Today we're celebrating the winter solstice. We live in Florida and it's usually hot for Christmas (this year it's supposed to near 80 degrees) but it's very crisp out today. We talked about the scarcity of food during this season and made feeders for our animal friends.
The first ones are strands of plain cheerios. I just tied a button onto one end of a length of string and wrapped a bit of scotch tape on the other end to make threading easier. Then we went to town stringing the cereal until we were happy with them.
The others were apple slices which we spread with peanut butter and dipped in crushed cheerios (we're out of birdseed). I cut a little hole near the top of each slice and strung them with thread.
Then we hung them outside for the birds and squirrels to enjoy.
PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. VIDEO: View this nursery song version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Writing Practice, Heads and Tails Matching Game, Color Match Supplies: Brown Bear Printables Crayons or Markers Paper and Cardstock Print the Heads and Tails Matching Game (page 3-4) on cardstock and cut it out. Color Match and Writing Practice can be printed on regular printer paper.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Bear Tracks Process Art Supplies: cardboard (2) sponges hot glue gun and glue art paper paint scissors 1. Cut two cardboard rectangles (a bit larger than the sponge) 2. Trace a bear print onto each sponge and cut out pieces. 3. Glue pieces to cardboard to make you bear print stamps. 4. Have your child stamp paint tracks onto the paper. Note: You can also do prints of other animals from the story.
EXPLORATIONS Learn some interesting facts about bears:
PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. VIDEO: View the animated version of Where the Wild Things Are.
1.Discuss action words. 2. Make a list of action words that your child knows. 3. Have a "wild rumpus." Turn on some music and read your action words and have your child demonstrate their actions. ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Wild Thing Mask Supplies: Paper Plates Elastic or string Hole punch Crayons Construction paper Scissors Glue stick
1. Cut out eye holes in paper plate mask. 2. Help your student decorate their mask. 3. Hole punch sides and add elastic or string.
EXPLORATIONS Learn about mythical creatures like unicorns and dragons.
PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.
VIDEO: View the read-aloud version of The Rainbow Fish.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Tissue Paper Fish Supplies: Paper plate Scissors Tape Glue stick Tissue paper
1. Cut a small wedge out of a paper plate. Keep the wedge for the fish tail. Cut tissue paper into small squares. 2. Have student draw an eye for the fish. 3. Help student tape the tail onto the fish. 4. Have student paste tissue "scales" on the fish. ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Fruit Loop Sorting Supplies: Fruit Loops cereal Plastic cup for each color Sorting tweezers Bowl
1. Writes each color name on the cups. Fill a bowl with Fruit Loops. 2. Have your student sort the cereal with the tweezers (or fingers). 3. Snack time!
PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault.
VIDEO: View the animated version of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Coconut Tree Name Supplies: Construction paper Scissors Markers or crayons Glue stick
1. Cut out a green leaf shape for each letter of student's name. Cut out brown tree trunk. 2. Have student write each letter of their name onto a leaf. 3. Have student paste tree trunk onto paper. Paste leaves in order on tree. ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Letter Stamping Supplies: Small alphabet stamps Stamp pad Crayons Coconut Tree printable
1. Have your student color the coconut tree. 2. Help your student to stamp all of the letter of the alphabet around the tree.
1. Arrange the painter's tape into the shape of the Eiffel Tower. 2. Use your watercolors to paint the paper. 3. Let it dry then remove the tape. ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Coin Arrays Supplies: Coins
1. Help your child to organize coins into arrays. I.E. twelve little girls in two rows. 2. Count the coins together.
EXPLORATIONS Watch this video about the Eiffel Tower.
PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.
DISCUSSION PROMPTS: Ask your student the following questions to jump-start a discussion. Did you like the story, Green Eggs and Ham? Which part of the story did you like best?Do you like to taste new kinds of food?
VIDEO: View the animated version of Green Eggs and Ham.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Fizzing Green Eggs Supplies: Baking Soda Vinegar Food Coloring Dropper Tray
1. Mix 1/2 c baking soda with 8-10 drops green food coloring and 1 tbsp water. 2. Form "dough" into egg shapes. 3. Place eggs into tray and let student drip vinegar onto the eggs with the dropper. 4. Watch the fizz and discuss how the baking soda reacts with the vinegar to form carbon dioxide which gives us all of these fun bubbles.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Rhyming Eggs Supplies: Rhyming Eggs Printable 1. Print onto cardstock (green if you have it) and cut eggs. 2. Mix up eggs halves. 3. Talk about rhyming words and help your student to match the egg halves.
