Bobbie Kalman

I am finding that Bobbie Kalman has a
ton of excellent books for preschool-2nd(ish) grade.  They're
written for early elementary kids to read, and so they are sometimes
too texty for preschoolers, so I just summarize it when we read
them.  But they have tons of pictures, and the information is
really good.   It's a good review for mom    Here's a link to all of her books on Amazon - Bobbie Kalman
She's worth checking out at the library - we have a small-town library
but it is suprisingly well-stocked.  I've been really impressed.
  And they have a ton of her books, which have been really
helpful.

good book

This is a book I picked up at the library today.  It's a good book, with lots and lots of simple ideas in it.   The Ultimate Preschool Playbook : Easy, Educational, and Entertaining Activities for Your Two- to Five-Year-Old by Dorothy Einon. 
It's linked to Amazon....I see they have them used for $1.25 - not
bad.  Some of her other books look good, too.   Worth
checking to see if your library has it.

Fun food ideas

I'm
trying to come up with fun ways to eat/serve food for the kids lunches
and breakfast.  Here are some links that have some good ideas.

Kid's Recipes
Family Fun recipes and ideas
Fun Kraft Food ideas
Snacking Fun
lots of fun food ideas

Chinese Music

I was looking up asian music and came across this:

Chinese Children's songs - mp3's

I had to LOL - one of the songs is called Communist Young Pioneers.


Here's a bunch more Chinese music

Learning Objectives

Here
is a list of learning objectives that I think Alysa should know by the
end of the year.  Most of these are taken off the Michigan Dept.
of Ed. website.  Most of them are actually kindergarten goals, but
I picked all the ones that I thought she should/could know.  This
is more to give me an idea of what to work on casually with her, and
not really have it be an intense learning experience.

Reading

• Recognize colors.
• Recognize and name capital and lower case letters and sounds.
• Comprehend beginning sound-symbol relationships.
• Identify opposites.
• Match letters, words and designs.
• Recognize rhyming words.
• Develop listening and speaking skills.
• Follow directions.
• Sequence events.
• Develop ability to print letters and copy words.
• Recognize that literature comes in many forms.
• Recognize that writing goes from left to right.
• Acquire emergent (beginning) reading skills.
• Recognize a few  basic sight words.
• Follow familiar written text while pointing to matching words.
• Identify a variety of narrative genre including
  —stories
  —nursery rhymes
  —poetry
  —songs.
•  Discuss simple story elements in narrative text
  —setting
  —characters
  —events
• Form upper and lower case letters.
  

Math

• Identify basic shapes.
• Complete patterns.
• Identify and reproduce sets 1-10.
• Classify by shape, color, and size.
• Print numbers 0-20.
• Understand the concept of addition and subtraction.
• Develop problem solving skills.
• Develop concepts and comparisons of measurement.
• Read and write numerals to 30 and connect them to the quantities they represent.
• Count orally to 100 by ones. Count to 30 by 2s, 5s and10s using grouped
  objects as needed.
• Create, describe, and extend simple number patterns.
• Know and use the common words for the parts of the day (morning, afternoon,
  evening, night) and relative time (yesterday, today, tomorrow, last week, next year).
•  Identify tools that measure time (clocks measure hours and minutes; calendars
  measure days, weeks, and months).
• Compare two or more objects by length, weight and capacity, e.g., which is
  shorter, longer, taller?
• Compare length and weight of objects by comparing to reference objects, and
  use terms such as shorter, longer, taller, lighter, heavier.
• Identify, sort and classify objects by attribute and identify objects that do not
  belong in a particular group.
• Create, describe, and extend simple geometric patterns.
• Know and understand money values
  

Science

• Identify characteristics associated with the four seasons.
• Understand the importance and functions of the five senses.
• Observe and discuss concept of change.
• Describe seasonal changes in weather.
  

October Unit Studies

Australia Unit Study
Fall Unit Study
South America Unit Study
Farm Unit Study

Australia 5 Day Plan
Fall 5 Day Plan
South America 5 Day Plan
Farm 5 Day Plan

Australia 5 Day Plan

Do coloring sheets all week,
using different art methods

Monday
Math
Money Flashcards
Buried
Treasure
Science
Air activities
Crafts
Lesson 1 art curriculum
Sandpaper prints
Misc.
Look up
Australia on Google Earth
Color map

Tuesday
Math
Money
Flashcards
Coin Rubbings
Science
Straw
Glider
Crafts
Lesson 2 art
curriculum
Puzzle prints
Misc.
Paint
flag

Wednesday
Math
File Folder
Games
Crafts
Map collage
Food/Cooking
Anzac Biscuits
Science
talk about ecosystems of Australia

Thursday
Math
Money
Flashcards
Coin Patterns
Science
Materials
Crafts
Jumping Kangaroo

Friday
Math
File Folder
Games
sorting and sizing
Crafts
Boomerang
Koala Craft

Food/Cooking
Pavlova

Farm 5 Day Plan

Do animal flashcards and coloring sheets all
week
Monday

Science
Animal
Match
Math
Eggs are
Hatching
Crafts
Little Boy
Blue
Paper Plate
Pig
Misc.

