Theme Thursday: Spiders

Well, I definitely have fallen short when it has come to doing my Theme Thursday posts.  We still have been doing our theme days, but I have not had the time or energy to post the photos and links and instructions.  Hopefully I will be able to put up a few of these posts in the next week and catch up.  I've got these themes to cover:  spiders, pumpkins, popcorn, pirates, and Thanksgiving.

 

Here on Temporary Insanity, I will be posting Theme Thursdays each week to share what activities we did and what resources we used on our special day. All of the instructions and links will be right here so please feel free to use them. I am including lots of extra ideas as well - no need to do them all, of course! Keep in mind that my activities are tailored to two kindergarteners and one second-grader; you can adjust them to fit your family.  You can find previous themes here.

 

Today's theme is spiders.

Let's get right into the reading.  For this theme day, we spent a lot of time with our books because my children have an intense interest (and fear of!) in spiders.  Oddly enough, the kids are no longer shrieking in fear at every spider they find in the house, probably because they know a lot more about them.

1.  The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani was our choice to begin the day.  It has lots of extra verses so the kids can explore all the places that the spider went.  The older kids helped make up motions for the new verses, and we got our exercise in.

2.  Spider on the Floor by Raffi and illustrated by True Kelley was another action-packed book.  It featured all the lyrics to Raffi's song "Spider on the Floor" and was great for repetition and finding rhythm in a song. As a bonus, it is extremely silly, and all my kids delighted in the outrageous things the spider caught in its web.

3.  Spiders by Nic Bishop is a book full of beautiful photographs and wonderful information on all types of spiders.  We probably spent a good thirty minutes poring over this book and learning all the interesting spider facts.

4.  Spiders' Secrets by Richard Platt was also a book chock full of incredible spider facts.

5.  Freaky Facts about Spiders by Christine Morley was yet another book that taught us new things about spiders.  I let the kids explore this book on their own while they ate their snack. 

 

Some other books that would be fantastic for a spider-themed day would be:

6.  Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott

7.  The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

8.  Ice Cream and Spiders: A Story about Learning Two Times Tables by Professor Paradox





Kitchen Activity:  My original idea was to make these spiderweb brownies with the kids.  We made them the night before because whole wheat brownies are better if they sit overnight.  They were pretty time-intensive so I'm not sure I would recommend them as a theme day activity.  Though, the recipe did give the kids plenty of practice in reading, measuring, and other kitchen skills.  Here's the link to the whole wheat brownie recipe and a link to the method for making the spiderweb on the brownies. 

 The brownies were a bit rich for snack time; so I had the kids help me make these cute little spiders instead.  They are made from round crackers (we like the ones from Trader Joe's), peanut butter, chocolate chips, and small pieces of apple.  You might also want to try making Oreo Cookie spiders following the instructions here.

For our craft, we made these adorable pool noodle spiders.  Earlier in the week, I had used a serrated knife to cut three pool noodles into rings.  I gave them to the kids with long pieces of ribbons so they could string gigantic necklaces and work on their fine motor skills. 

To make the pool noodle spider, you need just one of the pool noodle slices, pipe cleaners or bendaroos, wiggly eyes, and craft glue.  Cut the pipe cleaners into 5 inch pieces.  Loop one through the center hole of the pool noodle piece and twist to secure.  Once your child sees how to do that, let them do the remaining seven legs.  My four-year-old needed additional help with this step.  Then let them choose a set of wiggly eyes and glue them to their spiders.  We actually made these before we did the Itsy Bitsy spider book so we could use our spiders while doing the motions.

Next, I made this worksheet for the kids to practice a variety of skills.  They colored the SPIDER letters and the spider.  All three kids chose to put the red hourglass symbol on the spider to make it a black widow spider.  They learned how to skip-count by eights, and they worked on the phonics sound of "sp in spider".  Finally, they practiced reading all of the spider words that they learned from the various spider books we read.  You can click on the image above and save it to your computer to print out for your own use.

The last thing we did on Spider Day was go exploring.  Since we live in the rainy Northwest, we have lots of garden spiders and house spiders, especially this time of the year.  We had one particular garden spider that had spun a web right outside our kitchen window and had just caught a moth.  The kids got to watch the spider spin its silk around the moth and start liquefying it with its digestive juices.  It sounds gross, but I couldn't have set up a better learning experience if I had tried.

Next Theme Thursday post will be on pumpkins. 

Today's Soundtrack

I discovered the wonder of Pandora radio a few months ago and am completely hooked. Radio that you can completely customize to play the kind of music you like best? Yeah, I'm there!

It also helps that I married a very tech-savvy guy. He made it possible for me to listen to my Pandora stations in the kitchen, our bathroom, and even the minivan using my Iphone and whatever sort of dock/speakers he has set up. If you are unfamiliar with Pandora radio, basically it's internet radio that "gets you." You start off with a favorite artist or song - and Pandora chooses other songs and artists based on what you picked. If you don't like a song, you press the "thumbs down" button and Pandora stores that information. If you like a song, you guessed it - you press the "thumbs up" button, and Pandora recognizes that as well. In time, Pandora "figures" you out and plays all the stuff you like.

