Week 5 - Friday

LETTER E - Heavenly Helpers workbook page (handwriting, coloring)

NUMBER 5 - practice counting five beads into muffin pan, do elephant parade cards again

THEME
Review poster.
Elephants are like cows in that they're called bulls, cows, and calves.
They're also like cows because they are mammals and make milk for their babies.
Elephants are like many of the dinosaurs because they only eat plants and they are very big.

Elephant Facts: Habitat
Because elephants are so big, the world's largest land animal, they require a lot of space. They need space to find enough food to eat--lots of grasses, trees and shrubs. They also need a good supply of water to drink and to bathe in.

Activity: connect-the-dots elephant

Books:
Babar Saves the Day by Laurent de Brunhoff
Fly, Dumbo, Fly! by Jennifer Liberts Weinberg

FAMILY FUN: watch the old Disney movie Dumbo


**LATER IN THE DAY**

Bible Hero: Elijah
Read story HERE. Hannah wasn't up from her nap yet, so even though this is a really long story, Eli actually sat and listened to it!
Add picture to poster and words faithful, trusted God.
Do raven craft.

Completed learning poster.

Week 5 - Thursday

LETTER E: collage, add Eli pic to poster, lay out the letter E out of forks, crayons, markers, uncooked spaghetti noodles, straws, popsicle sticks etc., handwriting worksheet

Activity: glue eggs to letter E shape. I printed the eggs from this activity.
THEME

Elephant Facts: Appetite
Just like many of the dinosaurs, elephants only eat plants. They love fruit, especially dates, plums, berries, and coconut. Elephants use their trunks to get fruit and leaves from trees. They use their tusks and trunks to pull the bark off trees. They use their feet and tusks to dig stems and roots from the ground.

Books:
The Balancing Act: A Counting Song by Merle Peek
Dumbo the Flying Elephant by Walt Disney

Week 5 - Wednesday

* NUMBER: add to poster, add stickers to counting book, workbook pages for number 5

Add 5th commandment to train.
Activity: Assemble Counting elephants book.

THEME
Review learning poster.

Elephant Facts: Babies
Just like with cows, a baby elephant is called a calf. We've learned that elephants are mammals too, and baby elephants drink their mommy's milk. They drink 3 gallons of milk a day! After a few months they will start to eat plants too. Elephants are the world's biggest land animals, so they need to eat a LOT of food! You know what snack elephants really like to eat?? Peanuts! They don't even take them out of the shell first!

Activity: Give the elephants the correct number of peanuts. I found this elephant image and a clipart of a peanut and made up the following worksheet. Eli glued the right number of peanuts onto each elephant's belly.
Activity: Handprint elephants. I made this one up, so they look kind of silly, but it works! After doing one elephant, Eli said the elephant needed a friend, so we made two!
Books:
The Right Number of Elephants by Jeff Sheppard. Our library had this one as one of those huge teacher-sized books, so that was kinda fun to read together on the couch.
Mama Loves Me by Mara Van Fleet

Week 5 - Tuesday

*SHAPE: oval (like an egg). Ovals house walk.

Activity: Instead of cutting and gluing, I had Eli trace the eggs and color accordingly, then count the eggs in the basket.
THEME
Review vocabulary word.

Elephant Facts: Families Elephants are very social animals and like to stay together as a family. Most herds have five to twenty elephants, led by the oldest female (cow). There are only mommies and their babies in the herd. The daddies go to live with all the other males, bulls. In the herd they take care of each other and protect each other.

Poem: Five Gray Elephants (don't remember where I found this one)

Five gray elephants, marching through the glade,
Decide to stop and play like they are having a parade.
The first swings his trunk and announces he'll lead;
The next waves a flag which of course they need.
The third gray elephant trumpets a song;
The fourth beats a drum as he marches along.
While the fifth makes believe he's the whole show
And nods and smiles to the crowd as they go.
Five gray elephants, marching through the glade,
Having a lot of fun during their parade.

Activity: Put the parade elephants in order. I used one of the elephant images from this counting book, colored it and added numbers to it on the computer, and printed on card stock to use for this activity.
Activity: Shapes elephant craft.

Books:
Big Egg by Molly Coxe
The Story of Babar by Jean De Brunhoff

* = add to learning poster

Week 5 - Monday

* THEME: E is for Elephant. Add letter E and picture of elephant to learning poster.
* Vocabulary word: herd - a group of like animals

Read: Pooh Encyclopedia about elephants.

