Wednesday 30 October 2013

Bits And Pieces Of Our Week

This week there has been a lot of imaginary play! Hannah has been making up scenes and stories using her felted fairies and play silks, and has really enjoyed incorporating our pumpkin hoard into her play.


Felted and knitted toadstool land



Rainbow fairy house

pumpkin houses
 On Sunday we went to a Halloween party held at our friends house. It was really fun! There was pumpkin rolling, pumpkin croquet, tickle or treat and yummy food! Hannah dressed up as Snow White and her Build A Bear rabbit went as a snow princess.


We finally sorted out our season table, Hannah made an autumnal lantern by gluing coloured leaves on to an old glass jar. It looks so pretty when the candle inside is lit.


As it is school half term holiday here this week Hannah was able to meet up with her very oldest friend Coral. The girls had the best day together, they were so happy hanging out and catching up. We went out to lunch and shopped and also played at our house - Hannah discovered that Coral loved American Girl dolls and was sooooo happy!!!

Coral and Hannah do lunch!!
So far, it's been a very nice week :-)


Wednesday 23 October 2013

Land Art

Yesterday's adventure group session was Land Art. The children worked alone or in pairs using a collection of natural items to make pictures which they then photographed.

 Hannah worked with her friend Melissa to create 'The Faraway Tree'. They used pebbles, acorns and pine cones to make all the different fruits growing on the tree.
 Hannah took these pictures of their tree when they had finished. A little blurry due to the darkness and my phone camera, but you can still see how lovely their picture was.


Monday 21 October 2013

Literature, Math And History

Despite lots of pictures of us out and about having play dates and field trips, Hannah does do some learning at home. I like to make sure she does some English and maths each week, and we host a history group at our house because it's her favorite subject to study in a group. We also read geographical stories (like Paddle To The Sea by Holling C Holling) and make geography projects (Hannah likes to learn about other countries and loved learning about Australia), she has piano and music lessons at home, and she also enjoys online learning with Education City.

Last week we were working through Hannah's fourth grade LLATL curriculum, learning about division and working some more on her Pilgrims lapbook.


English



Maths - Division



For history group we did some pilgrim cooking before continuing with the next three lapbook activities.

The girls made hardtack biscuits which the pilgrims would have eaten aboard the Mayflower, and then hasty pudding, which the pilgrims would have eaten once they arrived in the United States.



Hasty Pudding

Hardtack
The hardtack was just flour and water baked hard in the oven, and the hasty pudding, cornmeal and water cooked in a pan until thickened with yummy maple syrup on top.

The girls all hated the hasty pudding and ate the revolting hardtack instead - funny girls!!

The lap books are really coming together now and looking very nice, Hannah is very pleased with hers and is already keen to do some others that she has spotted online!




Tuesday 15 October 2013

Yoga at Adventure Group - and a few more Pumpkins!

Today has been busy! Hannah had her piano lesson this morning, and then Adventure Group this afternoon. Today was yoga, which Hannah really enjoys. I was busy meeting with a new group member, so my friend Emma kindly took some photo's for me. Thanks Emma :-)




After group we went with our friends Helen, Cecily and Rosa to see another pumpkin display that they had heard about. It was really sweet, a barn roof had been decorated with a Cinderella scene.





They were also selling pumpkins, and we may have accidentally bought another eight (yes, eight!!) pumpkins of various shapes, colours and sizes.............oops!!

Sunday 13 October 2013

Pumpkin Festival

Yesterday we went to Royal Victoria Country Park for their annual pumpkin festival. There were lots of stalls, funfair rides and activities, but unfortunately  it was also super loud and crowded which bothered Hannah quite a lot.

We enjoyed the Scarecrow Alley,




and Hannah found a stall selling knitted and crocheted season table items which she was very excited about! She chose a toadstool, acorn, hedgehog and two autumn leaves (i will have to take some season table pictures now). She also found some wooden Halloween stencils that she had to have!

Before we left we checked out the giant pumpkin competition. How do they grow them soooo big??



Afterwards we went out to a pumpkin farm that we had seen so that we could choose some pumpkins to decorate. Hannah loved  seeing the trailers piled high with beautiful orange pumpkins and chose three to take home.





Friday 11 October 2013

Catching Up

This week has mostly been about catching up with friends.

Hannah hadn't seen any of her friends since before our holiday as she had been ill for two weeks, so was very excited to have her friend Tess over on Monday. The girls had a lovely day together playing with their My Little Pony and Littlest Pet Shop figures, and Just Dance on the Wii.

On Tuesday we went to Adventure Group. It was our monthly book group session and the book we had read was The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
.

Hannah joined in the book discussion before having a picnic and play with her friends.

Wednesday found us at an indoor play center with another friend, which was lovely, followed by a birthday party for Hannah's friend Hermionie, and yesterday we had her friend Melissa and her family over for lunch and an afternoon of catching up!

Today we held our history group at our house, and the girls continued working on their Pilgrims lap book.







Hannah is really enjoying this lapbook, and working with a small group of friends suits her. She is very keen to do a Pioneer lapbook after this one!!

Thursday 3 October 2013

Pre-Halloween Fun

While Hannah has been recuperating from tonsillitis she has been thinking about Halloween. She is very excited, she has talked and planned non-stop and finally decided that she couldn't wait any longer, so she threw an American Girl doll party and fashion shoot.

She had so much fun, and took lots of pictures - here are just a few of them ................




AG Hannah

AG Saige


AG Kanani

AG Lanie

Hannah

Witchy hand painting

Witchy wart on her nose!

Arghahahaha