I have a dozen stations or so - quite a few are kid-oriented, as I seem to be constantly surrounded by munchkins. Lately, however, my life has been moving to the soundtrack of my gospel station. It plays a mix of Southern gospel, contemporary Christian, and good old-fashioned gospel music. This morning, while taking my shower, I sang along to "Testify to Love", "Oh What a Savior", "The Longer I Serve Him", "Tell Me One More Time About Jesus", and "The Old Country Church." The old songs bring back sweet memories of growing up in a small church and thrill me with their meaningful words. The new ones have a different vibe - more passionate, reminding me of what I live for and why I serve a living Savior.

It's hard to be downhearted or to be tempted to complain when your heart is constantly full of music that praises Him! Psalm 146:2 - "While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being." Beyond that, I am filling my children's minds and hearts with words that glorify God. It makes my heart smile every time I hear the Beast chime in with "Here I Am to Worship."

What's your soundtrack today? Do the songs make you think and the words lift up your spirits? Considering all that God has done and does for us, what would be more natural than outbursts of heartfelt praise, even during tough times? Praising changes our perspective from ourselves and our problems and shortcoming and lifts our focus to God.

Let's praise Him today!

They're Playing Our Song

When our sweet Drama Queen was a newborn, she had trouble getting to sleep at night unless Momma sang to her. She exhausted my (actually pretty extensive) song supply, but her favorite was my rendition of "K-K-K-Katie." Of course, we substituted her name in for the "Katie" part, and as time went on, it became "her song."

The Beast loves music as well. Very early on, it became apparent that his song would be "You Are the Sunshine of My Life." I cannot count how many times I sang (and still sing!) that song just to get him to give me one of his priceless smiles.

When the Spud arrived, we knew that sweet and sappy love songs were not for him. It took us a little longer to find just the right song for him. One day, "Macaroni and Cheese" by Bill Harley came on over the kids' satellite radio station. Since we call him our "Mikeroni and Cheese", the song was a perfect fit!

Lately, we have been tailoring certain songs to fit our family. The kids are overjoyed every time we manage to fit their name into a song - it makes them feel special. As I was changing the Spud's diaper a few weeks ago, I belted out "My Girl" for his listening pleasure, singing "Michael" in place of "my girl" every time it appears in the song. The Beast immediately latched onto this song and asks for me to sing it all the time - of course, he wants his name in it though. "Sing the Sunshine David song!" he will beg. And many times, he will break out with his own rendition of the song. Each time, I think how adorable it is and run to get the video camera to capture his song stylings for memory's sake. Only, he finishes before I can press the record button or flatly refuses to sing once he sees the camera.

On Wednesday, he began singing it in the van as we drove home from taking the Drama Queen to school. "Wait buddy!" I shouted. At the next stoplight, I got out my I-phone and held it behind me. "Okay, sing it now" I instructed, pressing the record button. And he did, singing it for his girl (which he has never done before.) So here it is, for posterity. I apologize for the general quality - but hey I was driving at the time. :)

oh how I love my little man!

Praising the Lord

Yesterday evening was my last night as Peewee teacher at our church, and I had the privilege of leading them in singing in front of the church one last time.

The very very excited boy on the far right is my Beast! Despite his autism, there seems to be something about music and praising the Lord that brings out the performer in him. I think he is completely unaware that there is a whole congregation of people watching him; although he is certainly aware of the pastors sitting on the platform around him. He gets so excited that he flaps his arms sometimes (a "stimming" movement common to autistic children).

And don't forget my sweet little Drama Queen. She is in the center, trying her best to smile and sing and do everything she is supposed to do. :)

I love it! It makes my heart smile and my soul glad to see and hear my kids praising the Lord!

All My Pigs in Their Pen

Every Wednesday evening, I have the privilege of spending some time with some very adorable kids. My husband and I run the PeeWee Pirate club at our church, which is a program for 3 -5 year-olds that teaches them character traits and Bible lessons. They also learn a new verse and song which they all get to perform in a church service each month. I love my PeeWees, although things can be a little hectic with nineteen little ones. And did I mention that two of the rascally crew are my own Drama Queen and Beast?

Last night, the PeeWees sang a hilarious song called "Pigs Don't Live in Houses". (hence the pig noses on some of the children!) Note the smiling blonde all the way in the back corner. Yep, that's my Drama Queen! You may also note the absence of the Beast.

That's because Mr. Beast strutted his stuff right out on stage, turned around, and spotted his grandparents in the audience. He kept shouting "There's Grandma! There's Grandpa!" "Hi, Grandma!" until we had to take him down from the stage so he wouldn't distract from the rest of the song.
Everyone loved it of course, and kept telling me what a little ham he was. The truth is, they were all little hams! Sweet little pigs! :)