My Father's Dragon - Part 2

We are on our second week of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stilles Gannett. Kaleb is loving his map of Elmer Elevator's adventures. We worked hard to complete the book this week and put together our lap book.

After every chapter that we read, Kaleb makes each animal from paper scraps and places them on his map. He has really taken to this activity - I must think of more map activities for him!

He made a paper plate tiger after Elmer Elevator came across the seven tigers and convinced them to chew gum, instead of chewing him!

He cleaned the rhino tusk - an egg that was soaked in soda. He used toothpaste and a toothbrush. Rhino was very happy after he cleaned the tusk:)

Another project that Kaleb enjoyed was creating his paper plate lion with the crazy hair. He used pipe cleaners for hair and notice the sad face on the lion. He was super unhappy about his messed-up mane.

Kaleb fixed the lion's mane by tying ribbons and making curls. The lion was ready to see his mom.

He added the lion to his map complete with a ribbon bow.

I made a find the word activity for the chapter where Elmer meets the gorilla. The gorilla has fleas that he can't get rid of and Elmer gives the monkeys magnifying glasses to find the fleas. For this activity, I placed the words that he was working on (AB words) in small print on a gorilla and had Kaleb find them and write them. He asked me to make more of these word searches.

Lastly, he made a dragon mask to end the unit on My Father's Dragon. We put all of his mini books into a lap book and we have moved on to the next book in the series - Elmer and the Dragon. Not so much to do for this next book but still much fun to read. See you soon.

Everyone Loves Underpants!

Everyone loves underpants! Aliens, dinosaurs, bears, and especially pirates. This past week, I thought we would do a unit on underpants. We would read even possible book from own own personal library as well as the public library on underpants. Kaleb had a blast, it was definitely up his alley....burping, farting, underpants....haha.

For every book that we read about underpants, I had Kaleb color or decorate a pair to go along with the book. These pants will be made into an underwear banner.

We talked about nouns using this free printable that I found from Crazy Kids Learning (link below). I drew a simple alien shape and we sorted the nouns and glued them to our alien.

He turned out pretty cute! We hung it up on our school room closet door.

Kaleb then painted some mini aliens to put in his spaceship. These aliens came from Somewhat Simple (link below).

He made a spaceship from a paper plate - an idea that came from Danielle's Place (link below). Each of my kids made one of these - we have a whole fleet of spaceships flying around our schoolroom filled with aliens in their underwear! They saved the earth, you know?

Kaleb also colored a dinosaur with interchangeable underwear. He thought this was super funny! Different pairs of underwear for the dinosaur. I am thinking about making this magnetic for my younger tot, Riley. He would like it, for sure.

Who doesn't like underpants? We had a ton of fun reading all of the underwear books and making our underwear banner. It was a silly unit for Kaleb. We are moving on to a chapter book for a new challenge next week. See you soon.

Links

Aliens Love Underpants - the books have their own site with games, videos, and printables.

Danielle's Place - has some super cute alien crafts for the book. You have to be a member for the patterns but most are easy to replicate.

Shannon's Book Nook - has the free printable for Dinosaurs Love Underpants, super cute.

Hello Wild Things - has the free underwear printable if you want to design your own.

Boy Teacher Mama - has a few ideas for the book as well.

Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes - has a neat idea for using underpants and play dough.

Somewhat Simple - has a free printable alien pack.

Adventures and Play - has a cute idea for feeding the alien, can adapt to anything your child needs to review.

Stir the Wonder - has an idea for a moon dust writing tray.

Mini Monets and Mommies - has an idea for alien slime.

Adventures and Play - has another cute idea for a felt board for the book.

Sharing Kindergarten - has another free printable underwear template to go along with the books.

Crazy Kids Learning - has the free printable noun sort page that we used for our alien poster.





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Book Unit - Mouse Shapes

We finally had time to work on our second Mousey book - Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh. Kaleb has been busy "working" with his Dad so "school" has been waiting for him. We always start the day by reading the book. This gives him the exposure to the book every day. The sensory bin for the week was a simple one - black beans and lots of different shapes.

We used the sensory bin to determine how many different shapes we had. He used a spoon to pull out the shapes and then he "graphed" them to see how many we had. Using this graph, he was able to determine which one has the most and which shape had the least.

He practiced making shapes using popsicle sticks.

I found these mini shape links at Target last year. We discussed each shape represented and then he linked all of the same ones together. I love the look of concentration.

My smarty realized that two semi circles make a circle! :)

Using shape magnets, Kaleb made some of the pictures from the book - a house and a wagon.

We played a bean bag toss game. He tossed the bean bag and told me what shape and number it fell onto.

We played shape bingo by tossing the shape cube and putting a marker on the shape.

We played a Roll a Mouse Game - I made the pieces from foam. He rolled the die and added the piece of the mouse.

He sorted buttons according to its shape. We discovered that we had way more circles than any other shape.

I  made a simple name puzzle using foam egg shapes. We have been working on his name all year.

I made some simple shapes and 2 letters (M and K) on the floor using painter's tape. First, he traced the shapes with his trucks.

Then, he looked for the different shapes through out the house. He found Mouseys for the M's and keys for the K.

We made shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks. He enjoyed the mini snack - once I brought out the marshmallows, he was more interested in eating them!

He made a shape mouse as well as some Swiss Cheese, just like the book.

I left the shapes on the floor and later, I found him tracing them with his Mega Blocks.

Here is a picture of his mouse and cheese. They turned out super cute. We have one more Mouse book - Mouse Paint but it will have to wait a week or two. We are heading out of town for Spring Break to spend some time with the Grandparents! Yay! So, if possible, I will get to Mouse Paint at the Grandparent's house - we will see if that works out. Hope you are having a great week :)

Links

Or So She Says - has the idea for the popsicle shapes plus a free printable.

Mess for Less - has a shape contact paper art project that looks like fun.

Mama's Learning Corner - has a free printable shape sort game. You can use it as a cut and paste activity or as a simple game to reuse.

First Grade A la Carte - has the free printable Mouse Shape game.

Play dough to Plato - has a simple play dough shape activity using paper towel tubes.

The Pleasantest Thing - has the idea for the shape mice.

Growing Book By Book - has the shape name idea. I just used the egg shapes but it would be beneficial to use all of the shapes.

Imprints from Tricia - has the shape graphing idea.

Powerful Mothering - has a free printable - blocks with different shapes on them.

Living Worlds Apart Pinterest Board for Mouse Count, Shapes, and Paint

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.

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.