Letter C

Crazy letter C! Our theme for the week was cars. Our theme book was not the best but A and E enjoyed it nonetheless. I felt like it would have been better to go into more detail about how a car works or its parts. but mostly that comes down to me not looking at it enough before I brought it home. The book was by Colleen Ruck called Cars. I, Crocodile by Fred Marcellino, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Clifford at the Circus by Norman Bridwell, The Caboose Who Got Loose by Bill Peet, and Clickety Clack by Rob and Amy Spence were our reading books for the week.

Our sentences for the week were:
Catch the cat!
The cougar got in the car.
The cup was cold.
The camel caught a cold.

Our vocabulary words were: cup, cat, cold, can, and catch.

Our bible verse for the week was from Acts 16:31 "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved."

We worked on a heart shape this week and we also looked at the number 22.

Our science vocabulary for the week was: camel, cougar, clownfish, crab, cardinal, chrysanthemum, and columbine. E really enjoyed having a cardinal for our science bird this week because we have a cardinal that frequently visits a bush outside our kitchen window that she can see really easily. So, every time the bird sat in the bush she would comment on it and be so proud of herself for knowing what type of bird it was! Cheetah by Edana Eckart and Thanks to Cows by Allan Fowler were what we read for science time.

Christopher Columbus by Mary Dodson Wade and D is for Dancing Dragon by Carol Crane were the books we read for our social studies time.

In art time we made caterpillars. I found the idea on Pinterest. I made dots on the circles of different colors for the girls to practice counting and writing numbers with.

E writing her number on her circle.

A gluing on one of her circles.

E gluing on her spots for her caterpillar.

A and E showing their finished caterpillars.

Letter U

The letter U. Our theme for the week was utensils. Our vocabulary words for the week were: up, under, us. We read My "u" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure, Umbrella by Taro Yashima. We also read Good Night, Little Kitten by Nancy Christensen for the girls to practice reading aloud.

Our sentences were:
The unicorn is up.
Do you play a ukulele?
I have unusual underwear.
Go under the umbrella.

Our poem for the week was:
Under My Umbrella by Jaymie Gerard

Under my umbrella
I like to feel the drops
Of rain-its happy tapping
of pitter-patter plops.

Under my umbrella
I like to feel a dash
Of water as it hits the ground
And rises with a splash.

Under my umbrella
I like to stay all dry
and enjoy the rain
As it falls down from the sky.

In Bible time our verse was "What time I am afraid, I will trust in You. Psalm 56:3" We just read whatever Bible stories we felt like because I couldn't think of any dealing with the letter U. Can you think of  any?

For our social studies time we read Utah by Sarah Tiev.

We had unicorn, urchin, umbrella bird, umbrella tree for our science vocabulary.

We didn't get to much done this week because we also were getting ready to celebrate E's FOURTH birthday. We had a great time celebrating her and the joy she has brought to our lives!

Letter J

Jumping letter J. Our theme for the week was jungle.This week we didn't have a lot of books but A and E enjoyed them. We read Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow, and Jamberry by Bruce Degen. Our vocabulary words for the week were: jump, jeep, jelly, and jewelry (that was for A who loves all things shiny!)

Our sentences for the week were:
Jack jumped high.
Ride in the Jeep.
There is a jaguar.
I jog in jelly!
Ride in the Jeep.
My Jello jiggles.
The jewelry is sparkly.

Our Bible verse for the week was from Acts 16:31 "Believe ontheLord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." We also read some stories about Jesus.

In science time we read about Jaguars by Jason Cooper. Our science vocabulary was: junco, juniper, jaguar, jelly fish,

For social studies time we read about Thomas Jefferson by Simone T. Ribke and Jamaica by Lisa Owings.

We also had to sing 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the bed everyday! In the past we have made  a jelly fish but we did get to that this week.

Letter R

 Ravishing letter R! Our theme for the week was rainbows! The books we read this wee were: Raquel and the Letter R by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed, Rusty Red The Sound of R by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyed, Velveteen Rabbit,  The Big Road Race by Stan and Jan Berenstain, and The Little Red Caboose by Marian Potter.

Our sentences this week were:
Do you run?
Read the new book.
Run away from the rhino!
Aunt Rena rings the bells.
The rabbit ran.
I hear the radio.

Our vocabulary words were: rainbow, ring, rain, rabbit, rope, run, and radio.

Our Bible verse was from Deuteronomy 26:11 "Rejoice in every good thing the LORD your God has given you."

