Paper Craft

C is for Caterpillar

Dear Sis,

Our Daily Reading

Today’s fiction selection was the children’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. William has loved this book since he was about 7 months old. He knows it so well he counts the fruit by himself and says, “but he was still hungry” on each page.

Today’s non-fiction selection was From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Camilla de la Bedoyere. It is a life cycle book with just the right amount of text and wonderful photography!

“C” is for Caterpillar Letter Craft

Parent Preparation

Student Assembly

  • Color letter C with crayons.
  • Cut out or ask your grown up to cut out the C and the caterpillar head.
  • Paste the letter C to a sheet of craft paper.
  • Paste caterpillar head, eyes, and antenna in place.
  • Paste pom-poms as desired.
  • Write or have your gown up title, name, and date your work, for your homeschool portfolio.

Butterfly Color Sorting Mat

Activity Materials

Our Process

  • Begin by asking student to name the color of each flower.
  • Then, naming the color of each butterfly as they go, have student place butterflies above the color match flower.

Butterfly Life Cycle Wheel

Activity Materials

Our Process

I handed William the life cycle wheel and started asking him questions. His responses were a mixture of verbal and visual using the wheel. Prompt ideas:

  • How does a caterpillar enter the world? 
  • Once a caterpillar is large enough, what does it become?
  • After a few weeks as a pupa, what emerges?
  • How do adult butterflies make new baby caterpillars?

Caterpillar Egg Counting Mats

Activity Materials

Our Process

  • First, we discussed that zero meant their were no eggs anywhere.
  • Then, we matched the puzzle numerals with the numbered leaf cards. 
  • Next, we placed the correct number of egg counters on each leaf, counting with each addition.
  • For leaf 10, we moved the one and zero numeral puzzle pieces before adding egg counters.

William worked out of sequence, on his own accord, and I didn’t try to correct him. He still successfully placed the proper number of egg counters on each leaf:)

Love,

b

B is for Buttons

Dear Sis,

Our Daily Reading

The first fiction selection is the widely popular book, Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by James Dean and Eric Litwin. As Pete’s favorite shirt loses buttons, your students gets some counting practice, and learns from Pete’s positive attitude that rotten luck is no reason to cry.

The second fiction selection, Grandma’s Button Box by Linda Williams Aber, is a story about a girl who spills her grandmother’s button box, while she is out. She and her cousins work together to find and sort all the buttons before she returns. Another great math story!

 “b” is for Button Letter Craft

Parent Preparation

  • Print b if for Button Printable from Tag Sis, You’re It!
  • Supply crayons, scissors, glue stick and liquid glue, assorted buttons, and a sheet of craft paper.

Student Assembly

  • Color “b” with crayons.
  • Cut out or ask your grown up to cut out your “b.”
  • Paste “b” to sheet of craft paper with glue stick.
  • Glue buttons to “b” with liquid glue.
  • Write or ask your grown up to title, name, and date your work, for your homeschool portfolio.

Pete the Cat Groovy Buttons Game

Game Play

2-4 Players

Set Up for Each Player

  • Cat figure place marker
  • 1 Button Jar
  • 2 Buttons (to place on Jar)

Rules of Play

  • Youngest player spins first.
  • Land on Green: add suggested number of Buttons to Jar.
  • Land on Red: remove suggested number of Buttons from Jar and place them on Pete’s Shirt.
  • Land on Blue: trade Jars with Player of choice.
  • Land on Blank Green Space of Pete’s Shirt: take all the Buttons on the Shirt.

Game End

  • Play ends when all buttons are collected.
  • Any buttons remaining on Pete’s Shirt are divided among players, starting with the youngest player.
  • Player with the most buttons wins!

Pete the Cat Groovy Buttons Game helps your student practice counting and number recognition for numbers 1-5.

Button Shape Sorting Jars

Activity Materials

Our Process

  • Review shapes using Shape Puzzle.
  • Read shape names on jars to student and have them place the corresponding shape over the name. The Flower Jar will be the only one without a shape.
  • Ask student to short buttons into the correct jar, saying the color and shape of each button as they go.

