Saturday, May 28, 2011

"The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss

"'It won't come up,' everyone warns the young boy in this story, who has great expectations for a carrot seed that he plants and tends carefully. The boy's conviction remains strong in the face of strong doubt and opposition. And to everyone's surprise except his, the carrot he eventually harvests grows as large as his faith." ~ Beliefnet, July 2000

Friday, May 20, 2011

"The Red Carpet" by Rex Parkin

"A wild motorcycle chase after a runaway, unfolding, red carpet ends in an unexpected welcome for a visiting foreign dignitary." ~ Amazon product description
Here's the go-along books we read.

We borrowed a city street play rug from a friend and unrolled red crepe paper along the street.


Elmo took a ride on the red carpet.

On the last day of school for that week, Mommy surprised Aubrey with a red carpet for her to walk on.  It was made from red plastic tablecloths that were cut then taped together and rolled onto a yard stick.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

"Prayer for a Child" by Rachel Field

"The whole book is narrated by a little girl, but it represents children as a whole. It reflects their love of God, and their gentleness to humankind as a whole."  ~ Wikipedia

Homeschool Share suggested counting buttons on the little girls shirt.  We took it a step further by doing some button lacing and sorting.



To represent prayers for all of the children of the world, I folded some paper, drew an outline of a girl, and had Aubrey cut the silhouette.  She was quite surprised when I had her open up the paper to reveal little girls holding hands.

Each morning, we had milk and bread for breakfast just like the little girl in the story.

 Go-along books we read were:
- Wake Up, World which describes through pictures and text the typical day-in-the-life of children from around the world.
- The Moon Shines Down which takes a rhyming trip around the world to shine down on children in other countries.
We observed the half (or quarter) moon through Papa Nash's telescope.  I took this picture with my Nikon P100 bridge camera.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

"Katy No-Pocket" by Emmy Payne

"Katy's distress at being a kangaroo with no pouch is quickly remedied by a kindly construction worker." ~ Amazon product description
Aubrey wore her kangaroo costume (with pouch and Joey) on the morning that we read our story.
She practiced her cutting skills and then matched the Animal Homes  cards from Kidzclub.

Aubrey matched Mommy and Baby puzzle cards,
and completed her phonics program and computer game for the letter "K" on Starfall.
Kite begins with "K" so we went outside on this beautiful day to fly a kite.
In the story, Katy the Kangaroo borrowed an apron with pockets from a handyman so she could have a place to keep her Joey.  Aubrey had her first lesson on the sewing machine to make pockets on an apron.

Now the little Joey and the other animals in the story can stay in Katy's (a.k.a. Aubrey's) apron pockets.

We learned that kangaroos can jump up to 30 feet in one hop so we took this opportunity to have the first lesson on measurements.  Aubrey learned how to measure small things in inches from using Inch Cubes from Learning Resources and measurement worksheets from Kids Learning Station. 


The Time-Tracker box is 10 1/2 cubes (inches) high.
Then the girls went outside to see if they could jump as far as a kangaroo.  We marked a starting point and then made another mark 30 feet away to represent how far a kangaroo can jump.  Aubrey took the first jump, measured it in inches, and marked it.
 
Addison couldn't wait for her chance to jump, too.
Here are our lapbook activities, worksheets, and writing exercises from Homeschool Share, First-School, and Kids Learning Station.