Rubric)
• My Writing Checklist (self-check)
• Proof-reading checklist
• Parts of a Story
• Writing Parts of a Story (blank fill-in sheet)
• How to Write a Paragraph
• The Hamburger Paragraph
• The 5 W’s
• Story Words
• Transition Words
• Punctuation Rules
• Capitalization Rules
• Spelling Checklist
• How to spell a word
• Commonly misspelled words
• Parts of Speech

Here is a link to download the checklist I created for Daddy’s Girl:

Checklist

 

As soon as our schoolroom is complete – I have BIG plans for it . . .

I’ve found some great inspiration online from:

Playful Learning Writing Center *Be sure to visit her writing experience suggestions & pintables & while your there you will want see her AMAZING Alphabet Inspiration – WOW!

 

Katherine Marie

The Write Start

The Homeschool Classroom

 

Are these not some AWESOME writing centers? 

I can’t wait to update our writing center! 

Please feel free to leave any links or ideas in the comments.  Thanks!

Animal Center Part 2

Click HERE if you missed the first part of our animal center.

This part of our Animal Center is our animals around the world.  We have used these in various ways, often the boys transform their room into a zoo or jungle.  Sometimes their farms will have a zebra :)  The animals are great for imaginative play.  To see how we used them during our rainforest study click HERE.

Recently we added these animal morphs to our animal center:

 

They are super cool & add a great building/cross processing skill as well.  The boys love building their animals.

This concludes our animal center.  This is definitely my outlaws favorite center.  Trevor’s birthday is coming up – any ideas for me to add to this center?

Animal Center

Our boys LOVE LOVE LOVE Schleich products.  We have the knights & castles, almost the entire collection of animals, & a growing dinosaur collection.  Their all time FAV is their barn & farm yard animals.  It all started with just a stash of cows.  Then Tucker’s love for horses expanded our stash into an entire collection.  Our collection quickly became an entire dramatic play center of its own. 

After buying the barn for Christmas I realized we needed a table & better storage solution for ALL the animals.  I found this set-up at Target.  *My first choice would have been a Pottery Barn table, but it was out of the budget.  So, Target’s cheaper table (& I mean that in more ways than one) was my second choice.  Yes Big Daddy, I admit – it is cheap!  However, the drawers are a perfect storage solution.  I put all the farm animals in one & all our “world” animals in the other. 

I can not tell you enough how happy I am with the quality of this barn though.  It is fantastic!  It’s survived my outlaws since Christmas & that says a lot for an every day toy! Did I mention 90% of this barn is made from real wood?  There are so many cool aspects to this barn . . . let me tell you!

The setup & break down of this barn is super easy.  The top pieces are easily removable for making the barn more accessible from all angles. 

There is also a removable wood piece, which slides across the top part of the barn.

Here are a couple more pictures of this very durable barn:   

My boys will sit here & play for HOURS.  Our animal center is their absolute favorite!  They are always on the hunt for new animals to add to their farm.  Most of our animals have came from Target & Tractor supply.  Most specialty toy stores will have them & you can always order them online.  The majority of our animals are the Schleich brand.  We have purchased other toy animals from the Dollar Store & Walmart; however, the Schleich animals have passed the test of time, not to mention they are beautiful:

 

Next week I will share the other part of our “Animal Center.”

Our Art/Drawing Center

You will find the following inside our creative art center:

1.  Paper

LOTS of paper!  All kinds of paper:  drawing paper, plain white paper, an assortment of colorful construction paper, finger-paint paper, & even graph paper.  LOTS of paper!  We also have several sketch pads & drawing books in addition to LOTS OF PAPER.

 *Currently our house is a little crowed while waiting on our schoolroom to be finished, but typically I have an identical bin to store all their masterpieces in.

2.  Colored pencils

We have colored pencils in every size & shape imaginable.  The Mustangs prefer the triangular ones pictured below.  Momma’s Boy uses actual drawing pencils, which are more desirable for shading & color tone.

3.  Markers, crayons, chalk, scissors & glue.

4.  Paint, finger-paint, watercolors, & bingo markers.

5.  A whole bunch of brushes, texture brushes, & sponges.

6.  Stamps & ink

Jumbo stamps & giant ink are from Oriental Trading Company. 

7.  A collection of drawing books

I will be updating My Amazon Store with items from our art center (or similar items) soon.