Prayer for a Child

Here's what we did with Prayer for a Child in addition to the curriculum.

Books we read in addition:
First Prayers illustrated by Anna Marie Magagna
The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons
A few more but I returned them to the library before I blogged... sorry.

Videos:
Dairy Farming for Kids
Bread Come to Life

Here's our lapbook.


I made a pdf of the sequencing cards, the bread and milk picture pages and the "People to Pray For" elements. If you'd like the file, leave a comment with your email.

Letter P coloring page

P Words Book

Words that start with P

Circle Words that start with P

Praying Hands dot to dot

Lord's Prayer Puzzle - print on cardstock

Coloring Page - Psalm 61:1, Luke 11:1

Praying Hands Memory Verse Craft

Cow printout

Make a Silly Sandwich Book

The Snowy Day

We have a new favorite book. Well... one for the list of favorite books. I think we like this one because the main character Peter reminds us of Grom's Friend Buddy Elias. Such a fun book we shared this week.

Along with "The Snowy Day" we read...
"Snow" by Manya Stojic
"Weather" bu Gallimard Jeunesse and Pascale de Bourgoing
"Snip, Snip...SNOW!" by Nancy Poydar
"The Snowman" by Raymond Briggs

We had videos of
The Snowy Day along with other stories featuring Peter by Ezra Jack Keats.
The Snowman (also website)

We looked at websites about weather and snow...
Making Digital Snowflakes
About Winter Weather
Read A Long Version of The Snowy Day

Here are some pictures of Grom's lapbook.


Living on the coast of California, we don't have many opportunities to experience snow. One of the fun things we did was to play with shaving cream snow. I filled a cookie sheet and let Grom have at it. What a mess! But what a memory!

The Carrot Seed

I'm catching up my blog posts on some of the books we've been doing lately. We studied, "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss (illustrated by Crockett Johnson) a couple of weeks ago.

We enjoyed this nice little book about patience and perseverance. We covered most of the curriculum and I found some other fun things to do.

It was a carroty week around here.

Books we read:
The Enormous Carrot by Vladimir Vagin
The Giant Carrot by Jan Peck
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin
The Little Fish that Got Away by Bernadine Cook and illustrated by Crockett Johnson (same illustrator).

We talked about the illustrators style. Through the book he uses the same colors and only draws the characters in profile. We talked about "profile" and practiced showing each other our profiles. He know profile as when you only see one of the person's eyes. We looked at another book illustrated by Crockett Johnson and noticed that the people in that book are also drawn in profile.

I bought carrots at the store that still had their tops (or at least some of them). Grom arranged them by length and determined which was the longest carrot both the orange vegetable part and including the greens. Then we cut the the greens off and cut the carrots to different lengths. The carrots were put in a bowl and kept watered. We speculated as to which carrot would sprout more greens the fastest. Grom's carrot won. It was the one with equal lengths of carrot and greens.


I found lapbook stuff at homeschoolshare.com. Grom is having more fun with letters and completing projects. His coloring is getting better and he is sometimes using multiple colors instead of his usual monochrome.

Play With Me

Play With Me by Marie Hall Ets was a recent Before Five in Row book. Our time with this book was a little pushed so we didn't do as much with it as we could have.

It's a sweet book, but not one of my favorites.


Books we read a long with "Play With Me":
Titch by Pat Hutchins
What Game Shall We Play by Pat Hutchins
Won't Somebody Play With Me by Steven Kellogg

We made a folder with printables from Homeschoolshare.com.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week was a blur. We didn't have enough time to do all the things I wanted to do. I guess we can make hand print turkeys next year.

We read some nice books:
One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessey
1,2,3 Thanksgiving by W. Nikola-Lisa
The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Greene
The Story of the First Thanksgiving by Elaine Raphael and Don Bolognese
Give Thanks to the Lord by Karma Wilson (excellent book - I bought this at full price. Not normal for me.)

Grom made this fall tree. I can't find the link to the blog where I got the idea. Grom had a lot of fun using his fingers to make the leaves.Grom and Grandpa made their famous applesauce for the Thanksgiving Feast. It was a hit.