EXPLORATIONS Make a green eggs and ham omelet with a few drops of food coloring. Watch this video about Easter Egger chickens.
PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
DISCUSSION PROMPTS: Ask your student the following questions to jump-start a discussion. Did you like the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Which part of the story did you like best? Which of the foods do you think was the tastiest?
VIDEO: View the lovely animated version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
1. Print out the puzzles and cut along the gray lines. Keep individual puzzles in plastic sandwich bags. 2. Help your child put the puzzles together.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Caterpillar Life Cycle Supplies: Cardstock Life Cycle printable Scissors
1. Print out the puzzles and cut along the gray lines. Keep individual puzzles in plastic sandwich bags. 2. Help your child put the puzzles together.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Caterpillar painting Supplies: Paper Cardboard tubes Red, yellow, and green paint
1. Help your child to dip ends of tubes into paint. 2. Use tubed to stamp circles onto paper to make caterpillar's body. 3. Paint or draw face, antennae, and feet.
NARRATION JOURNAL At week’s end, after your final reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar,
have your child complete a narration journal entry. Ask your child
describe the story. Your student can draw or paint an illustration to go
with the narration.
EXPLORATIONS
Have a Very Hungry Caterpillar snack and include fruits and foods from the story.
Watch this video about the caterpillar life cycle.
When I was a little girl, I was very, very shy. I was terrified of getting in trouble in school and was polite and well behaved to a fault. I had also been sick with tonsillitis from about the age of two and therefore missed quite a bit of school up until 5th grade when I had those horrible, useless things yanked out. This meant that I very rarely received the coveted Perfect Attendance award on awards night. I unfailingly got the award for Honor Roll, but that attendance award mocked me. I did always get another award that I didn't really understand. The Citizenship Award. This confused me because I understood what a citizen was from civics lessons but I didn't understand how it applied in the elementary school setting and why some students earned it but others did not. Weren't we all citizens?
I didn't actually learn the significance of the Citizenship Award until 5th grade graduation. Our school was K-5, so this was a big ceremony for us. I'd been out of school for a few weeks, recovering from the tonsillectomy and had even missed field day- my favorite day of the year due to the fact that my best friend and I were really freaking good at the 3-legged race.
After the surgery and post-op checkup, my doctor gave me the green light to attend the graduation ceremony, which was exciting because I'd practiced really hard and knew all of the lyrics to the song that the 5th grade chorus was performing. Here's the one... only imagine it with a hundred 5th graders in fluorescent green t-shirts and early 90s hairstyles:
Oh wait, yeah, the hairstyles were just like that. We really rocked the side-step, clap, side-step, clap dance moves.
When it was time for awards, we had to cross the stage, shake hands with the principal who gave us our diplomas, and have our picture taken. I was never shy when I was singing or dancing on stage, but it was absolutely mortifying to walk across and shake hands with the principal. Then to have to go up twice more for the Honor Roll trophy and then the Citizenship trophy. By the time we gathered outside for fruit punch and tetherball, I was exhausted.
The teachers were all mingling with the parents, trying futilely to escape the 110 degree Florida heat under the awnings while the students chased each other around the giant caterpillar climbing apparatus on the playground. I wasn't really up to snuff yet, so I just stood awkwardly with my parents and some of the teachers. I asked my third grade teacher about the Citizenship Award and she told me that it was for "exemplary behavior in the classroom and for being a role model for other students". I remember her words well because she had been my favorite teacher and was Swedish and had a lovely accent. She will live forever in my memory as she had appeared in our darkened classroom, dressed as Santa Lucia with a wreath of candles on her head for our 3rd grade Christmas party.
I was no longer upset about the elusive Perfect Attendance award. I had been given a beautiful purple and gold trophy, topped with a majestic eagle for a solid 5 years worth of exemplary behavior. My name was etched on the base. The trophy sat next to its Honor Roll sibling on my bedroom shelf for years. I discovered them again recently in a box of childhood treasures that had found their way to my grandmother's attic room and I smiled, remembering that day. The bright sun, the sticky heat, the sweet lilting voice of my teacher, "exemplary behavior".
Citizenship is an important subject. One that is often overlooked, replaced by the hard push for higher test scores. I don't "grade" my son's work yet, but I do reward good citizenship. He has recently begun collecting mini Thomas trains that come in little plastic blind bags. The anticipation of what is hidden inside is so exciting for him. I add to his collection whenever he shows some random kindness, or works uncomplainingly on a task, or whenever he reminds me about acts of compassion- great and small. It isn't often that something like a little plastic toy train reminds us to be good citizens to one another, and to teach these values to our children, but it's a crazy life and I'll take any reminder that I can get.
PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story Corduroy by Don Freeman.
DISCUSSION PROMPTS: Ask your student the following questions to jump-start a discussion. Did you like the story, Corduroy? Which part of the story did you like best? What did Corduroy lose? Did he find what he was looking for?
ADDITIONAL READING: Read the sequel, A Pocket for Corduroy, also by Don Freeman. Another favorite bear book is A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond.
VIDEO: If you want to give your child nightmares, view this live-action version of Corduroy.
If you'd rather skip scarring your offspring for life, there are many read-alouds of Corduroy on YouTube. Here's a decent, non-terrifying one:
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Button Fun Supplies: Various colored buttons Cups or containers labeled by color Yarn or string
1. Have your child sort the buttons into containers by color. 2. You can also have them sort by size if your button sizes vary. 3. You could use bowls with lids with slots cut into them for more fine motor practice. 4. Use the string to make button necklaces.
We counted, sorted, and tallied the buttons. Then we made a bar graph.
1. Lay out the counting bears cards and a bowl full of bears. 2. Have your pupil place the correct number of bears on top of each card. 3. Practice with two cards at a time to work on simple addition. 4. Snack on your sums to work on subtraction. Subtraction was our favorite. :)
EXPLORATIONS Watch this video about making teddy bears.
PRIMARY STORY: Begin each day by reading the story Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.
DISCUSSION PROMPTS: Ask your student the following questions to jump-start a discussion. Did you like the story, Good Night, Gorilla? Which part of the story did you like best? Which animal was your favorite?
ADDITIONAL READING: Check out other zoo books. Our favorites are The View at the Zoo, by Kathleen Long Bostrom and 1, 2, 3 To the Zoo, by Eric Carle.
VIDEO: Here's an animated version from the Scholastic Video Collection, Good Night Gorilla and More Bedtime Stories.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Animal Track Process Art
SUPPLIES Zoo Animal Figurines (Here's a Wild Toob with a lot of standing animals) Paint Paper Paper Plates
Step 1: Pour paint into plates. Step 2: Allow your child to dip animal feet into paint and make "tracks" on the paper. Step 3: Ask about the similarities and differences in types of tracks.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Flashlight Play Gather up some flashlights and teach your student to operate them. Turn off lights and have some fun playing with the flashlights. Make hand silhouettes or play flashlight tag. Look for objects in the dark. EXPLORATIONS Visit a zoo!
Play the following video of the finale from The Carnival of the Animals from Walt Disney's Fantasia 2000. Allow your watch or explore movement while listening.
This week is a break week for us. We're schooling year-round with a lot of time off. If you're following the Literary Explorations program, the upcoming books are Good Night, Gorilla and Corduroy with My Father's Dragon as the read-aloud.
We've had some fun unschooling experiences lately, including the discovery and identification of a barking tree frog in our bathroom, which we moved into our habitat for study and then released.
The Spawn also found my giant container of pattern blocks. I pulled out some pattern sheets and he went to town. These were a big hit.
We're gearing up for the tropical storm which is supposed to hit us directly late tomorrow into Friday, so we're talking about being prepared for storms and securing our outdoor belongings. We're packing our hurricane bags: Thomas engines, snacks and pajamas for The Spawn; chocolate, vodka and Jane Austen novels for me. Bring on the rain. I could do with an excuse to binge read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the 18,452nd time. Ah, yes. Also for our storm preparation: we'll not forget to pack our towels.
Begin each day by reading the story The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown.
DISCUSSION PROMPTS
Ask your student the following questions to jump-start a discussion.
Did you like the story, The Runaway Bunny?
Which part of the story did you like best?
What kinds of things did the little bunny become? What might you like to become when you are older? The bunny talks about running away. Do you think this is a good thing for the bunny to do? What might the bunny do instead?
ADDITIONAL READING: The bunny runs away to the circus to become a flying trapeze artist. Read the poem, The Acrobats, by Shel Silverstein.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Popsicle Stick Rafts
SUPPLIES
Popsicle sticks Glue Wooden skewers or small dowels Corks
Empty milk carton Straws and plastic bin for racing
Step 1: Paint popsicle sticks if you wish. Glue popsicle sticks together to make a raft. Glue two sticks onto the bottom parallel to your raft sticks.
