Sonlight Week 7

Sonlight week 7 brought us the Middle Ages, castles, Johnny Appleseed, counting by tens, and learning about currents and waves. Here are some of the activities we accomplished this week.

We read about Jacob and Esau and learned about the importance of being honest.

J practiced writing her teen numbers.

She surprised me by counting all the way to 100. She used a 100's chart but she counted/knew all of the numbers. J practiced counting by tens as well.

We picked up our Handwriting Without Tears book and practiced handwriting.

J practiced her sight words - she read them, glued them, and then wrote them.

She practiced her reading. I am so proud of her, she is sounding these words out.

J playing her sight word game - Find Johnny Appleseed. He was hidden behind a word that she had to find by reading it.

We read about castles from a book that I found at a sale here. It had a fold out diagram of a castle.

After we learned about castles, we decided to make a cardboard castle to play with. J painted it black/blue.

Here is our finished product. I had plans to sponge paint bricks on the castle walls but J just didn't want to wait another single second to play with them. It was pure agony to wait for the paint to dry.

For Science, we read about waves and made an ocean in a bottle. J added blue food coloring and purple glitter.

We conducted an experiment to see the different freezing times for various liquids. Kaleb is supervising, as usual.

My favorite picture of this week is the Johnny Appleseed that she created. We read about Johnny Appleseed and I wrote what she learned. She created Johnny by cutting out the pieces and gluing them together. But my favorite part, which is hard to see, is the face she drew on him. We have been studying Picasso and she created a Picasso nose and mouth on him. She says Picasso is her favorite artist! I love it!

Links

Craftberry Bush picture and idea for the apple print wreath came from here. Hers looks so pretty. We should have added the leaves, guess I forgot.

What the Teacher Wants has quite a few ideas for Johnny Appleseed plus free printables.

Mer Mag has the templates for the cardboard castle that we made.

Primary Possibilities free printable pattern for the Johnny Appleseed craft we did plus other activities.

Scholastic Books has an online apple book to read about an apple life cycle.

Book of the Week - Tot

Our book of the week is Ten Apples On Top! by Theo. LeSieg (Dr. Seuss). It is a worn, taped loved version of this book that we are using but it is still a book to be cherished. Here are some of the activities we did this week. You can read about my tot bag for this book here.

We played ten apples on top. I gave Kaleb some foam shaped apples and some water. I laminated the pictures and we stuck apples on top of their heads.

He liked this activity all most as much as he likes playing with magnets.

I found an apple sheet with apples numbered from one to ten. I added small magnets to the back and he had a magnet activity which he loves. This will be used later for number recognition but for right now, we are just having fun putting them on and taking them off the board.

Kaleb played with the apple blocks that I made.

He checked out the apple bean bags. Then we played a game - I asked him to put the apples on his knee....

and on his head.

He played some with the apple cards. I talked about red, green, yellow, big, and little.

His favorite activity, though, was the water play. I gave him a bucket, some scoops, bowls, and apples. He loved scooping and pouring and...

putting the apples in the bowls. We had some apple fun this week and I hope to work on a pumpkin theme for next week. Hope you had an awesome week.

Ten Apples on Top! Tot Bag

My newest tot bag is based on Ten Apples On Top! by Dr. Seuss. It is our book of the week and it was only natural to create a tot bag to go along with our reading. The idea behind my tot bags is to include my son while we do school. I am in no way saying that tots need schooling. These are just activities to give your tot while you work with your older children. I try to include some fine/gross motor activities and just plain fun stuff.

We own both the complete hardcover book as well as the board book (in 'Merica) for this title. If you have the board book, it is not as long and as detailed as the hardcover version. But it is still good for short attention spans. Here are some of the activities I have planned.

I printed and laminated a size/color sort that I found at Homeschool Share. This can easily be adapted for the magnetic board or as a fine motor activity by adding color worms to tong on matching apples. Right now, we will be focusing on colors. I made some mini apples from bottle caps. These can be used a variety of ways - as fine motor by dropping into a milk bottle or spooning into a bowl, as counters, or as playing pieces for an apple game. I made ten apple foam blocks that Kaleb will try to balance on top of each other. You can make these larger by adding apples to wood blocks. I made mine small so they would fit into the storage bag.

I printed the three characters from the book and added foam apples. This activity will be used with water and a glass door. The apples will stick to the glass door, Kaleb will try to put the apples on the characters' heads. I had to make something magnetic. Kaleb loves magnets. I found an apple page with apples numbered from one to ten. I added magnets and a picture of himself so he can place apples on his head. These are good for number recognition but for now, he will just place them on the board.

Lastly, I made some apple beans bags from left over fleece that I had. These can be used for tossing games or balancing on heads. I found some plastic apples and a scoop. I think I will put the apples in water and have Kaleb fish them out with a scoop or net. Give him a bowl of water and some scoops and he will be entertained for an hour!

This was a simple tot bag to create. All of the materials I had on hand and did not buy anything. I am a firm believer in trying to use recyclables and such to create my tot bags. This helps to keep costs down as well as helps the environment. I hope this tot bag will encourage you to create your own. I would love to hear any ideas or suggestions that you have.

