The Pumpkin Fair

 Preschool

We worked through our usual activities from RRSP.  This week we focused on the letter Yy.  I also was able to devote more individual attention to Hannah this week.  Still not as much as I would like, but it was an improvement. 

Here she is working on a handwriting/letter recognition/sticker book.  In this picture she is actually working on the letter Vv but that was our letter from last week.  We just didn't get to this book last week so she did V and Y this week.  

 We played our I SPY preschool game.  This is really easy for her now, but as long as she still shows interest in it I will pull it out occasionally.  I had a really cute video of her playing this game, but I can't get videos to load to my blog anymore. HMMM???

 We played one of Hannah's favorite games, Letter Snatch.  I began this with Caleb when he was 2.  I use a cute set of flashcards.  If she gets the letter right she gets to snatch it from me.  We also do this with number cards and shapes.

 Itty Bitty Bookworm

I usually begin my post with this section, but the way my pictures loaded made it easier to have the preschool post first.  This week was all about pumpkins as we read The Pumpkin Fair.  Eileen Cristelow is the illustrator of this book and she is the author/illustrator we are currently learning about.  We had a GREAT time with lots of pumpkin songs and rhymes and we will continue with those through this week for Halloween.

I set out tons of orange craft supplies and gave each child a pumpkin to decorate.  I'm not sure it ended up being worth my time to pull out all the different orange supplies.  I just ended up packing most of them back up.

Hannah was still very proud of her pumpkin.

 Our BIG craft project for the week was paper mache pumpkins.  I debating for several days about doing these.  I just wasn't sure I was up for the mess.  It was very messing, but the kids did well with the mess and kept it "controlled" and we had lots of fun with these.  Unfortunately we did run out of orange paint though.

Other

I am not going to do a full write up this week on all of our other subjects, but I did want to share Hannah's illustration for her story.  It was about Tim, Sam, dough, and a skyscraper.  I was very impressed with the picture.   

I am working on getting Caleb to choice from a few activities that I have preselected for him to do on his own while I work with Hannah.  This is VERY challenging for him as he is a child that really does not like to play alone.  I did get him to play with these blocks twice this week, but had to guide him quite a bit. 

Caleb and Hannah helped Daddy carve pumpkins.  Some how I managed not to take any pictures of the finished product and thanks to the hot temps they didn't last long.

And here is a sneak peak into Hannah's Halloween costume.  She doesn't plan to wear the wig trick-or-treating, but I just can't stop laughing when I see her in it!  She was SO EXCITED when this Cinderella outfit came in the mail this week!  

At the Supermarket

Itty Bitty Bookworm
Our focus book was AT THE SUPERMARKET as we continued to learn about author Anne Rockwell.  In this story a child enjoys a shopping trip with his mom mostly because he was purchasing ingredients to make a cake for his birthday.  At the end of the story he makes the cake.

Caleb and Hannah LOVED pretending to mix a cake while we sang our song of the week.  

They colored pictures of food, cut them out, and put the food into a brown paper lunch bag which they decorated.  We talked about making healthy choices when preparing our meals.  I am so proud of how well Caleb colors now!  He use to hate coloring.  Now he wants it to be perfect (he wants everything to be perfect- he gets that from his daddy!).

They decorated cake blacklines.  I just set out a variety of art supplies and let them decorate however they wanted.  They turned out really pretty.  

And the highlight of their week was baking their own cakes.  I let them pour in the ingredients.  They enjoyed licking the beaters!

I gave them each their own round cake to decorate.

PRESCHOOL

We are still working out the details for new preschool plans.  In the meantime Hannah still loves completing her work from Raising Rock Stars Preschool.  This week was all about the letter Vv.

McRuffy Phonics- Kindergarten

Spelling Words- bin, his, hip, hit, tip (Perfect on the Pre-test)

Story of the Week- CAT IN A BIN

Writing Assignment Prompt

In the story, CAT IN A BIN, a mouse played a trick on the cat while it was asleep.  One day, the cat saw the mouse sleeping.  What do you think the cat did?  Create a story telling what happened when the cat saw the mouse sleeping.

Caleb's Story

The Cat and the Mouse

Once upon a time there was a cat who liked to kill mice.  One day that cat tried to catch those mice but they were too fast for the cat.  Well the mouse was taking a nap in his bin and the cat tipped some cheese on the mouse's head.  Then the mouse tried to kill the cat with a bb gun and he got him.  The End.

Hannah's Story

The Mouse Took a Nap

The mouse was cuddled all up and then he heard a monster under his bed.  And then the cat was scratching the mouse.  And then they were playing outside.  And then they heard something fall off the shelf.  And then they went back to sleep.  And then they were all cuddled up on the couch.  The End

McRuffy Math- First Grade

Our favorite part of math this week was this racing game that Caleb is playing in the picture below.  We were working on ones, tens, and regrouping.  Even Hannah got to play this with us and we had lots of fun with it.

McRuffy Science- Kindergarten
We discussed nature(God-made)/man-made.  We spent some time pointing out lots of things outside and deciding how they were made.

