Happy Summer!

We will no longer be posting weekly activities, but we appreciate your participation in our weekly themes over the past two months! We hope to see you at the Cottage, and we hope you have a wonderful summer!

Under the Sea

Travel under the sea with us this week as we learn about the ocean! Here are a few activities to try at home!

Squish the Fish with Cosmic Kids Yoga
We love doing yoga with Cosmic Kids on Youtube! In their videos, kiddos are encouraged to stretch and strengthen their bodies while learning mindfulness techniques. These skills are taught through fun and engaging stories. This story follows Squish the Fish in the ocean!

Field Trip to the Aquarium
Take a virtual field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium! Check out the aquarium’s website and explore the many live-streamed exhibits! Click here - Aquarium - to begin your trip! Allow your child to explore the exhibits, and then ask him/her to draw a picture of his/her favorite animal. Help your child research information about his/her favorite animal. Find out what kind of food this animal eats, where it lives, how long it lives, etc.

Salt Water Painting
Create an underwater masterpiece with watercolors and salt! Ask your child to paint an entire piece of paper blue and green to look like the ocean. Use watercolors or water and food coloring. While the paper is still wet, have your child sprinkle salt on the paper. The salt will create a beautiful effect on the paper! Allow the paper to dry. On a separate piece of paper, ask your child to draw fish and other sea creatures and cut them out. Once the ocean paper is dry, glue the sea creatures to the salty blue paper to create an ocean scene! For an example of this craft, see this blog post - Salt Painting - from Little Bins Little Hands.

How Big Is a Blue Whale?
Watch this story about blue whales, then, measure one yourself!

Blue whales can reach 100 feet in length! Before measuring 100 feet, stand at the starting point and ask your child to guess where the ending point will be. Once you’ve worked together to measure 100 feet, guess how many bikes, cars, people, etc. would fit in the length of the whale? Test your hypothesis! For a great example of this activity, see this blog post - Blue Whales - from Edventures with Kids.

Weather Week

It’s weather week! We hope these activities brighten your week, and we hope you’re able to enjoy the wonderful weather we’ve been having!

Little Cloud
Watch Eric Carle’s Little Cloud, and then, share a tasty cloud-themed treat with your family!

Now that you’ve watched the story, it’s time to make a special cloud dessert! You’ll need blue berry Jell-O and Cool Whip. Follow the directions on the box to make Jell-O. Next, ask your child to help scoop the Jell-O and Cool Whip into glasses for your family! Alternate layers of Jell-O and Cool Whip to create a cloudy sky effect. This snack is fun, easy, and delicious!

Experimenting with the Wind
Hopefully this activity encourages critical thinking and time spent outside! Find 10-20 small objects around your house such as a paperclip, paper cup, straw, cotton ball, bouncy ball, etc. Next, ask your child to predict which objects will blow in the wind and which ones will not. Make a note of your guesses. Now, you’re ready to experiment! Go outside and test each object! Notice which predictions were correct. Find new objects to test!

Draw an Umbrella
Art for Kids Hub has so many easy and fun directed drawing videos! This simple umbrella drawing would be a fun activity for a rainy day! For a more challenging weather drawing, click here - rain cloud drawing.

Weather Graph
Graphing is a math skill that we focus on in the pre-k and kindergarten classes, but kids can graph at any age! Help your child make a simple grid on a piece of paper. You could help your child trace lines for the grid using a ruler. Across the bottom of the grid, label each column with a different weather type: sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy. Your child could write these words and/or draw pictures of each type. Tape your graph to the refrigerator or somewhere else visible. Ask your child to predict which column will have the most/least by the end of the week. Each day for a week (or longer) ask you child to notice the weather and fill in the graph accordingly. Fill in the graph from bottom to top. Below is an example of a monthly weather graph.

Happy Mother's Day!

This Sunday is Mother’s Day, so we are celebrating all of the wonderful Cottage moms all week long! Here are a few activities to try at home!

The Kissing Hand
This sweet story about a mother raccoon and her baby will warm your heart! Watch and then read one of your favorite stories together!