The Big Green Pocketbook

Grom and I had fun with our book this week.

We read some great books that somehow tied in.

• Next Stop by Sarah Ellis
• Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (also book on tape)
• When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach
• My Backpack by Eve Bunting
• The Bag I'm Taking to Grandma's by Shirley Neitzel
• Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells

I bought the Fold And Learn from FIAR Digital and also used some materials from Homeschool Share for our project folder. I think this is like what people call a lapbook or a notebook. Doesn't matter what it's called, it was fun. Grom balked a bit at some of the coloring projects, but when I pulled out the colored glue paint markers he jumped right in. I'm going to have to remember that. I'm not sure I'd invest in the Fold and Learn again. I'm going to do our next book without buying the kit and see what I come up with.



We worked with money - counting, sorting, recognizing. It was a good start.

I wanted to take a bus trip and run some errands. It didn't happen this week, but that doesn't mean it won't... someday.

The ABC Bunny

Here's our next Before Five in a Row book. The ABC Bunny by Wanda Ga'g.

I added the following stuff to the curriculum ideas...

Read-A-Longs
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr, John Archambault and Lois Ehlert (illustrator) - I found video of this book as well as a CD with a song version of the story.
Bunny Cakes by Rosemary Wells
1 is One by Tasha Tudor

For Bible we made this creation folder

We did this ABC Bunny Activity Card

We made some more animal classification cards.

I made these leaf letters that we put in order.
I'm sharing my files if you'd like to print and make your own.

The Runaway Bunny

It's time for another fun book.

We'll keep reading our bunny books we started with "The Little Rabbit".  And of course we pull out "Goodnight Moon" and see how they are related.

In addition to the suggestions in the curriculum, I found...

Runaway Bunny Online Coloring Page

Play the if you are then I will game - The child says something that they want to be such as, "I will be a book." Then the parent can answer, "Then I will be a librarian and put you in my library." or "I will be a tooth" and "Then I will be the toothbrush that keeps you clean". It can turn into a very silly game but it gets everybody thinking.

Eat carrots for snack.

The Little Rabbit

Here's our next book - The Little Rabbit by Judy Dunn.

We're reading these books along with it:

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Rabbits and Raindrops by Jim Arnosky

(Other) The Little... Books by Judy Dunn

A Rabbit for You:  Caring for Your Rabbit by Susan Blackaby

Here's what we're doing with the book in addition to things described in the curriculum:

Visit Promise, the bunny - belongs to a friend.  If this goes well, we might go to the Animal Shelter and look at the bunnies they have.  I am not bringing home a bunny.  I am not bringing home a bunny.  I am not bringing home a bunny.

Wild vs Domestic Bunnies - camouflage - cut out bunnies of different colors - place around the room where they are camouflaged.

Baby Animal Names

Rabbits

Snacks - Annie's Cheddar Bunny Crackers - will also use to practice counting.

Here's a craft we made today:

Grom got creative with placement of the nose and whiskers.

Fortunately I snapped a picture before Grom decided he didn't like his mask anymore.

I Am An Artist

We are jumping back in the boat.  It's time to row a new book.

I found a couple of great books to read along with our book.

An Artist by M.B. Goffstein

No One Saw: ordinary things through the eyes of an artist by Bob Raczka

Activities planned:

• Nature walk - picking up treasures
  
• Found Objects Collage -from Nature Walk
  
• Talk about 5 Senses and how we use them to enjoy art and nature
  
• Watch a Sunset together and talk about the art God paints for us
  
• Texture rubbings - leaves, rocks, bark, whatever we can find - see what kind of textures it reveals when covered with paper and rubbed with a crayon.
  
• Art Hunt - looking for beautiful things in nature
  

Organized School Supplies

These are MY boxes of crayons, colored pencils, markers, scissors and glues. Grom and I use these supplies during our Before Five in a Row adventures.

Grom has his own crayons and markers. I can't count on them for our activities, so these are set aside for school.

