Wheel School - D is for Dump Truck

Wheel School Week 4 is available for download, D is for Dump Truck. The free printable of the week is lowercase alphabet puzzles. These will complete the set - the uppercase puzzles were available for download last week with the C is for Cement Mixer visual plans. 

Download D is for Dump Truck HERE.

Lowercase Alphabet Puzzles

We will be working on Cement Mixer this week. So enjoy Dump Truck week but most of all, have some fun. See you soon.

Winter Promise Week 4

We are still reading Ereth's Birthday by Avi. J seems to like the ornery porcupine in the story, I thinks he complains too much. The focus animal of the week was a bear although we also learned about otters, skunks, and foxes. J is moving through her All About Reading lessons rather quickly. I believe we will be buying the next level before long. In Math, she is working on her addition facts and equal/not equal parts.

J is working with her spelling words. I have her write a sentence for each of her words.

J is reading her story of the week Look At That! B.G. Hennessy.

Since our focus is on animals, I take every opportunity to learn about the different animals that we read about. Every morning, we read a devotional about a special animal and then we watch small video clips about the animal.

J is working with her words using the tiles from All About Reading.

Our focus animal for the week was bears. J is completing a labeling exercise. She labeled the bear diagram. I found this free activity from Tapatha Cooksey's TPT store.

J used linking cubes to measure the width of a polar bear paw print. Then, she used the blocks to compare sizes of different items to see if they were smaller or larger than the paw print. The free paw print exercise came from Heather Webber TPT store.

Then we compared the sizes of four bears - polar, black, brown, and panda. We used curling ribbon and laid out the sizes next to each other in order to compare. (the ribbon is hard to see but we taped them to the carpet to keep them straight) The free measuring bears activity came from Sarah Paul's TPT store.

J then determined that she wasn't taller than any of the bears we were comparing. This was a great visual for her to see just how big the bears are.

Then, J continued to practice her measuring skills by using the linking cubes to measure the bears' sizes. She couldn't believe the size of the polar bear!

To finish our bear unit, we made bear claw cookies (link below). I was unable to find the white chocolate kisses, so I improvised and used cut marshmallows. They turned out cute but it was difficult to keep the bakers from eating the white chocolate chips, peanuts, and marshmallows. 

Kaleb is concentrating hard on decorating those cookies. 

The cookies before they went into the oven. They tasted pretty good. I just wish we had the white chocolate kisses. The marshmallows melted more than I wanted them to. Hope your week went well. See you soon.

Book Suggestions for Week 4

Where Once There Was a Wood by Denise Fleming

Forest Explorer by Nic Bishop

Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson

Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson

Let's Look at Brown Bears by Ruth Berman

Bears by Jen Green

Bears by Adele Richardson

Animal Neighbors - Fox by Michael Leach

Links

Homeschool Share - free printable bear lap book 

National Geographic - online magazine Meet the Grizzlies

Kiboomu - bear claw cookie recipe

Heather Webber TPT - bear claw/hand comparison sheet

Tapatha Cooksey TPT - Polar bear label the parts worksheet

Sarah Paul TPT - Measuring Bears worksheet

Angie Neal TPT - bear craftivity idea with pattern

The 3am Teacher TPT - hibernating bear craftivity with pattern

B is for Bus

We are in our second week of Wheel School - B is for Bus. 

I am still using the black beans for our sensory bin. Kaleb loves playing with the beans but I will change the bin soon. This week's bin I added the letter B's and a couple of school buses that I found at some thrift stores. He had fun piling the B's into the bus.

Scissors are the next best activity. He loves cutting paper. Today, I gave him yellow construction paper, scissors, and glue. He cut the yellow paper into pieces and glued them onto the bus.

Kaleb then worked on his transportation puzzle. But this time, he brought out his transportation magnets and matched the vehicles together. He did this on his own.

Can you tell he loves vehicles?

I had planned this game a week ago but never got around to it. I finally was able to pull it out. Kaleb loved it. He rolled a die and parked the car in the correct parking space. This was a free printable game that I included in my visual plans. 

He loved this game so much that we played it over and over.

After bath time, one night, we watched The Wheels on the Bus DVD by Scholastic. It was a nice ending to our bus week. We didn't get to all of the activities planned so I imagine that we will be revisiting bus week soon. Hope your week was good.

Tot Tuesday

It didn't take long before my kids figured out what food was good here in 'Merica. If they had it their way, they would eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day.

But their all time favorite is Mac n Cheese.

It may not be the best thing for them but...

look at those smiles. Priceless. What are your kids having for lunch today?

Wheel School - Cement Mixer

Wheel School week three C is for Cement Mixer is available for download. We are currently still working in B is for Bus but I wanted to post the plans for Cement Mixer plus the new free printable for the week.

For C is for Cement Mixer, I went with a tools theme. The reason behind this was the difficulty I had trying to find different activities for just the cement mixer. By adding a theme, it made it easier to add a variety of activities. 

The free printable of the week contains upper case alphabet puzzles with a transportation focus. The lower case alphabet puzzles will be available soon. I would suggest laminating the pieces and adding small magnets to the back to make them easier for children.  The whole alphabet is available even though we have only completed to letter C. 

Download C is for Cement Truck HERE

Book Suggestions

Job Site by Nathan Clement

Trucks A to Z by Christopher Hernandez

City Lullaby by Marilyn Singer

Tool Book by Gail Gibbons

Tap Tap Bang Bang by Emma Garcia

These are just suggestions for books for C is for Cement Mixer. I include the amazon links but I do not receive any compensation from these. Enjoy your week.

Winter Promise Week 3

Week 3 is already among us and I still feel like we are missing some key elements to our school day. I can't quite put my finger on it but I feel that I am not scheduling enough. I feel like we aren't reading as much as we did with our other program. How can I fix this? Not sure, but it is something I am definitely going to work on. I have added several books from the library each week but I get the feeling that this literature rich program is not rich in literature. Sound crazy? I know. Maybe it is the fact that I feel like we are schooling on the go and I can't quite get the quality that I expect. This living like a nomad is tough on the family. I am praying that I can work this out soon.

This week, we focused on deer. We read several books about deer and worked on our notebook page. In Math, she worked on addition and tally marks. She had her first spelling test which I did not mention that it was a test and she read a story about clouds.

J is reading about clouds in this reader that I found from a used book store.

She wrote her own sentences with her spelling words for the week. I found a spelling work book that had plenty of practice sheets. There were eight spelling words and she worked with them all week. Then, I gave her a sheet of paper and asked her to write the words that I said. She did really well.

So I am not sure what I need to do to make this work for us. I am committed since we have already spent the money on our Core and J has really loved learning about the different animals. I am struggling because I feel it is not as organized as others. I might have to research better books to add to our weekly work. So far she has enjoyed reading Ereth's Birthday by Avi but we have been reading ahead and will be done with it soon. I just feel like she isn't learning as much as she could. If you have any suggestions as to how I can make this better, I would love to hear it. See you next week.

Tea Party

"Would you like some sugar?" J asked Kaleb and he shook his head yes. I had the privilege to experience a quiet moment between the kids while they played tea party. It is moments like these that I believe my children will be good friends. (And then there are the other moments when I wonder if they will EVER be friends!)

 

Maybe, just maybe....they will be great friends :) I am waiting for that day.