Week 11: Birds

Last week's Chores went really well. Lily is really into completing her chores and having me look at them which is nice to hear. Her favorite chore is making her bed which she is becoming better at every day.

Tomorrow, Friday, February 12 starts the beginning of the Great Backyard Birdcount! I am sooo excited about this opportunity to talk to Lily about birds, explore classification and identification using birds! I actually am not a huge fan of birds being around me....but looking at birds through binoculars is RIGHT up my alley :)

You can visit their site here. This is actually going to be a family activity for us, and I encourage you to try it out too! I also did a post about this over at Savvy Moms Save...scheduled for tomorrow!

BIRDS

Books:

Henry the impatient heron by Love, Donna,

Sylvie by Sattler, Jennifer Gordon.

Riki's birdhouse by Wellington, Monica.

A place for birds by Stewart, Melissa.

Even an ostrich needs a nest : where birds begin by Kelly, Irene.

Twitter and tweet : bringing home a bird by Tourville, Amanda Doering

Crafts and Activities

Paper Plate Bird Craft- Picture from Site

Milk Jug Bird House

Songs

5 Little Birds

Five little birds in a nest in a tree

(hold up right hand)

Are just hungry as can be

"Peep", said baby bird number one

(wiggle one finger)

Mother bird promised she would come

"Peep, Peep", said baby bird number two,

If she doesn't come what will we do?

"Peep, Peep, Peep", said baby bird number three,

I hope she can find this tree.

"Peep, Peep, Peep, Peep", said baby bird number four,

She never was so late before.

"Peep, Peep, Peep, Peep, Peep", said baby bird number five,

When will our mother bird arrive?

Well, here she comes to feed her family

(use left hand as mommy bird)

They're all as happy as can be!

Five Little Ducks
5 little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away,
Mommy (daddy) duck called quack quack quack,
But only 4 little ducks came back.

4 little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away,
Mommy (daddy) duck called quack quack quack,
But only 3 little ducks came back.

3 little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away,
Mommy (daddy) duck called quack quack quack,
But only 2 little ducks came back.

2 little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away,
Mommy (daddy) duck called quack quack quack,
But only 1 little duck came back.

1 little duck went out one day
Over the hills and far away,
Mommy (daddy) duck called quack quack quack,
But no little ducks came wondering back.

No little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away,
Mommy (daddy) duck called quack quack quack,
And 5 little ducks came wandering back.

Two Little Black Birds
A simple action rhyme

Two little black birds
Sitting on the wall,
(hold up one finger of each hand)
One named Peter,
The other named Paul.
Fly away Peter!
(put a hand behind your back)
Fly away, Paul!
(put the other hand behind you back)
Come back, Peter!
(bring the first hand from behind your back)
Come back, Paul!
(bring the second hand from behind your back)

Snacks:

I love this idea, but its a little sugary...perhaps we'll do it! Both by Make Me a Saint

Pigeon Poop!-

Kidseed! Love this idea too!

Week 10: Chores

I must admit, I have completely been thrown out of wack by my all of a sudden highly energized and needy 1.5 year old, as well as feeling the pressure to try to find quality time with both of my girls. It seems to be few and far between.

I think we all have been frustrated at how the last few weeks have been going, there have been a few gleaming moments, but for the most part, my life seems completely chaotic...

(Yes, that is a bike ramp in the middle of our living room...such is my life)

What can I do about this?

Enter me.

I have decided to partake in creating Rhythms in my children's lives. This includes scheduling (just a little) more than I have been, as well as creating some 'responsibilities' for Lily.

Over the next week, I will be posting my weekly schedule as well as Lily's Responsibility and Earnings Chart.

Our baking week was great! I just updated it with some pics too. It actually turned into 2 weeks, and for that I am sorry, but that's just the way my life has been going! I will be posting pictures as soon as I can find some time to do so. The Rhyming Week craft has also been updated with pics.

This week, I will be implementing some chores into Lily's routine. I wanted to separate Lily's chart into activities that are 'expected' because she is a part of this family, and then there will be extra activities she can do to earn money.

I will also be implementing the 3 bottle money management system for her. The bottles will be labeled "Giving", "Spending", and "Saving". I feel that this life tool is so important, and this is one way to start early.

Here is what I've got planned:

CHORES

Books:

Once upon a Saturday by Lammle, Leslie.

The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores by Jan Berenstain

Chores Chores Chores! by Salina Yoon

The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room by Stan Berenstain and Jan Berenstain

Chores to Do by Kawanna, L. Hagood

Activities and Crafts:

I found a great site for free printables. I am choosing the Dora chart found here. We will be talking about what chores will be on the expected activity list and what chores will be on the earning list. Here is a list of age appropriate chores.

The next step is to discuss money, and how much she will be paid when she completes an 'earning' activity. My girlfriend just started this exact system with her daughter, and she pays $.05 a chore. She keeps all of the change and at the end of the week, they divide it up evenly into the three different jars- Spending, Saving and Giving. I don't think Lily is at the age level where she will understand monetary value and amounts, but I do think she can grasp giving, saving and spending... there are actual 'piggy' banks that are meant for this type of saving, but we are just going to use baby jars, and Lily can decorate them.

