Letter Dd Lapbook

We finished our review of the Letter Dd and completed the Letter Dd Lapbook.



Front and Back Cover



Inside of the Letter Dd Lapbook.



Showing the 'Words that Begin with the Letter Dd' Pinwheel, the Dancing Dogs Puzzle Pieces, and the Little Donkey book.



Letter Dd Manipulatives - Doctor Doggy and Dolphin.

Templates for the materials seen above can be downloaded from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ and http://www.dltk-teach.com/.

The Tower of Babel and Review of the Letter Dd

Today's Bible Story was about the Tower of Babel.  Natually, both of the boys then wanted to play with blocks and build towers!  Evan would build a tower and Alan would attempt to put a piece on and more often than not, he would accidentally knock it over.  Evan was patient with him...at first, but then he didn't want Alan 'helping' anymore!  So he decided to get his Number Bucket and build a tower out of that on the table, where Alan couldn't reach as easy.  He would build it and then knock it over and build it again.  (It's okay if it falls, as long as he was the one that knocked it over!)  But then he decided his tower wasn't high enough.  He kept saying, "Build it as high as the walls, Mommy!"  So I added a few blocks to it and went as high as I could.  Both boys thought this was amazing!  While building our towers, we sang a song that I made up.  It's to the tune of "The B-I-B-L-E".  It goes:  "The B-A-B-E-L, the B-A-B-E-L, the people built the Tower of Babel, B-A-B-E-L."  We sang it enough that Evan could sing along with me.  Both Evan and Alan recognized the tune, and after one time we sang "The B-A-B-E-L", Evan starting singing "The B-I-B-L-E".  So then everytime we sang the Babel version, we went ahead and sang the Bible version too. 



Alan 'helping' Evan build his tower.



Evan building an even bigger tower on the table.

 

Evan wanted a tower as high as the walls!

After everyone was tired of building towers, we reviewed the Letter Dd.  We read, "Angus Lost" and looked through Evan's lapbook that he had made.  We put a few finishing touches on it and played the different games in it.  Evan loves the Dog Matching Game.  We played it over and over.  Then I wrote the word 'dog' on the board and we talked about the letters in it.  Evan wanted to write it too.  He did a great job!  His 'g' looked like a 'q', but I was still really impressed.  We haven't talked about the Letter Gg yet and he had never attempted to write it before, so all things considered, he did GREAT!

Evan's first attempt at writing the word 'dog'.  TERRIFIC!

Alan loves playing with the Letter Flashcards.  So we matched the big cards to the small cards.  Alan loves cats, so he always wants to the hold the Cc Flashcard.  He looks at it and meows!  Here lately, he has been talking cat a lot.  He just walks around meowing!  He sleeps with a cat too and when I put him to bed, he lays there and talks and meows to his cat.  It's hilarious!  Sometimes, when I say a word and ask what letter it starts with, I emphasize the starting sound.  For example, I might say, "B B Bumblebee."  Today, while holding the Letter Cc flashcard, Alan looks at me and says, "B B Cat!"  He's so precious!  Evan thought it was hilarious!


Matching the flashcards.

We practiced writing the Letter Dd on the flashcard and then got out our Letter Dd puppets - Doctor Doggy and Dolphin.  We put on puppet shows for each other.  We had a few things to glue into the Letter Dd Lapbook and a few pictures to color.  So we finished that up and Alan helped Evan color the pictures.   

Writing the Letter Dd.



Evan putting on a puppet show with Doctor Doggy and Dolphin.

The boys put some finishing touches on the Letter Dd Lapbook.



Colors

Both boys have just loved playing with the pop blocks (which I discovered are really called snap cubes - I like my name better!).  They have been perfect for sorting and sequence exercises with Evan and color recognition with Alan.



I guess Alan wanted Tigris to help him sort the colors!  Or maybe he just wanted to tackle her!



Alan made a snake!

Evan wanted to make Adam and Eve out of the pop blocks!  I did my best, and he LOVED them!

When we started playing school today, Evan got out a book called, "My Colors."  He couldn't wait to read it!  So I decided we would go ahead and have a color day.  We talked about the different letters in the word color.  According to Evan, you spell the word 'color' (this is what he said as I pointed to each letter), "C - O - #1 - circle - say it with me!"  As mentioned in a previous post, Evan says, "say it with me," when he is unsure or doesn't know the answer.  I wrote the word 'Color' on the board and he copied it.  I was really impressed!  He did a great job!



"C - O - #1 - circle - say it with me!"

After we read "My Colors," I thought it would be fun to paint a picture.  At the front of this book, it has a picture of a set of watercolors and paint blobs for each color.  Evan had fun trying to copy the picture.  When he was done, he wanted me to paint a picture of Thomas and Percy. 