Little Boy Blue little
book

Tuesday
Science
Make
Butter
Math

Worksheets
Crafts
Little Bo Peep
Mobile
Misc.

Little Bo Peep little
book

Wednesday
Science
Dairy
Products
Math

Worksheets
Crafts
3 Pigs Houses
Muddy
Pig
Misc.

Animal 3-in-a-row



Thursday
Math

Worksheets
Crafts
Sponge Paint Farm, Sheep,
Cow
Food/Cooking
Bake
Bread
Misc.

Do patterns with 3-in-a-row
cards

Friday
Science
Animal
Sort
Math

Worksheets
Crafts
Farm
Mobile
Food/Cooking

Milkshakes

Fall 5 Day Plan

To get some more fun crafts for fall,
I did a swap with a few other women.  We picked out a few
crafts from Oriental
Trading Company,

and then we each got a few of each craft - that way we weren't each

stuck with 12 of the same craft.  So the kids will be doing
those,

too. 

Monday
Math
Leaf
Graph
Number
Matching
Science
Planting Acorns
Crafts
Scarecrow Fun
Scarecrow Art
Food/Cooking
Pumpkin Pudding
Misc.
Fall Book

Tuesday
Math
Leaf
Match
Science
Fall Sensory Box
Crafts
Apple Wreaths
Apple
Printing
Food/Cooking
Apple
Pancakes
Misc.
Fall Book


Wednesday
Math
Acorn
Numbers
Science
Open and Closed Pinecone
Crafts
Pinecone
Squirrel
Corn Cob painting
Food/Cooking
Leaf Sugar
Cookies
Misc.
Fall Book


Thursday
Math
Apple
Puzzles
Science
talk about
hibernation
Fall Smells
Crafts
Tissue Paper Pumpkin
Food/Cooking
Leaf
Piles
Misc.
Fall Book
Apple Hide
and Seek

Friday
Math
More or
Less
Pumpkin Patch
book
Science
Fall Smells
Crafts
Scented/Pumpkin Playdough
Food/Cooking
Leaf
Toast
Misc.
Fall Book

Australia Unit Study

Australia 5 Day Plan

Animals to Study:
Tasmanian Devil - Coloring Sheet (convert to b/w)
Koala - Coloring Sheet
Kangaroo - Coloring Sheet
Platypus - Coloring Sheet
Sugar Glider - Coloring Sheet (convert to b/w)
Bandicoot - coloring sheet (convert to b/w)
Frilly-Necked Lizard - coloring sheet (convert to b/w)
Goanna
Geography
Look up Australia on Google Earth
Color map of Australia
Paint the flag
Math
work on money
Buried Treasure: Bury coins in a bowl of rice or sand. Have her find specific coins.
Coin Rubbing:
Hot-glue several coins onto index cards.  Lay thin paper on top
and clip it with clothespins to hold the paper it place. Use the flat
side of a crayon to rub over the paper and make an impression of the
coins.
Patterns: Make patterns with coins. For example, heads, tails, heads, tails; or, penny, nickel, penny, nickel.
work on recognizing and writing numbers 1-20
sorting and sizing with koala craft

Science
air/gliding activities

Fill a bowl with water.  Place a cup in it, open side down. 
Tip the edge up and watch what happens.  Talk about the air
bubbles and the air leaving the cup, letting water in.   Blow
up a balloon.  Talk about air from our lungs; slowly let the air
out of the balloon and feel it.  Blow up a balloon and let go of
it - watch it fly around.

Straw Glider

What You Need

1. Straw
2. Construction paper
3. Scissors
4. Tape
5. Pencil
6. Ruler
   

What You Do

1. First,
   lay a piece of construction paper down on your table. With your ruler,
   measure and mark with your pencil a strip that is 1 inch wide and 8
   inches long. Then carefully cut out this strip.
   
2. With
   your ruler and pencil, measure and mark a second strip of paper that is
   1/2 inch wide and 6 inches long. Cut this strip out of the paper.
   
3. Take the longer strip and form a circle or loop. Tape the two ends together.
   
4. Take the shorter strip of paper and form a circle or loop. Tape the two ends together.
   
5. Put the longer strip on one end of your straw. Tape it in place.
   
6. Put the shorter strip on the other end of your straw. Tape it in place.
   
7. Try
   sailing or flying your straw glider. Try sailing it with the smaller
   loop at the front; try sailing it with the bigger loop at the front.
   What happens?
   
8. You might try adding
   some more loops or wings to the straw. Or try making a glider with two
   straws taped together. Or try twisting paper strips to see if that
   makes a difference.

