Chrysanthemum

Yesterday, we read the book Chrysanthemum by by Kevin Henkes.  This book is on our list of 100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten.  I searched the internet for some ideas of activities to go along with this book.  I came across a great resource on homeschoolshare.com for a Free Chrysanthemum Lapbook.  The person that put this lapbook together did a great job.  They have sections of material focusing on names (which is what the book is about) and sections focusing on mice (the characters in the book) and a section focusing on flowers (because a Chrysanthemum is a flower).  We chose to work with the section focusing on flowers because I felt that was the most on Arin's level. 

We started our activites by working on the Numbers in Bloom file folder game.

Next, Arin colored the stem, leaves and petals of a flower.  I cut these pieces out and Arin "built" a flower.

Ella, who loves to be part of the action, colored a flower picture, which her daddy found on the internet and printed for her. 

After Ella was done coloring, she enjoyed putting her crayons away.

Next, Arin glued flowers onto stems. That project can be found here (about half way down the page).

Then, Arin really enjoyed the flower matching cards.  This was an easy activity for her, but the flowers are pretty and she wanted to play again and again.  We also talked about the flowers' names and their colors, etc.  In the future, we may use these cards as a memory or go fish! game.

The last project we did was an alphabet matching book.  In this book, Arin glued the lowercase letter next to the correct uppercase letter (I had cut out the letters and placed them randomly on the table beside her).  The q was made to look like a backwards p, instead of a lowercase q with a tail on it.  It was the only letter that she had trouble identifying.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & the Days of the Week

Today we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Because it mentions the days of the week, I thought this would be a good time to review those with Arin. We also read Today is Monday and Day by Day a Week Goes Round.

In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, he eats a lot of fruit. So for breakfast this morning, Arin cut us up fruit and made a fruit salad. She used watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple and cherries.

After breakfast, she painted the bottom of an egg carton, which we later turned into a caterpillar. We got that idea from No Time for Flash Cards.

While we were waiting for the paint to dry on the egg carton caterpillar, we sequenced food in the order which the caterpillar ate it. I also wrote the days of the week on each piece of food.

We also sang a days of the week song, to help Arin remember the correct order.

Days of the Week(snap,snap)

Days of the Week(snap, snap)

Days of the Week

Days of the Week

Days of the Week(snap,snap)

There's Sunday and there's Monday

There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday

There's Thursday and there's Friday

And then there's Saturday

Days of the Week(snap,snap)

Days of the Week(snap,snap)

Each Peach Pear Plum

Last week, we checked out Each Peach Pear Plum from the library (100 Books Before Kindergarten). Arin loves this book. It is an easy read because it rhymes, but more than that, Arin loves it because it is an "I Spy" book.

For our activities, I was planning on making a fruit salad using peaches, pears and plums, but (poor planning on my part) I forgot to get those fruits at my weekly shopping trip and I didn't want to go back out for three pieces of fruit, so maybe next time.

Instead, I made an "I Spy" picture for Arin. I got out a magazine and the scissors this morning and as soon as Arin saw that, she said, "You making a game for me, mommy?" She was very excited when I told her "Yes". I had made her an "I Spy" game board one other time, but I didn't put enough stuff on it. This time, I crowded the pictures on there. She loved it. I would say to her, "I spy a whale" or "I spy the word blue" or "I spy something yellow" etc. Of course, Ella decided to wake while we were playing the game, so I told Arin we were done playing for a while. She said, "You have to ask me this one and this one, momma". I guess I hadn't gotten to the things she really wanted to find!

100 Books Before Kindergarten #3 and #4

We read two books from our list today. First, we read Barnyard Banter and then we read Does a Cow Say Boo?. I decided we'd read both books and do the same activities for both, since these were both farm related books.

The first activity we did was "Mystery Bags". I put a bandana blindfold on Arin for this activity, but she didn't like that at all. She decided that it should be a hat instead. So I just had her close her eyes for the game. I gave her four paper bags and had her put her hand in and try to guess what was in the bag (a strawberry, a carrot, a banana & an apple). She didn't do so well at first. She had to look at everything and then she told me what it was. The second time we played, I didn't let her peek at all (since she knew what was in them this time). She did much better the second time and she got all the answers right.

For our next activity, I printed out clipart pictures of a cow, a horse, a pig, a sheep, a rooster and a duck. I cut each picture in half. Then, I gave Arin the two piles of animals and had her put them together correctly. This was very easy for her, but still easy. It was easy enough that after the first time, she was able to keep herself busy playing it by herself.

Next, I printed 20 of the same clipart cow. I numbered ten of the cows, 1-10 (one number per cow). On the other ten cows, I drew spots. Then, I laid all of the cows with the spots in front of Arin. I gave her the pile of numbered cows. Arin counted the spots and picked the correctly numbered cow. She laid the numbered cow on top of the spotted cow. The second time we played this, I had her count the spots in Spanish. She would count it and then I would help her with the number. For example, she would say cinco and I would tell her that cinco is five. This way she knew which numbered card she was looking for. It also helps her to make the visual connection of the numbers she knows verbally in Spanish.

Two Birds with One Stone...

This week's Reading Challenge was Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam Mcbratney. It also happens to be one of the books on our 100 Books Before Kindergarten list. So we were able to kill two birds with one stone by reading this book.