Mother’s Day Questionnaire
Just for fun, ask your child to answer these questions about mom! It’s always fun to see what little ones come up with! Keep these answers to reread and laugh about years from now! For a printable version, click here - All about My Mom.

Muffins for Mom
Make muffins to share with mom on Mother’s Day morning! Click here - muffins - for an easy recipe from Carol of the blog My Bored Toddler.

Handprint Bouquet
Using paint, help your child make several handprints of different colors. Once dry, allow your child to cut out each handprint. On each handprint, ask your child to write (or help him/her write) one thing he/she loves about mom. To create stems for your handprint flowers, glue or tape a straw, popsicle stick, or strip of cardboard to each handprint. Tie the handprint flowers together with a string and deliver your beautiful bouquet to mom on Mother’s Day!

All about Amphibians

It’s amphibian week at the Cottage! Join in the fun as we explore frogs, toads, and salamanders! Try these activities and send us pictures of your creations and explorations!

5 Green and Speckled Frogs

This song is always a crowd pleaser during music time at the Cottage! Listen to the song above, and then create your own speckled frogs! With your child, find 5 small rocks outside. Have your child paint them green adding speckles, eyes, and maybe even a tongue! Allow the rocks to dry. Find a small log or twig outside, and reenact the song with your own green speckled frogs! This can be an open-ended activity for your child, or you could encourage counting practice! You can even introduce simple addition and subtraction concepts by asking questions like, “If there are two frogs left on the log, how many have jumped into the water?” or “If there are four frogs in the water, how many are left on the log?” Click on this link - Green Speckled Frogs - for an example of painted rocks from Mandy of the blog A Special Kind of Class.

Life Cycle of a Frog
Click on this link - From Tadpole to Frog - to watch a three minute video from Scholastic’s Watch and Learn Library all about the life cycle of frogs! Once you’ve watched the video, create a frog life cycle snack! Follow these steps using these ingredients or others that you have at home!
1. Begin by creating frog eggs with green grapes cut in half with a raisin on top of each half.
2. Make a tadpole using a spinach leaf and a whole green grape.
3. Create a froglet using a spinach leaf, whole green grape, and 4 carrots strips for legs.
4. Make the frog using green apple slices for the head/mouth, grapes cut in half for the 4 legs, and raisins for the eyes.

Create a Salamander Room
Watch The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer! In this wonderful story, Brian brings home a salamander and imagines that his bedroom becomes the perfect habitat for his new amphibious friend.

After watching this story, see if your little one can create a “salamander room” inside a cardboard box or plastic container. Go on an adventure to find water, food, and shelter to include in your “room” for your imaginary salamander. Talk to your child about habitats. What does our habitat look like? What do we need to survive? How is a salamander’s habitat the same or different compared to ours? At the Cottage, we sing a habitat song to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” It goes like this…
Food, water, shelter, space (clap, clap, clap)
Food, water, shelter, space (clap, clap, clap)
A happy habitat puts a smile on your face!
Food, water, shelter, space (clap, clap, clap)

Leapfrog Letters
On green construction paper or white printer paper, draw large lily pads - one on each paper. If using white paper, ask you child to color the lily pads green! Have your child cut out each lily pad and then trace or write one letter on each one. You could create the whole alphabet or just select certain letters (the letters in your child’s name, for example). Once each lily pad has a letter written on it, spread all of the lily pads around on the floor. Now you’re ready to play! Say a word and ask your child to hop to the letter that they hear at the beginning of that word. For example, you say the word “ball,” and your child hops to the letter “B.” Continue until your child has hopped to all of the letters!
Additional game ideas:
-Siblings race hop to the correct letter!
-Ask your child to hop to the correct letter and also provide a new word that begins with that letter!
-Say a word and ask your child to hop to the letter that they hear at the END of that word. For example, you say “pig” and your child hops to “G.”

