Wordless Wednesday: November 4, 2015 (w/linky) - The Greatest Show On Earth

The only circus I knew of when I was a child was the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus, the Greatest Show on Earth. Since moving to rural PA, the only circus I have taken the children to is a little rinky dink circus. This weekend, we had a chance to rectify this shortcoming. The Ringling Bros circus was up in Rochester on the 31st. Seeing as we don't celebrate the holiday on that date, it was perfect timing. We met the grandparents, went out to dinner, and headed up to the circus.

The following are from my phone. They look a lot better on the phone, but I ran out of battery on the camera, so this is the best I could do.

Time to head home.

Looking forward to seeing your Wordless (or not so wordless) Wednesday posts this week.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Littles Learning Link Up: November 3, 2015 Texture Painting Pumpkins

 Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (toward the beginning of the month)
• A guest post featuring crafts, activities, tips, snack ideas or other early childhood topics. (toward the end of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my preschoolers and/or early elementary children.

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?

Last week in our homeschool co-op preschool class I decided to focus on pumpkins again. I felt the children were getting a bit bored with all the gluing activities, so I decided to be brave and allow them to paint. I'm not that brave though, so I only worked with 3 children at a time.

Texture Painting Pumpkins

I cut some white card stock into the shape of pumpkins and we used different objects to paint them. I gathered some cotton balls and Q-tips and then I thought it would be fun to have some nature objects to make prints with. I had some sticks and pinecones that I thought would be fun to use. I would have loved to have used some acorn caps, but we couldn't find any. Leaves would have been great too, but we didn't really have any nice ones to use in the area.

As a bonus lesson, I didn't have enough orange paint, so we had to mix red and yellow to make orange.

One child painted her entire pumpkin using the cotton ball on a clothespin.

Most of them did not "stamp" with the cotton balls as I anticipated. They just used them like they would use a paint brush.

The Q-tips were also used as little paintbrushes.

I had used the stick to make lines through my paint. I don't think they used it very much. I do have to say, using cotton balls is a fun way to paint for children. Just make sure to use a clothespin to hold the cotton ball so they don't get paint all over their hands. 

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 34 wonderful posts linked up! 

I will be picking one randomly selected post to share, plus the top clicked-on post.  

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: 

Lisa from Syncopated Mama shared 5 After 5, Childhood Book Series Edition.

Here are the top clicked-on posts:

(Yes, there are 7 this week!)

1- Melanie from Tree Valley Academy shared Art History for Kids.

2- Anna from In The Playroom shared Paper Plate Pumpkins to Go With Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere.

3- Monique from Living Life and Learning shared 10 Thanksgiving Printables for Preschoolers.

4- Thaleia from Something 2 Offer shared Kindergarten Pumpkin Weighing Activity.

5- Thaleia from Something 2 Offer shared Ultimate Pumpkin Recipe Round Up. 

6- Keisha from Penny Pinching Peach shared Don't Cut Your Pumpkins.

7- Jennifer from Royal Little Lambs shared Pumpkin Math.

Don't miss this giveaway!

I recently reviewed the newest book by children's book author Adam Rubin called "Robo-Sauce." We loved this book and were thrilled to be able to share about it on the blog. I was allowed to offer a giveaway for a copy of the book. Don't miss your chance to enter for your chance to win. Giveaway ends November 7th and is open to US residents only. 

You can find the review and giveaway post here.

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.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up- November 3, 2015

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Welcome to Tuesday's Giveaway Link Up with your hosts Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

So glad you could join us as we share our giveaways on  Tuesday's Giveaway Link Ups. 

This link up will be posted Monday at 7 PM est. and run all week long! Make sure you stop in as often as you can to list your latest giveaways.

Here is how to use the Giveaway Link Up

1. Post your reviews and/or giveaways, as many as you have, be sure to add the end date (family friendly please)

2. Help spread the word about the giveaway link up by grabbing our button, Tweeting or posting on Facebook. (Not mandatory- but it helps get more exposure to your giveaways as well!)

3. Take a moment to enter any giveaway that strikes an interest to you!

If you would  like to follow the  hostesses, we will gladly follow you back! Simply leave us a message to do so.

Featured Giveaways

"Robo-Sauce" by Adam Rubin US only Ends 11/7

My All American Prize Package Featuring $25 Visa GC Plus A My All American Hat, Shirt, and Bag US only Ends 11/9

The Moodsters Feelings Flashlight & Storybook US only Ends 11/6

Thank you for linking up with Karen @ Tots and Me, Emily @ Emily Reviews, Shelly @ The Attic Girl, and Rena @ An Ordinary Housewife.

An InLinkz Link-up

A is for. . . Adding Up The Steps

A couple of fellow bloggers have decided to start a new round of Blogging Through the Alphabet. I have attempted this before, but I haven't been very successful. This time I have a different idea though. As I was going through old blog posts this past week, I noticed I have some neat ideas for activities and crafts that I did with the older girls when they were younger. Unfortunately, I always included them in my weekly wrap up posts, so they sort of got buried in my archives. I can't really share them as individual activities or create pinnable images to promote them and share my ideas, which is why I started this blog in the first place. So, I am going to make new posts for these ideas.

One of the benefits in doing this is, I am remembering these ideas that I had forgotten, which means I can now do these activities with the younger children. I will be sharing the old pictures and possibly sharing new pictures of the younger children participating.

Several years ago I came up with this neat beginning math activity for the older girls. I called it, "Adding Up the Steps."  

A is for. . .Adding Up The Steps

Here is how it worked:

I wrote one number 1-16 on half a sheet of paper and placed them on the stairs.

Then I made some cards depicting the number we were to add.  +1, +2 and +3 cards.  These were made on 1/4 of a sheet of construction paper.

The girls took turns picking one card.  

I put the equations on the easel.  They both started on 0 of course (the floor) and they had to climb the number of steps shown on the card they picked.  Then they told me what number step they were on.  I then said and finished the equation.

After they both took a turn, I erased the equations, replacing the first numbers with the steps they were now on.

We continued this way all the way up the steps.

They had to draw the exact number to reach 16 because other wise they would have had to climb higher which they obviously couldn't do.

Amelia scooted down the steps, counting backwards as she went.

The numbers remained on the steps for a while.  We played the game several times and when Amelia climbed the stairs she would count, which we did with all the children when they were little. However,  having the numbers on the steps helped her make the connection between the number and the numeral.  They definitely enjoy counting backward on the way down. We never did use them for subtraction, though I had wanted to. I will have to remember to do so with Hannah and Harold.