Apples and Pumpkins

Itty Bitty Bookworm

Our new author/illustrator for this week was Anne Rockwell.  Our songs, poems and activities correlated with Rockwell's book APPLES AND PUMPKINS.

Caleb and Hannah made paper bag pumpkins.

They painted fall pictures.  Hannah's picture is the blue sky and an apple tree.

Caleb's picture is an apple tree, a pumpkin, and I can't recall right now what he said the red part to the right was.

They mixed yellow and red paint with their fingers to finger paint a pumpkin.

We also experimented with putting lemon juice on apples to keep them from turning brown.
Preschool

Letter: Xx 

Verse: Except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Color: Pink

 Number: 7
We really didn't do a lot of preschool work. This is an area I am really working on changing up over the next few weeks. I am hoping to start focusing a little more on my time with Hannah. It is easy to focus on Caleb for a few reasons- he is a quick learning, he is more demanding of my attention, his work doesn't take as much time to prepare, and Hannah is much better at entertaining herself while I work with Caleb than Caleb is while I work with Hannah. We are working on that though and a plan is about to come together.

Hannah does still complete all her work from RRSP I just haven't been taking many pictures of that. How many pictures do I really need of her cutting and coloring?

McRuffy Phonics- Kindergarten

Story of the week: NAN 

Spelling Words: on, bat, pan, tab,pass
Caleb continues to spell all the words correctly on the pretest so we haven't been doing a lot with this yet.

Caleb completed the Unit 1 test this week and made a perfect score on that.

No writing assignment this week due to the two days of testing. 

McRuffy Math- First Grade
Caleb also has a Math test this week.  The only thing he had trouble with was writing numbers that I read to him.  For example for  89 he wrote "809", for 134 he wrote "1034" which I found interesting that he didn't write 100304 after how he responded to the first problem.  I had no idea he didn't quite get this yet as it doesn't affect his ability to complete the rest of the book.  I realized I had never really dictated numbers for him to write that way.

The rest of the week we worked on regrouping, block designs, solving addition problems, completing equalities, and counting coins.  

McRuffy Science- Kindergarten

People and Animals
We reviewed common names for different body parts, discussed parts of birds and the different uses of bird feet, claws and beaks, and finally we talked about how animals help us.

Other Fun Stuff

We had a blast on Saturday at Kackleberry Farms in Louisville, GA.  This is our third year and has become an absolutely cannot miss tradition!  WE LOVE this place!!!  I took about 150 pictures so it was very hard to choose a few to post here.  It is a good thing this place requires a bit of drive time and is not just around the corner or I would be out a lot of money in the month of October.  The distance and cost keeps us committed to one visit per year.  

 So I am running about a week behind on posting.  Tomorrow we will finish a whole new weeks worth of fun to post about.  Hopefully I will post about that by Sunday and get back on track.  

Visit Homeschool Creations to see what others have been doing this week.

What Do You Do With A Kangaroo

Itty Bitty Bookworm

This week we read What Do You Do With a Kangaroo by Mercer Meyer.  We enjoyed learning more about Mercer Meyer as well as hopping around like kangaroos all week.  We learned a few things about marsupials and made a few crafts that went along with our story.

Hannah made a Fruit Loop necklace.  Not only did this go along with out story but it was also good fine motor practice.  It could also be used for practicing patterns, but we didn't do that this time.

Caleb made a necklace too.

They both used toothbrushes to paint a character from the story.

Preschool

Letter: Ee 

Verse: Even a child is known by his deeds. Proverbs 20:11 

Color: Purple

Shape: Diamond 

Number: 7

Hannah colored the egg, cut out all the pieces, glued her verse to the basket then we practiced positional words.  Caleb completed one as well.

McRuffy Phonics- Kindergarten

Story of the week: THE HAT

As always the reading practice was very easy for him.  I don't worry about this since he independently reads lots of books that are much harder than this.  We are just focusing on phonics rules, spelling tests, and creative writing.

Spelling Words: in, can, has, bass, nab

He got all the words correct on the first try.

Caleb and Hannah were each asked to write a story about something falling into the lake and the story had to include an animal.  This went along with the phonics story for the week.

Caleb's Story

The Turtle Met Friends

Once upon a time someone dropped a pencil in the lake.  A turtle found the pencil and the turtle wrote some letters to his friends.

Hannah's Story

Walking at the Lake

When my sister was walking with me she fell into the lake.  A penguin was swimming after her.  She found some stairs and climbed out and I gave her a towel to dry off.  We were still walking and then we were sitting down and fishing then we went back home.

They also illustrated their story.

Attitude- Just keeping it real!

McRuffy Math- First Grade

This weeks math skills included writing numbers, recognizing place value, pattern block designs, addition problems, comparing groups of rods and cubes to numbers, setting times onclocks, counting groups of coins.

McRuffy Science- Kindergarten

This week we worked on mixing primary colors to make secondary colors.  Caleb has masted this skill, but always enjoys mixing the colors.  Hannah is still working on this.

Other Fun Stuff

This is how Hannah came to school one day.  We have a strict dress code :).

Visit Homeschool Creations to see what others have been doing this week.