Homeschool Themes--Angry Birds

We are just a TAD bit obsessed with Angry Birds here, as are many other families, I assume. Along with our planned homeschool activities I want to do themes since I loved doing themes when I taught preschool. So we'll be doing some fun theme activities in between our 'regular' work.

**Angry Bird Printables to color, cut and play with. We already love printing angry birds, coloring them and cutting them out, but these are great for painting paper plates or using balloons and adding the face pieces to. Find the pieces here.

**This blog has a great AB pre-k and Kindergarten pack that Eli will work on while Harrison does his work. Find the printables here.

**Angry Birds Science: This site has some great stuff about the science of Angry Birds, which may be over Eli's level but Harrison may enjoy. Angry Birds is all about physics after all!

**Angry Birds Math: This is a cute way to use those unix cubes. Now Eli already pretended the cubes were various angry birds characters when we first got them, so I may not even need to add the pictures to the cubes!

**Angry Birds Pom Pom Art: Use pom poms the colors of the angry birds and clear contact paper to create your own AB level!

**Pronoun activity for free on Teachers Pay Teachers.

**Eli will like these Connect the Dots that are great for fine motor.

**These lacing cards are great for fine motor too, use a hole punch to make the holes, then let your child lace them with yarn or string. (laminating the circles prior to lacing will make them easier to manipulate.

**Not sure if we will use these articulation games, but what a great idea!

**Great idea for introducing the "Main Idea" of a passage.

**This writing sheet can help be a great story starter or even a way to discuss emotions.

**More great math freebies here as well.

I'm sure there are many more to be found and I would love to find an Angry Birds Star Wars activity pack. I  may just have to make one, because that's what MY boys are obsessed with!

~~Thanks to all the creative bloggers out there who gather this stuff up!

~~Amy

Angry Birds Geography

Who says a lesson has to be planned, prepared or even premeditated?? My son requested some colored/laminated Angry Birds characters. He requested these when he saw some made by the 8 year old son of my best friend. He (and I) thought it was a pretty nifty idea, so Eli asked for some of his own. He requested Angry Birds Star Wars characters.

I remembered how much I loved my flannelboard stories when I was a teacher, so I covered a box in felt and stuck the hook side of Velcro tabs on the back of the angry birds. (I used Contact paper to cover them, instead of busting out the laminating machine.) 

So Eli has had a ball playing with these. But I didn't expect him to take them to his room where the United States map was and start playing with it that way. We moved the characters all around the country, having them travel from state to state. Luke Skywalker hung out with Princess Leia for a bit in Texas, they all had to escape from Darth Pig in North Carolina.

I didn't set out to do a lesson on the US States, but we ended up on one!

To make your own, google any coloring pages of what you want, color, and then cover with contact paper. Stick a 'hook' side of a velcro tab on the back and they will stick to felt and other items (like a rug!) :)

Enjoy!
~~Amy

Angry Birthday

Today my "baby" turned 6 years old!! I can't believe it's been 6 years and before I know it, he'll be graduating and heading out into the scary world!!
But for now he's still my baby! We don't make a big deal out of birthdays but I did make him cupcakes. I made him transformer cupcakes for school. (Blue frosting, silver sparkles and transformers cupcake toppers) :)

But the best part was I made Angry Birds cupcakes for after school! We enjoyed them with our friend Evan.

The idea is not original, I found it on Pinterest from this blog.
A lot of work but really fun!
Mine were gluten free, I used Pamela's Products Chocolate Cake Mix. Best ever!

They had fun and yummy cupcakes!!

Baby Birds....

So, I wanted to try my hand at gardening....right? I got a hanging strawberry plant, lime tree and an ivy. With the help of my more green thumb friend, we got them all growing. (QUITE a nice selection of limes growing also...bring ON the vodka and cranberry!!) I'm all proud of myself, not having killed anything yet, ya know...and then it started...

First, she was just hanging out on the ivy, which hangs by my back sliding glass door which overlooks the yard of toys. Then she's bringing stuff IN the ivy...sticks...straw...etc.

She's apparently setting up shop, Mrs. Bird.

Now, I'm not an animal HATER by any stretch of the imagination...I grew up with pets and until the past two years, the man and I had cats (til mini-me became allergic). So, naturally, I was not a bird person as that would have been cruel to try to have wild birds around the cats, albeit, amusing.

So I had NO clue what to do with Mrs. Bird setting up shop in my ivy...not to mention I was not pleased that I could not water my ivy. Thankfully it's a hardy plant and thus far, survived.

Thanks to several facebook friends, I've learned a thing or two about birdies, and Mrs. Bird built herself a lovely little nest and took to creating some life. After much sitting and giving me evil bird looks if I walked out the back door....some little eggs appeared in the nest. (before you yell at me...no, I didn't take the plant down once the eggs appeared, I held the camera up to take pics.)

Five little white eggs appeared. We've deduced she's a wren.

So Mrs. Bird sits on said eggs for quite some time...and lo and behold...weird things start appearing (I'm still curious where the eggshells end up?)

They all hatched pretty darn fast and looked pretty odd at first. SO tiny. Mind you this nest is probably less than 8 inches across in total.

So Mrs. Bird continues to care for her babies, and I continue to NOT water my ivy (meanwhile, the strawberries and limes are rocking!) and we start to coexist. When she seems to realize I'm NOT going to take her precious babies and deep fry them, she stops trying to attack me when I go outside. She lets us play outside and she remains on the nest...watching us, but not as scared of us as before. I start to understand her call, and recognize her call out of all the birds flying around! It's pretty remarkable actually.....I'm being all Jane Goodall....

Naturally, the boys are LOVING this. Eli wants a peek every day...Harrison isn't as interested unless I bring it to his attention (the birds probably have a longer attention span than he does..) I admit....while I was once miffed she set up home in MY plant..I am willing to take one for the team and lose a plant for birdkind. And if she feeds her babies the slugs and caterpillars attempting to eat my lime leaves...then heck yeah she can stay put!

The babies are getting stronger. They poke their heads up now, look like real birds and one actually moved his wings a little bit today. Harrison wants to name them...suggested names included: Flappy, Fuzzy, Thor, Thomas and from Eli, "Birdie".
I personally will be naming this little guy, Elvis.

He's kinda cute, isn't he?

Of course I do have an incredible urge to hurl one of them at a pig...but that's probably because I play too much angry birds...

I promise not to throw any baby birds! I should point out, Mr. Bird has made quite a few appearances and he is the main 'worm bringer' of the couple. He is the one feeding them the most, and I found that quite chivalrous.
I suspect the baby birds will attempt to take flight in the next week or two, since one was already moving his wings a bit. I'm told they come back and lay eggs in the same spot, so I've not yet decided if we'll reopen Hotel Wren again, but in the meantime...we're enjoying our little natural sciences lesson! 

I'll do my best to get some video and pics of them flying!!

Until our next birdie update...
~~mama