Summer Reading - Shiloh

In our house we all love to read.  Books are part of our daily life and we spend lots of time reading, both together and alone.  Each day this summer we have been taking time to have read-aloud time.  Though I read aloud to the girls each day anyway I wanted to designate some more difficult and/or more classic literature into their lives.  Our first read-aloud this summer was Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

The girls enjoyed this book about a boy and his adventures to keep an abused dog.  We enjoyed that it was set in West Virginia.  There are certainly aspects of the book that are little bit older than my girls may understand but that is why it is a great book for a read-aloud, I can help explain or teach them about what is going on.

We used this website for some reading comprehension and activities. We also got a book about beagles from the library and did some preschool dog activities before I passed them on to a friend. We are waiting to rent the movie from the library but haven't gotten around to it.

We've read several other books and I promise I took at least a few pictures of the activities.  But, since I didn't have my camera when we did these activities and I didn't want to stage the photos her are a few random pictures just because my girls are cute. Who do you think they get their silliness from?

You guessed it. Daddy!

So, what books do you and your children enjoy reading together? 

Nursery Rhymes

During a recent DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read) with Emma I pulled out a nursery rhyme book.  She loved it.  I used the nursery rhyme units on Totally Tots and Spell Out Loud as inspiration and am starting a nursery rhyme unit with Emma.  We are working on it two times a week

Here are a few pictures of our first 2 rhymes. 

Nursery Rhyme Notebook Cover Page

 

Baa Baa Black Sheep (paint and glitter)

4 cube farm animal puzzle

Working her way up to this 12 piece cube farm animal puzzle

Coloring Little Bo Peep rhyme page

Sheep foam craft

Searching for sheep

The happiness of finding!

She is loving it!  She loves learning and I am so glad for that.  We are doing some other farm related activities that I already had from previous farm units.  Most of the materials are too young for her but I am getting one last preschool use out of these activities before I retire them to someone else who could use them.

Here is the link to the site I printed the pages from.

Thanks for reading!

The Elves and the Shoemaker

It has been way too long since I last posted. We have still been learning, creating and having fun but I just haven't taken time to document it on my blog. I have to admit I kinda petered out on the letter of the week crafts and learning. I just lumped the last few letters together as animals the same week we went to the zoo and called it done. I just sort of lost energy at the end of the school year.

This summer I am taking some time to focus on classic (as deemed by me) children's stories and planning crafts and some learning activities around that. This week we read The Elves and the Shoemaker. The girls liked the magical idea of the elves helping out the humans and we had some really fun imaginative play. I had the wonderful role of the shoemaker which means I got to close my eyes and "sleep" while the girls laced up the shoes. I simply cut out a very rough shoe form, punched holes in it and let the girls lace them up. We did this several times and they had a blast and I really did get some good rest time even if I didn't really sleep.

After playing I took the girls into the kitchen and we made footprints on mural paper. I just used 2 old pairs of shoes, dipped the sole in paint and had them "walk" their hands over the mural paper. They had a lot of fun and both chose a different shoe pattern.

We also did some jump counting. Old hat for Lydia but still pretty new for Emma. The idea of "pairs" led to some great practice of jump counting by 2's. But enough about that, now just look at the pictures.


Here are the shoes that the elves had so much fun lacing.

Really diligent work.

Here is a picture of both of the girls prints.

Up-close of the "fancy" shoe print.

Up-close of the flip-flop print.

I really am looking forward to teaching the girls some classic stories and the fun of easy ideas that come from learning them.

Thanks for reading!

I am linking up to stArt at A Mommy's Adventures and to Red Ted Art.

stArt - A Balloon for Isabel

Some books just scream "Craft!" We recently got a book at the library that did just that. We picked up A Balloon for Isabel by Deborah Underwood is a cute book about a porpupine who wants more than anything to get a balloon for graduation like the rest of the animals in her class but the porcupines are not allowed to have balloons. She tries several different ideas to "pop proof" herself until she finally comes up with a plan that works.

The girls LOVED this story. I can't even count the number of times I've read it. It really is a cute story and think it is worth a read.

Here are the pictures of the main culprit who loved the story. First we started with a toilet paper roll.


Then we poked some toothpicks through it. This step took a lot of help from me if not entirely me. I had the girls count out the number of toothpicks.



Next we added Isabel's pop proof idea - gumballs. We used pom poms to represent the gumballs as I didn't want to buy a whole bunch of sugary gumballs.


Lastly the girls drew faces on the rolls. I know they could have been more elaborate with faces, arms, painting etc. but the girls still liked them and it's the idea that counts. Thanks for reading!

To find out more about combining stories and art check out A Mommy's adventures. For other great craft ideas check out Red Ted Art.

stArt - While The World Is Sleeping

This week we are talking about birds and what better way to introduce the week than by feeding them so we have some to look at and observe.

We read the book While the World is sleeping by Pamela Duncan Edwards. It is a nice story about different animals and their nighttime habits.


First we dried out bread by leaving it out all day. Then we used cookie cutters (we used a large heart) to cut the bread. We poked a hole in the bread and I tied a piece of string through the hole. Then we spread peanut butter on the dry bread.

After we spread the p.b. on the bread we dipped it in birdseed.



Then we hung them up on the birdfeeder.



We did this project in the late afternoon and when we woke up in the morning they were one. It is my belief that we didn't feed the birds but the deer! Either way it was a fun simple activity. I think our picture window and birdfeeder are the best form of entertainment.

Funny story about our birdfeeder..... one day last spring Lydia remarked that she was "bored" and then added "I think I will go watch the birds." I thought it was hilarious because most people (no one in this house) would consider watching birds a very boring activity.

To find out more ideas for crafts check out: A Mommy's Adventures and Red Ted Art.

stArt - A color of his own

This week we read the book A color of his own by Leo Lionni.

The art project didn't turn out quite the way I expected but the girls had fun.

I started by printing out a lizard coloring page. I placed a small amount of watered down paint on the picture. The plan was for the girls to blow through a straw to spread the paint. It didn't work very well so we resorted to just painting it. Here are the pictures.






To check out how others are combining art and books check out stArt at A Mommy's Adventures.