I bought the boxes at Staples during their Back to School sale - quite a deal. I labeled them with lower case letters (better for learning letters and reading - I'm told) using my handy dandy labeling machine.

GeMoOrgNo was started by Lara the Lazy Organizer. I'm joining her every day this month with photos of organized things.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Organized BFIAR

Grom and I are having a lot of fun with Before Five in a Row(BFIAR). We are both learning a lot and enjoying some classic children's books. So far I'd be hard pressed to choose a favorite. Every week we read the "best book ever".

I have one of these drawer organizers that I'm using for our BFIAR journey. I request a lot of books from the library and have supplies to gather.

I put the materials we are currently using in the top drawer.

The second drawer has stuff for the next book.

The bottom drawer has the books yet to come.

I love coming home from the library and loading up the drawers. I get to anticipate the fun, the learning and the memories.

GeMoOrgNo was started by Lara the Lazy Organizer. I'm joining her every day this month with photos of organized things.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

Ask Mr. Bear

I remember this book from when I was a kid. One of the fun things about doing BFIAR with Grom has been all the memories it stirs in me.

We did some of the activities from the curriculum and I found these things on the internet.

Printout for lapbook - I couldn't get Grom interested in coloring these cutouts until this week. If something comes of them, I'll post a picture later.

Fun lapbook example

Books and Music a Magical Mix - active activities (didn't get to these)

Bear Hug Puppet

Animal Scoop - Bears
Bear Den Next time, I'll do more with studying bears.

Here's a couple of pictures from our row.






Grom loved counting and sorting gummy bears. I had my first experience with Grom "stealing" food. I had our school stuff out on the table and was doing something quick in the kitchen. I glanced over and he was sneaking some bears.

We made cards that had the elements of the story. The games were to sequence the cards and also to match the animals with the gifts they offered. Grom has a sense of humor and lately he's been saying wrong things just to be funny. Stuff like... "We get milk from chickens, right Mommy?" Hard to judge what he learned with the cards, but I got a good laugh out of them.

Corduroy

It's time to regroup and recommit to BFIAR. Our book this week is Corduroy. In addition to the ideas in the curriculum, I found these ideas.

Corduroy Craft

Teddy Bear Coloring Page

Counting with Gummy Bears - who doesn't like gummy bears?

Color Bear Concentration Game

Of course we also read A Pocket for Corduroy and Dandelion both also by Don Freeman. All three of the books had readalongs available at the library. Grom loves listening to his books in the car (uh, I mean airplane - but that's another post).

Another nice book from the library was The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

Bear Hunt Blog Post - some fun links

Bear Hunt Pattern - clip art pictures to make a lap book

Bear Hunt Video by the author - Grom and I watched this video today. He wanted to watch it 3 times and then declared that the author was too loud. The volume of the computer wasn't very loud, so I think he was referring to his expression which was exaggerated.

Photo Family Tree - I wish we had done this, but it just didn't happen. Maybe next time?

BFIAR has been really hard for me the past few weeks. I can get the go-along books and videos from the library, and make plans for activities, crafts, etc. but if I don't make a plan for each day of the week it's easy for nothing to happen.

I'm glad this is preschool. We both have a lot of learning to do.

edited to add...
Books and Music a Magical Mix - active activities for Bear Hunt as well as recipes for mud.

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here and our Before Five In A Row adventure was one of the things that was put on the back burner. We continued reading our stories and have been talking about some of the points of the curriculum. The more hands on projects will be finished up this week.

In addition to the curriculum this is what we did...

Weather Bear Paper Doll - I printed additional "warm weather" outfits and we colored them for additional outfits for Jesse Bear.

I found Jamberry by Bruce Degen and used it as a go-along for Blueberries for Sal. Grom loves that book (I'm on the lookout for our own copy) and we've worn out the story tape listening to it in the car. Grom realized that Jesse Bear and Jamberry are drawn by the same illustrator. He loves the name Bruce Degen and giggles everytime we bring up his name. Very fun and a great memory.