Toad Toss
Using the lily pads from “Leapfrog Letters” (just flip them over), write a number (1-10) on each lily pad. Spread these out on the floor or ground. Find something to toss (e.g. beanbags, rolled-up socks, plastic bags filled with beans, balloons filled with rice or flour). Determine a tossing spot on the floor or ground and see if your child can toss the beanbag onto a lily pad. If a beanbag lands on a lily pad, the child gets the points written on that lily pad. Take turns tossing beanbags, and see who gets to 10 points first! Calculating point totals is a fun way to introduce addition skills!
Additional game ideas:
-For number recognition practice, simply ask your child to hop to the number that you say!
-This is a messy version! Play outside in the grass. Use a small ball instead of beanbags. Pour a thin layer of green paint into a flat pan. Before tossing the ball, dip it into the green paint. Take turns tossing the painted ball. See if you can get paint on each lily pad!

Happy Earth Day

Earth Day is this Wednesday, April 22nd, and we are celebrating our beautiful Earth all week long! Join in the fun with these simple Earth Day activities!

Drawing the Earth
Art Hub for Kids is a website and YouTube channel with great directed drawing activities for kids of all ages. In honor of Earth Week, see if your little one can draw our planet!

If your artist needs a little bit more of a challenge, click on this directed drawing - Heart-Shaped Earth - or this one - Plant with a Folding Surprise.

Playing Recyclable Hopscotch
Using old cardboard boxes of any kind (cereal boxes, pizza boxes, etc.), cut out 10 large squares. Ask your child to write one number (1-10) on each square. If your child needs a little writing help, write the numbers with a pencil and ask him/her to trace with a marker or paint. Your child could also use markers or paint to decorate around the numbers! Once your squares are complete, arrange them in a hopscotch pattern inside (on a carpet so that they don’t slide around) or outside. Find a small rock or toy to serve as the token. The first player tosses the token onto a number. If, for example, the token lands on 2, the player hops to 1, skips 2, hops from 3-10, turns around, hops back, and picks up the token. For an extra challenge, try hopping while balancing something on your head! To practice number recognition, mix up the numbers and ask your child to say each number as he/she hops on it. To see a great example of this game, click on this link - Indoor Cardboard Hopscotch - from Jackie of the blog Happy Hooligans.

Reading The Earth Book with Todd Parr
At the Cottage, we love books written by Todd Parr! His stories have simple, heartfelt messages with bold, bright illustrations. In this video, the author himself reads his wonderful story The Earth Book.

At the end of this book, Todd provides a great list of ideas for protecting our planet. Using old pieces of cardboard or the backs of used papers, create signs with your child to post around your home. For example, make a sign that says “Save Water” to hang by the bathroom sink. You can write these words in pencil, and then, ask your child to trace the words with a marker and decorate the sign!

Planting with Recyclables and Feeding the Birds
If you have empty plastic water bottles or milk containers at home, use them to create planters! Cut the tops off of bottles and poke holes in the bottom for drainage. Tape over any sharp edges, and allow your child to decorate the container! Next, fill the container with dirt. Then, plant your seeds, give them water, and wait for them to grow! If your container is clear, you might even be able to watch the roots grow through the soil! For an example of this craft, click on this link - DIY Bottle Planter - from Cassie of the blog Hi Sugarplum!

In addition to making planters with recyclables, you can also make bird feeders! If you have any toilet paper or paper towel rolls around the house, use them to make bird feeders! First, punch two holes in the top of a roll. This is where you will attach a string. Next, help your child coat the roll in peanut butter. If you have a blunt or plastic knife, allowing your child to spread the peanut butter onto the roll can be great for strengthening fine motor skills! Then, spread birdseed on a flat surface and roll your toilet paper roll in the bird seed until it is covered. Attach your string (floss, fishing line, yarn, etc.), and hang it in a tree! Sit back and watch the bird show! For an example of this craft, click on this link - DIY Bird Feeders - from Sarah of the blog A Thrifty Mom.

Constructing Fairy Homes
This imaginative building activity is fun for boys and girls of all ages! Challenge your child to build a home for a fairy (or troll, gnome, mole, mouse, etc.). First, he/she needs to gather building material. This material can include acorns, leaves, sticks, bark, dirt, etc. Next, find a good spot for constructing your fairy home, then, build! Challenge your child to make walls and a roof for his/her fairy home. Get creative! Give your home a door, sidewalk, chimney, swimming pool, swing set, etc. For an extra challenge, ask every family member to create a home, and then, vote on your favorite! Siblings could even team up against parents to build a better home! For an example of this activity, click on this link - Fairy Homes - from Sharon of the blog Rediscovered Families.