Lunch: Button Sandwiches

I used a glass to cut circles of bread and a drinking straw to create the button holes. William wanted PB&J, so I cut the bread first and then made the sandwiches. For ham or turkey and cheese, it would be easier to make the sandwich first and then cut it into a round. Just pull off the top slice and create the button holes before serving.

Love,

b

B is for Bear

Dear Sis,

Our Daily Reading

Our fiction selection for the day was, There’s a Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins. Poor mouse has an uninvited guest in his chair! Mouse rants in rhyme until finally, he gives up. When mouse leaves, bear goes home to find mouse asleep in his bed. Even little ones find the humor!

Our non-fiction selection for the day was, Brown Bears by Kate Riggs. This book is a quick read, so your little won’t be over whelmed with information. 

Breakfast: Bear Toast

Bear Toast
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Ingredients
  1. 1 slice bread
  2. 1 T peanut butter
  3. 3 banana slices
  4. 3 blueberries
Instructions
  1. Lightly toast bread.
  2. Spread with peanut butter.
  3. Top with banana slices and blueberries to make bear facial features.
Tag Sis, You're It! http://www.tagsisyoureit.com/

We had a midwife appointment today, so I made William’s toast to go. He was eating and listening to his daily reading during my 38 week check up. What can I say? Moms multi-task! Midwife Linda and the receptionist couldn’t get over how cute his breakfast was!

“B” is for Bear Letter Craft

Parent Preparation

  • Print Bear Parts and Upper Case B Templates from DLTK’s Educational Activities. Color and Black and White versions are available for both. We opted to bring the B is Black and White and the Part Parts in Color.
  • Cut out the Bear Parts. We didn’t use all the bear parts. We skipped the eye brows and tongue and traded the paper eyes for wiggly ones.
  • Supply a brown crayon, glue stick, and 2 large wiggly eyes.

Student Assembly

  • Color the letter B with a brown crayon.
  • Paste the dark ear circle onto the larger ear circles and paste the dark nose circle to the oval snout. 
  • Paste the ears, snout, and paws in place. 
  • Paste the wiggly eyes.
  • Write or ask your grown up to title, name, and date your work, for your homeschool portfolio.

Bear Counting Clip Cards

Activity Materials

Our Process

Today we didn’t incorporate our numeral puzzle because we were in a mall lounge waiting for Build-a-Bear to open. 

  • Shuffle cards.
  • First, ask student what color the bears are.
  • Then, ask student to count the bears.
  • Next, ask student to find the correct numeral. My student has little to no number recognition at this point, so I read the numbers to him slowly, pointing to each one, and then asked him to identify the correct number.
  • Finally, we put the cards in sequential order.

September Field Trip

Built-a-Bear Workshop

As part of our schooling process, I decided that I wanted to make sure we had a field trip each month. Family friends John and Susan gave us some Build-a-Bear Workshop gift cards a few months ago, so I thought B is for Bear day would be the perfect opportunity to put them to use. Ironically, William chose a dinosaur for himself and a rabbit for baby sister… neither of which begin with letter B!

Afterward, William played in the mall play area for the better part of a half an hour and we had food court pizza as a special treat for lunch. It was toddler heaven!

Gummy Bear Pattern Strips

Activity Materials

  • Print Gummy Bear Patterns from Pre Kinders, on card stock.
    • Cut out and laminate for durability.
  • Supply gummy bears. I bought two bags because I realized there were hardly any green and white in them!

Our Process

  • Sort gummy bears by color.
  • Work through as many pattern strips as your student has patience for. I bribed mine with the promise of 3 gummy bears to eat after the completion of a pattern:)

When William was all tucked in for nap today, next to his new dinosaur, he smiled and said, “We had a good day Mama.” Afterward, I went to my room, to make the bed, since we left for our appointment before Daddy was up. When I was done making the bed, I tidied a few other things, and realized that William had placed baby sister’s new rabbit in her crib. Sometimes that kid makes my heart melt!!!

Love,

b

 

B is for Boat

Dear Sis,

Our Daily Reading

Today’s non-fiction selection was Boat Book by Gail Gibbons. It talks about all the different kinds of boats, broken into categories by how they are powered and what jobs they perform. A great toddler book… that is simply factual, without being condescending. 

