How Long is the Weather

This week we decided to embrace the theme from music class, weather.  And to accompany studying the weather, we explored some measuring activities.  We also looked at habitats of different plants and animals.

We read a variety of fiction and nonfiction books.  Some stories included Stormy Weather - a bedtime to animals book, Storm is Coming about some silly animals preparing for "storm" to arrive, The Rhino who Swallowed a Storm about dealing with being scared, and The Rain Came Down where a whole town is grumpy in the rain.  We read Bear Wants More and When Will It Be Spring about bears waking up from hibernation.  Our nonfiction books included The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola, National Geographic books, rainbow books, question and answer books, and tales of freaky weather.

We sang our songs from music class, especially "What's the Weather" set to "Oh My Darling Clementine." We sang before we checked the weather each day.  We used a old soda bottle to make a rain gauge, cutting off the top and marking inches and centimeters on the side.  We used ribbon and a toilet paper roll to create a windsock.  Genevieve used contact paper and tissue paper to create a kite to hang up inside and a kite kit for outside.  We read Red Kite, Blue Kite and Shibumi and the Kitemaker, both set in Asia.  We enjoyed snail and worm hunts in our wet weather.  We also observed the change in the coefficient of friction on the slide in the wet weather and force and motion, taking turns pushing each other on the swing.  Genevieve particularly thought it was funny to try to push me.

We read several books by Marianne Collins Berkes.  These have both counting and habitats, including the jungle, US rivers, the African grasslands, and the coral reef.  We also looked at habitats and counting in The Water Hole and US parks in Park Scientists.

We enjoyed some additional math books, like 8 Silly Monkeys, the new Goodnight Numbers, Doggone Dogs, and The Lion's Share.  I love this last book for it's storytelling and work in multiplication and division.  We measured things with our arms, blocks, books and rulers.  We explored volume by guessing which containers were the biggest and then trying to pour them into each other.  We also tried our hands at mancala.

Genevieve started getting ready for Easter by sewing up a basket and painting a large egg.  She explored with her microscope.  And she found two new favorite books - Toys in Space and Miss Smith and the Haunted Library.

Pi Day and St. Patrick's Day

I enjoy Pi Day and St. Patrick's Day, so was prepared for a lot of fun this week.  We enjoyed books about Ireland, math, rainbow and shamrock activities, and lots of other fun.

We read Celtic Myths by Sam McBratney and three books by Tomie dePaola - Fin M'coul, Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka, and Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland.  We read a couple books on Ireland, enjoying especially one by Koponen.  We cut a bell pepper in half, and used it to stamp some shamrock shapes.  A friend came over and we decorated some ceramic pots, planting sunflowers inside to create our own pots of gold.  We also decorated some treasure chests to store our treasures.  We had fun playing with a prism, to create our own rainbows.  We decided to play with light a bit, so also used our camera on our phone to see the infrared light from our remote.  Our black light is sadly broken, so we weren't able to use that.  But Genevieve has been playing with flashlights to create shadows, and as such, was using The Game of Light.  Genevieve also created a rainbow windchime.

For Pi day and other math activities, we read Creature Numbers, Three Little Kittens, Triangle, I Knew Two Who Said Moo, Little Hands 123, Over in the Jungle, and Mouse Count.  We measured weight with our bear scale, comparing the sizes.  We practiced dividing pizza.  We reviewed our shapes, coloring a picture using simple shapes.  We practiced counting money and Genevieve was able to use money to buy some things in the store, noting how money works.  We also practiced measuring distance, using some unconventional means like blocks and books.  We also talked of measuring time, and Genevieve created her own clock.

Genevieve has continued her fun with dress up, dressing up as a witch and making fairy wings this week.  She's also been playing ice skating and dancing.  Genevieve has planned a family trip to the moon, so she made a map of our landing area.  We had fun with Play-Doh and balloons, experimenting with static.  We also read some silly books that didn't fit with our theme, but that Genevieve really enjoyed - The Mouse Who Ate the Moon and Spike the Mixed up Monster.

Purim, Holi, and More Math

We started off our week with some great pretending.  We went sledding down to an ice skating pond and skated around.  We had a dance party and we made pirate hats, shaped like triangles.  We pretended to be pirates, with our hats and a flag.  She used a tube to create a larger version of her finger puppet, the black ghost Bob.  She's been busy turning boxes into rocket ships, building tents for camping, and making polka-dot princess hats.

