K is for...Kitten Fun

Cristi from Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg from Adventures with Jude are hosting this great weekly party called Blogging Through the Alphabet. All are welcome to join in, just make sure to keep your posts family-friendly. I am determined to stay faithful this time around. I might not always post on the same day of the week, but I have every intention to post something each week.

Here is how I decided my "theme" for this round of Blogging Through the Alphabet. As I was going through old blog posts recently, I noticed I have some neat ideas for activities and crafts that I did with in the past. Unfortunately, I always included them in my weekly wrap up posts or more recently in Poppins Book Nook posts, so they sort of got buried. I can't really share them as individual activities or create pinnable images to promote them and share my ideas, which is why I started this blog in the first place (to share my ideas with others who work with children). So, I am going to make new posts for these ideas.

I have found there is a huge benefit in this strategy. I am remembering  ideas that I had forgotten, which means I can now do these activities with the younger children. I will be sharing the old pictures and possibly sharing new pictures of the younger children participating.

K is for Kittens

Several years ago, we were up to the letter K and I found a cute version of Three Little Kittens  written by Jerry Pinkney.  The illustrations were beautiful and the story is cute.  Though I have to warn you, the story is told quite a bit differently. 

 I then found a free lapbook activity over at Homeschool Share.  The girls needed to color and cut out some mittens. 

Then I hid them around the living room.  Amelia then took a turn hiding them from me.  I did decide to just use these as activities instead of a lapbook.

Then the girls cut apart the pages and glued the little pictures that I had printed out from Homeschool Share.  I then decided to ask the girls if they wanted to make pie.  So we made a nice simple chocolate peanut butter pudding pie. I follow the instructions on the box of instant chocolate pudding.  Except I usually double the recipe, add a 1/4 more milk and add 3-4 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter.  Then I add chopped up Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.  The girls took their turn cutting them.

And adding the pudding mix.

Then they added the chopped up candy when I was done mixing it.

I told the girls they could eat the pie for dessert at dinnertime while wearing some mittens.

 Yes, they soiled their mittens.

School Time Week 32: K is for Kisses and Kittens

This week we started and concluded our letter K.  We will be continuing our /k/ sound next week with the letter C.
We started, as usual, with our K muffin tin:

I found a cute version of Three Little Kittens at the library where we go to story time.  The librarian had actually read this book several weeks ago.  This version is written by Jerry Pinkney.  

The illustrations were beautiful and the story is cute.  Though I have to warn you, the story is told quite a bit differently.  I then found a free lapbook activity over at Homeschool Share.  The girls needed to color and cut out some mittens. 

Then I hid them around the living room.  Amelia then took a turn hiding them from me.  I did decide to just use these as activities instead of a lapbook.  Mostly because I don't have any file folders left.  We didn't do any more of these activities until later in the week.

Then I came up with a little tracing/gluing activity:

They were to glue the K on and trace the words.

Amelia's tracing is still improving.

Even Hannah wanted to write.

Then the girls really got to kiss the paper.

Tabitha wanted to give her's a happy face.

Amelia's is sad because it is bleeding.  Or as she says, "It has bleed."

We don't usually wear makeup, but I made an exception for this.  In fact, we had to go out and buy the lipstick because I don't have any in the house.

Then Hannah had to see what was so fun about sticking faces on the paper.

Yummy!

 Today we again worked on the Three Little Kittens.  The girls cut apart the pages and glued the little pictures that I had printed out from Homeschool Share.  This version was closer to the traditional Three Little Kittens. Though the last line of each verse was changed.  For example, I know the last line of the first verse to be like this:

"Our mittens we have lost."

Their version reads, 

"That we have lost our mittens."

It just didn't sound right to me.

Anyway, because we put together the books I decided to ask the girls if they wanted to make pie.  So we made a nice simple chocolate peanut butter pudding pie. I follow the instructions on the box of instant chocolate pudding.  Except I usually double the recipe, add a 1/4 more milk and add 3-4 heaping tablespoons of peanut butter.  Then I add chopped up Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.  The girls took their turn cutting them.

And adding the pudding mix.

Then they added the chopped up candy when I was done mixing it.

I told the girls they could eat the pie for dessert at dinnertime while wearing some mittens.

 Yes, they soiled their mittens.

We have been enjoying some fun outdoor time at the park again this week.

Hannah just loves the slide.

Today when we went over to the park I started teaching the girls some Spanish using  a book I found yesterday at the library.  I have wanted to teach the girls a foreign language for some time.  I let them watch Dora the Explorer, but there isn't as much Spanish in there as I had originally hoped there would be.  A while back I had taken out Muzzy from the library, but I didn't really care for it.  The other day I saw a program mentioned/reviewed over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers called Speekee.  You can choose DVDs or the online version.  With the online version you can receive 2 weeks of a free trial before deciding if you want to pay the $7.50 per month.  I have not yet had a chance to check it out, but I am looking forward to it.  I want to make sure we will have the chance to really take advantage of the free trial.  It looks really good.  Filmed in Spain with Spanish children speaking only Spanish.  It has English and Spanish subtitles.  I love the idea of the immersion method for teaching a language.  So, if you are interested in teaching your children a foreign language you can also head over here to take advantage of the free trial.  As I mentioned I have not tried it yet.  You can head to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for her review.

Anyway, back to the book I found at the library.  It is Play and Learn Spanish by Ana Lomba and Marcela Summerville.

The authors are natives of Spain and Argentina respectively but now live in America.  In this book they share songs and dialogues for different scenarios, such as Time to Get Up!, Time to Get Dressed!, Let's Go To The Park!, and Let's Go to Bed!

The Spanish version is written side by side with the English and there are key words highlighted in addition to several pictures on the bottom of the page that are also highlighted.  This also comes with a CD.  I took it to the park and started using some phrases with the girls.

Vamos al parque-Let's go to the park.

Hemos llegado al parque- We have arrived at the park (wasn't that far of a journey, just across our back yard)

Qrieres ir al tobogan? Would you like to go on the slide?

and lots more.  

I am still not sure of my pronunciation, but I repeated the phrases over and over again.

Not sure how things will go, but I will be mentioning it again after having some time to really use it.

Please take a moment and check out my giveaway for Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping the New You.  I am keeping it open til June 1st.

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