Little House in the Big Woods - Week 3

Week 3 of Prairie Primer came and we had some more sewing/prairie fun. This week we learned about maple syrup.

J watched a video on youtube about how they make syrup. She worked on her notebook pages.

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While we thought that we would make maple flavored syrup (we did this all the time in our other country because they didn't have it), we decided on maple fudge instead. J had to stir the mixture on the stove for over 20 minutes. But it was worth the wait.

Here is her finished product - love, love, love. She loves this recipe and remembers when I made it overseas for Christmas. I liked that this recipe didn't call for marshmallow creme which is another product that was unavailable there.

After sewing the rag doll, I felt it was only fitting that the doll have a blanket as well. We chose a traditional nine patch quilt. My mom sent her a sewing care package which contained these squares. They were already cut and they matched beautifully.

She sewed each of the squares together on her machine.

Now, to make the process easier as well as quicker, I found a fleece baby blanket that we used for both the batting and the back. She sewed the blanket to the back of the quilt. Then, she turned it right side out.

Then, she used yarn ties in the corners to "bind" the quilt to the baby blanket.

Her finished quilt - super cute and just the right size for her rag doll. Not a bad prairie week - J is loving all the sewing:) I am a proud mama:)

Links

Crumbs and Chaos - has the recipe for the maple fudge.

The Frugal Girls - has the recipe for maple flavored syrup that we used overseas. I always brought the flavoring with us.

My Little House Unit on Pinterest

Farm Unit - Cows

Kaleb is currently learning using Winter Promise - Journeys of Imagination. We are learning about farms and this week, it was a focus on cows.

Kaleb colored a page for the poem Have You Ever Seen a Purple Cow? I found this printable from Kjersten Rathke's TPT store (link below).

We read Click Clack Moo and Kaleb worked on a printable book based on the story. He added what each set of animals asked the farmer for...the goats asked for more tin to chew, the pigs wanted more mud etc...  The printable came from Apples and ABC's (link below).

He added his cow to his farm mural which is shaping up, don't you think?

It is super cute and gracing our hallway right now.

Kaleb is practicing his days of the week, months, counting to 100, and adding stickers to his counting to 100 days of school.

He started his second Before the Code Book B. He loves these activities.

He worked on an exploding milk experiment. He used blue food coloring to add to his milk. He then added baking soda and vinegar to see what it would do. This idea came from Mess for Less (link below).

Since we were learning about cows, I thought it would be fun to have a milk tasting. I found several varieties of milk - strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. You can sense his excitement.

His favorite milk was strawberry.

He also has been practicing writing his numbers. He works through a new number worksheet each day.

Another book we read was It looks Like Spilt Milk. Not too shabby for cow week. His favorite was probably the milk tasting. I was hoping to have him milk a cow but that may have to wait:)

Links

Mac n Taters - has the cute milk the cow activity.

Mess for Less - has the exploding milk experiment that we completed.

Kjersten Rathke's TPT - Have You Ever Seen a Purple Cow poem activity page.

Apples and ABC's - Click Clack Moo free printable book.

Nursery Rhyme - My Black Hen

As part of Kaleb's Kindergarten curriculum, we are working on Nursery Rhymes. We are using Nursery Rhyme Literature Pockets and our rhyme for the week was My Black Hen.

Kaleb loves the google eyes. Here, he is hamming it up for the camera. Silly boy.

Kaleb made a black hen using the pattern from the book. He used the hen while reciting the rhyme all week.

We talked about "en" words and I wrote them onto egg cut-outs. He glued them under the wings of his hen.

He played a game that I found in one of my Scholastic Books - Nursery Rhyme Math. He had to determine the nest that each chick belonged to. He has a series of sitting, standing, spotted, yellow, brown chicks to find their nests.

He worked on syllables with this cute hen game. Sorry, I can't find the link :(

Kaleb began the disappearing egg experiment. He added an egg to a jar and filled the jar with vinegar. He had to wait two days for the results. This idea came from Premeditated Leftovers (link below).

A couple of days later, we were able to see the results of the experiment - an egg without the shell. Pretty cool and slimy!

We also played a math game using our farm counters. He wasn't so impressed with it since I won. We are on to our next rhyme - Jack and Jill. See you soon.


Links

The Teaching Texan - has a free chicken "en" word craft in his TPT store.

All Kids Network - has a cute craft for the rhyme, super easy to do.

Fairy Dust Teaching - also has a cute "en" word craft for this rhyme.

Premeditated Leftovers - has a disappearing egg experiment that we completed.


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Tot Tuesday

Recently, I was setting the table for dinner. I always try to have some type of fruit or veggies with our meal...something from our overseas days when veggies were so inexpensive. This time I placed a plate with cakes, carrots, and tomatoes along with Ranch dressing for dipping. I went into the kitchen to finish dinner and my tot decided to help himself:)

Needless to say - he ate his veggies that night!

American Artists - George Bellows

We are still working through the Great American Artists for Kids this year and this week's artist was George Bellows. He was an athlete who wanted to paint.

First, J wrote her notebook page about the artist. We read about his life and looked at several of his art works.

Her art project was to create an art work based on a sports theme. She chose soccer. She became frustrated when her people didn't turn out correctly. She finally figured it though.

She used watercolors to paint her picture.

J is checking out her picture - she seems happy with it.

Here is her final project - two girls playing soccer. We added it to her artist notebook along with the artist notebook page. See you soon.

Little House in the Woods - Week 2

We are in our second week of Prairie Primer and loving it. There are so many activities and avenues that you can take for learning! I have to keep reminding myself that we are going to be doing this all year and I need to pace myself:) This week, J made a rag doll. (Sorry about the jammies - it was a jammie/sewing day)  The project in the Primer was to make a corn husk doll but J truly wanted to make a rag doll.

I found a free pattern online for a rag doll (link below). I have seen several versions, even one made with a tube sock. J choose a muslin for the body and she cut out each piece of the body.

After she sewed the legs together, she stuffed them. Don't stuff too much, though, because it makes them hard to attach to the body.

After much googling, J picked a face for her doll. I drew it and she embroidered it with thread and colored the lips with fabric crayons. Here is her doll without hair.

Here is her doll with a ton of brown yarn hair and a homemade dress. I used all most a skein of brown yarn. You can't tell but the doll has two huge braids. She made this doll completely herself with the exception of sewing the yarn hair. She has also made several dresses all be herself with a pattern that I created for the doll. She loves it so much that she took it to church to show it off:) Go J!

And a special thanks to my mom for making this possible - the sewing machine, the fabric remnants that you sent - thanks mom for helping me foster creativity in my child:) Love you!

Links

Miss Gioia - has the free printable rag doll pattern that we used.

All Crafts - also has a free printable rag doll pattern.

Felt Magnet - has a tutorial on how to make a corn husk doll.

Gift of Curiosity - has another tutorial for a corn husk doll.

Farm Unit - Horses

Kaleb is working on Journeys of Imagination for his kindergarten year. The unit we are currently learning about is the farm. This week, he learned about horses.

Kaleb is doing great working on his phonics and handwriting.

After we read about horses, he painted a some for his mural. He decided his horses should be blue and purple.

He added yellow fingerprints to his mural for chicks. The hen and the rooster just had to have chicks, right?

He is hamming up for the camera - he is reading a seek and find farm animal book.

He added the horses to his mural.

And he finished the yellow fingerprint chicks. They turned out super cute.

Here is his farm mural as it stands. We add to it every week - next week we learn about cows. The mural is definitely shaping up! See you soon.

Links

Learn Create Love - has the free printable horses to add to your farm mural.