Week 9 - Goodnight Moon

So, I must say I was hesitant to do this book as it seemed rather baby-ish.  But, I'm so glad we did row it because there were lots of fun things to pull from this simple night time classic.  If you're not familiar with Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, it's about a little bunny who is getting ready to go to bed in his "great green room".  He does this by looking around his room and saying goodnight to objects in his room.  If you ask me, he's like any other little boy that I know trying to drag out bedtime as much as possible! 

We started the week by making our own green room.  I was able to find most of the items in the room thanks to Google!

 Because this book has lots of bold colors, we spent some time talking about primary and secondary colors.  First, I made a basic Venn Diagram for them to color:

Then we colored (red, yellow, blue) water in different cups and mixed them to make secondary colors.  They thought this was amazing.

There were some additional color themed activities in the lapbook.  The one below was coloring balloons the correct color.  I was so proud of both of them.  They didn't need me to read them the colors.  They were able to sound them out!

Next, we discussed moon phases.  There were several great websites out there who used cookies to demonstrate this.  And since we all know that food must be a part of the weekly lesson ...I couldn't resist.  We were even able to spot a gibbous moon this Thursday!

Can we eat these yet?

Lapbook activity

 We talked about how it seems to get brighter outside as it gets darker in the great green room and this is due to your eyes adjusting to the dark.  For the past 3 nights now, they have begged to continue this experiment in their room.  We leave the light on and look out the window (very dark) and then turn off the light and see how we can actually see things in our backyard.  

We also made night sky paintings.  I used a white crayon to make a moon and stars before they started painting.  Then I gave them watercolor's to paint with.  As they painted, the moon and stars started to appear.

So, I'm not sure why anyone would have a "bowl full of mush" on their bedside table, but the bunny in this book does.  The boys liked watching the mouse move from page to page and getting into the bowl of mush.  It does appear that some is missing on the last couple of pages!  Anyway, we made mush one morning for breakfast.  They both ate it and loved it.  I let them add in raisins and brown sugar:

We finished up the week with doing some various activities in our lapbook:  rhyming words, matching single/pairs (for the mittens & socks in the story) and discussing nursery rhymes. 

 We had such a great time with this book.  We also read My World by Margaret Wise Brown. 

BIBLE

  This week, we read about Jesus calming the storm.  They learned that because Jesus takes care of us, we should help take care of others.  Our bible verse this week was 1 Peter 5:7:

Give all your worries and cares to God for He cares about you.  1 Peter 5:7

  We started the week by making our own sailboats (from a juice-box) and sea.  Two little boys provided the storm!  This was lots of fun and a ("contained") bubbly mess.

Another storm made landfall in the family room using a toy boat and pillow case.  This would be even better in a larger group with a big sheet and lots of boats!

They made sailboats by tracing numbers:

Missions Mike made an appearance this week (back from his trip to Africa)!  He talked to the boys about caring for others as he was off on another mission to help people in India.  We talked about things they could do to be caring toward others.  This was a great segue into the Operation Christmas Child project they are doing at church.

The week ended with a game called crossing the sea.  Two jumpropes were placed on the ground and they had to jump over them.  Each time they made a successful jump, the ropes were moved further and further apart until someone falls into the sea!

 

Gameface?  Check!

MATH

 ...This is my Math-U-See man.  And, as U can see, he's a little frustrated.  The boys moved on from the 10's place value to the 100's place value this week.  I think sometimes I forget that we are doing Kindergarten material and they have yet to turn 4.5 years old.  Needless to say, I'm not 100% confident that they have really mastered this concept, so we will be repeating it next week.  Hopefully, with a Mommy that is a little more patient.  Prayers would be much appreciated!

Coloring in the appropriate number of 100's blocks to form the correct number of total blocks.

HANDWRITING

 PHONICS

This week we added more helper words ("like" & "to") and learned about adding "s" to the end of a word to make it plural.  They picked it up rather quickly.  I would say over the past week+, I have seen them really take notice to words and try sounding them out.  Be it at home, in the grocery, driving, etc.  