Today’s fiction selection is the Golden Book Classic, Scruffy the Tugboat by Gertrude Crampton. If you don’t remember from when you were a kid, Scruffy is a toy boat that longs for adventure in the great big world. Once he has his adventure, he realizes that he is better off in his small section of the world, with the man in the polka-dot tie and his son. 

“b” is for Boat Letter Craft

Parent Preparation

  • Print b is for Boat Letter Craft by Tag Sis, You’re It, on white card stock.
  • Provide paints, brushes, painting smock, scissors, blue sheet of craft paper, and a glue stick.

Student Assembly

  • Choosing different colors for each part, paint the trapezoid boat, triangle sail, and “b” mast. Set it aside to dry.
  • Once your painting is dry, ask your grown up to help you cut out your boat parts.
  • Paste the boat parts to blue craft paper.
  • Write or ask your grown up to title, name, and date your work, for your homeschool portfolio.

Colored Sail Apple Boat Float

Activity Materials

  • 10 different colored sheet of craft foam, cut into squares. We used red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black, gray, and brown.
  • 10 lollipop sticks, trimmed skewers, or similar narrow craft stick, to thread sails onto.
  • 5 apples, sliced in half.
  • A dish bin, half filled with water.

Our Process

  • As your student hands you sails to poke into apples, ask them what color it is, reminding them if they forgot, and having them say the color name back to you. 
  • Have them review color names again as you place the boats into the water. Only 7 of our 10 boats were sea worthy, but that’s okay. It presented the opportunity for more practice.
  • First, we counted all the sea faring boats. Then, we counted the boats that sank and had to be docked.
  • Finally, we named the colors of the sea faring boats. Then, we named the colors of the boats that sank.

Three of our boats were not sea worthy. The first one, I accidentally pieced through the skin on the bottom of the apple. It floated for a while, until too much water got into it. The other two weren’t symmetrical enough, and tipped themselves with their own weight. William decided we should just eat the boats that didn’t work:) 

Song of the Day

We printed this lyric sheet by downloading the PDF from Children Love to Sing. We sang to our sailing apple boats before cleaning up.

Transportation Counting Puzzles

Activity Materials

Our Process

  • Lay out all the number cards at random. Counting between each addition, match the wooden puzzle numeral to the corresponding card number.
  • Using the puzzle as a reference, and counting between each addition, line up the number cards in sequence.
  • Working with shuffled transportation counting cards, ask student to count the number of vehicles on each card.
  • Then, count down the number row, and place the vehicle card in the correct location.
  • Finally, we discussed that number ten was made with two numerals… the one and zero. 

We even finished our lesson early enough to go to library story time!

Love,

b

B is for Bee

Dear Sis,

Our Daily Reading

Today’s fiction selection is, Bee: A Peek-Through Picture Book by Britta Teckentrup. This book is a wonderfully illustrated journey through the day in a life of a foraging worker bee. It even talks about how bees communicate with other colony members, using the waggle dance, to guide other bees to the location of plentiful flowers.  

Today’s non-fiction selection is, The Bee Book by Charlotte Milner. This book covers the life cycle, tasks and hive life, pollination and honey making, body structure, and threats to bee populations. It will need some paraphrasing, but it has plenty of information on the pages your child finds extra interesting:) William wanted to know everything on the body structure and pollination pages!

“B” is for Bee Letter Craft

Parent Preparation

  • Print B is for Bee Template, on white card stock. I found this free template on Miss Maren’s Monkeys blog.
  • Cut out the template letter B, trace it onto yellow construction paper, and cut out the yellow B. 
  • Cut out the template wing, trace it twice on black and white construction paper, and cut out. 
  • The stripes are not provided on the template. I cut 3 black – 1 inch strips that were 6.5 inches long. We tucked under additional length to match the contours of the letter. 
  • Supply a glue stick, blue sheet of craft paper, 1 large wiggly eye, and a black pipe cleaner, cut in half, for antenna. 

