Sonlight Week 13

Week 13, we are plugging away. One of J's favorites books in the program is Living Long Ago. She will carry this book around and "read" it continuously. She has really learned a lot from this book. This week also brought a new chapter book Dolphin Adventures by Wayne Grover. She really enjoyed this story and asked that we continue on to the next book, Dolphin Treasure. It is also nice that the book takes place where her big brother lives in Florida! We also learned about the pioneers and going west. I all most wish I had an episode of Little House on the Prairie to show her but I didn't. We still learned quite a lot and enjoyed making our own log cabin. Here are a few of the activities we worked on this week.

J learned about Samson in her bible time this week. Here, she is working on a color by number picture in her workbook.

J is still working on her word sorts. She is practicing her short i words. We practice reading every day, without fail.

J is practicing her sight words. We have added a few more this week and we practice them daily.

J is working on her -it word family house. We added this to our word family wall.

I recently downloaded a free file from A Turn to Learn's TPT store -  Sight Word Cootie Catchers. (It is 76 pages of catchers for sight words!)  Remember cootie catchers from your school days? I finally got around to printing one out. It took some practice for J to manipulate it but then, she became a master. Under each flap of the cootie catcher is a sight word for her to practice. She really liked this and every time she had a chance, she asked me to play. This was a great review game and I will definitely be printing more.

We read about Louis Braille and added him to our timeline. I made an example of braille for her to "read with her fingers."

We read about insects and butterflies and worked on our science page.

Our log cabin created using Lincoln Logs. I love these things and I just happened to luck out at one of the yard sales here.

J also made a corral for the farm animals that survived the trek out west. She played with this until the giant baby (as Keke calls Kaleb) came about and destroyed the homestead Godzilla style. We definitely kept busy between school work and our special Christmas projects. I hope your week went well and we will see you soon.

Art Appreciation - Pollock

Our new artist study introduces us to Jackson Pollock. I was unable to find a book about Jackson Pollack but we did watch a few youtube videos about him. I found the videos from Teaching Stars. Here's what we did for our art study.

Week 1:

First, we listened to our song from the Hope Harris Album Picasso, That's Who! The song was titled Action Jackson and it was pretty catchy. J decided to dance on the step stool. We played this song several times and, of course, Kaleb had to get into the action.

He is getting into the music, dancing on the step stool. They thought this was fun.

J is working through her artist puzzle which I found from Confessions of a Homeschooler. This was somewhat difficult considering the subjects of Pollock's paintings.

This is the finished puzzle, as I said somewhat difficult but we managed.

Our first Pollock art project was to paint with spaghetti noodles. I had cooked them earlier int he day so they weren't hot. Then I added paint to some plates with some water and noodles. They weren't so sure about painting with noodles. J kept asking for a paint brush and Kaleb kept eating the plain noodles.

Kaleb decided to paint his hand, now he was getting into the project!

Kaleb's first Pollock styled painting complete with handprints.

J's Pollock styled painting. Not too bad, huh? We were also able to watch the chapter entitled Busy Bees from our Classical Baby DVD  The Art Show which showcases Jackson Pollock painting.

Week 2:

We started the lesson with listening to the Action Jackson song and J did the puzzle once more. We discussed the art work of Pollock and I got ready for today's project. It involved spray bottles and food coloring. I found some white scrap fabric and hung it on our balcony fence. Then I gave the spray bottles to the kids and let them do what they wanted. It did not help that it was a windy, cold day but we persevered.

I used food coloring for several reasons - my paint is thick and I was sure that it would clog the sprayers and I was concerned about getting paint on our balcony. J's final project, sorry for the cheesy smile. It was getting super cold and windy out and we were chilled to the bone. J wants to make a pillow from her fabric. I will try to set the colors by soaking it in vinegar, so we might be able to do it. I left the paint/colors in the water bottles and hid them (hopefully so Kaleb can't find them) so we can do this project one more time.

Week 3:

J made her own Pollock painting online at JacksonPollock.org. This is a screen shot of her painting. All she had to do was run her fingers along the mouse pad and tap if she wanted to change the color. Not too bad.

Since we were working with our Christmas theme weeks, I figured we would created some Pollock art for the holidays. Our week was full of snowmen so we made Pollock snowmen.

Of course, the day we were planning on our Pollock snowmen, it was down pouring outside. So, I rolled up their pant legs and sleeves and stuck them in the shower to spray paint the snowmen. Kaleb was a little unsure of this but he soon got into the swing.

Sorry the pictures are bad, they were in a confined area and I couldn't get around to get a better one. I gave them the paint that I made from their old markers in spray bottles. The clean up was great for this project, all I had to do was spray the bathroom wall down. Then, they had to wait for their paper to dry before they could finish.

The outline was pretty light, I really need to find a better paint for this type of project.

Kaleb's snowman outline you can see somewhat better since he only used one color. I glued on his accessories since he wasn't really in the mood to finish his. The concludes our Pollock study. The only project that I didn't get to was marble painting. I put it on my to-do list for later. Hope you enjoyed Pollock and we on to another artist.

Links

Jackson Pollock enter this site and make your own Pollock painting using your computer.

Instructables idea for spaghetti painting came from here.

Sunny Day to Day Mama has a link to a Pollock youtube video and an outdoor project of paint splattering. I would have done this if I had a yard.

Art Smarts for Kids link 1 marble painting idea, didn't get to it but hoping we will soon.
link 2 make your own edible art cookies

Wholesome Mommy idea for the spray painting project. I would have liked to do hers - it was nice and big but just didn't have the room.

