BFIAR : Angus Lost

Nate and I have been using Before Five in a Row to "row" a book about every two weeks or so. I work only 15 or so minutes with him individually each day so making a book last 2 weeks or so is very easy!  Nate is also really into letters so sometimes he just likes doing activities with letters and not our BFIAR activities!

Right now it's just exposure and enjoying learning. He's also working a little about listening/following directions while we work together:)

We had soo much fun the last few weeks with Angus Lost by Marjorie Flack that I thought I'd share some of what we did! I'll share by topic/week... I'm very simple with pre-school... again making learning fun!

When we first read through Angus LOst we talked about getting lost and what the kids (because all the kids were gathered around Nate and I by the end of the book) should do if they got "lost" at a store or park. It's one of those conversations that parents need to have. The older kids and I have had the conversation many times but I don't remember being intentional with Nate about the getting lost and going with strangers! So a needed conversation!

During our first week of Angus Lost we also talked about D and dogs.  We read through Angus Lost each day and made all the animal sounds:) We played with "D" magnets. We tried to spell dog;)

I also collected some "D" items in a bag for a "game". Nate had to reach in the bag and pick up one to name. I put a wooden letter D, a plastic doughnut, play dishes, a toy dog and other random items. Nate's favorites were his dinosaur, two dimes and a dollar;)

We also talked about dogs. We looked a dog encyclopedia that had a TON of dog breeds. We read through a book about caring for dogs and then Nate made a chart to take care of Jack for the week.

We also had a few "dog" activities:)

Nate liked this pattern block "dog" template from here.

This super cute "Puppy Fun" was a favorite activity! Found here.

An amazing resource for us was a printable packet from Homeschool Creations made for Angus Lost. We used MANY things from the printables including the story sequencing, matching cards, maze, pre-writing activities, and this mini-reader! For the mini-reader, I copied it and glue the individual pieces to construction paper. Then laminated and made it into a flip book. The little Angus (and milk) pieces I laminated separated and had the back waxed so they would stay in place and Nate can do it over and over and over and over;) LOL!!

 

Another fun activity Nate liked... that I didn't get a picture of... was sorting  dogs with long legs and dogs with short legs;) Too funny! And we also used the pieces to match them with the correct breed in the dog encyclopedia.... Lydia helped us with that activity:) We printed the pieces from this Angus Lost packet!

Our second week included some snow days ... which are never too productive... and that's OK!! Perfect for a week to talk about caves and making one in the school room:)

Everyone had to climb through:) They made cave drawings and bats (and brought bears) to complete the cave;)

There are soo many cute kids dog books out there...  we included Harry the Dirty Dog and Flash the Dash during our weeks reading about Angus.

After visiting another town's library and found Angus and the Ducks by Flack as well:) That find got my brain going since Angus Lost's setting was winter and Angus and the Ducks is spring/summer .... we did a third week with Angus talking about SEASONS:) oh, yes! I just love how many things can be "studied" from just one book (or two).

We talked about a season a day using a couple of really cute season books from our library! So why not make a season book;)

Using season cards, we matched letters and "wrote" each season on the page!

We also borrowed a Season Box from our local ChildLinks office. From the box, Nate loved sorting the pieces into what season it matched. And then he surprised me one morning by tracing all the words on the 12 cards... I've got another writer;)

As you can see some weeks we get a lot done... other weeks our actual BFIAR-time is much less! There is no hurry, no rush, just us carving out a few minutes to spend with Nate doing "his" school when the others are starting their individual work:)

Nate is very content during school time playing with Legos, cars, puzzles and whatever else he finds to do. He is also starting to sit with us for Bible time (a work in progress). And when we're needing some quiet, Nate watches educational shows and DVDs. He is NEVER still or bored!

We started Caps for Sale today.... we'll see where it takes us this week (and probably the next week or so)!

BFIAR - Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

Nate and I were very excited to "row" another book... Jesse Bear, What Will you Wear? by Nancy Carlstrom.

Again, since it takes me a while to prepare his materials and find time to sit and work with him, we end up "rowing" for a couple of weeks instead of just one;) So this was definitely not planned and put together in one weekend or done in one week:)

We read through Jesse Bear at least 3 times each week;) Talking about all sorts of things as we read, like activities at different parts of the day, or Jesse Bear's daddy coming home from work, "ants in the pants", eating at the table, etc! It really is a sweet and fun book:)

We thought it was funny one day when Nate dressed a little like Jesse Bear:) And I don't know where it was the cooler weather or the influence of the book, but Nate did dress a couple of mornings... yippe, he's becoming more civilized!

There were some other books we read:
*Don't Get Wet, Jesse Bear
*Bears
*Good night, Bear (about hibernation)
*Numbears
*What Colors will Bear Wear? (cute board book with wooden pieces are used to "dress" the bear)

Finally the activities;)


Nate LOVES the little cards that I printed and laminated from Homeschool Creations:) He did soo much with that one set of matching cards;)

We matched and played Memory with them....

we found them in the story... and Nate couldn't resist putting "the rose between his toes".

He also liked the plate and food printable from Homeschool Share.

I printed off the pieces, laminated and then waxed the back so the pieces would stay in place. The plate was glued to a piece of construction paper to make it look pretty and to give it more stability.

Nate liked to make Jesse Bear's lunch plate as I read that part of the book. We talked about the veggies and fruits as well.

