Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: Littles Learning Link Up: May 1, 2018- Handprint Butterfly Stick Puppets

Each month you will find:

A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
Posts where I share what I have been up to with my early elementary children (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme. Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up.

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

What have we been up to?

In our school time we have been continuing to read through the book of 2 Kings, learning about Elijah and Elisha and the miracles they performed. We just finished memorizing Psalm 1. We focused on a verse a week and now the children have it all memorized. I don't quite have it yet, though I did use to have it memorized in KJV. This time we were focused on NIV.

The children continue to work on math using CTCMath as their primary math. Though Harold has been using Math Seeds and Hannah likes to use Starfall on occasion. For Language Arts we have been using Home School Navigator, reading different fairy tales and looking at different aspects of L.A. at the children's different levels.

And yes, we are continuing through our reading of The Children's Homer, The Kane Chronicles, and Percy Jackson.

We still haven't really been using the science lessons in MFW very regularly. We just run out of time in the day! However, Amelia was learning which kind of solution will keep flowers beautiful longer as her science fair project. And the younger two looked at dissolving Peeps. We have also been learning about glaciers with one of the books from Wiegl Publishers, which is my next upcoming review. It fit in nicely that the storytime at our library last month for Earth Day focused a bit on the environment, though I am not a huge fan of the focus on "global warming."

Last week was our last week of co-op, and on Friday we had our end-of-year program. This year the children got to display art and science fair projects, and the teenagers had a photography display. I will be sharing the children's displays in this week's Wordless Wednesday. My friend and I also got to put up a display of the preschool crafts that we had done through the year. One of the displays was the Handprint Garden, which featured the Construction Paper Handprint Flowers that we made a few weeks ago, plus the Handprint Butterfly Stick Puppets that I will be sharing in this post.

Handprint Butterfly Stick Puppets

Here is what you will need:

Various colors of construction paper

Jumbo craft sticks

Black pipe cleaners

Small wiggle eyes

Tape

White glue

Scissor

Markers or crayons to decorate the butterflies

(I used our Magic Stix and Thin Stix)

I also though the book In My Flower by Sara Gillingham went well with this craft. We had read it the week that we made the handprint flowers as well.

The first thing I did was to trace the children's hands, one at a time, on the construction paper. They chose the color they wanted. I folded the construction paper in half, and put their thumb up against the fold, having them spread their other fingers slightly. I cut them out while the children played, but older children could cut their own out.

Then the children decorated the butterflies. My daughter was the one who made the sample butterfly. She is 8 years old and was able to give the wings symmetrical designs. I didn't expect that from the younger children.

When they were done decorating the wings and body, we glued on the wiggle eyes. I cut out small lengths of the pipe cleaner and folded it in half, then I taped them to the craft sticks.

The children then helped glue their butterflies to the craft stick.

For older children with bigger hands, the stick is almost completely covered, but for younger children, there is still a whole lot of stick showing, so I decided they make cut stick puppets.

However, first I had to glue them to the display for our program.

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

Last week I shared my review the Planet 316 Story Book Bible and the Companion Planet 316 Story Bible App.

This week I will be sharing about some books from Weigl Publishers, along with the multimedia content we have been granted access to. Plus we are also reviewing Kids Email, Home School Navigator, and the book T is for Tree: A Bible ABC from Reformed Free Publishing Association. These reviews will post in May.

In June I will be sharing reviews of New American Cursive 2 from Memoria Press, and Critical Thinking Detective Book 1 from The Critical Thinking Co.

Here are some things I would like to share with you:

We are so glad it is finally starting to feel like spring around here. Are you looking for some springy crafts or activities to do with your children. I invite you to check out these past round ups.

Flower and Gardening Fun Literature and Craft Round Up (featuring our Complementary Color Flowers)

Creepy, Crawly Buggy Round Up

April Showers Brought May Flowers Round Up

Springtime Fairy Round Up

Don't miss this giveaway!

Enter to win a copy of A Round of Robins picture book by Katie Hesteman, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier.

Open to US Residents 18 and over.

Ends May 13th, 2018

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 8 wonderful posts linked up. I will be sharing a randomly selected post and the top clicked-on post.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Katie from Paradise Praises shared Free Mother's Day Card Template.

And here is this week's most clicked on post.

Lisa from Syncopated Mama shared God's Big Plans for Me Storybook Bible by Rick Warren.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.