Action song (tune: "The Mulberry Bush")

The elephant goes like this and that, this and that, this and that.
(Walk heavily and stomp feet loudly)
The elephant goes like this and that, cause he's so big and fat!
(Puff up cheeks and stretch out arms)

He has no fingers and has no toes, He has no fingers and has no toes
(wiggle fingers; wiggle toes)
He has no fingers and has no toes, but goodness, gracious, what a nose!
(stick arms out like a long trunk)

Memory verse: "In all things give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

(tune: "The Ash Grove")
In all things give thanks
And give God the praise
For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. (repeat)
First Thessalonians five verse eighteen
Give thanks in all things
For this is God's will.
In all things give thanks
And give God the praise
For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Craft: paper plate elephant


Book: Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss

* = add to learning poster

Week 4 - Friday

Review day!

LETTER D: Heavenly Helpers workbook page (tracing, a small color by letter). Usually Hannah just does this one while Eli does the letter collage, but this time both kids glued scraps to a letter D outline so Eli could practice cutting with scissors! By the end he was really getting the hang of it! I don't practice as much with him as I probably should, but that's okay.
THEME

Book: another book from the library, I didn't get the title written down before taking it back

Dinosaur acrostic poem and add to learning poster. thanks to Kevin for helping write this!

Dangerous
Interesting
No long live
Oversized
Scary
Animal
Underground
Roars

Dino of the day: Apatosaurus
* many people call it brontosaurus
* a plant eater with a long neck
* did not chew up its food so it swallowed stones to help grind up its tough plant food

Activity: shadow match, reviewing all of the week's dinos. I searched online coloring pages to find the dinosaur images, then used a paint program and paint bucket to color them, saved it, then painted it again but all in black and saved it as another title. wolah! shadow game!

Bible Hero: David. Read Goliath story. Add picture and words brave and trusting to learning poster.

Activity: stone game. tape off a medium-sized box on the floor with an X in the middle. Find 6 rocks, labeling them with the letter D-A-V-I-D and G. Place the "G" rock on the X. Then you have 5 turns with the remaining rocks to slide the rock at the "G" rock trying to knock it off the X.

Learning poster at the end of the week:

Week 4 - Thursday

LETTER D: sound, collage and letters, handwriting page/coloring book. The collage took quite a bit of time, so it worked fine that we didn't have many other activities for the day.


THEME - review so far

Book: something from the library. I didn't get the title written down and now the book is already returned

Dino of the day: dimetrodon
* name means "two measures tooth"
* actually lived a long time before the dinosaurs
* had a sail-like flap of skin along its back
* had sharp teeth and clawed feet

Activity: homemade puzzle

Week 4 - Wednesday

Mark day off calendar.

Add 4th Commandment to train.
NUMBER: Add number 4 to learning poster. Add four stickers to counting book. Count four beads into spots on wooden Mancala tray. Take one bead out and have Eli find the missing spot. Number 4 activity pages from coloring book we have.

COLOR: Do green page in our Counting Colors book.
THEME

Book: How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yoken and Mark Teague

Dino of the day: T-rex
* name means "tyrant lizard king"
* a huge meat-eating dinosaur
* ate other big dinosaurs
* had short arms with two claws on each

Activity: do-a-dot number four

Week 4 - Tuesday

COLOR: Green. Add to learning poster. Show 3-5 green items and then take a house walk finding more green things. Color worksheet.

THEME

Book: Big Old Bones by Carol Carrick

Poem: Long, Long Ago by Jean Warren (with actions)

Long, long ago, when the earth was young
Dinosaurs lived here under the sun.
Some were big and some were small.
Some were fat and some were tall.
Some could swim, some could fly.
Some could stretch up, very high.
Don't you wish they still roamed free
And lived somewhere that you could see?

Dino of the day: triceratops
* plant eater
* had three horns, one above each eye and a smaller one on its nose
* it had a parrot-like beak
* behind its head it's neck and shoulders were protected by a thick collar of bone and skin

Activity: coloring page

Activity: make our own fossil making prints with dinosaur toys, paper clips, keys, etc

Week 4 - Monday

You may have noticed from as slowly as I'm getting these lessons put up that we really don't do school every day. It seems to be taking about two weeks to do one week of lessons. Just because. If we have other things going on, or visitors, or I'm just plain exhausted, I'm not going to push to do something that's not even necessary at this point.

This week we did a dinosaurs theme, but I had a hard time finding many activities we had supplies for, so we kept things pretty simple. A book, poem, and song has been seeming like too many sit-and-listen type things in a row. So this week we just did a book and a song.