If you think your child is ready for a money lesson, here is a great one!

First School has a great lesson on Bumble Bees- There is a short story on there about the Buzzy Bee and her chores. There is also a Valentine's Day Bee Mine craft that we will do.

Songs:

I have had a hard time finding songs about Chores, but one of the first things I thought of was the "This is the Way" song...I can then ad lib whatever chore we decide upon.

If I Were a Farmer ( Sung to Did You Ever See A Lassie)

We'll pretend we are on a farm..doing farm chores

Oh, if I were a farmer, a farmer, a farmer

Oh, if I were a farmer, what would I do?

I would milk the cows each morning

Each morning, each morning

I would milk the cows each morning, that's what I'd do.

Continue using:

I would feed the baby chickens

I would gather eggs for breakfast

Snacks:

I figured since this is the first week we will be implementing chores, that I would offer a little more incentive.... Ice Cream. If she successfully completes her 'expected' chores for the week, she can have Ice Cream...this might actually entice her more than earning money!

Week 10: Baking!

I think since Lily has started talking, (maybe even before),
she has wanted to help me in the kitchen...
since I am a very 'impatient' person,
I have always said no,
and kindly directed her towards her play kitchen....
During this time, I would always say,

"When you are 3, you can help me."

Lily is 3.

So, I am going to do a lesson on baking!
We are going to bake bread.
Last week we baked bread,
but I only let her pour the flour in and do a little kneading.
This time, she will bake the entire loaf herself!

I am also going to talk about the importance of eating healthy. I will give her different options of things she could eat and see if she can guess the healthy one.

Baking


Books- Fiction

If You Give a Moose A Muffin by Laure Numeroff

This Little Bunny Can Bake by Janet Stein

Who made this cake? by Nakagawa, Chihiro

The story of Cherry the pig by Yamada, Utako

Five little monkeys bake a birthday cake by Christelow, Eileen.

Eight animals bake a cake byElya, Susan Middleton

Blue Bowl Down by C Millen- About Breadmaking

Froggy Bakes a Cake by Jonathan London

Cook-a-doodle-doo! by Stevens, Janet.











Books: Baking and Cooking with Kids

Baking with Kids by Linda Collister- Side Note: This is one of my favorite Cookbooks

Kids' baking : 60 delicious recipes for children to make by Lewis, Sara.

Bake it up! : desserts, breads, entire meals & more by
Dunnington, Rose

Baking Kids Love by Sur La Table and Cindy Mushet





Crafts and Activities:

Obviously we will be baking bread...here is the recipe I will be using. I have made this bread before and it is by far the easiest to work and be edible..

Amish White Bread-
Here is how it all went down for us....

Inquiring little eyes want to know... how does yeast become active?

Now for the "Mommy, I can do it....pictorial"

And she did!

She even kneaded the dough! Possibly her favorite part!

Let it Rise!

The Finished ProductNot too bad for her first time!

Family Fun has some recipes for you to make with your children too.


I REALLY want to get this book, they don't have it at my library, but I think I might purchase it from Amazon. It also contains poems and stories about baking bread with children.

Baking Bread with Children by Warren Lee Cohen



Here are some baking coloring pages from DLTK.


I would also like to do a baking sequence recipe game. This would be where I would cut out pictures of someone baking a cake, ie- mixing, baking, eating...etc. I would like her to put them in sequence order.

I also want to show Lily how to properly measure using liquid measuring cups and dry measuring cups. We will probably practice with water and flour.

Songs:

Buns in the Bakery Shop

"Six brown buns in the bakery shop,

six brown buns with the sugar on the top.

Along came ____ (name a child) with a penny to pay

she took one bun and he/she ran away."

(Next time around you'd sing it with five brown buns and name the next child.

Keep going until you are at none)

Pat-A Cake

Pat a cake, pat a cake

bakers man

bake me a cake as fast as you can

pat it and roll it and mark it with an L

and put it in the oven for Lily and me!

Snacks:

Of course we will eat our fresh oven baked bread!

Week 9: Recycling

Last week we explored the world of rhyming... 

I have come to find that I am very rusty at rhyming. 

We played the guess the animal game,

 and I don't think 'blafigator' is a word 

(or if it even technically rhymes)...

but hey, she guessed Alligator, so she understands rhyming right?

Curious George is one of Lily's favorite shows that I let her watch. 

Last week, there was an episode on recycling. 

I thought it would be great to teach her about recycling, 

which would then lead into her first chore...

putting the recycling items out in the garage and sorting. 

Hmmm, maybe chores will be next week!

RECYCLING

Books:

Stuff: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by Steven Kroll

Recycle Everyday by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Recycle! : a handbook for kids by Gibbons, Gail

Curious George plants a tree by Perez, Monica.