My little artist.

 We used the bucket of Transportation counters to do some sorting and sequencing exercises.  Old egg flats work great for this sort of thing!  


Evan sorted them all by color.

I was going to do a simple pattern exercise by making a train out of constuction paper and putting circle stickers on it, but then I couldn't find my circle stickers.  Our Bible story for the day was about Noah's ark, so instead of circle stickers, we put animal stickers (2 by 2) on the freight cars.  Evan has a computer game where James transports animals to the zoo.  He uses 3 freight cars to help him.  So our little exercise turned into the perfect opportunity to act out his computer game!
 

Cutting out his freight cars.



Putting animals on his train.

Since I couldn't find my circle stickers, I thought we would just do some sticker games from a sticker book. 

Matching the stickers to the right color.

Pop Blocks

We didn't have a lot of time to play school today, but Evan loved the little bit that we did!  I have a bag of a bunch of Math manipulatives in the cabinet and Evan kept seeing them and wanting to get them out.  He thought it was a game.  Since I wanted to review numbers today, I thought it would be perfect to get out a 'Math game' to play. 

We reviewed the number flashcards and did some counting exercises.  In the process he practiced drawing several shapes and we would count them.  His favorite thing to draw right now is Mike (the little green monster off Monsters, Inc - the one with 1 eye.)  Drawing circles ended up drawing Mike.  I didn't get a picture of it before he scribbled all over it, but it really was pretty good! 

We practiced writing the Number 1 and 2 and then got out the Pop Blocks.  I'm sure these have a real, much more official name, but Pop Blocks work for us!  Evan thought they were awesome.  They come in a set of 10 little blocks per color that all pop together.  We played several sequencing games, and then just had fun building different things with them.  Evan first wanted to build a snake, then a train, a house, and we ended with a couple of dogs.  He had so much fun and did not want to put them away.  We had some things we had to go do this evening and the second we got back home and through the door, he was begging to go play school some more.  He just wanted to play with the Pop Blocks!  Who says school has to be boring?!  The Orr Homeschool Adventures sure aren't!  We have a lot of fun, and he doesn't even realize that he is learning a lot!  That's what it's all about.



Evan told me that #1 was his favorite number!



An old egg carton made the perfect base for our game.

 

Evan had fun making snakes and would have them 'slither' off the table!

Building a train using sequencing skills.

Evan loved making dogs with the Pop Blocks.

"The Red Carpet" by Rex Parkin

Today, we finished "The Red Carpet" Lapbook by Rex Parkin.

  

The front cover.



The inside.



The inside with the flaps open.



Close up view of the 'What is Red' fold up.



Close up view of the town map covered with 'red carpet'.

Templates for "The Red Carpet" Lapbook can be downloaded at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/.

Getting Back on Track - Part 2

We continued our 'getting back on track' review today.  Both of the boys have been so excited each day to play school.  They love having a routine and schedule (as do I!).  We do the same thing each morning when we start school so that they know exactly what to expect.  1.  Evan gets all of the day magnets off the board.  2.  We line them up in order on the table.  3.  We sing the "Days of the Week" song.  4.  Evan puts up the Today is, Yesterday was, and Tomorrow will be magnets and then he always makes some sort of design on the board with the remaining 4 magnets.  5.  We say the Pledge of Allegiance.  6.  Evan recites all of his verses as I point to each sticker on his Bible Chart and give the scripture reference.  7.  We sing "Around the Circle we will go..." while running around the table.  8.  Song ends with me falling on the floor and both boys dog piling me.  9.  Then they both want airplane rides since I am already on the ground.  10.  Then they get to put dinosaur stamps on their hands and legs.  And that's all in about the first 10 minutes! 



They both love the dinosaur stamp part!  I sure hope I can find more of these when the ink runs out!  I can't believe it hasn't by now.

 

Alan finally figured out today how to stamp himself.  He normally just wants to suck on them!  He was so proud of himself and ran into the other room to show Daddy.  From the school room, I could hear, "Daddy Daddy, ook, ook, my onsaur!"

After getting dinosaur stamps, we read our Bible Story for the day.  Today, we read about the Garden of Eden.  They both liked the evil hissing voice that I used for 'Satan the snake' so we had to read it a couple of times!  Tonight during Family Bible Time, Daddy didn't know about the evil hissing voice, so Mommy had to read the story again and show him how it was done!  The more animated you get, the more they love it!  As soon as I started to read the story tonight, Alan was pointing at the page and saying "Snake, snake!" and we weren't even to that page yet!  Evan found a big picture of a snake in one of his coloring books and wanted to paint it.  So now we have a huge picture of 'Satan the snake' on our refrigerator.