* THEME: D is for Dinosaur (add letter D and dinosaur picture to learning poster)
* Vocabulary word: paleontologist--someone who studies dinosaurs

Book: Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp by Syd Hoff
Song (tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star")

Dinosaurs lived long ago
Some ran fast and some moved slow.
Some ate plants and some ate meat.
All were mean, none were sweet.
I'm so glad I didn't live then
I wouldn't want them for my friends!
-Ellen Bedford

Activity: egg hunt with facts inside (we had these big Easter eggs that came with Little People-sized friends inside, so I got those eggs back out and we used them for this activity). I cut these facts into individual little strips, putting inside each egg. We went around the house looking for eggs and when we found one we opened it up to read a fact:

• Dinosaurs were animals that lived millions of years ago.
• Many dinosaurs were very big, but some were as small as chickens are today.
• Most dinosaurs ate only plants. Some dinosaurs ate other animals. They were meat eaters.
• The word dinosaur means "terrible lizard".
• A paleontologist is someone who studies dinosaurs.
• Fossils are the remains of plants or animals that lived a long time ago or the evidence of them.
• Many dinosaurs had more in common with birds than with lizards.

Dino of the day: stegosaurus

• one of the earliest dinosaurs
• its name means "roof lizard"
• was a herbivore which means it only ate plants
• had triangular plates on his back and spikes on its tail for protection

Activity: homemade stegosaurus puzzle using this coloring page


* Memory verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:16 "Be joyful always."
(song: by me, tune: "Are You Sleeping")

Be joyful always, joyful always
First Thessalonians, five sixteen
Have a happy heart
In all that you do
First Thessalonians, five sixteen

* = things that go on learning poster

Week 3--Thursday

We don't do "school" every day, so this week we finished in four days instead of five since it was the end of the week and I just wanted to be done with it.

* NUMBER 3 - add to poster along with three small triangles (our shape of the week), add stickers to counting book, count beads into ice cube tray, take one bead out and have Eli finding the missing spot, "slap" game (this time I added a new element to the game: Eli slapped for number 3's, I slapped for number 2's, AND we raced to slap for the SkipBo cards.)

10 Commandment Train - Commandment 3


Handwriting practice: letter C tracer page

* Bible hero: Caleb. Read story. Add picture. Words--courageous, determined, faith

--Dinner break--

THEME

Book: Ten Cows to Texas by Peggy Mercer

Fingerplay: This Little Cow

This little cow eats grass.
This little cow eats hay.
This little cow drinks water.
And this little cow does noting
But lie and sleep all day.

Activity: color by number picture (turn any coloring page into a color-by-number by just writing numbers onto the picture and adding a color code)
Activity: homemade farm puzzle again (see Monday's lessons)

finished learning poster

Week 3--Wednesday

LETTER C - talk about sound, look at collage (we'd already made this one awhile ago), find more letter C's to add. Hannah glues scraps to letter outline. (actually she glues where I draw small stars and then I end up sticking the paper on. So don't be fooled by how nice it might look, because I did help.)
Activity: trace letter C with finger, then decorate with do-a-dot markers
Heavenly helpers handwriting practice for Eli. Hannah colors letter C coloring page.

THEME
review everything on poster first

Book: Sailor Moo Cow at Sea by Lisa Wheeler

Poem: The Cow by Ann Taylor

Thank you, pretty cow, that made
Pleasant milk to soak my bread
Every day and every night,
Warm, and fresh, and sweet, and white

Do not chew the hemlock rank,
Growing on the weedy bank
But the yellow cowslips eat;
They perhaps will make it sweet.

Where the purple violet grows,
Where the bubbling water flows,
Where the grass is fresh and fine,
Pretty cow, go there to dine.

* Nursery Rhyme:

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle
The jumped over the moon
The little dog laughed to see such a sport
The dish ran away with the spoon

Craft: cow paper craft


* = add to learning poster

Week 3--Tuesday

* SHAPE: Triangle. Add shape to learning poster. Take a house walk finding triangles. Workbook page. Had I thought about it ahead of time, I could've taken these pictures first and then had Eli try find what they are pictures of. Kind of a treasure hunt game.
Triangles worksheet: I put together some pictures of road signs and had Eli circle the ones that are triangle-shaped. Throughout the week we've had fun finding them when we're driving.
Activity: Homemade triangle puzzle for Eli. I just used two triangle blocks, positioning them in all kinds of different ways, traced around them, and colored. Then Eli figures how to turn and flip the triangles to match the picture. (I made this a few weeks ago and it was a perfect time to pull it out again) Hannah just plays with remaining blocks.
THEME

Review vocabulary word and facts.

Book: Cock-a-Moo-Moo by Juliet Dallas Conte

Poem: The Purple Cow by Gelett Burgess

I never saw a purple cow.
I never hope to see one,
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!

Song: The Cow by Katrina Lybbert (tune: The Farmer in the Dell)

The cow wakes up at dawn,
The cow wakes up at dawn,
Moo, moo, a great big yawn,
The cow wakes up at dawn.

The farmer milks the cow,
The farmer milks the cow,
Moo, moo, be careful now,
The farmer milks the cow.

The cow eats up her hay,
The cow eats up her hay,
Moo, moo, O happy day,
The cow eats up her hay.