A review of some of the words they have done thus far

Looking forward to rowing Corduroy next week and learning about The Good Shepherd.  Till next time!

Week 8 - Katy No-Pocket

Can you believe we are wrapping up our second month of schooling?  It seems hard to believe!  I'm not sure if we are still in the "honeymoon period", but the boys are still chugging along and seem to love what we are doing.  Our Before Five In A Row book this week was Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne.  Although, not a very realistic story as poor Katy would not have been able to rear young Freddy without a pocket.  That, along with Leonard Lion not looking like a lion, was probably my only qualms with the book.  The story starts off with Katy asking other animals how they carry their babies.  In the end, she goes to the city and finds a kind man with an apron.  He gives it to her and she is able to carry Freddy and lots of other baby animals.

After reading our story for the first time, we got our Atlas book out and found Australia.  We read/looked through the pictures of Australia by Ann Heinrichs.  They thought the didgeridoo was a very funny word.

We did our Australia Animals book (from Confessions of a Homeschooler!)

Then, for a treat, we made Pavlova...one of Australia's national desserts:

Are they done yet?  I've never used a hand mixer for that long in my entire life!!

Finished product

Cutting in.  It was pretty good, but really sweet.  I think I would decrease the amount of sugar next time.

They both wanted seconds.  Must not have been too sweet for them!

Next, we did various activities in our lapbook:

Our Bible story this week was on Kindness.  So, it was great that the story talks about a kind man.  We discussed other "K" words.  Then we discussed how different mommies hold/carry their babies:

C. carrying like "Jocko" the monkey's mom carried him.

B. carrying like Mrs. Alligator carries her baby.

How Mommy holds baby J. sometimes!

I surprised them both with aprons...it was very anticlimactic.  I don't think they were as excited as I was...but at least they were sports and went and got all of their babies to try in it:

We looked at the different habitats in the books and counted/found all of the animals.  Then, we went through our animal classification set for Katy No Pocket.

Check out the link above...this is a really great set of cards.

Finally, I printed a tool match game.  They had to color their tools and then match them to the correct shadows and glue them on.  I think it's funny that B. colored his tools like what real tools would look like and C. colored them in lots of bright crazy colors.  They are both so different:

 Some other great go-along books that we read were:  Feed the Animals by H. A. Rey, Snap! by Marcia Vaughan and Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French.

Bible

  Like I said earlier, this week we learned about kindness.  We read about King David showing kindness to Mephibosheth when others did not.  This opened the door to talk about people with disabilities, differences in race/ethnicity, etc.  Our Bible verse this week was 1 Corinthians 13:4...

Love is patient.  Love is kind.  It does not want what belongs to others.  It does not brag.  It is not proud.  1 Corinthians 13:4  ...again, with the hand gestures?

We started the week off by making a kindness chart.  Every time they showed kindness without having to be told they earned a crown sticker. 

After talking about Mephibosheth's handicap, we read some other books about children with disabilities.  We read:  Some Kids Use Wheelchairs by Lola M. Schaeffer and Don't Call Me Special by Pat Thomas.  They were both great books and opened a good discussion on treating everyone with respect and kindness despite what they look like.  As many of you might guess, this was a great week to introduce the song, "Jesus Loves the Little Children."  A classic that most children these days, don't seem to know.  I printed out some colored circles for them to make faces out of:

We wrapped up the week by doing some other songs and talking about how God cared for Mephibosheth and He cares for us:

Math

  We zoomed through lesson 8 in one day (a review of triangles and counting) and Tuesday we started lesson 9.  Learning the 10's value place.  It was a little slow going at first, but they caught on by Wednesday.  Next week, we start the 100's place (Insert Jaws music here....).  And yes, before you ask, they are still in their pajamas.  We were doing our work quietly and raising our hands when we had the answer.

Handwriting:

  They have officially mastered their L, U & V.

Phonics

  This week the boys learned -in & -ip words and added another book to their repertoire!

Next week we will be rowing Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and our Bible story will be about Jesus calming the sea.