Ready for Reptile Week

It’s Reptile Week at the Cottage! We can’t wait to explore these crawling, slithering, cold-blooded creatures with you! Join us by participating in several reptile-themed activities, and share your adventures and creations on our Cottage Facebook page.

The Colorful World of Eric Carle and The Mixed-Up Chameleon
At the Cottage, we love author Eric Carle! His memorable and uplifting stories are always accompanied by beautiful illustrations. Watch this animated version of his beloved story, The Mixed-Up Chameleon, created by Illuminated Films.

After watching the story, try these chameleon activities at home!

Mixing Colors with the Mixed-Up Chameleon
For this activity, you will need tape, a Ziploc bag, a Sharpie, and paint (or shaving cream and food coloring). Draw the outline of the Mixed-Up Chameleon on the bag. Squirt two primary colors (red, yellow, blue) of paint inside the bag. Close the bag and tape the edges to the floor or table. Allow your child to squish the paint around and watch the chameleon change colors! Instead of paint, you could squirt shaving cream into the bag with drops of food coloring. This activity provides a great opportunity to talk about primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and secondary colors (orange, green, purple) which are formed when primary colors are combined (red+yellow=orange, yellow+blue=green, red+blue=purple). To see an example of this activity, click on this link - Play, Teach, Repeat.

Counting and Strengthening Fine Motor Muscles
Chelsey, author of blog Buggy and Buddy, has created a great Mixed-Up Chameleon game that incorporates counting and fine motor skills. Click here to see the activity - “Feed Me Flies.” For this game, you’ll need two pieces of paper, crayons, kid scissors, tape, a small tube or container, a clothespin or tweezers, and a die (optional). On one piece of paper, print the chameleon created by Chelsey (or draw your own). Click here to print - chameleon. Next, ask your child to color and cut out the chameleon. Tape this colorful creation to your tube or container. To create the flies that your chameleon will eat, Chelsey uses black pom pom balls. If you don’t have pom pom balls at home, your child can create flies with your second piece of paper. Just tear off small pieces of paper and crumple them into balls. Now, the real fun begins! Ask your child to use the clothespin or tweezers to get all of the “flies” (balls of paper) into the chameleon’s “mouth” (container). You can count with your child as he/she feeds each fly to the chameleon.
Number Recognition Challenge: Ask your child to roll a die and place that number of flies into the chameleon’s mouth.
Sibling Challenge: Ask siblings to create their own chameleons. Siblings then take turns rolling the die and feeding their chameleons. Once all of the flies have been eaten, count the flies to see which chameleon ate more!

Practicing Patterns with Snakes
Recognizing and creating patterns are important reading readiness strategies that we teach at the Cottage. Here’s a fun and simple way to incorporate these strategies at home! All you need is a black marker, a piece of paper, and crayons. With your marker and paper, draw three or more snakes with horizontal stripes down their backs. Using crayons, begin a pattern that your child will complete. For example on one snake, color the first stripe purple, the second stripe blue, the third stripe purple, the fourth stripe blue. Then, ask your child to complete the pattern. Create a pattern for each snake or ask your child to create his/her own pattern! See example below!

Exploring Emotions with Reptiles
At the Cottage, we strive to help children understand their emotions and express them in healthy ways. Your child may be feeling lots of new emotions right now given the current circumstances. Hopefully this game provides an outlet for expressing these emotions and an opportunity for talking about them with your child while incorporating a little reptile fun! First, click here - Emotions - to access and print the Character Emotion Chart created by Melissa of The Reading Roundup. Click here - black and white - for a version that your child can color. (If you don’t have a printer, ask your child to help you draw faces that correspond with each emotion.) Next, you and/or your child will cut out each emotion on the chart. Spread these emotions around face-up on the floor. Now you are ready to play! Instruct your child to move around the room like a reptile until you say “stop.” Here are several examples: stomp like a dinosaur, slither like a snake, crawl like a lizard, creep slowly like a turtle. When you say “stop” your child must pick up the nearest emotion card and act out that emotion with facial expressions, body language, and/or words. If your child is unsure about a particular emotion, help him/her understand by explaining a situation when someone might feel that way or by showing that emotion with your face/body/words. Continue until your child has crawled/stomped/slithered to every emotion!
Matching Challenge: Print/draw and cut out two sets of emotion cards. Play an emotion matching game with your child!
Sibling Challenge: Stack the emotion cards face-down. One sibling draws a card from the top of the stack and must act out that emotion for the other sibling to guess. If guessed correctly, place that card in a separate pile. If guessed incorrectly, place that card at the bottom of the original stack. Take turns until all emotion cards are guessed correctly!

