Week 21: The Letter U

The letter U! This week we had so much going on that we were some big slackers. We never even made it to the library! We did do a little bit of work however. For the letter U we talked about utensils, real exciting I know. We talked about the obvious: fork, spoon and knife. However, we also talked about cooking utensils and the different uses for a spaghetti server, whisk, ladle and a flipper. Our vocab words for the week were: up, under, umbrella and uncle. We spent a lot of time looking around the house for things that were up or under something. We also listed off many uncles. We were fortunate that it rained a lot this past week. So it was helpful when we talked about an umbrella and our poem:

Under my umbrella
I like to feel the drops
Of rain    its happy tapping
Of pitter-platter 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 rainy weather
As it falls down from the sky.

Our Bible time was even more lacking this week than last with only a verse: What time I am afraid, I will trust in you. Psalm 56:3

Our shape for the week was a heart.

For science we talked about urchins, umbrella tree, unicorn and an umbrella bird.

Wow, looking back over this week it was bad. But, that will happen and hopefully next week will be better!

Week 20: The Letter T

Twenty weeks into school and we had so much fun with the letter T! The girls really enjoyed just about everything with this letter. I think their favorite thing was our poem this week: Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear:

Teddy bear, teddy bear turn around.
Teddy bear, teddy bear touch the ground.
Teddy bear, teddy bear show your shoe.
Teddy bear, teddy bear that will do.

Teddy bear, teddy bear go upstairs.
Teddy bear, teddy bear say your prayers.
Teddy bear, teddy bear turn out the light.
Teddy bear, teddy bear say good night.

We added motions to this poem and they even wanted to do this poem again while we were doing our new lesson with the letter U! We also had a lot of fun with our theme, trees. We read It Could Still be a Tree by Allan Fowler. Our craft time also focused on this. We had talked about the leaves, branches, trunk, bark and roots. We made hand prints for the roots, cut out a trunk and then colored the trunk to show the bark. We added on branches and leaves to finish it off!

E working on adding her leaves.

A adding leaves too!

E almost finished with her tree.  She really got into the coloring of her bark! I don't know why I don't have a picture of it.

We also found some great books to read together: Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee, Tony's Trip and the Letter T by Cynthia Klingel and Robert Noyich, The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr. (A and E thought this book was hilarious.)

Our Bible time was a little lacking this week but we did do verse Psalm 138:1 I will praise thee with my whole heart. We tried to spend a little time talking about the Ten Commandments.

For science we did a lot with trees, which I mentioned earlier, but we also read about Tigers in a book by Derek Zobel. We also talked a little bit about tuna (fish), tulips and a toucan to help build animal vocabulary.

For our music we sang Little Teapot and Twinkle, Twinkle.

Math time was spent looking at triangles. We found a great book by Sarah Schuette. We also tried counting by tens. I wanted to start looking at telling time for at least the hours but we ran out of time this week.

Social studies we read about Harriet Tubman by Wil Mara and Mother Teresa by Susan Eddy. Can't believe how fast this week has gone. Moving on and as A says, we are almost to the end!

One room done!

The first room we started working on is what we wanted to become our "library" room. Like most of the house this room has flower wall paper and green trim. A few great aspects of this room is the bump out where the windows are and the beautiful hardwood floors. Also, there is a nice size walk in closet where I keep crafts, sewing supplies and a few other miscellaneous things.

Since this is the first room we have gotten into with this house we weren't sure what to expect. We got really excited when we began and hope this room is representative of the rest of the house. We removed the wall paper that went up to a chair rail height. There was only one layer of paper and the plaster walls seem to be in really good shape so we were able to move on to the trim. For the molding it seemed like there were only two or three layers of paint on the wood. So once we had most of the paint removed we began the process of sanding, sanding and more sanding. We used three different types of sand paper to get it nice and smooth again. We then were able to stain the wood to a dark cherry finish that is typical with our early 1900's bungalow. On the windows we (I really mean my husband for this part) did use some chemicals because we didn't want to crack and damage the original windows! This took him a long time to strip off the paint. We cleaned up the wood and then worked on staining the wood. Now that most of the wood was stained we painted the room a light gray color. The previous owners left behind two tall bookshelves that we were able to repaint. We would like to re stain the corner cabinet at some time. We have been told it was originally kept in the dining room and moved to this side room when the attic was finished. So with all of that said, here is the final result!

We are hoping to replace this door when we can find one we both like! The white bookcase is one that was left behind. The window is just to the left of the right bookcase.

This is the corner cabinet we believe was originally in the dining room. It has the same glass panes as a small window in the living room.

The door on the left had some stain underneath a single layer of paint. You can tell how much richer and deeper the color is compared to the one we had to stain on the right!

The door on the right in the above picture is this same door. You can see a bit of the bump out that I mentioned earlier.

Week 19: The Letter S

What a fun week we have had learning all about the letter S! Our theme for the week was stars. Our song was about the only thing that matched up with our theme, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Our poem didn't match up with the theme but it was still great fun.


I want a fat,
Squishy, squirreling squirrel
Scolding for a chestnut
Squealing for squash seeds
A fat, squishy squirrel
Is all I want:
Only three of them -
Chip, Dale and Nylf

We had some great books that we read: Sara and Sam by Anders Hanson, My "S" Sound Box  by Jane Belk Moncure, Sunflower House by Eve Bunting, and The Sun is My Favorite Star by Frank  Asch.


We enjoyed reading about Samuel during Bible time and the scripture verse we learned was from John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd."

