Category: Reading Activities

Activities for Blueberries for Sal

9/14/2009

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”
-Robert McCloskey
This post is honestly more of a collection of links that I'm sharing simply to save time for others. I didn't have any greatly profound or original ideas when it came to sharing this book with my children. Instead I drew on the creativity of others and trust me there is a lot out there. I hope you find something here that you can use.
Extend through reading and writing:

The Scholastic site has a spelling lesson about changing "y" to "ies" to make words plural.
Here is a vocabulary list for Blueberries For Sal. This book could really be a great lesson in verbs.
Enjoy a literature guide with journaling and writing worksheet ideas included. This is a very helpful and well done resource.
Homeschool Share supplies Alphabet blueberries that are free to download. Use them to practice matching letters of the alphabet with younger children.
Hands of a Child has prepared a Unit Study Lapbook based on Blueberries For Sal. You can purchase it here for $17.50.

*Yes, I am aware that Charlotte Mason did not support the use of unit studies. I don't really follow her method in a frantic "letter of the law" sort of way. I think her methods reflect boundaries within a fairly flexible educational structure. Her ideas provide the core of our learning, however, I'll adapt anything that I find educational, enlightening and lovely. This study is all of those.
Extend Through Math:

Homeschool Share has a Math Mat activity that coordinates with this story.
I have a cute felt idea I found, but I haven't made it yet. I'll add a photo of it to this post once I complete it. If you can't wait . . .e-mail me and I'll give you the details.

Extend Through Life Skills:

Here you will find baking ideas to go with the blueberry theme. Yummy!

Extend Through Science:

Here you can purchase a very affordable TOS E-Book WE-Book titled Blueberries for You by Amanda Bennett.
You could also choose to learn more about bears. I found several studies and free downloads about bear at currclick.

Extend Through Geography:

You could study Maine
Learn about "forests", "woods" and "hills"

Extend Through Art and Creative Play:

This site has ideas for narration, role play, and performing arts using a mural backdrop for acting out the story.
Here you'll find a great bear craft using pony beads. This craft would be best suited for older children.

*Whatever you choose to use to extend this story I advise that you notoverdo it. This book is so visually beautiful that it's a pleasure to read. You won't want to overwhelm kiddos with extra "work" that distracts from the beauty of the story.
Wonderful Blog Posts about Blueberries For Sal:
1. http://www.feehanfamily.com/homeschool/homeschoool/
2. Visit http://mamahomeschool.blogspot.com/2008/10/blueberries-for-sal-other-activities.html for some really cool ideas from another blogger. I especially liked her link to the Life cycle of a Blueberry and her cork stamp craft is adorable!

3. Wondersome Story Time is a blog I follow. She also has some neat ideas concerning this book.
I promise I'll be more original in my next post :)

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Activities for The Tale of Peter Rabbit

7/23/2009

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I began homeschooling my daughter Chloe very early. Honestly, a little too early. I had no clue what homeschooling really looked like, but I didn't wait for directions. I dove right in. Believe it or not, I began with Squirrel Nutkin. We read the book over and over again for an entire month. Each day I focused on one page of the book or some small detail of it. I wish I could remember and share all of the crazy inspiration I got from that tiny little book. We worked our way through all of the Beatrix Potter books that year,--though Chloe barely remembers the lessons --I told you I started too soon. That's why I was so excited when I found Peter Rabbit on the FIAR reading list. By that time she was the right age and I was eager to revisit our old friend, Peter.

Here are some of the ways that we enjoyed The Tale of Peter Rabbit --along with some new goodies I've picked up since then:

Extend through Reading and Writing:

Read The Tale of Peter Rabbit and whatever Beatrix Potter books you can get your hands on. Note the size of the books. She loved that they were tiny enough to fit in a little child's hands.
The Virtual Vine has great suggestions for creating a Peter Rabbit word wall. You'll find lots of other great ideas there too.
This is a recent find, and boy do I wish I had found it sooner! Homeschool Share has free, downloadable copywork pages by Dori Oakes. Copywork pages include Benjamin Bunny, Floppsy, Peter, and Timmy Tiptoes.
While reading this book I created a tot tool for my younger daughter who was just learning her alphabet. I made 26 rabbits with capital letters writen on them and 26 carrots with lower case letters written on them. Her task was to math them.

As part of the FIAR lesson plan, I had my kids write letters to Peter. They turned out really sweet.

Extend through Math:

I created a seed counting mat by sticking stick back black felt onto a sheet of construction paper. Her task was to use the seeds I gave her to create a math problem for whatever sum I gave. We still use this today with bigger numbers.
Homeschool Share has added another amazing Petter Rabbit resource for multiplication. Find cards for multiplying by ones, twos, threes, and fours.

Extend through Science:

Many of the books by Burgess are living books that include Peter Rabbit. We are currently reading The Burgess Bird Book For Children to study birds. Peter Rabbit is the interviewing tool to teach us facts about birds through this wonderful science-packed living book.
Learn about the different types of rabbits.
Nature journaling, nature walks . . .get outside!

Extend through Art:

Find games and coloring pages at The World of Peter Rabbit site.
Admire a variety of watercolor paintings by Beatrix Potter here.
We cut a sponge in a triangle and sponge painted carrots.

We created a super cute picture of Peter in a watering can. I cut a watering can shape out of foil and the kids glued a peter rabbit into the can. Then they made water drops dripping out the spout with teir fingerprints in blue paint. I can't get a good photo of it due to the reflection of the foil, but It's adorable in person.

Extend through History/Geography

At this site you can check out photos of Beatrix Potter's Farm and the garden that inspired Beatix Potter's artwork. Get a glimpse into her world.
Study England's Lake District
If you are making a timeline, here are some wonderful pictures of Beatrix as a child. Remember to note that her childhood very much influenced her view of the world. Her observations in childhood about nature set her on a path of naturalism that defined her as an artist.

Have Fun!

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Activities for Little House On The Prairie

7/13/2009

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There are a ton of free activities online for studying Little House On The Prairie. Here I've compiled my favorites along with some pictures of our completed activities so that you can see some of these great ideas in action.

Reading and Language Art:

Ask your child to highlight any unfamiliar words or phrases and create a word wall with words and definitions. A list of some possible words for a word wall can be found here and here.
I found this awesome pdf. file of discussion questions. These aren't baby questions. Their ability to answer these questions will be a good guide for ensuring the child is listening during the read aloud time.

Writing Activities:

Lapbooks are a great way to get your child writing and reflecting creatively on the story. This is a free Lapbook that has tons of mini book activities to go with it.
In general, I'm not crazy about webquests because they seem to be so heavy on computer learning, but I like this one. It requires the child to keep a journal and provides writing activities that are really educational.
Write a question to Laura here. Questions will be answered by the Hoover Historic Society on her behalf.
Consider having your child write a letter to Laura as if he/she was a cousin (or other relative) who stayed back home. Or write about how hard it would be to miss your family and not know if they survived and were safe in the new frontier.
I'm not a huge fan of word searches for school time. They kind of seem like busy work to me, but if you need a reward activity for hard work done that day, you might consider this word search. If you use Sue Patrick's Workbox System, this might be a good reward box.
If you do copywork here is a cute notebook page with covered wagons as a border.

Math Activities:

If you like to include math through tangible play you might like this activity. It reads very formal so you'll want to think about how you can spruce it up in life.

History Activities:

Create a timeline or add to an existing timeline using the information here.
Visit the historic sites from Laura Ingalls Wilder's life.
This slide show is really cool.
Talk about how different life would be if you lived in the cabin.

Life Skills:

Make butter by placing heavy whipping cream into a baby food jar. Tighten lid and have children shake the jar until it becomes butter. Serve the butter as a snack on fresh homemade bread or crackers. This would be a wonderful activity for antsy children to do while listening to the story being read aloud.
Make hand-dipped candles. Place old crayons an wax in a tin coffee cup and heat. Have children dip their wick into the wax until a candle is formed. Older children can roll out the candle on newsprint to help it shape better. Be careful it will be hot.

Check out Chloe and Caibry's candles:

Like to cook? This is a yummy sounding recipe for Gingerbread from Laura's cookbook. More pioneer recipes can be found here and boy do they sound yummy!

Art:

Make an Apple Doll or a Covered Wagon. These are both really cute crafts.

Science Activities:

This is a science experiment on sap.

* Note, If you decide to do the web quest I would count that as science activity too as they will be learning about and studying animals on the prairie.

Geography:

This Map of Laura's Travels is very neat. Print it out and have children color it along her route as you read.

We have a family friend named Mr. R who is 98 years old. Just for fun Chloe tried on an authentic prairie hat worn by his family while traveling to Oklahoma in a covered wagon!

I hope that you found this information helpful.
Happy Learning!

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Activities for Frog and Toad are Friends

7/4/2009

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Frog and Toad are Friends was the first full book that my oldest child ever read aloud to me. I have such wonderful memories and pride when I think about our time spent with this book.

There are tons of ways to extend this book. I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface a little when I mention some of the activities we enjoyed.

Extend with Math:

Have your child jump like a frog and measure the distance of their jump. Older children can calculate the difference of each jump to find an average distance.
We have an algabraic funtastic frogs workbook and frog manipulative's. You can find them here. I picked these up from Mardel's and have enjoyed the many ways to use them. You can sort frogs by colors, string in patterns, categorize by size or use in conjunction with the workbook. They are loads of fun and keep little ones busy while harder work can begin with the older children.
I found a really cute Kindergarten math activity here that your child might enjoy.
I'll be mentioning some cooking activities later in the post too that I believe are great ways of making math "living". Simply discuss measurements while cooking and help them apply it to the item being made.

Extend with Science:

Sparklebox has great Tadpole/ Frog Growth Posters that are available for free download. These would be wonderful to place on your walls where you study.
Here is where I admit my silliness. We began reading Frog and Toad just after moving from Michigan suburbs to Oklahoma. I wasn't yet familiar with the enormous accessibility of frogs in my new state. I purchased a Grow a Frog Kit and had it delivered by U.P.S. The pole little tadpole must have thought I was nuts sending it across the country when all I had to do was open my back door after sunset. That being said, we loved our little frog and quickly ordered a second one to be it's companion. Grow a Frog is a very easy to maintain pet. The kit includes food, aquarium and a pet handbook. The aquarium doesn't last long as the frog grows quickly, but the second size up cost about $30 and holds two mature frogs quite comfortably. We ordered a second set of food too and haven't had to replace it in over a year. They are aquatic frogs and so the most expensive detail of their care is probably the spring water to fill their tank. Still not bad for a pet. They are supposed to be "see-thru". I might call them translucent. It's not drastic though so don't expect too much on that level.

One of their first assignments after "Skipper" and "Hoppy" arrived was to observe and sketch frog feet. I got some wonderful sketches from this that really impressed me.

Grow a frogs are pretty tiny, but the Goliath frog is not. Check out the World's largest frog here. I was amazed!
Frogland is a great site with loads of information on frogs and toads. You can learn a lot there. Study frog habit here with their great information.

Extend with Language Art:

Totally Tots did a unit study on Ponds that might be useful for little children.
I created a word wall with words from the book that my daughter stumbled over in her reading time. I wrote them out on frog shaped die cuts and taped them to their learning wall. We reviewed them for a few minutes every day until it was clear that she had mastered the word.
In the book there are stories that involve buttons, cookies, and letters. I used all of these to extend our learning.
We made cookies for our neighbors and our pastors. I thought about giving a cookie recipe, but I'll skip it and say Mr. Fields is the best. I always cool cookies on newspaper - just because it's what my Grandma does.
We created a button box that we used for counting and sorting.
We wrote letters to family back in Michigan and discussed the different parts of a letter and how to address the envelope.
I also had my daughter copy write lists that I gave her to practice her writing and to tie into The List.

Extend though Art:

You're gonna think these frog masks are adorable. Simply print and decorate.
There are tons of crafts to do involving frogs but my favorite was Kissy frogs. To create kissy frogs paint your child's lips green with non toxic finger paint and have them kiss a sheet of construction paper. The kiss is the frog's body. Now let them draw on legs with markers(at the corners of the mouth) and eyes ( on each side of the top lip's v). We even got some tiny google eyes and glued them on. This is an adorable craft. I'd post a picture, but I can't find that artwork in my stash.
We found a simple cross stitch kit of a frog at Hobby Lobby for under $5. Chloe really enjoyed her sewing project.

Extend through Life Skills:

Frog bread was a great treat! We created a loaf of bread shaped like a frog and the kids had a wonderful time making and eating it.

This next activity was suggested by my son's OT. He has S.P.D and needs to drink shakes some times to help regulate him. This healthy version is just gross sounding enough to excite young children. Simply create frog tongues (curly straws) and bug gut shakes (applesauce and fruit). Yummy.
Another yummy snack is frogs on a log. Cover pretzel sticks in pb and place green m&ms on the "log".

Extend through entertainment:

We watched and enjoyed You tube: A Swim and discussed claymation. Then the kids each sculpted a frog and toad out of clay.

Still need more? Check out these great sites for more learning:

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Activities for Mr. Popper's Penguins

7/3/2009

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Mr. Popper's Penguins was a very fun read aloud. I think it was my favorite read so far this year. There are a couple of fun and free directions that you can go in to extend this book.

1) Extend through art:

A free penguin lapbook can be found at Lapbook Lessons.
Here you can find a craft/math activity for making a glyph. It's really a site worth checking out.

Here is a picture of our Art Wall of penguin art projects . . .

2) Extend through Science or Geography

My favorite Website I found for Mr. Popper's Penguins is the Webquest I found here. They link to an awesome virtual tour of Antarctica. My kids loved this site!
Another idea is to study famous explorers (especially the ones the penguins were named after).
Your child could read an article with you from National Geographic or make a collage out of interesting pictures found in the magazine.
Visit the zoo. Penguins are so fun to watch. Here are some picture of the penguins at the Tulsa Zoo. They aren't the type in the story, but I thought I'd share anyway.

3) Extend through emotion and literary comprehension:

Ask your child to write about or discuss the changes in Mr. Popper after he receives Captain Cook. How does feeling close to one's dreams change their behavior and the way they treat themselves and others?
Don't forget a fun snack too. Make a penguin body out of Oreos®. Add a dab of frosting to attach candy corn for a beak and mini M&M's® for eyes.
If you're too tired to put the energy into a snack, just pick up some Goldfish crackers and voila . . .penguin food.

I hope these links, pictures, and ideas prove helpful to you.
Happy Learning!

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Activities for Blueberries for Sal

Activities for The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Activities for Little House On The Prairie

Activities for Frog and Toad are Friends

Activities for Mr. Popper's Penguins

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