Student Assembly

  • Paste white wings over black wings, so just a bit of the black is slowing.
  • Paste black stripes to letter “B,” folding under edges as needed.
  • Paste wings to the back of the “B.”
  • Paste “B” to sheet of blue construction paper.
  • Peel up the top of the “B” and paste antenna in place.
  • Paste eye in place.
  • Write or ask your grown up to title, name, and date your work, for your homeschool portfolio. 

Bee Shape Craft

Activity Materials

Our Process/Student Assembly

  • Review all the shapes on the puzzle.
  • Spread out Bee Shapes and sort them. Remember the wiggly eyes are shapes too!
  • Use glue stick to assemble Bee Shape Craft, using shape and color names as you work.
    • Paste yellow body oval to white wing heart.
    • Paste black rectangular stripes to yellow body oval.
    • Paste black stinger triangle to the bottom of the yellow body oval.
    • Paste yellow head circle to top of the yellow body oval.
    • Paste black head contrast oval to yellow head circle.
    • Paste circular wiggly eyes to the black head contrast oval.

Bees in the Hive Counting Mat

Activity Materials

Our Process

  • First, we matched the number circles with the numerals on the puzzle. We introduced 10 today and placed it after nine.
  • We discussed that zero meant no bees were in the hive. We moved on to the remaining counting numerals, one at a time.
  • First, we counted on the puzzle to learn the numeral name.
  • Then, we placed the corresponding numeral circle on the hive and place 1 bee with each addition.
  • Next, we checked our work by counting the bees.
  • Finally, during clean up, we revised the concept of zero, when no more bees were on the hive.

The Life Cycle of a Bee

We printed the Honey Bee Life Cycle Printable, from Preschool Powol Packets, on card stock. We placed the chart in a page protector and cut out and laminated the two part cards for durability.

Our Process

  • With the chart in view, starting with egg, I asked William to find the picture card, in sequence, by using its proper name. We arranged them in a circle as we went. 
  • For the second phase, I shuffled the word cards, read them allowed, and asked William to place them on the correct picture cards. 

I was shocked with how well William retained Life Cycle information from our reading earlier that morning. We worked through this process in only a few minutes!

Love,

b

Play Money

Dear Sis,

William has been very curious about money lately. I suggested we make some toy money and he liked that idea very much. I finally had some time this evening while William and Daddy went to the car wash and park. I found a free printable here.

I used card stock and the laminator for extra durability.

I also printed a second page of bills and coins, but ended up discarding all the $1.00 coins because they didn’t fit in the coin purse.

I used clear packing tape to assemble the wallet, credit card pocket, and coin purse, and adhesive velcro circles to make a closure for the coin purse.

William was very impressed saying, “This is great! Thank you Mama!” over and over as he checked out all the pockets and their contents:)

Love,

b

 

Father’s Day Gift

Dear Sis,

At the grocery store today William pointed out the fruit-by-the-foot. I asked if he wanted to get some for Daddy for Father’s Day. He thought that was good. When I asked how many, he gave the answer he always gives… five:) 

After dinner, we made a card to go with our silly gift. I chose the sentiment, but William chose the font and colors of each line.

To my surprise, William pick brown card stock. I expected him to grab a super bright color:) We cut and pasted our sentiment inside the card. Then, I asked how he wanted to decorate his card. His response? Sprinkles!

I wrote with the glue. He sprinkled… and ate… sprinkles! 

Love,

b

Father’s Day Project

Dear Sis,

Today we made some sentimental work gloves for all the grandpas as a father’s day gift.

We bought a three pack of leather work gloves at Menards for $4.99. We pulled out some blue, green, and black paint respectively. We put the paint on a paper plate and painted William’s hand with a sponge brush and then used it like a stamp on the palm of each glove. We only smudged one, which was amazing considering my stamp was attached to a wiggly 2.5 year old:)

We had a soapy water pail and a drying rag at the ready to clean our hands between stampings. 

The idea and poem were found here.

Here is an editable printable, so our readers can put in their Father/Grandfather’s Name and the Name of their tiny gift giver.

Father’s Day Glove Poem

Love,

B