The paper rings or loops are like wings. The air pressure that is on
top and below the loops create what we call "lift." This lift makes it
possible for the object or straw glider to sail in the air.

Australia is the leading producer of wool.
Gather clothes made of different material such as wool, rayon/silk,
cotton, etc.  Compare textures and weight.  Do an experiment
with the clothes. "Which material will dry the fastest?
Soak each piece of material in water.
Place the wet pieces on a tray and place the tray in the sun.
Check them periodically and record the order in which the different materials dried.

Talk about the different ecosystems/habitats in Australia.

Cooking/Food

Pavlova
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 drops vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
pinch of salt
Passion fruit pulp, fruit salad, or strawberries
1 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until frothy.
3. Gradually beat in sugar a little at a time.
 4. Continue beating until stiff and sugar is dissolved. Beat in vanilla.
5. Cover a cookie sheet with brown paper. Draw a 9" circle and spread meringue
evenly within the lines. Make a slight hollow, in the center for filling.
6. Bake 1 hour.
7. Turn off heat and let dry at least 2 hours.
8. When ready to serve, whip cream until thick, fold in fruit and fill center of pavlova.

Anzac Biscuits
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup white flour (sifted)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup shredded coconut
4 oz. butter or margarine
2 tblsp light-colored pancake syrup, molasses, or treacle
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tblsp boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar, and coconut.
3. Combine butter/margarine with syrup in sauce pan; stir over low heat until
melted and thoroughly blended.
4. Mix baking soda with boiling water and add to butter and syrup mixture.
5. Stir liquid mixture into dry ingredients until batter is formed.
6. Place teaspoons of batter onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart to
allow for spreading.
7. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
8. Place biscuits on rack to cool.

Crafts
Jumping Kangaroo
Australia map collage
Cut a boomerang shape out of cardboard, let them paint it.
Puzzle prints (from kinderart.com)

What You Need:

• old puzzle pieces
• white glue
• cereal box cardboard
• safety scissors
• paint or printmaking ink
• paintbrush or printmaking brayer (or roller)
• Printmaking 101 (click here)
• Basic printmaking supply list (see below)
• Printing with a brayer instructions (see below)
• A word about paper (see below)
• construction paper

What You Do:

1. Read through Printmaking 101 and Printmaking 102
2. Talk about printmaking and how when you make a print, you can make several of the same image.
3. Cut a piece of cereal box down to a nice size (about 6" x 8")
4. Take
   several puzzle pieces and arrange them on the cereal box cardboard. The
   pieces can be arranged to create a picture, or they can just be laid
   down in a random pattern.
5. Once you are happy with the way the pieces look, glue them down and let the glue dry for an hour or so.
6. If
   you have a printmaking brayer, follow the directions below for printing
   with a brayer. If you don't have a printmaking brayer, use a paintbrush
   to cover the puzzle pieces with paint (or ink).
7. Lay a sheet of paper on top of the painted puzzle pieces and rub gently with the palm of your hand.
8. Remove the paper and sign the print and add the numbers 1/4
9. Do
   3 more prints so you have four all together. The second print should
   have the numbers 2/4; the third soul have the numbers 3/4 and the
   fourth should have the number 4/4 (of course you can do more than four,
   but then you have to number accordingly)

Do lesson 1 and 2 from the art curriculum
Koala Craft
Sandpaper Prints (mock aboriginal cave drawings)
Use crayons to draw and color a design on sandpaper, pressing
hard.  Color in as much as possible.  Place the sandpaper
colored side down onto white construction paper.  Place both
pieces of paper in between two pieces of newspaper.  Press the
newspaper with a hot iron.  Let cool and then remove the
newspaper.  Peel the sandpaper off of the white paper.  The
print is now on the white paper.

Music
listen to some opera (Sydney Opera House)
The rough guide to Australian Aboriginal music CD
Books to Read
In search of the real Tasmanian devil / by James Preller J 599.2 P
Australia J 994
Into wild Australia / John Woodward J590
The aboriginal peoples of Australia / Anne Bartlett J 305.89915 BAR
Coco's surprise / written by Karen van Holst Pellekaan E H
Koalas / by Gail Saunders-Smith E S
The koala : the bear that's not a bear / Diana Star Helmer J 599.25 H
platypus 599.29
Wombat & Bandicoot : best of friends :three stories / by Kerry Argent. E A
Bush walkabout. Lowe, Beulah. J 398.2 P
Island ancestors Oceanic art from the Masco Collection Allen Wardwell 709.011099 W
Misc.
World of the koala [videorecording]
Kangaroos faces in the mob / [videorecording]
Good Links:
Australian Animals -since this isn't an 'official' site, I would double check all the facts they have on there.
Australian Theme links
Rainforest Australia  (I didn't know they had one)
Arthur's Australian Clipart
22 Australian Activities/Lessons
Australia at San Diego Zoo - includes video clips of animals

Africa WebCam animal question

You can see a live webcam out in Botswana 24/7 - it's awesome.  Tons of animals all the time.  Africa Cam
I have a question though - this is probably dumb but oh well LOL.
    Those of you that are watching this, do you know what
those little birds are?  There are always tons of them around -
the little gray ones that look like the size of a chicken.   I
want to say it's a pheasant, but I have no idea if a pheasant even
lives in Africa.   It's driving me nuts though, b/c they are
always there.


