Book Unit - Mouse Count

We are on the second book of Mousey March - Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh. The first book unit was The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood.  We had a ton of strawberry fun with that book! Here are a few of the activities that we accomplished this week.

Kaleb started the week with a new sensory bin. I made ten mice from plastic easter eggs, yarn, and paper. I filled the bin with dried split peas and gave him the biggest glass jar that I had. Then I made a snake and attached it to some tongs. The snake printable came from Mr. Printables (link below).

We hadn't read the book yet but it was the first thing he asked to do. He did exactly what the snake did int he book - fill the jar with the mice.

We read the book and then worked through our activities. First, we played an easy game of feed the snake. I made some mice milk jug lids (ten to be exact because there are ten mice in the story) and a paper towel tube snake. He rolled a die and fed the snake the correct number of mice while counting them. You could also use these to act out the story.

We played a printable version of Snakes and Ladders. I laminated this game to use it later. One way would be to program the squares on the board with letters for alphabet practice.

We played a Mouse Count game. I gave Kaleb a jar mat and several gray mice. He would roll the die and add the mice to the jar. After we added the mice, then I had him count to see the total mice in the jar. When the jar was full, he would "rock the jar" to tip it over and let the mice out. This idea came from C Palms (link below).

I found these cute mice printable from Mailbox. I laminated the mice and added pipe cleaner tails. He then chose several each day and added the correct beads to the tail. This was great fine motor practice and you could also use it as a patterning exercise.

He also made several beaded snakes. I taped a simple head to the end of one pipe cleaner and he added the beads to make the body. More fine motor practice - look at that concentration!

We played a letter M game. Kaleb rolled a cube programmed with capital and lower case m's. He placed a block on each one when it was rolled. By using blocks rather than stickers or stamps, we were able to use this game all week.

I made a snake ruler for some non-standard measurement practice. He measured a few things around the house such as Riley's keys but then he measured the zoo animals on the side of him.

He placed the snakes in size order from largest to smallest. The idea came from Izzy, Mac, and Me (link below).

We talked about the letter M. He then sorted the letters into M's and not M's. Rather than use the paper letters or stickers, I used foam letters to make this more hands-on. This came from Tara West's TPT store.

He made some fingerprint mice that were stuck in the jar for the story art project.

He made a S snake. First he painted the snake and then added details with a q-tip.

I gave him some air drying clay and he made ten snakes. He will paint them and we will use them for our own story - Snake count!

I added the mice details to his fingerprints. He cut out the jar and we added it to his notebook.

Here is his letter S snake after the eyes were added. This idea came from Teaching Mama (link below).  It was a great mousey week, we are on Mouse Shapes! See you next week.

Links

Worldsapart Pinterest Board for Mouse Count, Paint, and Shapes

Mr. Printables - has the printable snake that I used in the sensory bin. He has both colored and black-n-white versions.

C Palms - has th eprintable jar math mat with the mouse die and the mice counters, along with some extra ideas on how to use them.

Teaching Mama - gave me the idea for the S Snake, she also has a free printable s.

Communication 4 All - gave me the free printable Snakes and Ladders game.

An Idea on Tuesday - gave me the inspiration for the beaded snake. I love how she added numbers to the heads for additional counting experience.

Tara West - the free printable M not M sheet along with other letter M fun things came from her TPT store.

Frugal Fun for Boys - the idea for the beaded snakes came from here.

Izzy, Mac, and Me - gave me the idea for the size sequence snakes.

The Educator's Spin on It - gave me the idea for the paper towel tube snake and milk jug lid mice.

The Mailbox - gave me the free printable mice to add the pipe cleaner tails and the beads.

Still Playing School - the idea for the sensory bin came from here.

Tot Tuesday

Last week, we were lucky to have a visitor - my DS Josh. He was stopping by before his great move to another state for a new chapter in his life.

Hopefully, we didn't overwelm him too much! He is not used to this much kid time!

It was great to have him for a few days and we were sad to see him leave. Good luck, Joshie!

Space Unit - Stars & Constellations

This week we studied stars and constellations - our second to last week of the Space Unit. We are planning to wrap up in a week with Space Travel and a Space mini party to show off our learning. Here are a few things we did this week...

We borrowed a ton of books about stars and the stories behind the stars. We especially loved the book with the glow-in-the-dark constellations!

I bought some glow-in-the-dark stars and added magnets to the backs of them. She used a cookie sheet to recreate some of the constellations that we read about.

J began working on her Observatory which she informs me that she will use with her little animals. It is made from a two liter bottle and mode-podged newspapers. She is painting it pink - one of her favorite colors.

Another project she worked on this week was making constellations with marshmallows and pretzel sticks. Here is the Little Dipper.

This one is Cassiopeia. She then ate her hard work for snack.

Then, she made her own constellation for her Space notebook.

Her constellation was The Family Constellation - a picture of her family in stars. Isn't that sweet? One more week and we are done with our Space Unit. See you soon.

Book Unit - The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

It is a new month and I thought that we would do a month of Mousey books. Kaleb loves mice and he is thrilled about our theme. We had a ton of fun with our book this week - The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood.