The cow plays with her calf,
The cow plays with her calf,
Moo, moo, they sing and laugh,
The cow plays with her calf.

The cow and calf now sleep,
The cow and calf now sleep,
Quiet please, don't make a peep,
The cow and calf now sleep.

Bible story: read about Pharaoh's dream

Activity: find all the skinny cows, worksheet.

Week 3--Monday

* THEME: C is for Cow. (add letter C and cow picture to learning poster)

* Vocabulary word: mammal--a type of animal that makes milk

Cow facts:

• An adult male cow is called a bull.
• An adult female cow is called a cow.
• A baby cow is called a calf.
• Cows eat corn, hay, barley, grass, and wheat.
• Cows give us milk, meat, and leather.
• Milk can be made into other dairy products like butter, cheese, and yogurt.

Book: The Big Red Barn

Poem: Little Calf by Katrina Lybbert

"Good morning, little calf," gentle mother said,
"It's time to get up from your sweet hay filled bed."
Little calf jumped, stamped his feet, swished his tail,
And followed his mother past a shiny milk pail.

Out into the backyard, holding his head high,
Little calf looked up to the blue, blue sky,
Birds flying past chirped a joyful song,
Little calf smiled, and felt happy all day long.

Song: Old McDonald Had a Farm

...and on his farm he had a bull...with a moo, moo here...(make the sound deep and loud)
...and on his farm he had a cow...with a moo, moo here...(make the sound high and loud)
...and on his farm he had a calf...with a moo, moo here...(make the sound little and soft)

Activity: farm animal "puzzle". Make your own puzzle. I printed and colored this picture, cut it apart randomly, and let Eli put it back together. Warning: do NOT try to do this with a Hannah around! Since the pieces don't actually lock together, it doesn't take much for it to get all messed apart again. It works for Eli though, and he had lots of fun doing it again and again!
* Memory verse: Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind to one another."

Memory verse song by me (tune: "Around the Mulberry Bush")

Ephesians four verse thirty two
Be kind to one another
Share God's love with everyone
Be kind to one another.

Craft: I just printed a plain cow coloring page and then had the kids sponge paint black spots on it.
* = things that go on learning poster

Week 2--FRIDAY

Review last week's poster.

Review everything on learning poster and 2nd commandment.

THEME

Book: Butterfly by Mick Inkpen

Poems/Songs--repeat any favorites from previous days

* Add butterfly and poem to learning poster.

The fuzzy caterpillar
Curled upon a leaf.
Spun her little chrysalis
And then fell asleep.
While she was sleeping,
She dreamed that she could fly.
And later when she woke up,
She was a butterfly!

* Bible hero: Bartimaeus. Read flash card (I got a Bible heroes card set at the Dollar Store for $1 the other day). Then read story printout. Add Bartimaeus picture to poster along with word FAITH. Read Bartimaeus poem from Bible book. (I found this cute old book at Goodwill once for only 99 cents, and I love it!) How can we have faith like Bartimaeus did? When we're hurt or sad, we can have faith that God will help us. The Bible tells us that God works all things for good and for His glory. Read What is Faith? happy day book (ours is the old version though)

Share our learnings: Draw outline of a butterfly. Let kids water color paint it. After it dries then write text: God made you as beautiful as a butterfly! And mail to Grandma!

The first one Eli painted he kept painting in the same spot too much until it was bleeding through the paper. So I explained that I wanted him to paint on new spots each time, and he did such a great job! Beautiful butterfly!

Learning poster at the end of the week:

Week 2--THURSDAY

* Introduce NUMBER 2--add sticker to counting book, number games...

Activity: Part one, Eli counts two beads into ice cube tray spots. Part two, secretly add a third bead to one of the spots and have Eli find it.

Game: A new game I made up, "Slap Jack". Using our SkipBo cards I flip pretty quickly through the cards and when Eli sees a "2" he slaps it and gets to keep the card. In the end we count how many he got and play again. (by having him keep the number 2 cards I could then not use the entire stack of SkipBo cards. I could just use a small stack of the other number cards) The second time we played it, then I slapped for number 1's while Eli slapped for number 2's. He loved it.Add to 10 Commandments Train--Commandment 2THEME

Book: The Butterfly Garden by Else Holmelund Minarik

Song: The Life of a Butterfly (tune: "Skip to my Lou")

I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

A butterfly, come fly with me,
A butterfly, come fly with me,
A butterfly, come fly with me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

Now all together, let's do all three!
A caterpillar, a chrysalis, a butterfly, three!
Move your body like this with me,
The life of a butterly, darlin'!

Craft: footprint butterflies and decorate--trace feet: left foot for right butterfly wing, right foot for left butterfly wing.

Eli's creation

I actually did my own to ease my temptation to help Eli too much

* = add to learning poster