End of Week Reflections

We spent the week exploring the world of animals: wild and farm.  We ended up using the book "For You are a Kenyan Child" as the "rowed" book for the week.  We read it daily, sometimes twice at Rachel's request.  At first it was a bit over her head, but by the end of the week, she had absorbed it and started pointing out things in the pictures that I had missed.  We all (Dad included), ended up learning what a Bush Baby was.  It appears on virtually every page of the book and I had paid it no attention, focusing on larger comprehension issues.

Last night, I was playing with Rachel using our alphabet cards that have an animal on every card, along with its name and its starting letter.  Some of the cards are landscape and some portrait.  The animals are sometimes askew on the cards.

We sorted them into fish, birds, mammels and bugs. We'd never done this before, so I wasn't sure she could do it.  No problem.

So, then, I remembered rivka had her son sort a deck according to landscape or portrait orientation.  Ok, let's see if she can get the hang of it.  I showed her an example of landscape and an example of portrait.  Then, I handed her the deck.  She sorted the deck, no problem.  What weirded me out was that no matter how the card was turned in her hand, she got it in the right pile without physically turning the card to see how it compared to the example.  I have no idea what she was keying off of.  She didn't take any time thinking about it or turning her head.

Things that worked well this week:
1. The visit to the fair
2. Cleaning out her art and "puzzle" drawers upstairs.  She ended up playing with a couple of things she hadn't looked at in ages.

Things that didn't work so well this week:
1. Comparing crayon colors to those those colors found in a picture
2. Looking at where grandma was on a daily basis.  It was just too abstract.

Royal Winter Fair

We spent the day at the Royal Winter Fair looking at and feeding farm animals.  She fed a goat and a llama, had a chance to pet a bunny, saw cows, horses, sheep, ducks, chickens and pigs.  She also got to watch a cow being milked, which led to a discussion about how the milk we drink comes from cows.

Rachel feeding a goat.

Canadian Wildlife and Kenyan Huts

Today we spent time looking through the library books about Canadian wildlife: deer, otters, beaver, bear.  She spent time sharing the book on deer with her dolls and stuffed animals.

Later, we built a hut in the basement like the hut that the little boy lived in the "You are a Child of Kenya".  (Yeah, I know....not exactly a grass hut, but it was fun.)

We also looked at pictures of where Grandma is today -  Sarova Shaba Lodge

National Geographic: Cool Cats

I downloaded a video from National Geographic Kids about cats.  They covered some of the cats that can be found in Africa.  We mainly just looked at the images.  I pointed out things like leopards have spots.  Lions live in families. Stuff like that.

She watched half of it earlier in the week. We may try to watch the rest on Saturday.

For You are a Kenyan Child

Today we read For You are a Kenyan Child.  It is a bit beyond her in terms of vocabulary, but we spent time looking at the pictures and talking about what the little boy did during his day. I think we'll read this one everyday this week.  We also reread Play With Me by Janice Maynard.  It is a lovely story of a little girl interacting with the wild animals in the meadow.

We talked about Grandma having gotten to Kenya today and looked at pictures of animals she might see while there.  We also looked at a map and I pointed out the big blue area and said that Grandma had flown over an ocean.  Rachel responded with "very fast in a jet....vrooom".  I think she is more impressed with a fast plane then a foreign culture. :)

Week Plan: November 6 - 12, Topic: Animals

We are starting Before Five in a Row this week. I have played with it off and on over the last year, but Rachel is now to the point of needing some additional enrichment activities. Technically, we are starting with "The Little Bunny" because the week will about animals.  However, she has read that one a lot already, so we are going to be reading through several of the books we have about animals, in addition to the supplemental ones from the library.

Her grandmother is going to Kenya for two weeks, so we will follow her trip online. She is going on safari. Also we are going to the Royal Winter Fair this coming week. There will be lots of opportunities to look at animals and talk about the difference between domesticated animals (specifically farm animals), and wild animals. 

Books:
(books she has already read, but we will revisit again)
A Big Treasury of Little Animals by Phoebe Dunn (which includes The Little Bunny)
Play with Me by Marie Hall Ets
Animals, Animals All Around by Catherine and Laurenc Anholt
A to Z of Animals illustrated by Peter David Scott
Biscuit Visits the Farm by Alyssa Capucilli

(new books from the library...all but the last two are mainly just for the photos of the animals)
All About...Canadian Animals: Beavers by Barb McDermott and Gail McKeown
All About...Canadian Animals: Whitetailed Deer by Barb McDermott and Gail McKeown
Giraffes by Barbara Parker
Endangered Elephants by Bobbie Kalman
Otters by Emilie Lepthien
Grizzlies by Lynn Stone
Chipmunk Family by Lois Brunner Bastian
Discover Kenya by Chris Ward

Owen and Mzee: The Language of Friendship by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff and Dr. Paula Kahumbu
For You are a Kenyan Child by Kelly Cunnane


Art:
Sorting colors in crayon box in different ways
Matching crayon colors to colors of animals in books
Make finger print animals

Language Arts:
Game of "Which letter does animal name start with?
Encourage her to continue making up stories about her toys (specifically her stuffed animals)  For the last three days she has been pretending she is Lenny from Wonder Pets and making up stories.

Fine Motor Skills:
Tracing games involving animals going to barn or jungle

Geography:
She is still too young to grasp globes and maps to any large degree, however we will talk every day about "where is Grandma today" and look it up online. Thankfully all the places she is going have websites.

Science:
Field trip to Royal Winter Fair

Music:
We continue to learn new songs on the way to playschool.  (It keeps the car ride from getting too boring.)

In addition, she has play school three mornings a week, a 15 minute swimming lesson once a week, and gymnastics once a week for an hour.

Believe it or not, she still has several hours each day during which she simply plays. None of the planned activities takes more than a few minutes with the exception of going to the fair....which is just fun!  We typically do the tracing games, which she calls puzzles, while I am cooking dinner.  We do music both in the car and spontaneously around the house.  Luckily, that comes easily.  We sing and dance daily.  She has also asked to watch her yoga cd some more and likes to try all the positions.