Our shape for math time was star. We like Stars by Sarah Schuette.

We had a great snack time enjoying star fruit. Strawberries were another fun snack we had too.

For science we looked at swans, Star of Bethlehem, seals, skunk, and starfish. A and E enjoyed learning about Seals by Colleen Sexton. We also learned about our senses. The Five Senses by Carey Molter was a great starting place before we explored on our own.We started off using our ears by listening to some instruments. I had A and E close their eyes and then I played a tambourine, a triangle and bells. I had them tell me what they heard. We played I spy for our sight. Then we had lots of fun using our noses, mouth and hands to learn about the rest of our senses.

E smelling lemon juice. We also smelled vanilla and vinegar. 

A and E tasting. We tasted sugar, salt and lemon juice.

E and A touching. We felt this soft piece of material, sand paper and a comb. I had them close their eyes and try to guess wheat they were feeling.

Our social studies time was spent learning about Sitting Bull by Susan Evento.

We were going to make sheep during art time but A made one in Sunday school so we switched it to a snake. I outlined a snake on the inside of a paper grocery bag. Then A and E used finger paints to color their snakes.

For our outing for the week we went to the playground where we enjoyed the slides and swings! Hope you have a great learning time with your little ones too.

Week 18: The Letter R

For our 18th week we looked at the letter R. Our theme for the week was rainbow. We learned about the colors in the rainbow and made our own rainbow. 

For reading we read Rain by Robert Kalan, this is a very basic book with colors. E really enjoyed reading this book. My R Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure, Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco, and Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. We didn't really do a poem because of learning colors to the rainbow. We sang: red, orange, yellow, green and blue. Don't forget there's purple too! To help learn the order of the colors. 

Our music for the week was walking around the house singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat and I've Been Working on the Railroad. A and E really enjoyed putting motions to the song. 

For Bible time our scripture verse came from Deuteronomy 26:11 "And you shall rejoice in every good thing with the LORD your God has given you. We read about Ruth in our Bible too.

In our math time we learned about rectangles. We walked around looking for rectangles and discussing how there are two short sides and two long sides.

Our animals/plants for the week was: roadrunner, rose, raccoon, rhinoceros and rays. We enjoyed a book about Raccoons by Jean Claude O'Mara.

Betsy Ross by Wil Mara was popular to read. Lots of questions were asked about the flag which transitioned well into next week with the letter S. I will let you know what fun things we did with that soon!

For art time A and E made rainbows. We started by asking which color was first and then shredded up the color and pasted it onto paper. We continued through the rest of the colors placing them in their order. Since rainbows come after a storm we added some cotton balls for the clouds. Also we added a penny for the "gold" found at the end of the rainbow.

Week 17: The Letter Q

The letter Q. Q is an interesting letter but not very much to it when it comes to young children. We found two themes this week, queens and quilts!

We had trouble coming up with some vocabulary words this week that A and E knew. We came up with: quack, quick and quarter. We had trouble finding some books but were able to come up with a few: Q by Kelly Doudna, Quack the Sound of Q by Cynthia Klingel and Robert Noyed, and The Kindness Quilt by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. Our poem was the Queen of Hearts:

The Queen of Hearts
She made some tarts,
      All on a summer's day;
The Knave of Hearts
He stole those tarts,
     And took them clean away.
The King of Hearts
Called for the tarts,
     And beat the knave full score;
The Knave of Hearts
Brought back those tarts,
     And vowed he'd steal no more.

For Bible time we read about Queen Esther. We read a book called Queen Esther the Morning Star by Mordecai Gerstein. The book was a little old for A and E but A enjoyed it and we are still reading it this week. Our Bible verse came from Luke 6:31 - Do to others as you would have them do to you.

For science we were a little lacking with only a quoll (think something like a squirrel) and a Queen Conch for our animals.
 
In math we worked on rectangles. We practiced drawing rectangles, cutting out rectangles and counting rectangles around the house. We also went around and counted how many quilts we have!

Week 16: Letter P

Well, I think we have finally started to work back in to routine which is good since I would like to get through the whole alphabet before we become a family of five!

So without delay, the letter P! Our theme was pumpkins! Some of our vocab words were: stem, vine, seeds, skin, and ribs. It was nice to do pumpkins in the summer becuase we went out to our garden and looked at the pumpkins growing. We also came up with some other words that began with P: pizza, pancakes, push, pull and Peter Pan. A had to make sure we included Peter Pan because it is her favorite. We made pizza and pancakes this week too, which was a lot of fun. Our poem for this 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. 

We found some fun books this week: Hey, Pancakes by Tamson Weston, My P Sound Box by Jane Belk Monclure, Pink Takes a Bow by Christianne Jones, and Pink by Rebecca Rissman. We also decided to take some time and use the letter P to work on manners (saying Please, Thank You, etc.) So our wonderful librarian found some books to help us: Thankyouplease by Winters and Ortelli, Time to Say Please by Mo Willems, Manners at the Table and Manners in Public both by Carrie Finn

For our Bible time we read about Peter and our verse was from Romans 3:23 - All people have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

In math we worked on patterns and the color pink. 

Science time we looked at penguins, poppies, pandas, and a puffer fish. We also read about Pets by Gardner, Giant Panda by Edana Eckart, Penguins: Life in the Colony by Willow Clark and Platypus by Ginjer Clarke.

E really took to Pocahontas by Schaefer and Rosa Parks by Will Park during our social studies time.

For our art time we had a lot of fun working on puzzles, painting and or course playing with play dough!