F is for Flower

Last week, the girls worked on the letter Ff.  We worked with several themes for the letter Ff, the first being flowers. 

We started our day with a watermelon breakfast (Thanks Abigail for the inspiration!).  The girls loved the flower shaped melon.  I used a cookie cutter to make the flower shape in the watermelon, then cut strips of honey dew for the stems and leaves, and put a half grape in the center of each flower.

Arin colored the parts of a flower and glued them together to make a plant.  She learned about the simple parts of a flowering plant: flower, stem, leaves, roots.  She learned that roots help anchor the plants and also suck the water out of the soil to hydrate the plant.  She also learned that all flowers need four things to grow: sun, soil, air, water.  This activity can be found here.

For fun, the girls make flower prints by dipping the bottom of a soda bottle into paint and stamping it onto paper.  The center of the flower was made with the soda bottle cap.  I wish we would have found a smaller circle or skipped that step altogether.  Arin loves anything involving paint, so this was a fun activity for her. The idea came from here.

She practiced writing the letter Ff with this worksheet. (found here)

Arin played a flower sight words game.  Some of the words she had never worked with, but they are all cvc words and she was able to sound them out.  She did a great job with this lesson and she had fun with it.  You can find the game here.

I found a pre-writing practice sheet in the shape of a flower.  Arin traced it and then she practiced using scissors by cutting the flower out.  The flower can be found here.

Because Arin loves to use glue, I printed a second flower (like the one above) and arin practiced putting glue on the dotted line of the flower, then she placed yarn on top of the glue to outline the flower.

We read several flower books.

The Flower Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
What is a Flower? by Jenifer W. Day
The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller
Walkabout Flowers by Henry Pluckrose
The Life Cycle of a Flower by Molly Aloian and Bobbie Kalman
Let's Look at Flowers by Nicola Tuxworth
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

During Ee week, we studied Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Before I read the story to the girls, I decided to tempt and test them. 

I set out two plates.  The first plate was filled with fruit to represent The Tree of Life.  The second plate was filled with chocolate candy to represent The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Once I put the plates down, I told them they may eat all of the fruit that they want, but they may not eat any of the candy.  I talked to them for a couple of minutes (nothing too detailed) and made sure they understood.  Because we train our children "to be their brother's keeper", I told Arin that she was to watch out for her sister and remind her also not to eat any of the candy.  As a visual reminder, I put the fruit on a green plate and the candy on a red plate.  We also briefly talked about green meaning go and red meaning stop, just so they would remember as they were looking at the plates.  Then the test began. 

Ella was so cute, she picked up a grape and immediately walked over to me to confirm that she could eat it.  I reassured her that yes, she could eat all the fruit that she wanted.  So the girls ate.  They played.  They ate.  I had the plates on the coffee table in the living room and I kept myself busy in the dining room and kitchen.  I was still near, but not hovering over them.  I also did not have anything structured planned for the girls during this time.  I really wanted to test them to see if they would obey (as you see, I made it super easy for them to disobey by already having the candy unwrapped and in reach).  About forty minutes into the experiment, Arin asked me if she could have a piece of candy.  I told her no, she could eat the fruit.  About an hour into the experiment, this is how I found Ella!  Ella didn't see me snapping the pictures, which made it even better.

A little while later, Arin asked again if she could have a piece of candy.  I told her no.  Twice during the experiment, I overheard Arin telling her sister not to touch or eat the candy.  Two hours into the experiment, Arin said to me, "Mom, why do we have this candy if we aren't going to eat it?" (she was polite, just curious when asking)

After two and a half hours, I ended the experiment.  This is how the plates looked at the end of the experiment (they actually ate all of the first batch of watermelon and much of the second batch). 

I was very pleased with my girls for not giving into temptation, though it was not always an easy task for them.  I am also happy that although Arin did ask three times for the candy, she never begged or whined when she was told no.

Once the experiment was over, I read the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to the girls from several of their bible story books.  We talked about the importance of obeying, even if someone tells you to do something that you know isn't right.  It was very easy for Arin to relate to this story after being tested herself. 

She also painted a picture of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  I helped her with the background and she did most everything else.  I was there to "coach" her somewhat while she was painting.  She really enjoyed making this picture and she seemed to understand the story well.  We are planning to frame the picture to put in her bedroom to remind her to always obey.

And yes, because the girls obeyed, they were rewarded with a few pieces of candy!