Purim is a Jewish holiday, relating the story of Esther.  I thought it particularly appropriate for Genevieve as she is going through the princess phase.  We read Purim Superhero and Cakes and Miracles for Purim.  Genevieve dressed as a superhero, Tobias was a cowboy, and I was a witch.  We put on a puppet show acting out the story of Esther.  We also read the story of Esther in Tomie dePaola's Bible Stories.

Holi is an Indian holiday.  The night before, there is a large bonfire held to represent the story of Prahlad.  He was the son of an evil king, who thought everyone should worship him.  Prahlad refused, and his father sentenced him to death in a fire.  He survived a walk through the flames.  The next day celebrates Krishna, who would spray Radha and her maids with colored water.  When they went to clean themselves, he often stole their clothes, teasing them.  To celebrate, we related these stories and compared the story of Prahlad to that of Shadrach, Meshach and Obendigo.  We read stories about life in India, like The Jungle Book, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and Chanda and the Mirror of Moonlight.  They are all longer picture books, but Chanda had Hindi print as well.  We used powder paint, spray bottles and stamp pads to create art.  We mixed in finger and handprints, because of some of our other reading.

We read 10 Pigs, Little Goblins Ten, A Triangle for Adaora, Alpha prints 123, and Zin Zin Zin a Violin.  Many of these are favorites.  A Triangle for Adaora has great pictures of life in Africa and inspired our own shape hunt in the neighborhood.  It was cracking Genevieve up that Tobias has a circle head.  We talked about big and small, using stacking cups to identify which was biggest and smallest.  We used our cake to divide big and little, and split the cake evenly.  We played some Hide and Seek, practicing counting to 10.  Tobias has been working on building towers, so we counted blocks as we built and noted which tower was tallest or which had the most blocks.  Tobias also asked for some puzzle time, so we had an afternoon of puzzles and board games.

Read Across America and March Math Madness

I love Dr. Seuss books and so do Genevieve and Tobias, so we are using the whole week to celebrate Read Across America.  The rhymes are fun.  Illustrations are friendly.  Some words are ridiculously silly.  And there are great lessons, like conservation, humanitarianism, and being willing to try something new.

On Sunday, we read The Lorax.  We decorated some ceramic planters.  Genevieve made her own, Tobias helped me make one, and we had to make one for the cat.  We started a science experiment, testing whether seeds would sprout better on top of the soil or in wet paper without dirt.

On Monday, we read Horton Hears a Who, Horton Hatches an Egg, Yertle the Turtle, and And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.  We chose these books because they all feature animals you might see at the zoo.  Genevieve made a map of the zoo and also made some charts to fill in at the zoo.  We were scientists studying animal behavior and counting animals by classification.  She kept noting the animals that had hair like her, and were therefore mammals. We also had fun marching in our own parade in honor of Mulberry Street.

On Tuesday, we were going to explore rhyming words.  Oddly enough, Mr. Dan chose to point out rhyming words in the books he read in story time.  We played with our rhyming fish.  Genevieve also enjoyed finding rhyming words to finish my sentences.  She played a game with Wonder Red from Super Why on the PBS Kids app.  We also read some of Dr. Seuss's sillier, tongue-twisting rhymes like Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks, Oh Say Can You Say, There's a Wocket in My Pocket, and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.  Genevieve relived the fun of yesterday, painting a giraffe.

Wednesday is busy with two gymnastics classes, park time, and dance but we found some time for Seuss.  We read Bartholomew and the Oobleck, which is one of the few non-rhyming Seuss books.  We also celebrated the beginning of March Math Madness by reading Hoot which counts to 5 and names colors.  We made our own oobleck, using math and measurement skills.  We used cornstarch and water in a 1:1, 2:1, and 1:2 ratio.  Each had a different color.  Then we played with our non-Newtonian fluid, watching it turn from solid to liquid and back again.  Since Bartholomew helps the king with the weather, we observed the weather outside.  Then we made cloud paintings with cotton balls, and shaving cream mixed with a little glue.

Thursday, we read Green Eggs and Ham and Cat in the Hat.  We used this as a prompt to try new food so we tried some dragon fruit, which they loved, and star fruit.  We read Pumpkin Countdown, which is a rhyming book which counts down from 20.  We played with our spatial reasoning skills, playing the Three Little Pigs game and with tangrams.

Friday, we went to a rainbow sign class, where we learned color signs.  We read The Butter Battle Book and her favorite, How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  After enjoying all these different books, Genevieve created a book on her own.  She drew pictures and used stickers, and then told me what happened on each page.  It was about the weather.  She also made a bookmark.  We read The Chicken Problem.  She recently discovered Peg +Cat games on PBS Kids, and enjoys the chicken dance game.  So we had a dance party, practicing patterns and she repeated my movement patterns.