We haven't been able to make it to the library yet this week. We were planning on going for storytime last night, but we decided to go visit family instead. I was able to find the story online though. While searching for the story online, I came across lots of reviews for the book. So many people said they couldn't get through the story without tearing up. I thought that was pretty ridiculous. I read the story and no tears. Then, I read the story out loud to Arin and Ella and I did start to choke up! It was cute though while we were reading the story, I was acting it out (somewhat) and Arin was copying me.

Arin loves to color, so for our project, I printed out several coloring pages which I found here and here and here. I cut around the pictures and glued them to cardstock. Then, I punched holes in the cardstock and laced a ribbon through the holes. This held the coloring book together. Arin was very excited to see the coloring book. She wanted to color every page, but we are working on coloring more neatly, so I wanted her to take her time and make the book last at least for two sittings! Also, I put a maze and a matching game in the book. Both of which can be found in the above links.

After that, Arin made her daddy a card (also can be found in the above links). Since the book was about a little one and a daddy, I thought it was appropriate for Arin to make the card for her daddy. She colored the rabbit on the outside, and together, we traced the words on the outside of the card. Then, on the inside, I held her hand and wrote "DADDY" and "ARIN". By herself, she wrote "HOT". She wrote that because those are the only letters that she kknows how to write right now. When she was finished writing her letter to daddy, she gave him the card and then read it to him!

100 Books Before Kindergarten List

I have been asked more than once to post the list of books in the pamphlet that I got from the library. Technically, my list only has 99 books on it, because number 60 and number 63 on the list were the same! My library also has a pamphlet of 100 Picture Books for Everyone. I will get that pamphlet next week and maybe post about it too. I have also looked around the internet and found this list and this list for 100 Books before Kindergarten. They are similar, but not exactly the same. I also found this list of 100 Books for 4th and 5th Graders.

Here's the list from my library (If we do an activity to accompany the book, I will add a link, otherwise, I will just change the title to the color red once we have read the book)
"More, More, More" Said the Baby
A Nap in a Lap
A Splendid Friend, Indeed
ABC, Like Me!
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Alphabet City
Alphabet Rescue
Amazing Grace
An Extraordinary Egg
Angelina Ballerina
Bark, George
Barnyard Banter
Bear in a Square
Big Fat Hen
Book! Book! Book!
Bread and Jam for Frances
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?
Caps for Sale
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Chrysanthemum
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
Come Along Daisy
Come on, Rain!
Corduroy
Counting Kisses
Curious George
Daisy 1, 2, 3
Does a Cow Say Boo?
Duck on a Bike
Each Peach Pear Plum
Eating the Alphabet
Fancy Nancy
First the Egg
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Freight Train
Goodnight Moon
Gossie
Guess How Much I Love You
Hands Can
Happy Birthday Moon
Here Are My Hands
Henry Hikes to Fitchburg
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?
How I Became a Pirate
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!
I Kissed the Baby
I Went Walking
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
In the Tall, Tall Grass
Is Your Mama a Llama?
It Looked Like Spilt Milk
Jamberry
Jazz Baby
Jump Frog, Jump
Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity
Little Red Hen
Little Toot
Llama, Llama Red Pajama
Love You Forever
Maisy Goes Swimming
Make Way For Ducklings
Mama Cat Has Three Kittens
Mama, Do You Love Me?
Max Cleans Up
Max's ABC
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten
Mouse Mess
Mouse Paint
Mr. Gumpy's Outing
Muncha! Muncha! Muncha
My Friend Rabbit
My Very First Mother Goose
Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs
Old Black Fly
Olivia
One Beautiful Baby
Planting a Rainbow
Rosie's Walk
Silly Sally
Snowy Day
Spots, Feathers and Curly Tails
Ten Tiny Tickles
Ten, Nine, Eight
The Doorbell Rang
The Hat
The Itsy Bitsy Spider
The Little Engine that Could
The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear
The Napping House
The Story of Babar
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Three Bears
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
There's a Nightmare in My Closet
Wemberly Worried
Where the Wild Things Are
Where's My Teddy
Where's Spot?

My friend at Teaching Tiny Tots said that her librarian gave her a similar list and she is planning on posting it on her site.

100 Books Before Kindergarten #1

Last week we went to the library. While we were there, I saw a pamphlet called "100 Books Every Child Should Hear Before Kindergarten". I thought that would be a fun challenge for Arin and I to do together.

The first book that I picked was Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. It was an ok book. I don't see it making it to Arin's favorite books lists. Nonetheless, we read the book and then did a couple of activities related to it. I have a small flower paper punch, so last night, I cut out several flowers in the colors of the rainbow. Then, I printed a blank rainbow coloring page. I gave Arin a gluestick and directed her as to which colors went on which line. At first, she did it by herself, but then she wanted me to play with her. So we took turns putting the flowers on the rainbow. She was very sweet and she sat on my lap while we played together.

Next, I printed this coloring sheet. Then, I gave Arin a bowl of Fruit Loops. I put globs of glue on the flowers and Arin put Fruit Loops all over them. This project was tough to keep her focused because she was more interest in eating the cereal than making a picture with it!