Presidents day

For Presidents day, we started by reading the second article of the Constitution describing the duties of the President including serving as Commander-in-Chief of the military and appointing officials to serve as ambassadors and judges.  We talked about how it is the Executive Branch's job to enforce the laws created by the Legislative Branch, like police officers enforce the laws locally.  We saw some police officers and EMTs in action this week, so she reminded me of what they do.  She's also very proud to identify some of her friends' parents with these jobs.

We read books about several past Presidents.  Her favorite was President Taft is Stuck in the Bath.  The pictures make him look adequately angry and it is a great lesson in problem solving, as well as silliness.  It offers some historical context at the end of the book, as many of these stories do.  Dear Mr. Washington was the humorous tale of some children witnessing George Washington getting his portrait painted, and behaving as children often do in an attempt to make him smile.  It includes some rules for polite behavior Washington was said to have copied as a child.  I first picked up John, Paul, George and Ben because I had to do a double-take, as I thought at first it was about the Beetles, but realized the fourth name was incorrect.  Lane Smith worked on some other books I'd enjoyed as a child, like the Stinky Cheese Man, so I thought I would give it a try.  It gives a great little story for John Hancock, Paul Revere, George Washington, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and talks about their role in the Revolutionary War, with some true and false questions at the end.  I like the idea of Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek, about how a small act you perform as a child may have greater consequences than you could ever guess, but the storytelling wasn't great.

Since we were reading history books this week, we stayed on a Social Studies track with our activities.  We explored a map, identifying the state we live in, the states grandmas and grandpas live in, and some of the places mommy and daddy have visited.  She painted her own map, and then created one out of clay, to show mountains and lakes.  We read another book she really loves, The Scrambled States of America.  We looked through family photos and discussed past events in our lives.  We also created a new activity calendar, as our felt one was getting old.  We used a pocket calendar like many schools use, and used index cards to create pictures of the things we might do every day.  Then she helps to decide what to do and sets them in order in the pockets. We had a lot of fun exploring different denominations of money, looking at the Presidents and others on each one.

Love bugs

Genevieve has suddenly developed a fear of bugs so this week we talked about love bugs.

In Music Makers, we've been practicing a rhyme about a Love Bug and "Won't You Bee my Valentine.". She's also been listening to some bug songs on ABC mouse.

We read a lot of bug books this week.  The Eric Carle collection includes The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Busy Spider, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Quiet Cricket and The Very Clumsy Click Beetle.  We read The Ant and the Grasshopper from Jerry Pinkney's collection of Aesop's fables.  Denise Fleming's Beetle Bop was fun and had a nice couple of sentences about beetles. We also read a counting favorite, Miss Spider's Tea Party.

We read a few Valentine's day books, like Heart to Heart about friendship and Crankenstein Valentine which is nice if your little one isn't interested in Valentine's Day.  Genevieve also enjoys the Pout Pout Fish about a fish that discovers his face is actually for kissing.

Genevieve made love bugs with paper hearts, pom poms and clothes pins.  She used her magnifying glass while searching for bugs.  We also matched different animals to their homes, including bees, spiders and other bugs.  For Valentine's day, she made heart pizza with her dad and heart necklaces with friends.  She went to a friend's house where they used canvases and stamps to create their own Valentine's day art.

As a side note, she found a robot canvas at Target and painted that too.

Using Your Heart

This week we've been learning about how we use our heart and keep it healthy.  My Body  introduced different systems in the body and offered reminders throughout about exercise and healthy eating.  It suggested different activities, some of which we tried looked listening to our heart beat, doing 20 jumping jacks, then listening to our heart again and observing the difference.  National Geographic also has some fun books to cover this topic.  Both their Little Kids First Big Book of How and of Why have chapters on the human body talking about healthy eating, exercise, tooth care and more.  There were a few simple activities as well.  I've always enjoyed the original Magic School Bus books by Joanna Cole, so we read Inside the Human Body.  The kids start in the digestive system and learn how nutrients are extracted and travel through the blood to the heart, lungs, brain, and muscles.  It suggested a method to examine your cells, but we are waiting till we are older to try that.  Finally, we read Miss Fox's Class Shapes Up.  Genevieve loves Miss Fox and it's a simple story of a teacher finding ways to help her class be healthy including eating healthy, fun exercise, and getting plenty of sleep.

We added some extra exercises to our weekly routine.  We usually walk daily when weather allows, march at music class, play soccer, and participate in gymnastics.  The weather wouldn't allow us much park time, but we did walk to the park one day to play and kick the ball with Grandpa.  We also did some yoga and a dance party.  We tried to observe our heart and breathing with some of our exercise.

Since we were stuck inside much of the week, we also played a lot in our puppet theatre.  We worked on some workbooks from DK and Brain quest and cutting activities.  Genevieve made and directed me in creating some scratch art. She's also enjoyed ABC mouse and PBS Kids activities. We read We Came to America and How I Learned Geography to help understand some of the words going around like immigration and refugee.  They are beautiful books with personal, simple explanations.

Valentine's and Groundhogs Day

We started getting ready for Valentine's day so we can mail the ones we need to.  We started by creating some heart puzzles for friends.  Then we used different sizes and colors of paper hearts to create some animals.  We made a flamingo, ladybug, fox, fish, owl, panda, and chicken.  We talked of making a mouse or a beaver, but she decided these were enough.  Genevieve also tried her hand at being a flamingo.

We read a book about Valentine's Day, but it was a little wordy for Genevieve.  It was interesting though to consider the history, both of the different Valentine's it could have been named after and Lupercalia.  We also read What is Love, Biscuit? and The Quilt Story while talking about love.

For Groundhogs Day, we read about light and groundhogs.  The light book included some fun activities, like noticing how a straw appears to break when in a glass of water when the light rays bend.  We were hoping to head outside and play with shadows and sun prints.  Sadly the weather didn't agree so we stayed inside and used a flashlight to create shadows.

Genevieve has also been enjoying some of the codes hidden within Enigma and The Jewel Fish of Karnak.  They are interesting stories on their own and have some hidden items to look for and codes to break.  Plus Graeme Base's rhyming, meter and illustrations have long entertained me.