Joyfully Weary

Primary Literature: On the Same Day in March by Marilyn Singer. This book uses poetic prose and bright illustrations to not only highlight different places around the world, but to also showcase different types of weather. A short author's note in the back of the book explains, in kid friendly terms, the scientific reasons why different parts of the earth could have such drastically different weather on the same day.  Vocabulary words to review stalking - watching intently, following boulevards - a wide street in a city, usually with trees or plants on the side crouched - low to the ground vanish - to disappear from sight

Primary Literature Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland   by Tomie dePaola. This book is a great introduction to kids on not only Saint Patrick but on biographies in general. It is full of factual information yet still offers and engaging story. dePaola's classic bright illustrations also help to draw in young listeners. My children were especially intrigued by five legends it includes about Saint Patrick. 

Primary Literature Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, a sweet rhyming story of a hibernating bear who's lair fills up with other animals as he sleeps. He wakes up to find them having party and is bit distraught until a mouse invites him to join the fun.  Vocabulary words to review. hibernate - to spend all or part of winter in an inactive state where heartbeat and breathing slows lair - den of a wild animal dank - unpleasantly moist scuttles - run from view nibble - small bites flutter - moving quickly titter - a nervous laugh slumbering - sleeping blubbers - crying noisily fret - irritated state Complementary Literature  We worked on memorizing When The Snow is on The Ground by Mother Goose The little robin grieve When the Snow is on the ground,  For the trees have no leaves And no berries can be found.  The air is cold, the worms are hid; For robin here what can be done? Let's strow around some crumbs of bread,  ...

Primary Literature Stone Soup by Marcia Brown , this is a delightful retelling of a classic folktale. It's a Caldecott medal honor book - the illustrations are delightful and charming. It tells the tale of three traveling soldiers who stop at a village looking for a bit food and a place sleep. The villagers, however, are stingy and lie to the soldiers, saying that they are short on food. The soldiers use trickery to get the villagers to contribute to their delicious and magical 'stone soup'. I chose this book for November because I thought it be a great way to implant the message that I want my children to take away from Thanksgiving; for them to be grateful and generous with the blessings they have been given. I also had plans this to delve deeper into Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas and The Pilgims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern  but life got bit crazy and so we had to settle for just reading them.  Vocabulary Words to ...

Primary Literture Heckedy Peg by Audrey and Don Wood . This was our last October book, I wanted something a bit scary to go with Halloween. An evil witch, Heckedy Peg, tricks seven sweet children (all named after the days of week) in to letting her enter their house while their mother is away. Once inside she turns them all into food. Luckily, their mother is able to rescuing them with a few tricks of her own and some cleverness. The book's painted illustrations are stunning. They contain just the right amount of darkness which adds to the suspense-fulness of the book.  Complementary Literature The kids memorized 'A Week of Birthdays' from The Real Mother Goose . We chose to use  Sunday instead of 'the Sabbath day'.  Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace; Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go; Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works ha...

Primary Literature Stellaluna   by Janell Cannon,   a sweet tale of a little bat who gets knocked out of her mother's arms and lands into a birds' nest. The bird family adopts her and Stellaluna tries her hardest to fit in. Eventually the birds and Stellaluna realize that they are quite different but friends none the less. The illustrations do an amazing so of find balance between realism and whimsicalness. Vocabulary words to review. clutched - hold on tightly swooped - lower quickly  shrieking- loud high cry trembling- quick shaking movement, usually done when cold or scared clambered- to climb with difficultly anxious- worried/afaird Complementary Literature Nightsong   by Ari Berk, a young bat wanders out of his cave alone for the first time. He soon discovers that his good sense/echolocation will serve as his guide. The prose and illustration of this book are exquisite   Bats by Gail Gibbons, this nonfiction book gives si...

Primary Literature Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julie Rawlison, this is one of my favorite Autumn books! A young fox is perplexed when his favorite tree's leaves start to turn brown. He becomes even more dismayed when they start to fall. He tries to reattach them to the tree, but alas it is hopeless. When the last leaf falls he takes it home with him for the night. Still worried about his tree he rushes out the the next morning to discover a beautiful surprise. Not only is the plot delightful, but the prose is colorful and the illustrations are enchanting.  Vocabulary words to review tumbled - bouncy fall swishing - soft sweeping movement rustle - quick quiet sounds snuffled - nosy breathing crinkly - lots of wrinkles Complementary Literature Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger, a yellow leaf is afraid to let go of his branch.  Fall continues to happen around him but he remains to scared to let go until a leaf above him offers to make the journey w...

Primary Literature Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg. This biography briefly covers Johnny Chapman's life from his birth to his death. The prose appeals to young listeners and is easy for them to follow along. The whimsical and colorful illustrations are also captivating. Vocabulary words to review. tall tale -  an exaggeration of a story, has unbelievable elements tranquil - quiet and calm boisterous - noisy and rowdy cellar - a room below the ground orchard - land where fruit trees grow frontier - the edge of settled land/undiscovered Complementary Literature  The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons, tells tale of a young boy and the adventures he has with his apple tree. It offers a kid friendly explanation of what happens to an apple tree during the different seasons.  Apples   also by Gail Gibbons, explains in kid friendly terms the parts and life cycle of an apple. It also offers a brief history, shows differe...

