Thursday, March 3, 2011

Letter of the Week....J is for Jellyfish

Hello out there in blogland!


Here is our latest addition of Letter of the Week....J is for Jellyfish.

(Beautiful, right??)















Finding Nemo (Storybook and CD)
We first read skimmed this Finding Nemo storybook....it was a little too detailed for my audience of a 2, 3, and 4 year old!  But the pictures were great, and most importantly it has pictures of jellyfish.  And it's Nemo!  We love Nemo!






 

We then read a little bit online about jellyfish and learned some cool facts....some of the highlights:

- Jellyfish are not fish!
- Jellyfish have no brain
- Jellyfish eat AND "go potty" through their mouth (followed by a chorus of *eeeews*)
- Some jellyfish are reeeeally big (as big as Daddy) and some can fit in the palm of your hand
- Jellyfish have long tentacles that they use to catch food, keep themselves safe, and would sting you if you touch them!

I also found this video on YouTube that we watched over and over (and over) again.  Very calming and peaceful!  We might work this into our bedtime routine at the end of a busy night...




Moving on- our jellyfish craft (and stArt project!)

The girls first colored with crayons on the outside of a paper plate, then I cut them in half and they painted with watercolors- obviously you could cut the plate in half at any step, before coloring or after painting....I just chose the middle!  Then they helped me tape crepe paper and curling ribbon to the inside of each paper plate and I stapled the two halves together.  We hung them up on our kitchen light with fishing line and they were exquisite (that's fancy for beautiful....sorry, I sometimes speak as though I am IN a Fancy Nancy book at all times)

 
We hung them up on our kitchen light with fishing line and they were exquisite (that's fancy for beautiful....sorry....I sometimes speak as though I am IN a Fancy Nancy book at all times)


And we continued the jellyfish theme into lunch (thereby officially earning me the Mom-and-Babysitter of the Week award, methinks!)


Check out these FUN jellyfish-hot-dog-pasta creatures!  I saw this in a magazine in a Dr's office - I don't know, maybe a year ago? And thought of it just as I was pulling out hot dogs for lunch on the Day-O-Jellyfish.  I just did a quick internet search and can't find the source but I'm guessing it came from Parenting, Family Circle, etc...something like that!  It was so easy- I just stabbed some uncooked spaghetti into hot dog pieces and threw it all in a pot to boil.  The pasta that was actually inside the hot dog was a little crunchy for Gracie's liking but the other two didn't seem to notice or mind.  Fun times!



  And lastly, a sample J page in their ABC books.

















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