One week we bought celery for him to try. He's not a fan:/ Thankfully he has a big brother and a mother who like celery and our choice of nutbutters.

I realized I didn't take a picture of a tracing sheet from Homeschool CReations that Nate worked on a few times. It's teaching kids one-to-one correspondence as well as learning pencil control and pre-letter formation by tracing lines.

At fist he was very frustrated he couldn't get right.on.the.line... we have a perfectionist on our hands:/  It seemed though that he would choose that activity to work "alone" and he did a little better at least with his frustration:)

I also tried to introduce the letter B to our study. B for Bear:)

coloring a B

I love the printable ABC Find It from 1+1+1=1. Again we laminated and waxed so they lasted through the drool (yes, he is still drooling) and would stay in place:) He liked it... I look forward to finding more ways to use this colorful resource!

don't you the love the real bagel that made it into the picture;)

I printed off and laminated this B! He helped make the B out of Play-Doh...

and then it became a fun Play-Doh mat with some shape pieces...

or a place to line up counting bears!!

he got a little side-tracked with the bears and Duplos:)

From Homeschool Share, I found a cute ABC laundry printable. I copied onto colored computer paper and then laminated the set! I gathered up some clothes pins and taped some yarn to a corner of our wall.

Nate was a little young (or not ready) for the actual matching of the letters. So for him I wanted to help him pick out the B's. He also practiced some fine motor and problem solving skills by trying to pin the letters up onto the line;)

clipping all the blue ones to the line;)

the older kids clipped his name up for him

He also got to fit in some real-world play like Jesse Bear:)
In bubbles...

and sand;) Yep, it was definitely on his arms and hands.... not to mention between his toes, in his hair, ears and even underwear:/

Just like Snowy Day and the Truck book, Nate has started finishing the lines of this Jesse Bear book;) He really is loving the attention and the games. We keep it simple and try to use all that we have available over and over;) And its precious to see the older ones reading to him from the book box or playing a game of Memory with him;)

And again... so indebted to the other home schoolers who share their talents!!

Linking up to Tot School at 1+1+1=1.Linking up to the Ultimate Homeschool Link-Up, Homeschool Creations and Weekly Wrap Up @ WUH

BFIAR - The Snowy Day

Before Christmas I debated back and forth whether I was going to start some Before Five in a Row activities with Nate. Honestly, besides potty training and asking for snacks he really keeps himself busy in the school room with us and hasn't needed anything to occupy his time.

But then he started asking for "work". He sees his siblings;)

So we started with Goodnight Moon, a book he had asked to be read every night for 6 months... he could have read it to us. I did some of the oral activities in Before Five in a Row book had with him, but that was about it.

The last two weeks, Nate and I worked on The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats! I tried to find some fun and age/learning level appropriate activities for him. We had a blast and it has inspired me to work on more with him... at 2.5 years old he's at a really cool stage!

 I want to post some of our fun as an encouragement that "schooling" little ones can be fun, simple using what you have, and doesn't need to be fancy. I was reminded even in the last two weeks that a lot of Nate's "schooling" right now is about following directions, completing an activity, snuggling to read good books, training to use special items like glue, scissors and stamps!! and experiencing things together:)

Everyday we did an activity we read The Snowy Day! It was fun to extend the book another week and have Nate finishing sentences or pointing out things to me that I had pointed out to him during the first week!

One of our first activities was to dress him like he was going to play in the snow:) And then I armed the big kids with cotton balls to have a "snowball fight" with Nate. They had a blast and cotton balls were everywhere (yep... totally raided the cotton ball stash from the master bathroom)!!

During the first week we got a little bit of "snow"... umm, like 20 minutes of flakes and then ICE!

But I was still able to use it;) Nate and I went for a walk on the ice in the grass to hear the "crunch" that Peter heard in the story!

We did some matching of different pictures of things from the story. Printed from Homeschool Creations.

 

He also did some tracing lines/pre-writing:)

not too bad... his final looked like this

After playing with a laminated snowman where Nate could add the hat, scarf and carrot nose, we let him make his own snowman with glue!! This is where there was training... teaching him to put glue on paper and giving him small amounts and a Q-tip.

It was cute to see him working at the table with the girls:)

After giving Nate some direction with the articles for the snowman, I let him do the cotton balls and glue himself:)

I was very excited to find some snowflake stamps at our local Walmart... I felt a little weird purchasing stamps for one project but then I was super excited when they rang up $.22 each:) LOL!! Onto stamp-training with Nate:)

There were other oral/physical activities we did that were too simple to capture:) Like pointing our toes like Peter does to make different tracks in the snow. We'd point our toes when we'd get to that spot in the book. Or talking about Peter's bath when Nate was taking his own bath one night! He loved the part of Peter walking UP the mountain and sliding DOWN!

It was a fun two weeks... I'm ready to start another theme... sort of;) And I did really like doing just the reading of the book and an activity (if he was into it) each day.

Other books we read:
*White Snow, Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt and Roger Duvoisin
*The Big Snow by Berta Hader and Elmer Hader... if you haven't read this, borrow it from your library soon!!!
*Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
*Snow Is Falling (Let's-Read-and-Find... Science) by Franklyn M. Branley and Holly Keller
*Snow by Uri Shulevitz


Starting simple:)
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