Florida: Panther

The state mammal of Florida is the panther. This is an endangered (said to be less than 100 left) type of cougar.

Today we read:

S is for Sunshine: A Florida Alphabet by Carol Crane

Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle

Panther: Shadow of the Swamp by Jonathan London

Florida Panther: Struggle for Survival by William Caper

Lisa in the Jungle by Anne Gutman (this book has nothing to do with FL, other than it talks about panthers, but they happen to be black panthers. We incorporated it anyway).

I really wanted Arin to make a diorama, but we didn't have a shoe box, so we settled for a picture instead. First, I had her paint a piece of cardstock blue. She loves to paint, so this was great fun for her.

Next, we looked through magazines and gathered pictures of foliage. Arin cut these pictures into small pieces.

She used the pieces to glue to the bottom of the painted page as grass (mosiac). We let the picture finish drying overnight.

Today, we went outside together and gathered pine needles and small branches from trees. I also printed two panther pictures from enchantedlearning.com . Arin colored the panthers brown and I cut them out for her. She glued them onto her picture, along with the tree branches. For the sun, I painted her finger and helped her press it onto paper in a circular pattern. I cut that out and Arin glued it where she wanted it.

To find out more about the Florida Panther, you can visit:

http://www.floridapanthernet.org/

http://www.floridapanther.org/

http://www.fl-panther.com/

http://www.bigcatrescue.org/florida_panther.htm

Florida: Manatee

Florida's official state marine mammal is the manatee. We have been studying this for the past few days.

We read the following books:

Sam the Sea Cow by Francine Jacobs

Manatee on Location by Kathy Darling

Manatee Winter by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

The Manatee that Flew by John Oberleu

Florida Manatees by Meish Goldish

Does a Sea Cow Say Moo? by Terry Web Harshman

A Manatee Morning by Jim Arnosky

Mary Manatee by Suzanne Tate

We also made our first lapbook, using premade templates found at homeschoolshare.com Arin liked the lapbook, although it was a little advanced for her. I also added a few pages to the lapbook (a maze and a dot-to-dot page) that I found here.

We also painted doll pin type of clothes pins. Then, I cut out tails and fins, which Arin painted. We assembled the manatees, which were a little silly looking, but they served their purpose well. I wrote the numbers 1-6 on small pieces of paper and then I also wrote the words one through six on pieces of paper. I gave Arin a die and we took turns rolling it. When she would roll the die, she would attach her manatee to the correct number. When I would roll my die, I would attach a manatee to the correct number word. If that number/word were already used, we'd lose a turn. The first to use all of their manatees wins the game. Arin really liked this game and she also liked that she beat me two out of the three times that we played!

Painting on Canvas

Arin found a piece of canvas in our art supplies and she wanted to paint on it. First, I gave her tape and allowed her to place it wherever she wanted to on the canvas.

Once that was done, I asked her what color she wanted to paint with (blue, red or yellow). She picked blue. I told her to paint the entire canvas. Once she was done with that, I peeled the tape off of the canvas. We admired the design (which coincidentally looked like the word "HI").

We allowed the paint to dry and then I gave Arin the tape again, which she again randomly placed on the canvas. This time she picked the yellow paint. She painted the entire canvas again. We were able to talk about color mixing, blue + yellow = green. Once Arin was finished with the yellow paint, I peeled the tape and again allowed the paint to dry.

This morning, Arin, again placed tape on the canvas. This time, she painted with red paint. We talked about color mixing again: red + yellow = orange and red + blue = purple. Arin thought this was really cool. Once she was finished painting the canvas, I again peeled the tape. We are letting the paint dry now and will hang her picture in her room later.

Keep a Piggy Bank

One of the things on our list is to keep a piggy bank. When I was pregnant for Arin, I started keeping a piggy bank. We used the money that was saved for her first birthday. Since then, we have been keeping a piggy bank and using the money towards our annual Family Fun Day (the first one is listed here). Arin has always loved putting the coins in the bank. She also knows the names of the different coins. Today, she had fun sorting the piles of coins with me. The piggy bank was completely filled and we ended up with $109.17, which was saved over the past 14 months (with the help of some contributions from some family members). Thank you Aunt Sheila for our piggy bank! Now on to planning Family Fun Day 2009!

So Sleepy

Today, I was reading to Arin. Ella was so sleepy that she laid down beside me and fell asleep!

Story Friday

We went to the library this morning for storytime. Typically, there are about 6-8 kids at storytime on Fridays. However, today, the three and four year olds from the YMCA daycare were at the library for storytime (about 50 kids). At first, Arin was intimidated by so many people, but she quickly became comfortable and wanted to be friends with everyone. She also wanted to go back to school with them when they had to leave and she was very upset that she couldn't join them.

Storytime was a lot of fun today. Our librarian read two dinosaur books and had the kids dance to the Dinosaur Pokey (Hokey Pokey). Then, the kids were able to color dinosaurs, which later had a magnet affixed to them, so they could bring them home and hang them on their refrigerators.

Playing Before Story Time

Singing, "If You're Happy & You Know It"

Loving Story Time

Dancing the Dino Pokey

Coloring Dinosaur Magnets

Ella Jane Hiding and Having Fun