Every day, we started off reading the book. We have the board book version so I believe some of the pages in the original were omitted. After reading the book, Kaleb chooses a ziplock bag from our school bin and we get to work! First activity that he chose was a game. He rolled a die and added pom poms to the board to complete the strawberries. The first one to fill up the board wins - which according to him is always him!

Then, he worked with patterns. We stuck with AB patterns for right now. I started the pattern and he finished by adding the correct pom poms. Both activities came from Making Learning Fun (link below).

He practiced his hand-eye coordination by lacing a strawberry.

I printed this mice number matching game. We used it several ways. First, I hid a paper strawberry behind a mouse and he had to find it by saying the number and flipping over the card. Then, we matched the number to the correct dots by counting. The mouse printable came from Cute in Kindy TPT store (link below).

This idea came from Boy Teacher Mama (link below) as a free printable. It is a strawberry themed number matching game to the number 6. I made it a fine motor activity by adding some strawberries from the Avalanche game that I own. He used the tweezers to add the strawberries for each number and then he fed them to his little mouse.

We are in the midst of strawberry season here in Florida. So I saved some strawberry baskets for this game that Kaleb loved.

I made some strawberry letters for Kaleb's name and added each letter to a basket. I gave him some large pom poms and he had to make a basket for each letter. After the pom pom went into the basket, he had to tell me what letter it was.

We played another strawberry game which was also found at Making Learning Fun.

He traced a mouse picture with a dry-erase marker. I slipped this into a reusable cover so he could work on it all week. This activity is from Activity Village (link below).

We read about bears and what they like to eat. Kaleb wasn't too happy about bears eating small animals such as mice. So, I had to skip that part.

Another game that I made (idea from Toddler Approved - link below) was a simple paper strawberry. Kaleb would roll a die and add pom poms for seeds using the tweezers (fine motor).

We made some strawberry balloons and played some gross motor games. He loved this activity. First, he had to keep the balloon off the floor, then hit it into the basket, and then kick it into the basket.

In the book, the mouse tries to disguise the strawberry by adding silly glasses to it. So, we thought we would try to disguise the strawberry by making our own silly glasses. The glasses template came from Picklebums (link below).

I made some strawberry play dough which smelled awesome. Kaleb and I made some strawberries to practice cutting in half to share - just like the mouse did in the book! Recipe below.

It was a fun filled week. Since we worked with this book, Kaleb has taken the book to bed with him every night! This is our first installment of the month of Mousey books (March). See you next week with Mouse Count!

Links

Worldsapart Pinterst Board

Making Learning Fun - printable for the book including the pattern strips and math game.

Cute in Kindy TPT store - Mouse match game free printable.

Boy Teacher Mama - strawberry number printable.

Activity Village - traceable mouse worksheet for fine motor practice.

Homeschool Share - has several super cute printable books and such for a lap book based not he book.

Toddler Approved - strawberry math activity with free printable strawberry pattern.

Picklebums - free printable crazy glasses template.

Once a Mom...Always a Cook - recipe for strawberry play dough.

Tot Tuesday

If you read all of the suggested activities for your baby, you will discover that "Tummy Time" is important. It helps strengthen the neck and back muscles for later, when it is time to sit up. None of my children ever liked "Tummy Time," at least not for an extended amount of time. But it is important so I still have them do it.

Look at this sweet face....

I finally got him to smile while I was taking pictures - yay! What a cutie!

Jesus Blesses the Little Children

This week's Bible lesson was Jesus blesses the little children. We had our Joshie here this week so we did the basic lesson without any extras. This gave us time to enjoy having our brother here!

J worked on the coloring sheet while I read the lesson for the week.

J painted the blessing with watercolors. She hung this blessing in her room.

It was a simple week but fun - I got to spend it with ALL of my children. Pretty fitting, right?

Links

My Crazy Blessed Life - has a cute craft idea using footprints that we didn't get to but it would make a cute picture to hang up.

Space Unit - Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto?

We are all most done with our Space Unit. We worked on last of the planets. J is enamored with the demoted planet Pluto so she asked me to include it in our line up. So, Pluto as well as the other draw planets made it onto our mural.

J researched the planets and worked on some mini books for her Space Notebook. It is funny how Pluto was demoted in 2006 to a draw planet but some of the library books still have it in the line up.

She is finishing up her mini books to add to her notebook. 

One of her projects this week was to make a Solar System headband. She colored the planets, put them in order, and glued them to the headband. The idea came from The Primary Theme Park (link below).

She added the last of the planets to the mural, included some comets and meteorites.

The final project for the week was to make moon dough. Kaleb joined in the fun by helping to add the water. This idea came from Learn Play Imagine (link below).

Using the moon dough, J made some moon rocks. The moon rocks exploded when we added vinegar. This project was fun but beware the food coloring dyes the hands for the rest of the day. But it came off in the bath that night.

Two more weeks in our Space Unit - constellations/stars and space travel/living in space. J has learned a lot. She is working on her final projects for the unit. 

Links

Learn Play Imagine - has the recipe for the moon dough that we used.

The Primary Theme Park - has the idea for the Solar System headband plus a link to the printable planets.