50 simple things kids can do to recycle by Montez, Michele

Crafts and Activities: SOURCE

RECYCLE CHORE
I am definitely going to have Lily help me with the recycling this week, and start to teach her how to do it on her own. We already have three different baskets in our garbage cabinet in the kitchen, so it should be pretty easy to teach her....'should' being the key word there :)

RECYCLED MATERIAL COLLAGE
I have a bunch of magazines that I want to recycle. Before I do that, I will have Lily go through them and find items that can be recycled. She will then glue them in their appropriate bin on her paper.

RECYCLE PLANT
I would love to take Lily to the Recycle Plant to see how things work once the truck picks them up, but I will have to look into it.


SONGS: SOURCE


RECYCLING FOR OUR EARTH

Hear the cans go crunch, crunch, crunch,
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch,
Hear the cans go crunch, crunch, crunch,
Recycle for our earth.

Hear the bottle go ding, ding, ding
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,
Hear the bottle go ding, ding, ding
Recycle for our earth.

Hear the paper go crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
Hear the paper go crinkle, crinkle, crinkle
Recycle for our earth

Recycling Song - Sung to "Row Row Row Your Boat"

Save, save, save the cans, throw them in the bin,
We can help to save the earth if we all pitch in.

Save, save, save the paper....
Save, save, save the bottles....
Save, save, save the plastics....

SNACKS: SOURCE

Donut Holes- The hole cut from donuts used to go to waste until someone thought of selling them. Ask them if they now of anything that goes to waste that could be used. To drive home the point give them donut holes for snack.

Week 8: Rhyming

Last week's Calendar lesson went well. Lily was so excited about having her own January calendar in her room, that she decided to cross of most of the days in the month, even though they haven't happened yet....she told me it was ok though.

She is still having trouble knowing what is a month, what is a day and what is a year. If I ask her what month it is, she tells me it is Monday... Hopefully the recurring calendar talk will help this.

This week, I wanted to do a little work on some sort of language arts, so I decided on Rhyming. My plan is to find a few books from the library to focus on, and then do crafts and activities around those books. I actually found a few good pre-planned lesson plans online for some books, so I will definitely use those.

RHYMING

Books:

Sheep In a Jeep by Nancy Shaw - Lesson Plan Link

10 Apples Up On Top by Theo LeSieg ( Dr. Seuss) - Lesson Plan Link

Do You Know What I Am? Chad Geran- Source

Funny Rhyming Books: Compiled from This List (these are the ones I could get from the library)

Tub Toys by Terry Miller Shannon

The Seven Silly Eaters by Marla Frazee

Scranimals by Prelutsky, Jack.

An octopus followed me Home by Yaccarino, Dan.

Mrs. McNosh hangs up her wash by Weeks, Sarah.

Mrs. Biddlebox by Smith, Linda

Sixteen cows by Wheeler, Lisa

Crafts and Activities:

Animal Guessing Game...You give them hints and clues about an animal you are thinking of and then tell them a word that rhymes with the animal. See if they can guess it! Example:
“I’m thinking of an animal who sleeps through the long winter. This animal is very large, and sometimes it likes to eat honey. Its name rhymes with the word ‘hair.’

(Excerpt and Idea from Bright Hub)

Reading Plan- I want to start reading books that deal with the topic of the week in a different way then her naptime and bedtime books. Here is how it will go:

1) Have Lily look at the Cover and tell me what she thinks the book will be about, have her tell me words and letters she can recognize

2) Go through each page and look at the pictures together. Have her tell the story in her own words

3) Go back and read the book from the beginning.

4) Find out what she liked best about the book and what she learned about.


Craft:

Find a sheep outline, and curl black strips of construction paper. Have Lily glue the "wool" to the sheep. We will sing the nursery rhyme while we work.

Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir,
Three bags full.

One for my master,
One for my dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.

File Folder Rhyming Game- Found here at Enchanted Learning

I also like the idea of rhyming BINGO....but we'll see how much time we have.

Here's another Nursery Rhyme Book Idea if you are daring!


Songs: Here's a Great List of Nursery Rhyme Lyrics

It's Raining, It's Pouring
It's raining, it's pouring;
The old man is snoring.
He went to bed and he Bumped his head
And he couldn't get up in the morning.

It's snowing, it's blowing
The old man is growing
He ate so much one day for lunch
Every part of him was showing.


It warm out and sunny
The old man loves honey
He tried to seize
A batch from the bee's
And they didn't find it funny.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Teddy bear, teddy bear - turn around,

Teddy bear, teddy bear - touch the ground

Teddy bear, teddy bear - shake your hips,

Teddy bear, teddy bear - blow a kiss

Teddy bear, teddy bear - jump up high,
Teddy bear, teddy bear - see me smile
Teddy bear, teddy bear - give a hug,
Teddy bear, teddy bear - lots of love

Oh la, la, la, la, la love my teddy bear

Snacks:

Hard Boiled Humpty Dumpty Eggs- I'll get out food coloring and Let Lily paint his face on the eggs shell...she can then drop the egg on her plate and take it apart!