Book: One Duck Stuck

Ember chose our book, One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root. It's a counting/animal/helpfulness/teamwork book - yep, all that.

I found several cute duck crafts, but Ember said she wanted to do an activity. So I brainstormed and came up with the idea to have the girls make stick puppets, and then we would find a mud puddle where we could create our own One Duck Stuck production. I envisioned us taking a pic for each page. So I found line drawings for each of the animals in the book, printed as many as there were for each animal, cut out the animals, and set the girls to work coloring the images and attaching them to sticks.

Well, the girls lost interest before all the animals were colored. Ember asked if we can finish it up and do the pics next Saturday. If I did it over I would print the animals so that instead of 3 separate moose, I would have a group of 3 moose, for example. Then I would print enough for every child to have a complete set. When recreating the story, we can take turns using different children's puppets.

Lesson learned.

Change In Plan

At this point I've decided I need to give up the concept of a theme and be more loosey-goosey. So I will likely let each girl select one book a week, then I will fill in with my own choices when I have time.

Book: Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink

Eryn wanted to do mom school today, and since I didn't have anything prepared I asked her to choose a book, then I would come up with the activity. She chose Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink by Victoria Kann. In this story Pinkalicious whips up some pink lemonade to sell to make money to buy bubble gum.

I twisted the activity into making pink lemonade cupcakes, a combination of the original Pinkalicious book and this story. I used the Pink Lemonade Cupcakes recipe from ericasweettooth.com. These did have a sour bite to them, which I like in the cake. But the frosting was, as Eryn put it, "confusing" as it was both really sweet but also sour. I guess my palate isn't so complex. The girls liked the cupcakes, but I think if I make them again I will use canned frosting instead.
Ember's finished cupcake

Ember

Eryn

Eva (noticed the double-fisted sprinkling)

Aniston

Emily

Theme: Ember's School Library Book - Hug

We used Ember's school library book as the basis of our Mom School today: Hug by Jez Alborough. Before I told Eryn and Eva what we were doing for Mom School, I told Eryn that she could read the book. She started to whine (what, Eryn?) that she can't read, so I told her that's okay, I'd have Eva read it instead. Eryn quickly retracted her statement.

This book is fun because it has one word (okay, really three) repeated on nearly every page, and the pictures are so fun. It follows the story of a monkey who observes other parent-child animals hugging, and who really wants a hug himself.

For the activity I was inspired by the the "follow up activity" listed on littlerunningteacher.com. I found pictures of parent-child animals that corresponded to those in the book, then cut the picture to separate the two animals. I also printed the names of each group of animals.

Eva was responsible to match up the parent-child picture puzzles; Eryn helped as needed. This resulted in some really great teamwork (happy dance). Then Eryn looked at the animal names and matched them up to the pictures. I was surprised how easily Eryn did this.

Theme: Easter, Book: My Easter Basket

"The Easter Basket and the True Story of Easter," by Mary Manz Simon, relates how the colors of found in an Easter basket relate to and can remind us of the events of the first Easter:
green like the palm leaves,
purple like the Last Supper meal with wine,
red like Jesus's blood,
brown like the darkness of the tomb,
white like the angel who announced "He is risen!",
yellow like the Easter sun.

Ember read the book and we all followed along, choosing the candy that matched the color, and talking about the symbolism..as much as I could around Eva and Ellisyn candy grabbing.

Theme: Spring / Easter, Book: The Runaway Bunny

On Friday, April 5, we read "The Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown, about a bunny who threatens to run away from home, and his mother who will always find him. The bunny talks about the different forms he will take to hide from his mom, so we turned him into a loaf of bread modeled after what I saw on mamaslittlemuse.blogspot.co.uk.

The girls enjoyed kneading the dough.

Eva accidentally dropped her dough on the floor..twice.

But it all worked out and everyone (but Eva) enjoyed eating the finished product.

Theme: Easter, Book: The Story of Easter

As the girls colored these resurrection scene printables (from catholicicing.com)I read "The Story of Easter" by Patricia A. Pingry. Or rather, I started to read it and Ember asked to read it instead (score! counts towards her required reading minutes). This book is very high level and sparse on details and explanations, so once we finished it I did my own retelling of the first Easter events. All the girls were kept busy coloring which allowed for quiet time for them to hear what I was saying. Ember and Eryn asked questions and made statements so that I know they were listening and understanding what I was saying.

Our resurrection figures aren't as polished, and our final scene included a fluffy unicorn, but this was a book and activity that the girls enjoyed.