I'm really behind on posting our kindergarten books. As I mentioned before , I've been battling a virus. I think I've finally got it beat but for the last couple of weeks I've had nothing left to give after the kids go to bed. Hopefully, this week I can get caught up. Primary Literature:    Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns. I like that this book includes a story and not just a bunch of facts about shapes. I wouldn't necessarily call the triangle greedy, just discontent as he gets bored easily and starts to think that other shapes are more important.  Unsatisfied with the jobs of a triangle he asks a shaper shifter to make him a quadrilateral. He quickly becomes bored with those roles too, and continues to ask for more and more sides. At the end, however, he discovers he's much happier as a triangle and asks to be turned back.  Vocabulary words to review dissatisfied - unhappiness angle - when the ends of lines meet quadrilateral - shape with fou...

Primary Literature :  Over in the Meadow, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats . I choose this for our second book for a couple reasons. First, it's a classic counting rhyme, one that I wanted to make sure my children were familiar with. I also enjoy Keats's illustrations in this book,  they are entrancing! Finally, I find it fascinating how many versions of this rhyme/story exist. Many people credit Olive Wadsworth for writing this rhyme in the late 1800's but it may in fact be even older.  Vocabulary words to review Meadow - grassland  Chirp - a short high-pitched sound Even - equal/same Bask - to lie in a warm spot Shady - free of sun and heat Complementary Literature : We read a couple other versions of Over in the Meadow. by Olive A. Wadsworth and Anna Vojtech by John Langstaff and Feodor Rojankovsky  This book also has great illustrations, the colored pencil drawings are enchanting.  We  read a few similar t...

Primary Literature : Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ,  I thought this was a great book to start out with since Mini Man and Little Lady are still mastering their letters. They know the ones that are 'important' to them, like the ones in their name or the beginning letters of their family/friends' names, but still struggle with a few of the rest.  Complementary Literature : They memorized, ABC from The Real Mother Goose.   " Great A, little a,  Bouncing B The cat's in the cupboard, and can't see me." We read two of Bill Martin's other books: Chicka Chicka 123 and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? On Market Street , is  a  cute alphabet book introducing all the merchants on market street. This is a Caldecott honor book and my children were completely mesmerized by the pictures...there may have been a little tussle over who was the first to look through the book when I was done reading it.  Bruno Munari's ABC , an...

When Big Buddy was in Kindergarten, we did a lot of monthly unit studies. You can see some of them here . However, now that Mini Man and Little Lady are Kindergarten/PreK I've decided to take a different route. Instead of doing unit studies we are going to focus on one great picture book a week. This works well for our family because all our kids are book lovers. It's funny because it doesn't matter what book is being read aloud in our house, they will all gather as soon as they hear it. Another reason it works well for us is that Big Buddy's (classical) history and science curriculum take up any space we might have to focus on a unit. This also allows for all the children from, L (a child I babysit) age two, to Big Buddy age 7, to participate on some level. a few of the book we will be covering The books I have chosen are picked with Mini Man and Little Lady in mind. They are seventeen months apart with Mini Man having just turned five and Little Lady wi...

Early this week I posted some of our favorite Independence Day books and thought also share some of the activities we've been doing as well. As I've mentioned before, these activities are geared for my children ages three to six. They are used as a supplement to Big Buddy's (age 6) first grade curriculum which you can read about here . Flag themed rhyming cards   I've made the pdf available  here . Language - Nomenclature cards and definitions.  I've made the pdf available  here . If you would like to create three piece cards just print two copies and cut the names off the ends.  Flag themed rhyming cards.   I've made the pdf available  here .

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been adding a few Easter items to our schoolroom shelves . The rotation  of activities helps keep my kids interested in learning and mastering/practicing skills. They especially like it when our theme is holiday related. The activities below are designed for various ability levels; my youngest is three and my oldest is six.  For my oldest, Big Buddy, these are a supplement to his  first grade curriculum.     Language  Creating patterns with glitter eggs. The glitter eggs are from dollar tree . I cut a few egg cartons in half and then glued them together to create a long but divided row.  Upper and lower case egg matching with phonic inserts.  The younger kids just match the  letters. While the older kids match the letters and insert the correct corresponding picture.  The inserts were purchased from  Monstessori for Everyone  and printed at 60% so they'd ...

Big Buddy has moved on to three-digit numbers in his math book and it was suggested to get a Base-10 set . We debated purchasing one for awhile; having hands-on math counters has really helped Big Buddy, and our other children, grasp math facts. We have some  unifix cubes , an abacus , and we have made our own montessori bead bars  and 100 board tiles . The idea of spending almost $30 on another somewhat bulky math counter didn't seem like the wisest decision. I knew, however, that having counters would make learning how to add and subtract three digit numbers a lot more straightforward for Big Buddy. I debated making some more montessori number beads (see ours here ) when I ran across our colored matchsticks . We have used them for counting and building shapes before (as well as some crafts) and we still had plenty left make some 100 counters - at no cost! We grouped sets of tens together and secured them with some small rubber bands (from Dollar Tree). Once we had made...

This unit came together pretty easily. I picked up a few fun heart things (toothpicks and jewels) at Dollar Tree, that I then added to some activities we've done before. If you are still trying to get children to master a skill sometimes simply changing a few of the materials makes the activity exciting again.  Language - matching lower case letter hearts to the correct upper case letter carton the hearts are plaster-of-paris poured in to a silicone heart tray. the egg carton was  originally made for matching letter buttons and has also been used for letter easter egg matching filling in letters with heart jewels *the cards are from,  early learning activities . i printed two per page so they'd be a bit smaller. My youngest two enjoy using these cards to practice spelling their names. sorting hearts pushing heart toothpicks in to the matching color i used sharpies to color the styrofoam, toothpicks are from ...