Links

Making Learning Fun has tons of ideas for this book. There is a felt board pattern to recreate the story, printable mini books, and such.

Homeschool Share has links to other printables and projects for apples. I love this site.

The apple bean bags were just circles sewn together with a felt leaf and stem. The characters that I printed came from a website but I don't have the link, sorry.

Book of the Week - Kindergarten

I had truly planned on working with some fall type books this week, like books about pumpkins but it just so happened that we are reading about Johnny Appleseed in our school week. I know everybody else did their Johnny Appleseed stuff in September when it was his birthday but I am following a different schedule and we are just now getting to learn about him. So I figured we might as well do some fun things with apples. The book I chose is Ten Apples On Top! by Theo. LeSieg The version I have is one that I found at a used book sale here in my country and it is probably the same version I read when I was a child. It is an old copy. It smells old, looks old, but it is good. The cover is worn and taped but we can still read it and love it. 

We started or apple study by filling out a KWL chart about apples and then worked on the life cycle of an apple by Wild About Teaching (link below). 

We talked about the parts of an apple and labeled them on this worksheet.

We practiced our number words by creating this mini book about apples by Musings of Me (link below).

We practiced a new prayer called Johnny Appleseed, we used to sing this one when my other kids were little. J had requested we start singing this one as well. She made fingerprint apples on the tree. This printout was from Guildcraft but I couldn't find a link for it.

We taste tested one apple for snack time and she added it to her comparison sheet. The sheet asked that J make comparisons such as color, size and taste. The first apple we tried was a Gala apple and she said it was sweet. The printable is by Kinderpond.

J then painted and stamped with apples. These apples will be cut out to make an apple wreath for our front door for fall. She chose the color green to stamp with.

Turned out cute but I think it might need a bow of sorts.

She balanced an apple on her head but I couldn't get her to try more than one.

I made apple bean bags from some fleece and she balanced these on her head, then...

on her foot.

After snack time, we left an apple out on the table to see what happens. This was the first part of our science experiment by Snippets by Sarah (link below).

The experiment was to determine the best liquid that would keep an apple from turning brown. J poured milk, soda, and water into tea glasses. Then she added an apple slice to each one. 

We waited overnight to see what changed and which liquid preventing the browning.

It truly surprised us to find the apple slice that sat in the milk was the least brown. The one that was placed in the water was the darkest, even compared to the apple that sat out in the air overnight.

We played a word game. I wrote words that J has been practicing on red and green apples. Then I found a clip art version of Johnny Appleseed which I hid behind one of the words in the pocket chart. She read each word, taking it off the chart, trying to find which one Johnny was hiding behind. Kaleb is helping, can you tell? We played this for awhile, practicing all of her current word families and sight words.

Hope you enjoyed our activities and found some inspiration as well. I am hoping to add more fall books, possibly pumpkins, and activities next week. 

Links

Wild About Teaching has the life cycle of an apple.

Pixy Stix and Teacher Tricks has the apple KWL chart that we used.

Snippets by Sarah has the free printable for the Science experiment plus some other freebies.

Kinder Pond has the printable for the comparison of apples, sorry couldn't find the exact link but it is there somewhere.

Musings of Me I See Apples printable book can be found here.

Making Learning Fun has tons of ideas for apples and Ten Apples on Top.

Tot Tuesday

Kaleb just loves books. He is always bringing me books to read. I just had to grab a camera when I saw this...

Kaleb quietly reading, of course with his faithful friend - Mouse.

He is concentrating hard on the book - so cute. I hope he always loves books like this.

Sonlight Week 6

Sonlight Week 6 brought us lessons about St.Patrick, the rainforest and savanna, skip counting by tens, a lesson of bullying. We began our new chapter book, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. Here are some of the learning we did this week.

Obey was the key word this week. We read about how Abraham obeyed God, how children should obey their parents. 

Monday was Columbus Day so J created a book about Christopher Columbus. I found the mini book in a Scholastic teacher digital resource called Literacy Building Booklets.

J is still practicing her teen numbers. One game we played was to see which number would she roll more. I placed her numbers in the die and she rolled it. Every time she would roll, she would write the number.

We practiced telling time by the hour. I found a clock worksheet which she would draw the hands for the time stated. First, I had her create the time on her clock then draw what she did.

J practiced counting by tens. She had to cut out the numbers from 10 to 100 and glue them int he correct order with Kaleb supervising. I found this cut and paste activity from here.

Mystery letter of the week was A. Here she is working on her A page, gluing all of the pictures she found in magazines.

She learned how to draw a simple ant for the letter A. I found these cute write-n-draw sheets Inspired by Kindergarten.

J practiced her words using the Word Whammer from Leap Frog. She practiced the word families that she had already been learning.

She practiced writing the -at word family. I made this worksheet using the worksheet creator found here. I love this thing - type in what you want them to practice writing and print it out. Simple and easy.

She read some of her little readers.

We read about St. Patrick and made a shamrock explaining the Trinity.

J colored a Celtic cross for our studies as well. If you are looking for more ideas for Sonlight Core A, please check my pinterest account. I hope your week went well.