Evan was so proud of his picture and thought it was really cool, so everytime he went to look at it I had to remind him that 'Satan the snake' is very bad and mean and tempted Adam and Eve.  After dinner I was reminding him of this, and he said, "Yeah, Adam and Eve had to leave the garden and there are angels with fire."  He was listening!

After Bible Story time, each of the boys picked a story that they wanted to read.  Today Evan wanted to read "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats (very appropriate for today!!!) and "Curious George".  Alan picked a book from the "Your Baby Can Read" program.  While reading Alan's book, he identified his first written word - nose!  He was so proud of himself and kept grabbing his nose and then mine.  But then he kept saying that all the words were 'nose'.  Oh well!  At least he knows that one!  Since we were already looking at the vocabulary words in Alan's book, we went ahead and played a matching game with the flashcards.  

Finding the matching words.

After playing this game, Evan wanted to play more games, so we played Hungry Hungry Hippo and then the Fishing Game.  The Fishing Game was perfect to work with Alan on color identification.  It worked well with Evan too since we had been talking about Red, Yellow, and Green on the stoplight. 


Evan caught all the green fish!

In reviewing our letters today, we focused primarily on the Letter C.  In doing so, I realized that we had never finished "The Red Carpet" Lapbook.  We spent the rest of our time talking about that book and putting the finishing touches on the lapbook.  



Gluing 'red carpet' all over the town map.



Covering all the streets with 'red carpet'.



Painting some other things that are red.

Tonight before bed, Evan wanted Daddy to read "The Red Carpet"!  I'm so glad that both the boys love to read.  Even more glad that they love to cuddle while we read!  I sure hope they don't grow out of that anytime soon!

Getting Back on Track!

Whew...it's been way too long!  Taking the month of December off from school ended up being December and January and the first week of February.  YIKES!  We just had one thing after another come up and it was just getting out of control.  So I sat down and created a Family Schedule to help us get back on track and to help us manage our time more effectively.  Today was our first day to implement my new schedule and it worked PERFECTLY!  I felt like I was in my element again, and ended up getting more done than was even on the schedule.  It felt great and we had a blast.

I was amazed at how much Alan has changed in just the past couple of months.  He was always interested and wanted to be with us while we were 'playing school', but he would just kind of do his own thing.  Well, now he wants to be involved in everything and participate in all of the activities.  It made it extra fun and interesting at times! 

Evan jumped right back in like we had never taken a break.  I was impressed at how little he had forgotten.  The child remembers EVERYTHING!  We sang our 'Days of the Week' song and the boys changed the magnets on the board.
 

Evan patiently reaching over Alan to change the Day Magnets.

We had a lot of reviewing to do so we started at the beginning.  We reviewed the letters that we have worked on so far and then focused primarily on the Letter A and B.  We practiced our writing (Alan included!) and went through the Lapbooks for each letter reviewing all the things we had done.  We also read through the B4FIAR books that went with each letter.  A:  Play With Me.  B:  Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear; Blueberries for Sal.  C:  The Carrot Seed; The Red Carpet.  Evan was so excited to get these books back out!  He just kept saying, "Let's read another one of those!"



After Evan practiced writing the Letter A, Alan wanted to also.



"Which word starts with the Letter A?"



Evan couldn't wait to put on puppet shows!  A lady from church made a really cute puppet theater and gave it to us.  Both the boys thought it was just the best thing in the whole world!  We put on show after show after show.  Buzz and Woody even got involved at one point!  They had so much fun!  It's like the puppets are alive to them - even if they are just paper on a wooden stick!  They love them!  It's so precious to watch!



Evan super excited about his new puppet theater!



Evan putting on a show with Angie A.

 

Alan getting in on the action with Al the Alligator!



Evan and Alan's puppet show version of Toy Story!

We did some vocabulary / reading practice using the "Your Baby Can Read" program.  Both the boys enjoy watching these videos and looking at the books and flashcards.  It's amazing how Alan is even picking up on some of the word recognition.  We got out our AlphaMat and played on it for awhile too.  They love when we get this out and set it all up.  Normally we just have a couple of letters out at a time, so when we do the whole thing, it is quite a treat! 


Having fun on the AlphaMat!



As soon as Alan sees a camera, he immediately says, "CHEESE!"

For our Bible Story and Family Bible Time, we reviewed the Creation Account and talked about what God made on each of the six days.  Evan was able to answer most of the questions about the story on his own and just needed a little prompting on a couple of them.  Whenever he doesn't know the answer to something, he says, "Say it with me!"

Evan is now up to having 6 verses memorized.  We are so proud of him and he loves to recite them!  He knows (in the order he learned them) Genesis 1:1, Luke 2:52, Genesis 2:19, John 14:15, Genesis 1:3, and Ephesians 6:1.  

It was good for all of us to get back on track today.  It was a good day in the Orr home!