Treasure Island - Shells

Day 8 was all about Shells or Conchas in Spanish.  We started the day with the Opening Rhyme while sitting at the breakfast table.

All along the beach,
With nothing inside,
Sat many little shells,
Brought in from the tide,
Along came Peter
All alone,
He picked up a purple shell,
And took it home.

Each time I said it I filled in the blanks with a different name and a different description of a shell.

Next I got out my big box of shells.  Everyone has a big box of shells, right?  Last year for my husbands birthday I gave him a bunch of cash to buy some meat he wouldn't normally buy.  He bought a steak but he also bought clams and oysters.  He realized how much he enjoyed it and how inexpensive it was to cook at home, as compared to eating out, so he treated himself a few more times after that.  Each time he would boil and clean out all the shells.  I love how my husband thinks of us and all our projects.  Just yesterday we finished eating our DQ ice cream sundaes and he asked, "before I throw this away, is there anything you would like to use these containers for?"  I said no and had him toss them, now I am thinking they could have made some pretty cool instruments if filled with beans, rice or popcorn.  I guess we will just have to buy ice cream sundaes again.

I got out a bunch of the clam shells and put them in the center of the table.  Mother Goose Time had us sing or play the day of the week song and have the kids grab one shell for every day of the week they heard.  I sing the day of the week song because it allows you to slow down when you get to the current day and the boys are more likely to sing along with me than the cd. 

I started with Lachlan.

 He pulled one over for every day I sang and then I had him count them out.  1, 2, 3, 4, . . . 7.  So how many days are in a week?  7!

 Next Autumn had a turn. 

 And then Peter.

 The first lesson we got started on was Counting Shells.  This was an I Can Read, sight word activity.

 Each of the I Can Read books come with sight word circles which contain 3 of the repeating words in the I Can Read book.  You can pop the circles out and put them on the table as they search for the words in the book.  On this day, we just got too distracted.  The book itself wanted them to draw sea shells on the pages.  They really wanted to work on that.

 Peter made hand shells.

Lachlan made a hermit crab with a shell.

Next we moved on to Stringing Shells.  I cut up a bunch of straws.  We have some really colorful straws Aunt Jenny got us.  Did you know that when you cut a straw it goes flying?  So I had the kids in charge of chasing down all the little bits of straw.  Then I sat them down at the table and taped on end of the yarn to the table.

 The question we asked was, what could you make with shells?  Autumn said "jewelry."

 The end they were beading with kept fraying and making it hard to get the straw on.  So I got out some Elmer's glue and dipped the end in it and we waited a little while for it to dry.  That helps a lot.  I need to remember to do this in advance next time an activity calls for yarn. 

Peter did awesome.  He made a perfect pattern until her ran out of orange straw pieces. 

We ended up not finishing the other two lessons of the day.  But it seemed to tucker Peter out.

At the end of the day he decided to watch the movie on the baby's play mat.  He is notorious for falling asleep anywhere, just like his daddy.  This brings back memories of when he was a little guy playing on this mat.  I think he might be a little big for it now.