FIAR: Truman's Aunt Farm

"Truman's Aunt Farm" by J. Rattigan cleverly played off the homonyms ant/ aunt.  The story begins with Truman sending in a card to receive an ant farm.  To his surprise he does not receive an ant farm, he receives a line of Aunts! Left with the unexpected, Truman took charge and created a farm that trained Aunts that "were strong and happy... charming and clever... slept, played, sang, danced, and talked just enough."

Social Studies:

• Placed our story disk where Tyler's Aunts live: Michigan.  While talking about the location and the lakes that surround the state, Tyler noticed that the two peninsula's "almost touch," which led us searching online for pictures and information about the Mackinaw Bridge; he was pretty fascinated!

Language Arts:

• Letter-writing:  We read a very short and simple book about "How to Write a Letter" and then Tyler wrote a letter (on ant stationary!) to his Aunts telling them why they are special to him.  I'm sure they'll wonder why we chose such a theme ; )  Tyler did very good with the fill-in-the-blank style letter-- not too much to overwhelm him; although, he did have to write THREE letters!

• Homonyms:  I kept this very introductory and basic-- it's a tricky topic to teach when the student isn't reading!  I just explained that homonyms were words that sounded the same, but meant different things. To introduce the topic, we read "Little Brown Hen's Shower"---such a CUTE and funny book!  I made homonym matches using clipart online; for the first activity I split the matches between us and had Tyler pick up a card and tell me what it was... my response was, "Wait!  I have_____".  He and I had fun with that!  Afterwards, we played memory!

(made a good vocabulary lesson, too!)

Math:

• Making .45cents:  Since Truman and his Aunt Fran communicated by writing letters, I had Tyler use his Melissa and Doug Money Set (this set certainly has come in handy!!) to make .45cents.  We first counted 45 pennies, then used combinations of other coins to make .45cents.

• Counting by5's/ Tally Marks: We have went over both these concepts a number of times, so this was a bit of a review and a note for me the he can do both tasks.  Using clipart I found online, Tyler counted the ants (which were grouped in 5's), wrote the number, and then expressed the number using tally marks.

Unfortunately, nothing blog worthy in Art or Science!

Next we'll be rowing "Night of the Moonjellies" from FIAR Volume 1....

Parties you may find this post at:

                         

A (short) List of First Readers

I have had a bit of a challenge finding books for my four year old to "read"-- they are either too easy or too difficult!  I have not found a middle road until.... NOW! 

I am sure many of you are familiar with BOB Books-- a great series meant "to facilitate that ah-ha moment, when letters first turn into words. By slowly introducing new letter sounds, using consistency, repetition and stories that fit short attention spans your child will quickly find his or her own ah-ha moment" (Amazon's Author's Note).

This first set uses only four letters: M, A, T, S and the sight word: on.  Your child can easily read his/ her first book! 

Another great find was the Usborne Very First Readers series.  The book links below will take you to Amazon, but it would be best to find a Usborne Consultant to purchase them and/or check them out at your local library.  These are very colorful and fun!  What I like best is that Tyler and I are both engaged in the book-- I read a page, then he read's a page!  There are several more books in this series, but we have only read these two... and we just love them! 

 



Have a Lightning McQueen fan?  This is a great first reader!  Tyler recieved this book (and another CARS2 book) for his birthday last year and it went EVERYWHERE with him for several weeks!  Fan, much?!  : ) 
Tyler read it so much that he had the book memorized within a week! 

 

The Usborne Phonics Readers were the longest and a bit more difficult for Tyler; he did enjoy reading a few pages so I thought I would include them in my post.  These require that your child is able to blend sounds, knows a variety of word families and sight words.  We both liked the fold-out flaps, rhyming text, and colorful images.  He was able to read "Fat Cat on a Mat" by himself, for the most part; but "Hen's Pen's" provided a challenge more than he was ready for.  I have only had him read a couple pages at a time, but this series would be great for  for the child that has moved past the other series I mentioned above.    

  

Have you come across any Early Reader's your child enjoys reading?  I'd love more ideas!