Gingerbread Tot Week

This past week, J and I worked through our first Christmas fun theme of gingerbread. I thought that my tot should be able to join in the fun, so I created the Gingerbread Tot Bag for his enjoyment. Here are some of the activities that Kaleb did.

First, I changed the sensory bin for the month of December. I dyed twisty noodles (all I had on hand) green and red. Then I scoured every drawer and bucket for items to put into our bin. I made candy canes from pipe cleaners. I added red and green shiny pom poms, bells, and buttons in the shapes of stars. I added red and green counting bears for fun and a small piece of tinsel for good measure.

Here, he is checking it out....will it pass the test? Will he take all the stuff out just to play with the noodles?

I think he likes it! This time, he didn't take everything out. He just scooped and poured with all of his cups and such. He has played with this every day since I have changed it. The only thing I don't like about it is the smell - to dye the noodles, you add vinegar and food coloring. I left them out to dry all night but the vinegar smell is still there. Hopefully it will go away soon.

I gave Kaleb the gingerbread cookies I made from felt, a spatula, and a cookie sheet. He had fun with this - picking up the cookies and placing them on the plates.

He is telling me to eat!

Next, we worked with the shape puzzle. He liked matching the shapes but I wish the shapes were somewhat larger.

He worked with the gingerbread puzzle. I made this magnetic so it would be easier to put together. This didn't hold his interest as long as the shape puzzle did though.

On to dressing the gingerbread with all of the clothes!

We worked with the size sort. We talked about big and little but Kaleb was more interested in sticking the pictures to the cookie sheet (his favorite thing to do). We worked with these activities all week, some he liked more than others.

Tot Tuesday

One day, while I was trying to work with J's reading, Kaleb decided he wanted to play as well. This was our rice bin and so far, it was unavailable for him to play with (for good reasons). Kaleb loves to pour and scoop but I knew the rice bin was just bound to make an extreme mess. Rice is a lot harder to pick up as opposed to noodles and corn, it tends to make a larger mess. So I had not allowed Kaleb to play in our rice bin. Today, though, he found an opportunity to join us while we were playing a reading game and I didn't have the heart to tell him no.

He is so serious, working with the rice - scooping and pouring, transferring here and there.

I let him play with the rice until we were done and I had a huge mess to clean up. He was happy though and he continues to ask for the rice bin. But I am not brave enough to allow it every day. Maybe one day...

Gingerbread Week

Our first theme for Christmas fun was Gingerbread. For a whole week, we worked on fun gingerbread activities. Here are some of the books we read this week:

Christmas in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone

Maisy Makes Gingerbread by Lucy Cousins

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

Here are some of the activities we did this week.

J practiced her ordinal numbers and listening skills by completing the word Gingerbread. She had to listen to the directions such as color the fifth letter blue and complete the tasks. This free printable was found at Caitlin Clabby's TPT store.

J practiced her an family words using letter tiles from a Scrabble Jr. game. I gave her several letters and she had to determine if they were actually words. She then copied them onto the lines. This printable was found at Making Learning Fun.

J worked on her skip counting by 5's. This was a great review since we were working with skip counting in her math book. She had to cut out the numbered gingerbread and glue them in order. She worked to 100 by 5's. This free printable was found at First Grade Garden.

Here she is working on a present for her big sister Keke. This is super cute. She colored a gingerbread house and I cut out a plastic wipe lid that will act as the door to the house. J will glue a picture of herself inside the door.

It isn't complete yet but it turned out cute. We just have to add a picture of J inside so she can take it with her to college. This great idea and free printable came from Alpha Mom.

J worked on her number recognition using gingerbread numbers. She would choose two gingerbread cards and make a number. Then she would color the number on her hundreds chart. I found the gingerbread number recognition from .... sorry, I lost the link (I hate it when that happens). We worked on this all week, trying to color in most of the numbers in the 100 chart.

J practiced her graphing with a cute game from Teaching Heart Blog. We took turns rolling my die and coloring in which picture turned up. The rolling pin won, in case you wondering.

J worked on a cute emergent read about the gingerbread man. This was a free printable from Deanna Jump's TPT store. She always has the cutest stuff.

We played a simple reading game where I hid a small gingerbread man behind one of her words on the chart. She would read each word and if she read it correctly, she would pull the card to see if the gingerbread boy was hiding behind it. I made this game by using a gingerbread graphic and printing the houses on colored paper.

J then worked on a cute printable page where she drew what she would look like as a gingerbread girl and what her house would look like. This free printable was found at Caitlin Clabby's TPT store.

Another writing project, we worked on a Ginger Boy book, in the fashion of Brown Bear. It starts Ginger Boy, Ginger Boy what do you see.... J came up with all of the pages and illustrated it as well.

We played the T version of Candyland during lunch and several times after dinner. As a family, we are going to try to spend a few minutes after every dinner to play a family game during the month of December, just to encourage spending time together, having an older teen/adult sometimes makes this difficult. So far we have played Candyland and Pretty Pretty Princess. My DD (older) has not even balked at this idea. Wow!

J played a gingerbread game from StarFall online. This was a simple game where you could change the shapes and colors of the gingerbread's features.


Please feel free to visit my Gingerbread Week pinterest board for ideas for your own theme week. I have pinned some great activities around the internet, all free and easy to reproduce. Don't be discouraged if this looks like a lot of activities. We worked on this theme for the whole week and I didn't stress if we didn't get done. The idea was to have fun.