Step 2: Cut a hole into one end of a cork. Glue a skewer or dowel into hole. Glue cork to raft. Step 3: Glue corks onto the bottom of raft. Step 4: Cut sail out of milk carton. Attach milk carton sail to skewer. Step 6: Fill plastic bin with water and use straws to blow your raft across the water's surface.
EXPLORATIONS
Practice "tightrope walking". Put down some tape or a rope and walk the line.
The runaway bunny talks about becoming a flower. Plant something and talk about caring for plants.
The Spawn has just started preschool which I have been planning since before I was pregnant. I'm not kidding. And since I know exactly how picky I am about things like, I don't know, facts with a healthy side of secular worldview, I knew that world history would be a tricky thing to prep. So I started early. Kindergarten will be devoted to prehistory/intro to geography and I'm piecing that together but 1st-4th grades we'll be on a Classical cycle:
1st grade: Ancient History
2nd grade: The Middle Ages
3rd grade: Early Modern Times
4th grade: Modern Age
Then we'll repeat the cycle in increasing depth twice more in 5th-8th and 9th-12th, with summer units to reinforce prehistory, geography, and the Cosmos.
I really, really, REALLY love the idea of a timeline. Specifically a timeline song. And I've done my research. A few years ago I began the search for the holy grail of timeline songs. And, as expected, all of the timeline songs that I found had something in common with the holy grail. They were either super-duper religious or totally non-existent. Warning: Python tangent ahead.
Ahem, as I was saying.
As I don't have a full orchestra in my homeschool materials closet (surprising, I know!) I've decided that writing, orchestrating, recording, and mixing my own timeline song is not a project that I wish to undertake.
Enter: Classical Conversations.
For those of you unfamiliar, Classical Conversations (CC) is a Christian company with classical homeschool materials and co-op programs. They also have a timeline song. And I bought it. Their timeline song is meant to go along with the CC Classical Acts and Facts cards. It also has a sign language component which is right up our alley.
Unfortunately, CC is decidedly un-secular. The timeline song begins with creation, goes through the fall of man, the flood, etc. This is totally expected from a Christian-based company. But it also includes motherfucking Billy Graham's birth as an event deserving of inclusion in a timeline of the Events of World History.
Picard does not approve of this fuckery.
I'm planning to replace these moronic additions with things like "3500 BCE" instead of "creation" and "Einstein's Theory of Relativity" in place of "Motherfucking Billy Graham". That last one might not be a direct quote from their version.
So I'm geeking out over my version of the timeline song. And I'm trying to work lesson plans with the usable narratives from SOTW and a whole bunch of secular reference materials: Usborne IL Encyclopedia of World History, Oxford Children's History of the World, A History of World Societies, The Humanistic Tradition, The Earth and Its Peoples, and A Little History of the World. Any suggestions for other reference materials that won't make me want to remove my eyeballs with a red-hot cocktail fork? Thanks in advance.
Step 1: Cut out the blueberry number labels and affix to small cups.
Step 2:Fill a bowl with at least 55 blue pom-poms (or rotate them out and do less numbers at a time).
Step 3: Show your student how to use the tongs to transfer the poms from the bowl to the cup.
Step
4: Help your student to count and transfer the appropriate number of "blueberries" to the corresponding cup.
The Spawn preferred using his fingers to the tweezers. They were a bit too large for his hands. This was a big hit and he asked for it twice after we'd moved on to other things. :)
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY: Blueberry Muffins
INGREDIENTS
1.5 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp baking powder 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 egg approx. 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 cup fresh blueberries For the topping: 2/3 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup all purpose flour 2 tbsp butter at room temperature 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional) DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray top and cups of muffin pan with non-stick spray. 2. Combine flour, brown sugar and baking powder. 3. In a 1-cup measuring cup, combine oil and egg. Add enough buttermilk to fill cup. Add to flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Fold in blueberries. 4. Fill muffin cups to the top. Sprinkle with crumb topping. 5. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Increase temperature to 400 and bake for an additional 3-7 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before removing. Crumb Topping: 1. Mix brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter with a fork until combined.
EXPLORATIONS
Go fruit picking. Look for you-pick farms and bring home a bounty of fruits or veggies.
Store something for the winter: You could learn to preserve or can food. If you have a fireplace or fire pit, go out and gather firewood. This is a good time to talk about saving money for later. Count coins into a piggybank or open a bank account.
Watch this video to learn what kinds of foods bears eat:
