Over the weekend we awarded our ‘1st’ grader her BOOK IT award for reading. She read 40 chapter books (our goal was 20 for her). She went with daddy and middle sister, and they even brought home a brownie pan from there for the family to share. They had enough leftovers to snack on the next day and several servings of brownies. Needless to say it was a real treat and I think she’s looking forward to it again! She doesn’t really need any reading motivation but it doesn’t hurt!
The picture above is just an example of the kinds of things I have my 4 year old doing, she tends to not read it all and guess once she sees the first letter, but we’re working on it. She’s still getting motor skills even if it’s not all done perfectly, and I consider that a win.
For this week–as much as I’d love to spend a month on pumpkins and apples, we did plant pumpkins, watch them grow, and carve them over the spring, summer, and fall. We talked a lot about fruits and veggies during the summer and during our farm unit, too. I talked apples with my 4 year old (then 3) last fall. Since this is only a 4 day unit and I’m literally due with a baby in the next week, I didn’t want to leave a bunch of complicated things for anyone else to do. Because we’re not sure what will happen, I didn’t even order any library books, just are using pumpkin and apple themed books we already have for topical reading. As for our paper trail, we’ll use some items from here. I’m not even going to list them out, but the general idea is that we’re continuing to focus on counting to 20 and ABC/reading with the 4 year old and addition/subtraction at higher levels, along with writing equations from word problems, spelling, and parts of speech/writing with the 7 year old. There is quite a variety from Pre-K to 4th grade up there, with most ranging up to 2nd grade, so take a peek and see what you can find to use- several of them are 10+ pages. It’s all either free or easy to download with an education.com subscription (10 free downloads/month).
Topical reading:
Monsters by Hoban
Haggis’s Cookies by Mann
Zoom on my Broom by Farber
Henrietta’s Halloween by Hoff
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Williams
Witzy’s Halloween Ghost by Spafford
Halloween Night by Dandi
Patchy Pumpkin Finds Himself a Home by Lardinois
Johnny Appleseed by Shepherd
7 year old independent reading:
Monster Edition #1 Goosebumps by Stine
Gooney Bird Greene by Lowry
I Was a Third Grade Science Project by Auch
Nate the Great and the Halloween Hunt by Sharmat
The Accidental Monsters #2 The Unwilling Witch by Lubar
Spooks’ Surprise by Dolby
The Haunted Halloween Party by Herman
The Race Car Monster by Herman
Werewolf Skin by Stine
Monster Blood II by Stine
Monster Blood III by Stine
Pollyanna by Porter
4 year old reading together:
The New Friend (Hello Kitty) by Bennett
Duck’s Vacation by Soffer — this was a great book, kept the kids yelling ‘turn the page’ to see what happened!
Sea Rex by Idle
Art:
Peter and wife in pumpkin shell ( 7 year old only)
Linking up with the weekly wrap up, find guidelines and how to play along here: WWU
You’re doing a lot of fun things. 🙂
As much as you have going on, I think you’re amazing.
Nitpicking here, though… I wish your posts were in a continuous form on the arrival page rather than having to click to read more. A minor annoyance, but heartfelt. 🙂
How are you feeling? Can’t wait to see the new arrival.