Created By melissa of the reading roundup

Fun with Franklin
The Franklin series written by Paulette Bourgeois follows a lovable turtle learning important life lessons with his family and friends. At the Cottage, we love reading Franklin books and hope you enjoy this read-a-loud version of Franklin Is Messy. In this story, Franklin learns the importance of cleaning up his bedroom. We have cleanup time everyday at the Cottage where each class is responsible for cleaning a certain area of the building or playground. This not only makes the cleanup process easier, but also gives our students a sense of community, cooperation, and responsibility. After listening to this story, talk with your child about ways that he/she can help around the house. Maybe during this quarantine (and beyond), he/she could be responsible for feeding the dog, watering certain plants, setting the table for dinner, or making his/her bed. Scholastic has provided a cute idea for making “Kindness Coupons” with your child. Click here - Scholastic - for the directions. Whether you make coupons or simply a daily list of tasks, this will hopefully provide your child with a little extra purpose and sense of accomplishment while helping you with household chores!

Hopping into Spring

This week at the Cottage, we are focusing on spring and Easter! We hope these activities brighten your week with a little entertainment, education, and fun! Don’t forget to tune into our Cottage Facebook Live Series.

Tuesdays: 1-1:30pm story time with Mrs. Charlotte
Thursdays: 11-11:30am music and Spanish with Sr. Gio
Fridays: 9:30-10am directed activity with Ms. Haley

We hope to “see” you there! Also, feel free to post any pictures of your creations or adventures to our Cottage Facebook page. We’d love to see what you’ve done!

Easter Egg Matching Games
Plastic eggs or paper eggs (paper ovals cut in half) are all you need for fun matching games!

Upper/Lowercase Matching Game
On the top half of each egg, write an uppercase letter. On the bottom half of each egg, write its corresponding lowercase letter. Separate both halves of each egg and mix all of the eggs together. Your child can sort through the eggs connecting uppercase letters with their corresponding lowercase letters! You could do this with the entire
alphabet or simply use the letters in your child’s name.
Number Matching Game
On the top half of each egg, write a number 0-10 (or higher for an extra challenge). On the bottom half of each egg, draw the corresponding number of dots - the way you would see them arranged on a die or domino. Separate both halves of each egg and mix all of the eggs together. Your child can sort through the eggs connecting numbers with their corresponding dots.
Note: If you are using plastic eggs, you can use a Sharpie to write the letters/numbers/dots and rubbing alcohol to easily remove your writing.

Scholastic Rabbit Roundup
Click on this link - Rabbit Roundup - to watch a 5-minute video about rabbits!
Then, click on this link - How Many Jumps? - for a fun jumping activity! In this activity you will use masking/painter’s tape to mark the starting and stopping points of several long-distance jumpers (grasshoppers, frogs, and kangaroos). Ask your child to help you measure each distance. Then, ask your child to guess how many jumps it will take him/her to go that distance. Finally, jump to check your guesses!
Scholastic has compiled a great list of books, videos, and activities for families at home. Resources are listed by grade level and then by weekly theme. Follow this link - Scholastic - for more great ideas!

