Week 7: Calendars

We are back on track for the new year after missing 2 weeks for a death in the family and Christmas.... just in time for 2010! The Stars topic from the previous post went really well. Unfortunately we didn't get to the planetarium because you have to pay to get into the science museum as well which blew it out of the budget...oh well, maybe next year!

Since this week marks January 1st, I thought I would teach Lily a little bit about Calendars. We will be going through the days of the week and the months. I will also incorporate some New Year's Crafts and activities as well.

CALENDAR

Books:
Alligators and others all year long! : a book of months by Dragonwagon, Crescent.

Calendar by Livingston, Myra Cohn.

Calendarbears : a book of months Hague, Kathleen.

Coco all year round by Tanen, Sloane.

Here comes the year by Spinelli, Eileen.

Jump into January : a journey around the yearBlackstone, Stella.

Month by month a year goes round by Shields, Carol Diggory.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar- by Eric Carle (Days of the week)









Crafts:

Family Crafts has many pdfs for Printable Calendars I will have Lily Make
I am going to read the Very Hungry Caterpillar and we will do these activities to go along with it!
Inspire Me Crafts has a great Egg Carton Caterpillar craft that I think I will do too...(picture is from her website)



Songs: (Source)- These are Great!

Happy Days
Tune: Happy Days
Sunday, Monday, Happy Days
Tuesday, Wendsday Happy Days
Thursday Friday Happy Days
Saturday 7 Days
Grooovin all week with you!

Addams Family
There’s Sunday and there’s Monday
Then Tuesday then there’s Wendsday
Then Thursday then Friday
And then comes Saturday
Days of the week (snap snap), days of the week (snap snap) days of the week, days of the week days of the week(snap, snap)

Tune: For He's A Jolly Good Fellow
There are seven days in a week
Seven days in a week
Seven days in a week
And I can say them all.
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
Saturday is the last day
And I can say them all.
Then after we sing this song we name the days of the week by counting them out on our fingers. As we hold up the fingers we say, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Then we count the fingers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Then sing the song again.

Tune (Twinkle Twinkle)
Come Along and Sing with me
There are seven days you see
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, too.
Wednesday, Thursday, Just for you
Friday, Saturday, that's the end
Then the week starts over again.

Snacks:

I think I'm going to do a Caterpillar themed snack...we have Kiwi, so I'll cut it up and put a grape in between each segment and attach it to a long bamboo stick, or maybe thread with string..not sure..we'll see!

I LOVE this Muffin Tin Snack idea from The Masked Mommy too (picture from her blog)

Week 6: Stars

Lily is obsessed with having a star on top of the Christmas Tree...

so I thought, while she's really into stars, why not learn about them.

Advent has been going well.
Lily loves to take the paper down from the Advent Wreath
and see what the day's activity and bible verse is.
We'll keep it up until Christmas!

Stars

Background: Rather than explaining the molecular gas structure of a star, I figured it would be better to talk more general about stars. Hit topics like:

Stars are out in space, where the moon and the sun are.
When can we see stars? At night
Can we count the stars?
The Star in the East was what the Wise Men followed to find Jesus, the Son of God.


Books:

A star so bright : a Christmas tale by Butler, M. Christina

How to catch a star by Jeffers, Oliver

Little Owl and the Star : a Christmas Story by Murphy, Mary

Little Star by Louchard, Antonin

Stars by Tomecek, Steve

Shine by Langley, Karen

Mouse, mole, and the falling star by Benjamin, A. H.

Stars! Stars! Stars! by Barner, Bob

A ladder to the stars by Puttock, Simon


Crafts

• We only have an angel for the top of our tree, so we are going to make a star tree topper: I'm just going to make it out of cardboard, tin foil and paper.... we'll see
  

• We'll use star cookie cutters, blue construction paper with white and yellow paint to make outlines of stars... and Lily can paint the moon too!

• I'd also like to get a star punch, and tape black construction paper to the window to make our own constellations.

Activities

We have a planetarium in our town, so I think I'll take her to the one of the shows called Meet Sol the Sun. Link to WPB Science Museum

Go star gazing out on the back porch...blankets, hot cocoa..fun


Songs:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Under The Stars
Under the stars, one holy night,
A little Babe was born;
Over his head a star shone bright,
And glistened til the morn.
And wise men came from far away,
And shepherds wandered where He lay,
Upon His lowly bed of hay,
Under the stars one night.

Under the stars, one blessed night,
The Christ-Child came to earth,
And through the darkness broke the light
Of morning at his birth.
And sweet hosannas filled the air,
And guardian angels watched him where
The Virgin Mother knelt in prayer,
Under the stars one night.

Under the stars, this happy night,
We wait for Him once more,
And seem to see the wondrous sight
The shepherds saw of yore.
O, Baby born in Bethlehem,
Come to us as you came to them,
And crown us with love's diadem,
Under the stars tonight.

Snacks:

We'll make pancakes, sandiwches and cut them out like stars with cookie cutters...pretty much we'll make anything into a star that we can :)

I'll also try to find some star fruit. The girls love that fruit anyway. (Click the Picture for more info on Star Fruit)

(Photo Source- Natural Living Cuisine)