B4FIAR: The Quiet Way Home

We spent a couple days reading a Before Five In a Row book titled, "The Quiet Way Home" by Bonnie Becker.  It is a sweet story describing a grandfather and his granddaughter taking "the road less traveled and delight[ing] in [the] small sounds, too good to miss" (summary from manual).  All the small sounds are those that are often lost in all the noise of children playing, busy streets, and the hustle n' bustle of life-- sounds such as the bees buzzing, a tricycle wheel creaking, a sprinkler spraying, and a man digging in his garden. 

Again, I find this B4FIAR book somewhat hard to blog about!  So bare with me!  Since the book dealt with sounds, we talked a little bit about the ear and I showed Tyler a picture of what the inside of the ear looks like; then thanks to Pinterest, I found a sweet BBC excerpt about how the ear works-- very cool!  I also made a Sound Matching Activity for Tyler.  I found some heart shaped boxes at the Dollar Store to use for this activity.  I put several different items in each of the hearts--  two hearts had the same item.  Without peaking into the hearts, Tyler had to shake them and find the match, only by using his sense of hearing!  He did really well!  He did miss one match though; but it was a tricky one.  The one he missed was when he matched a penny sound to the sound of two little bolts.  They sounded a lot alike! 

Another activity we did focused on opposites; I called it "Hunting for Opposites."  I wanted this to be an activity that Tyler did on his own, so I looked through old workbooks that we have accumulated and not used, to find pictures to use.  Once I found several pairs, I taped them onto the outside of plastic Easter egg halves and hid them around the playroom.  I mixed up the colors so Tyler would have to focus on matching the pictures-- not the egg colors.  For instance, Tyler matched day/night and each were on a different color egg.  Tyler had trouble with some of the pictures as it wasn't clear what the word was supposed to be, but otherwise he did great.  His favorite part was the egg hunt!

This would be a great book to read in the spring/ summer when we are able to get outside and enjoy all the different sounds there are-- we ended up getting snow and let's say I was not that adventurous!

We'll be having fun with Dr. Seuss books this week, and then we'll be back to FIAR-- can't wait!

 

The Dollar Tree: A Coin Value Game

After reviewing coin names and their value during President's Day and the resources I've found via Pinterest, I was inspired to make my own money game to help Tyler learn that 5 pennies = 1 nickel and so on....  I had made a Money Tree printable and found that although he knows the value of each coin, he would still insist that 6 cents (1 nickel and 1 penny) was actually 2 cents. 

Tyler received a Melissa and Doug Money Set a couple years ago, and it has finally come in handy!  I made a printable of a tree with the tree trunk having four spaces for four quarters.  When you collected 4 quarters to make a dollar, you win!  Hence, you completed the dollar tree! 

Tyler and I played this together; it took 20 minutes to 1/2 hr. to play... But I can say, that we've played two times and he knows that when he has 5 pennies, he can trade them in for a nickel!  And when he has two nickels, he can trade them in for a dime.  Eventually, I can show him that 10 pennies is 1 dime, etc.  But for now we are working on making nickels from pennies, dimes from nickels, etc.

What you need:

2 game sheets (or just draw a tree on two sheets of paper)

spinner (or printable dice)

lots of pennies!

nickels, dimes, quarters

How to play:

Spin the spinner and collect that amount of pennies (1, 2, 3, or 4).  If you land on "Trade Up!" either you lose your turn or spin again.  Continue to spin and collecting pennies onto your tree.  When you land on "Trade Up!" begin with trading pennies for nickels first, then move onto nickels for dimes....etc.  When you are able to make a quarter, place the quarter on the tree trunk.  The first one to complete their Dollar Tree, wins! 

Tyler won! 

If you would like the game sheet, I can email it to you.  I don't understand GoogleDocs!  I am not that computer savvy, unfortunately!

Inspiration & other money games to check out:
Got A Buck? @ E is for Explore
The Trading Game: Money Style @ Spend a day in Second Grade
Counting with Coins @ Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
Money Bags: A Coin Value Game-- We have played this many times, but still a bit advanced for Tyler

Shared @:

Rewind: President's Day

"Do you want to be President one day..."

That is what I asked Tyler after we had read "I Want to be President" starring Betty Lou from Sesame Street.  What kid doesn't want to ride in parades, live in the White House, and talk all day?!  Well, mine doesn't!  Tyler said, "No."  I asked him, "Why not?"  And apparently, "No" means end of story-- don't ask anymore ; )

We spent a couple days this week learning about two very important President's-- George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I pulled activities from all over the place to keep him busy.  And since this was the first time we've really talked about this topic, I kept it pretty simple.

Using a set of US Presidents cards, Tyler completed a President's Day Sequencing Activity-- practiced numbers 1-44:

President's Syllable Sort:  Tyler used stickers to keep track of the sound chunks in each name.

Andy Warhol style art with George Washington; idea came from Toddler Approved and it turned out so great!  I printed off four pictures of George Washington and had Tyler watercolor them; after they dried and I cut them out, Tyler picked four pieces of paper for the background of each face. 

Tyler found words he knew in the President's Day Poem found at Lakeshore Learning:

We have talked about pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters before and how much they are worth but we reviewed his skills with a Coin Sorting Mat:

Tyler can tell you how much each coin is worth, yet when I put a penny and a nickel in front of him, he said it was 2cents, not 6cents.  To practice I made a Money Tree worksheet, but we still need more practice on this one!

Tyler made a fact book about Abraham Lincoln.  I didn't mention the word slavery or freedom-- they seem a bit abstract for his innocent mind, but he does know that Abe Lincoln helped those that were "stuck."  We used this term because while we were watching a video on George and Abe on YouTube, it showed a person's hands in handcuffs (meaning slavery), and Tyler said, "They are stuck!" 

Made Washington's Cherry Tree using Tyler's arm/ hand as the tree trunk, hands as the leaves, and pink tissue paper for the cherry blossoms:

After reading that Abe Lincoln grew up in a log cabin and wore a black hat, Tyler and I made an edible log cabin and an edible top hat.  Yummy!  Sorry for the blur!  I used graham crackers for the base of the log cabin and house.  For the log cabin, I covered it in peanut butter and jelly and we topped it with logs (pretzels!).  I also covered the top hat in peanut butter, but used Kellog's new Krave cereal to make the black hat.  And FYI-- the new Krave cereal is AMAZING!  If you love chocolate, you are going to love eating it cold or with milk!  Soooo good!

That's a summary of what we did for President's Day, plus a few more activites listed in the list below.  For the rest of the week, we "rowed" a B4FIAR book, "The Quiet Way Home" by Bonnie Becker.  Like the last B4 book, it's not an easy one to blog about!  We have talked about relationships, opposites, sounds, and the ear so I will see what I can come up with to share with you! 
Also check out:
Kindergarten Hoppenings: President's Day Theme
President's Day Pinterest Board
President's Day Number Order and Skip Counting Puzzles
President's Day Mini-Unit
President's Day Alphabetical Word Sort
Coin Equivalents Printable