Easter Egg Hunt at Home
Before you begin your Easter egg hunt, have your child create an Easter basket using a paper bag or small cardboard box. Decorate with stickers, paint, markers, paper eggs, etc.! For extra fine motor practice have your child make the paper eggs for the egg hunt. You cut out one oval using card stock or cardboard. Then, have your child trace and cut eggs out of construction or printer paper for the hunt! Your child could even decorate these eggs. Next, hide your paper or plastic eggs around the house or yard. Send your child on an Easter egg hunt! For an extra challenge, write numbers 1-10 (or higher) on each egg. Once every egg has been found, ask your child to put the eggs in numerical order! If you have 26 eggs, you could write one letter of the alphabet on each egg. Once every egg has been found, ask your child to put the eggs in alphabetical order! Siblings could compete in timed egg hunts. The fastest to find all of the eggs and put them in order wins!

Planting a Rainbow
Listen to and watch Planting a Rainbow, a beautiful, spring-inspired story by Lois Ehlert!

Next, complete this rainbow worksheet designed by Still Playing School for Pre-K Pages. Click here - Rainbow Worksheet - to access and print the pdf. Ask your child to cut out food, plants, and flowers from old magazines or draw his/her own to complete the rainbow! Follow this link - Pre-K Pages - to see examples!

For an extra challenge, create a rainbow garden of your own! Ask your child to paint one entire sheet of paper red, another orange, another yellow, and so on. Allow the paint to dry. Ask your child to cut out petals, stems, and leaves using the colorful paper. Finally, glue the pieces together on a blank piece of paper to create a rainbow garden collage masterpiece! Follow this link - Fine Lines - to see examples! We can’t wait to see your beautiful work!

Join Us for Bird Week

Hi Cottage Family,

Our hearts are with you as we all try to navigate this confusing and scary time. For those of you at home, we’d like to offer a few activities each week that correspond with our weekly theme! You can try them with your kiddos and even post pictures of your adventures or creations to our Cottage Facebook page! We’ll try to post new activities on the blog each Monday, so check back next week for more ideas! Have fun!

This week we are learning about BIRDS! Here are some bird-themed activities to try at home!

Sing along with Dr. Jean
We sing lots of Dr. Jean songs at the Cottage! Watch this cute video of hers with bird songs and a bird story!
Visit Dr. Jean’s YouTube channel to find other fun and educational videos!

Put on a Puppet Show

Bend author and artist, Kristen Riggle, visited the Cottage earlier this year. She read her book Little Bird Explores Bend! to our kindergarten class. Some of you may have this book at home! Kristen has created several activity pages for parents and kids. One activity page is full of puppets! Color and cut out these puppets. Glue or tape each one to a stick, and put on a puppet show!

Follow this link to find the puppet page and others!
The Busy Birds

Create Toilet Paper Roll Binoculars

Your toilet paper may be in short supply, but maybe you have a few empty rolls around the house. Tape or glue two rolls together so that they are side by side. Punch a hole in the top of both and tie a string to create a strap. Decorate and go birding outside or out your window!

The Art Bar Blog by Bar Rucci has some creative binocular decorating ideas as well as many other great craft activities!

Identify Birds

Once you’ve made your binoculars, you are ready for a real birding adventure! Watch and listen to the birds in your backyard or around your neighborhood. You could even create a simple bird journal by folding pieces of paper in half to form a book. Decorate the cover, and draw the birds that you see!

For an extra challenge, identify the birds in your yard or neighborhood! Merlin Bird ID app from Cornell Lab provides an excellent way to identify birds! Once you’ve downloaded the app and indicated your location, you have the option to “Start Bird ID.” Simply answer a few questions about the bird’s size, color, location, etc., and the app will help you identify the bird! Let us know what you find!

Draw Pigeon with Mo Willems

At the Cottage, we LOVE Mo Willems’ books! His characters, Pigeon, Piggie, and Gerald, are some of our favorites! During this time of quarantine, Mo Willems has been creating videos where he shares pictures from his books and teaches children how to draw some of his iconic characters! In this episode, he draws Pigeon! (He also shares other fun info about the book, but if you’d like to skip right to the drawing, go to minute 17 in the video.) We can’t wait to see your Pigeon drawings!

COVID-19 Update

This is what the newest announcement says regarding child care centers:

“Today Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced new social distancing orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which include canceling events and gatherings larger than 25 people. This limit does not apply to child care facilities and you may continue operating. Child care workers are essential to our workforce and families and children depend on you, especially during this time”

Cottage Interview

Magazine Interview!