If You Give a Pig a Pancake

This week's Reading Challenge is If You Give a Pig a Pancake. We checked the book out last week, so we have been able to read it several times. Today, we went to my friend's farm with the intention of feeding her pig a pancake. However, when Arin got there and saw the pig, she was quite intimidated. So we just watched my friend feed the pig a pancake instead. The pig really enjoyed the pancakes :)

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!

Reading Theme Challenge: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

My friend over at Teaching Tiny Tots hosts a weekly reading theme challenge. This week's book was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We went to the library over the weekend and tried to check out the book, but like it often happens, that book was already out on loan. So I came home and did a little research and was able to find an animated version of the book on YouTube.com. We started today's lesson by watching the video. Arin wasn't as interested in watching the video as she would have been to listen to the book. I have to agree with her on that one!

Next, we took a magazine and looked through it to find all of the letters of the alphabet (we found all but 'Q'). I am not sure what I did with Arin's scissors, so I cut out all the letters. To my surprise, Arin was fine with this. Next, Arin colored a picture of a coconut tree. Then, she used a glue stick to spread glue all over the tree. Then, she put the magazine letters all over the tree.

While Arin was napping, I made her a file folder game. I glued upper case letters to the inside of the folder and she matched the lower case letters to the upper case letters. It was the first day that we had worked with lower case letters, so it was a little hard for her, plus there were so many letters inside the folder that it was a little cluttered and hard for her to find what she was looking for. It was good to know that she needs lower case letter practice.

Our next game was a hit. I printed a color-by-number picture of a coconut tree. Then, I gave Arin a die. She rolled the die and then colored the section of tree that was numbered the same as the die. For example: She rolled a 6, then she colored the section of tree with the number 6. She liked this game so much because of the die.

Yesterday, we did a clothespin game for our Unplugged project. Arin had so much fun with the clothespins, so I wanted to incorporate that into our play again today. I found this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom clothespin addition game. Arin had to count the coconuts and then clip the clothespin on the correct number. She did great with this and she really liked it.

Our last game was a lot of fun too. I printed a game board and 26 lower case numbers. As she flipped the letters over, she had to find them on the tree. When she found them, she'd use her Dot Markers to fill in the circle with that letter in it.

It was a lot of fun to do these activities, because we did things that we hadn't done before. I also found several more Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities that we will do in the future.