We have a couple of more "bear" books coming in the next couple of weeks, so I'm sure we'll be pulling in more bear activities then.

Yellow Ball / My Blue Boat

I combined these books because I was under the mistaken idea that I had fallen behind. I've come to realize that I can't be behind...

1. I set the schedule
2. Grom is just 3 years old
3. This is supposed to be fun and if fun takes longer than a week - so be it

From the outset I need to confess that these books didn't do a whole lot for me. Maybe I've been spoiled with Goodnight Moon and Blueberries for Sal.

We followed some of the curriculum ideas for both of the books.

Here is some extra stuff I added...
The Yellow Ball - About the Story (mollybang.com) - more interesting for me than Grom
Sailboat Coloring Page
Another Sail Boat Coloring Page

Books we enjoyed that tied to these books...

• Scuffy the Tugboat - video (there are multiple stories on this tape - one of the stories has Scuffy dreaming about going to the sea and then going)
• Tub toys by Terry Miller Shannon & Timothy Warner ; illustrations by Lee Calderon
• Goose by Molly Bang
• Captain Bob sets sail by Roni Schotter ; illustrated by Joe Cepeda.
• The red ball by Joanna Yardley - Grom immediately started finding the red ball on each page
  
• Jesse Bear's tra-la tub by Nancy White Carlstrom ; illustrated by Bruce Degen
• Bathtime piggywiggy by Christyan and Diane Fox - this is a cute book with fold out pages - including a page about SURFING!

We had a great time making boats out of aluminum foil with paper sails. We sailed them in our jacuzzi. I was surprised at how I could blow the boats around the pool.

Blueberries for Sal

Blueberries for Sal at Wikipedia

We did many of the activities from the Before Five In A Row Curriculum. We ate A LOT of blueberries.

From the library...
Blueberries for Sal - read-a-long book
Baby Bears (video)
A day in the life of a baby bear by Peter and Susan Barrett.
Jamberry by Bruce Degen.
Jamberry - read-a-long book
Scolastic's Make way for ducklings--and more Robert McCloskey stories (video) - includes Blueberries for Sal
One Day in Maine by Robert McCloskey - Grom realized it was the same Sal quickly but this longer book lost his attention.

We did this project. I drew a simple bush. It wasn't a blueberry bush until Grom added the blueberries. We colored his fingertip and he stamped the blueberries on the bushes.
Grom made a similar picture using blue dots for the blueberries. He loves sticking stickers.

Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Pictures by Clement Hurd


Goodnight Moon - about Goodnight Moon from Wikipedia

Here are some things that I found in addition to the activities listed in the curriculum.

Goodnight Moon Counting page, Goodnight Moon online coloring activity, Goodnight Moon coloring page - Printable and online activities from the Harper Collins website.

Moon rising. - points out how the moon rises through the story and how it corresponds to the time changing on the clocks.

Hey Diddle Diddle Coloring Pages - We've had a lot of fun with this nursery rhyme. Grom colored the pages once and then we made this folder book of the rhyme using the coloring pages.

Here are some books we enjoyed that tied to Goodnight Moon.

• Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle
• The Napping House by Don and Audrey Wood
• Read-a-long version of Goodnight Moon - Grom loves these in the car.
• Goodnight Moon (video) - we only watched the Goodnight Moon segment (it's at the very beginning). The movie came in after we had been rowing the book for a few days. Grom was very excited to see the story come to life.
• Scholastics' Red Riding Hood--and more James Marshall fairy tale favorites (video) - this video includes the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

I stayed away from other Margaret Wise Brown books. I'm saving that for when we row The Runaway Bunny.

Preschool with Grom

Grom and I are starting Before Five in a Row. I'm very excited to see how it goes.

I have the book and have collected most of the stories we will be reading. I've been planning our activities and requesting books from our library like crazy.

We "rowed" (which I have found out means going through a particular book) Goodnight Moon first. It has been fun to see Grom's excitment. Truth be told, I think he's enjoying the focused attention from Mommy.