And does anyone else think it would be cool to see a cheetah or a lion come over sometime and attack an animal????  (deep down you know it would )

Farm Unit Study

Farm 5 Day Plan

Science

Make butter with real cream.
Taste a variety of dairy products.

Animal Sort
Have their barn set out (or a picture of a barn) and have their safari
mat set out (or a picture of a safari area).   Gather all
their plastic animals into one pile, and have them separate the animals
between safari and farm, putting the animals in their correct homes.

Animal Match
Print
out images of animals, cut in half, and have them match them up. 
To make it harder, cut into a couple of pieces.  Arthur's Clipart Images

Math

Eggs Are Hatching - activity in a reproducible math book I have
Farm Animal Shadow Matching worksheet
make farm animal pattern worksheets
dot to dot worksheets 1 2
maze worksheets 1 2
more/less worksheet

Crafts

Little Boy Blue shape craft  hay
* Ask and help child to identify the shapes   Talk about the different shades of blue.
*  Encourage child to glue the template pieces to the body outline template.
*  When Little Boy Blue is assembled cut around and then glue
Little Boy Blue to "sleep" over the hay mat template (suggest to color
the mat in different shades of yellow & brown).  You can also
have the children glue some real hay, or cut-up raffia, construction
paper in a coordinating color to the hay mat first and then glue Little
Boy Blue on top (beige, brown).
* There is a small marking on the
hay mat marking to use a hole punch to insert a piece of yarn, string
or raffia to hang as a decoration.

Little Bo Peep Mobile

Muddy Pig
Cut out a pig out of construction paper and have children fingerpaint the pig with chocolate pudding.

Cow Prints
Cut
sponges into chunks. Pour black paint into shallow dishes. Paint cow
spots on large sheets of paper. Later after the paint dries you can cut
the paper into the shape of a cow if so desired.

Paper Plate Pig Craft

Sponge Print Farm

Obtain sponges shaped as cows, pigs, farm houses, fences, clouds, etc.
Have your child dip the sponges into paint and press on a piece of
paper to create a farm scene.

Paint with tractors - run through paint, and then onto paper to make tracks.

Three Pigs House
What You Need: Paper, Twigs, Spaghetti or straw, Glue, Paint
What You Do: Let
your children create the three little pigs houses by using red paper
(bricks), spaghetti (straw), and small twigs (sticks). 

Sponge Painted Black Sheep

Print
the sheep template onto heavy construction paper. Dip a sponge in black
paint and sponge paint the sheep's black wool. Let dry.  Cut out
and glue onto a popsicle stick for a puppet.

Farm Mobile

Food/Cooking

Cow Milk Shakes
Blend the following together: Milk, Ice Cream, Chocolate Syrup
Bake bread

Misc.
Play with animal flashcards - matching mothers to babies

Farm Animals coloring sheets
Farm coloring sheet
animal coloring sheets
good coloring sheets

With
the coloring sheets, have them use a variety of art mediums to color -
different paints, pastels, colored pencils, chalks, etc.

Do Little Boy Blue and Little Bo-Peep little books
Animal 3-in-a-row
both from Early Childhood Units for Nursery Rhymes
Books
I've discovered the Bobbie Kalman books are great.

The Usborne book of tractors / Caroline Young J 629.225 Y
All about farm animals / Brenda Cook J 636.01 C
Hooray for sheep farming! / Bobbie Kalman J 636.3145 KAL
Hooray for orchards! / Bobbie Kalman J 634 K
Life on a cattle farm / by Judy Wolfman J 636.222 WOL
Life on a crop farm / by Judy Wolfman J 630 WOL
Life on a pig farm / by Judy Wolfman J 636.4 WOL
Richard Scarry's On the farm
Little Red Hen
Pioneer projects / Bobbie Kalman J 745.5 K
Pioneer life from A to Z / created by Bobbie Kalman J 973 K
Pioneer farm cooking / by Mary Gunderson : J 641.5973 G
Pioneer farm : living on a farm in the 1880s ; by Megan O'Hara J 630 0
Nursery Rhymes
Baa Baa Black Sheep - coloring pages
Little Bo Peep (read Jesus and lost sheep - compare) - coloring sheets
Little Boy Blue
3 Little Pigs - coloring pages