Eclair Cake

During Ee week, we had two choices for our Better to Give than to Receive lesson:  Ella or Ellen.  We just don't know a lot of people whose first or last name begin with the letter E.  I thought about having a special day for Ella, but we didn't do something out of the ordinary for Arin for Aa week (it was her birthday week, so we did celebrate her, but not specifically for a school project).  I thought about having Arin make something for Ella because I want my girls to be kind and generous to one another as well, but that would have left Ella out of the project and I didn't want that. 

So, we ended up making something for Ellen.  I thought this would be a bit confusing to the girls since they only know her as Grandma, but we told the girls that her real name is Ellen which starts with an E, so they seemed fine with it.  (Grandma said she was so happy that we didn't wait until Gg week!)

I found this recipe for an Eclair Cake.  This cake is so simple to make with the kids and it is so yummy (just not so healthy!). 
Eclair Cake
2 - 3.5oz boxes of vanilla pudding (we made our's with french vanilla and "Ellen's" with regular vanilla)
3 cups of milk
8oz Cool Whip, thawed
graham crackers (we used honey flavored ones)
1 can of chocolate frosting

Mix together pudding and milk.  Fold in Cool Whip.  Layer bottom of 9x13 baking dish with graham crackers.  Spread half of the pudding mixture over graham crackers.  Add another layer of graham crackers.  Top with the remaining pudding mixture.  Add another layer of graham crackers.  Microwave the frosting for 30 seconds.  Stir.  Pour over the top layer of graham crackers.  Spread with a spatula or knife to evenly coat the top of the graham crackers.  (Andy said the chocolate was a bit much for him, so you could just drizzle it over top if you are not a big chocolate fan).  Refrigerate for at least four hours before serving.

E is for eggs

During Ee week, we read:

Scrambled Eggs Super by Dr. Suess
Hunwick's Egg by Mem Fox and Pamela Lofts

Then, we did an egg experiment.  Arin filled a cup halfway with water.  Ella dropped an egg into the cup.  The egg sank.  Then, Arin filled a second cup half way with water.  She put ten tablespoons of salt into the cup.  Then, Ella put an egg into the cup.  It sank.  Arin filled a third cup halfway with water.  Then she put three tablespoons of salt into the water and gently stirred the water.  Ella dropped an egg into the cup.  This time the egg began to float.  This shows that when the water is saturated with the salt, it creates more buoyancy.  This is also why it is easier to float in the ocean than it is in a lake or a pool.

The cup on the left is plain water, the middle has the 3 tablespoons of salt (stirred) and the one on the right has 10 tablespoons of salt (unstirred).

Both of my girls love to peel and eat hard-boiled eggs, so we made some of them for lunch after our egg experiment.

E is for Elephant

Last week for school, we read several books about elephants.  We learned that there are two different types of elephants: African and Asian. The African elephant is the largest land mammal.  The girls learned that elephants have small eyes, which are not great for seeing.  They have large ears (African elephants have larger ears than Asian elephants).  These ears are great for hearing.  Elephants can hear sounds that humans cannot hear.  These large ears are also used to keep the elephants cool.  According to one of the books that we read, the ears of African elephants can be as large as six feet!  Arin thought that was amazing (as did I) since that is the height of her daddy.  According to another book that we read, elephants walk at an average speed of 6mph, but they can run as fast as 25mph!  They learned several other interesting facts of elephants this week as well, including the names of male, female, and baby elephants, etc.
We had hoped to visit an elephant rehabilition center (see this link) while visiting my parents, but they were already booked for the day we were there. 

Arin completed an elephant lapbook.  I found the resources for this lapbook here and here.

Some of the resources would not fit inside of the file folder, but they were also found within the above two links.

(In this picture, Arin is teaching her sister how to color in the lines.  She has been taking it upon herself to teach her sister several things lately.  So sweet!)

Arin also practiced writing the letter E and e with a worksheet which can be found here.

These are the elephant books that we read this week.
Elmer Takes Off by David McKee
Baby Animals: Elephants by Kate Petty
Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss
African Elephants by Roland Smith
Animals, Animals, Animals: African Elephant by Alison Tibbitts and Alan Roocroft
Elmer Again by David McKee
Amazing Animals: Elephants by Jacqueline Dineen
Suzy Saves Elysha, The Baby Elephant by James Dowling
Jungle Bullies by Steven Kroll
The Obvious Elephant by Bruce Robinson
Elephants and Their Calves by Margaret Hall
Elephants Cannot Dance! by Mo Willems
African Elephants: The World's Biggest Land Mammals by Kirsten Hall
But No Elephants by Jerry Smath (Arin's favorite elephant book this week)
Elephant by Patricia Whitehouse