For our science time we looked at some pitutres of: roadrunner, raccoon, rhino, ray, and rose. We also read about Raccoons in the Dark by Jean Claude O'Mara.

For our social studies time we read about Betsy Ross by Wil Mara.

For our art time we made rainbows. I drew the letter R on a blank piece of paper. I pulled out scrapes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple construction paper. The girls glued the paper pieces in order for a rainbow. A didn't want to stay in the lines to much and we didn't have enough blue paper so they drew that color in. The girls had so much fun with this simple project!

A gluing on her purple portion to her rainbow.

E cutting her purple pieces.

Letter B

Beautiful, bountiful letter B! For our reading time we read: Berlioz the Bear by Jan Brett,
Bathtime for Biscuit by Alyssa Satin, Bernard, Me, and the Letter B by Cynthia Klingel and Robert B. Noyd, Cowgirl Rosie and Her Five Baby Bison by Stephen Gulbis, My "b" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure, and Blackberry Banquet by Terry Pierce.  Our vocabulary words for the week were: big, boy, ball, blue, and bee. Our theme for the week was butterfly.

Our poem for the week was:
Butterly, butterfly, whence do you come?
I know not, I ask not, I never had a home.
Butterfly, butterfly, where do you go?
Where the sun shines, and where the buds grow.

Our sentences for the week were:
The bison is brown.
The boys play ball. (We did this two times!)
The bee buzzed by.
The butterfly is blue.
See the bright ball?
Please buy butter.
The boat bounced.

During our Bible time we read about the Tower of Bable. Our verse this week was: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord." Pslam 150:6

One day my husband and I were talking about some math stuff. A and E overheard us and wanted to do some mathematics too. So we gave them some simple addition problems and they did amazing! The numbers didn't total about 10 but they were able to do them all with just a little guidance from us. We also looked at the number 18.


Some other books we read were: Benjamin Franklin by Wil Mara, You Have Healthy Bones! by Susan DerKazarian, Butterflies by Gail Saunders-Smith (this one goes over the stages of the butterfly in one sentence at a time), Butterflies by Martha E.H. Rustad (this one has lots more details on butterflies and their changes). We also looked at some pictures of a bluebird, buttercups, bluebell flowers, bison, baluga whale and, beaver.

A is really interested in dancing so we read Beautiful Ballerinas by Elizabeth Dombey. Also we listened to Riimsky Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebees.

Letter P

Pretty like P. Our letter P was an interesting week that we had a great week of learning with. Some of the books we read this week were: Pirate Pete's Talk Like a Pirate by Kim Kennedy, Papa is a Pirate by Katharina Grossmann-Hensel, Peter Pan and The Prince and the Pauper (both of these were the Disney versions but we have read Barrie's original story of Peter Pan.)

Our poem for the week was:

I am a bird you know quite well,
All dressed in black and white.
And even though I do have wings
They're not designed for flight.
I waddle, waddle, waddle.

Our sentences for the week were:
See the pink pig?
I'm a pick pocket!
A watches popcorn pop.
The platypus eats pickles!
We will paint peacocks.
Are you a pirate?

Our Bible verse was from Romans 3:23 "All people have sinned and come short of the glory of God." We also read about Peter.

For our science time we looked at some pictures of a penguin, poppy, panda, puffer fish. We also read about a few of these animals. Macaroni Penguin by Edana Eckart, Giant Pandas by Edana Eckart and Peacocks by Mandy R. Marx were great for learning about these animals. We also learned a little bit about Pluto Dwarf Planet by Christine Taylor-Butler. Also a spaceship call New Horizons is set to arrive to Pluto this year. It might be interesting to see if I can find some pictures later from this ship!

For our social studies  time we read about Poahontas by Lola M. Schaefer and Presidents from Eyewitness Books. For the presidents book we just looked through the different presidents and I would say their names. I highlighted and went into more detail with the greater known presidents.

In math time we talked about the number 17 and pyramids. We also did a little matching game. Below are pictures. I took stickers (who doesn't have a ton of stickers with little ones??)  and put them on index cards. I also wrote the numeral and the word for the numbers on separate index cards. The girls then worked on matching up the numerals and the stickers correctly. We did 1 through 10 and then we tried 11 through 20. I then laid out the words and the girls took turns matching up their numbers to the correct words.

For our art time we made peacocks. I gave A and E coffee filters to paint with watercolors. 

I then cut out a bowling pin shape. I put eyes, a nose, and two little feet on them.

A and E then glued the peacock bodies on to the feathers they had painted.