The Rag Coat (part 2)

We are still working with the book The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills. We are working with our shapes and I brought out our magnetic shapes board for J to create pictures on while I read.

As our daily read-aloud, I began Raggedy Ann and Andy - A Read Aloud Treasury by Johnny Gruelle. In addition to our daily reading of our FIAR book, I also read aloud from another. I chose this one because in The Rag Coat, Minna makes her own cloth doll from scraps of fabric and stuffing.

We also have been learning about how we breathe. In the book, Minna loses her father because of the Miner's Cough (known as Black Lung) and I thought it would be a good idea to learn about how we breathe. I found these paper models from a Scholastic book that I recently purchased for a dollar in their Teacher Express store which allows you to download all of their great books. Every now and then, they run an awesome sale with soo many resources for a dollar each! The book is Easy Make and Learn Projects: Human Body by Wynne and Silver. (the dollar sale has been extended until 9/24)

We also made a breathing vest from some craft paper (we don't have large paper bags here). I helped her color as she will only do so much.

and here she is uncovering her heart....

I love Scholastic books! Any chance I get, I bring games here from America. I take them out of the boxes and put them in ziplock bags for easier transport. The reason I bring games as they are extremely expensive here and I believe that kids can learn from playing them. My last trip to 'Merica, I came across a game from Animal Planet that was marked down at Toys'R'Us. I couldn't pass up the deal and I bought it. J loves animals and this game - Creature's and Features was all about animals.

I paid a small amount and she loves it. The way you play is that you choose an animal from the pile and have to place markers on what features this animals has - such as does it have...teeth, fur, feathers...does it lay eggs...is it awake at night? For every correct answer, you move your token up the board. We have learned quite a bit about animals and it was well worth the money.

I have been trying to pick one different game a week to play with J. This way we aren't always doing "book" stuff for school and it helps us to have fun. I will be bringing this one out again. Now, if you look closely in the picture, you will see two fabric pumpkins. They are small so you might have to look hard.

They are silly looking things but I found this post today on Fiskars and the weather was just a tad chilly, I was feeling like fall. I made these in about a half hour. J stuffed them for me. The only missing is the brown thread stem which I don't have the starch for or possibly the ribbon. I will work on that. I think they turned out cute for a quick sewing job. I also don't have the cute fabric but I used what I had on hand. I am thinking about making a bigger one and then using them for a centerpiece for the table, maybe with some candles and such. I won't be using then for a pincushion and I really think J is eyeing them to play with. She has requested a family of them! Here is a close up of one -

kinda cute, an extremely easy project. I leave you with my Kaleb....

He was busy reading his books and playing with his toys while we were doing school.