My 7 year old earned her final ‘Book It’ certificate for the year, now she needs to finish using the couple she has left that she earned. I always track what she reads anyway, but it’s nice to see her aiming toward a goal, and hoping against hope that she meets it!
Our 4 year old is officially ‘a reader’ although it doesn’t seem to make her very happy. Sometimes she just cheerfully says ‘that says thank you’ but other times she just lays her head down or whimpers. You just never know. I’ve tried really hard not to push her and I know she’ll get it eventually, getting her to read color words and simple instructions has been SO helpful! It helps us get a lot more done when she can work independently like that.
The 2 year old now asks for ‘homework’ and I had long ago stapled together a bunch of alphabet pages I had actually intended for the 4 year old and passed it off to the toddler, instead. She’s happy and sometimes quiet, good, and good!
We’re wrapping up our egg study by coloring some eggs, reading some fanciful stories about chickens laying colorful eggs and learning a bit here and there about birds (and other animals) and their eggs. We did some general math worksheets with egg themes, listened to some owl calls, and played with some awesome egg themed kits from the library. The kids have adored the ‘shaky eggs’ we bought from Amazon. Well worth the couple of dollars, and they’re not overly loud. They can shake them up as much as they want and as long as they keep their feet on the ground (our toddler is fond of jumping up and down and screaming while shaking them)… it’s not a terrible amount of noise.
We’ve had Easter stuff out for a while now and the kids all have taken turns manipulating plastic eggs, figuring out what they could do with them, hiding stuff inside, separating them, sorting them, even laying them into paint trays by color. The kids also ended up with some new lego sets last weekend, so they’ve spent a LOT of time playing with those and arguing over who gets to put together what castle. I just kind of rolled my eyes and let it go, the kids don’t get ‘spoiled’ by much, so one item not on their birthday or Christmas isn’t too bad, I guess. We’ve had to have a sharing discussion more than once, and also that legos aren’t meant to stay together permanently (cue tears)… because otherwise, they’re no longer TOYS… but all in all the kids have had a pretty good week. They actually seemed to enjoy learning about various critters and eggs. I decided to try and push a bunch of books together to try and get it all in this week, and that was perhaps a bad move, because sitting still isn’t their strong suit, and the toddler and baby decided to throw a fit at exactly the same time as I was trying to read… cue mom having a tantrum now… but I really couldn’t see this going on for yet another week. We’ll probably do some more coloring and read a few more books, but for the most part 2 weeks was a good period of time for the Unit Study. Read up on week 1 HERE. Plus some other egg books HERE.
Media/Music/Kits
Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade
White Owl, Barn Owl Kit (sound recording, book, mini barn owl puppet)
Good Morning, Chick Music Kit (includes book, shaky egg, jingle bells, etc)
Red Hen Kit (big red chicken puppet–the toddler adored this!)
Owl youtube calls
Manners Kit (books below, Picnic Basket ‘please’ game, and 40 reversible ‘manners’ cards)
Henry’s Amazing Animals Animal Eggs by DK Vision
The Magic School Bus Cracks a Yolk video
Topical Books
Easter Bugs by Carter (pop up book featuring imaginary bugs popping out of Easter eggs)
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That The Lost Egg by Rabe
Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
Ten Eggs in a Nest by Sadler
Dora’s Eggs by Sykes
Egg to Robin by Berger
White Owl, Barn Owl by Davies (from kit)
Good Morning, Chick by Ginsburg (from kit)
The Easter Egg Farm by Auch (love love love this book! Colored eggs)
Eggs by Singer (great introduction to different eggs, animals, habitats, etc.)
Nina’s Treasures by Czernecki (Colored eggs)
Amazing Eggs by Hodgkins
Birds, Nests, and Eggs by Boring
Just Plain Fancy by Polacco (peacock raised by Amish girls)
Eggs! Life on a Chicken Farm by Owen
Egg Poems by Foster
Jellybean and the Unbreakable Egg by Troiano (colored eggs)
nature’s perfect package Egg by Jenkins
An Egg is Quiet by Aston
Rechenka’s Eggs by Polacco (colored eggs)
A Nest Full of Eggs by Jenkins
An Extraordinary Egg by Lionni
Egg A Chasing, Racing Egg Hunt by Litton published by Tiger Tales
Animal Eggs by Cusick
Mrs. Hen’s Big Surprise by Desmoinaux (dinosaur surprise!)
Whose Chick Are You? by Tafuri
4 yo reading
Chase is on the Case (Paw Patrol) by Hay – she read it!
Bunnies ABC by Williams
from manners kit:
A Very Pleasing Picnic (with game)
Penguin Says Please by Dahl
Bear Says Thank You by Dahl
Mouse Says Sorry by Dahl
Me First by Lester (this is HYSTERICAL)
Taking Turns by Marsico
Mary Wrightly, So Politely by Bridges (for kids who are TOO polite sometimes)
The Table Sets Itself by Clanton
Princesses Love to Share by Knapman
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That Thump! by Rabe
7 yo reading
Dinosaur Detective Scrambled Eggs by Calhoun
Humpty Dumpty Jr. Hard-boiled Detective The Mystery of Merlin and the Gruesome Ghost by Evans
Doctor Judy Moody by McDonald
Frankenstein Doesn’t Planet Petunias by Dadey
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Birdsall
The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Birdsall
Paper trail from our Eggs Unit Study Pinterest Board
3 digit math worksheet (7 yo–3rd grade level!)
roll and color Easter egg math (both kids)
Chicken Life Cycle Study with Printables from Learn Create Love
Twisty noodle worksheets involving science, math, coloring around eggs!
Monster Egg math sheets and roll and covers by Kindermyles
The B keeps us honest
AtoZTeacherStuff
Art
White crayon resist cracked egg
Decorating hard boiled eggs
Learn about the Weekly Wrap up HERE
