Summer Schedule

Summer!

It's Summer! You have planned to make this summer the best summer ever.  Not like last summer where three weeks in the house was a mess, the kids were whining, and you were begging for school. No this summer you wrote a schedule, you color coded, you are prepared!

I have three children; a nine-year-old, a four-year-old, and a one-year-old.  Last summer, for me, was survival mode with a newborn baby.  So this year I, too, have shceduled and prepared for a fabulous summer.  Here are my ideas, and I hope they can help you, too.

Summer Schedule

Miserable Mondays
I have Miserable Mondays all year long.  Contrary to its pathetic name, I love Miserable Mondays. Miserable Mondays I clean my house top to bottom, stem to stern.  I scrub, dust, vaccuum, and have a gorgeous house at the end of a long, exhausting day.  It's worth it, because the rest of the week only requires a short amount of light cleaning.  Miserable Monday means Terrific Tuesday, Woo-hoo Wednesday, Fabulous Thursday and Friday and a Wonderful Weekend.

Why Monday?  Because it starts the week off right. Weekends my husband is home and I would rather spend every minute as a family, instead of cleaning the house.

Tuesday-Friday
Breakfast eaten by 7:30, the kitchen is CLOSED at 7:30
Chores done by 8:30
Then we head out for a lovely morning walk before the temperature rises.
9:00 am - School Starts!
11:30 LUNCH!
12pm - Read!
Then the afternoon is free for family fun!

Afternoon Schedule

Monday - Finish cleaning the house & Grocery shopping
Tuesday - Pool Day
Wednesday - Library
Thursday - Friend Day
Friday - Adventure Day - We explore museums, and points of interest near our home
Saturday - Surfing- my husband is teaching the two oldest children

Party Days

Every month we have party days

June - Camp Day
July - Art Day
August - Water Day

Drama Week - Last week of Summer Vacation - Every afternoon friends are coming over to practice and put on a play for parents.

This is my Summer Schedule.  What does yours look like?  I'll be going into detail on each part of my schedule each day, but right now I'm late going on that morning walk...

Anansi - Day 1

Reading Core Standard Key Ideas & Details 3
Preparation
Divide paper into three columns, with three sections in each column.
Materials
Anansi Does the Impossible by Verna Aardema
Markers
Teaching
1. Read Anansi Does the Impossible by Verna Aardema.
2. Ask your child what the three things were that the Sky God asked Anansi to bring to him.
3. Write each one at the top of each column.
4. Ask your child "How did Anansi capture the python?"  In the second section of the column draw, or have your child draw how Anansi captured the python.  In the final section of the column write what your child says.
5. Repeat for the fairy and the hornets.

Phonics Core Standard Phonological Awareness 2.a.
Preparation
Write "Snake" at the top of two pages.  Divide the sheet into eight sections writing "__ake" in each section
Cut a piece of paperinto small squares writing each consonant on a square, also add "st," "sh"
Put squares in a baggie
Materials
Baggie with letters
2 sheets of paper with "Snake' written at top and "__ake" in the eight sections
Teaching
This is a game!!
1.  First person pulls a letter from the bag and puts in front of "ake."
2. If this makes a word, they keep the letter in front of "ake."
3. Second person pulls a letter, puts it in front of word.  If it doesn't from a word they put it in the cast off pile (we called it the "eh-eh  pile")
4. The first person to create eight words wins.
5.After you are done creating words, use a marker and write the letters you pulled in front of "___ake" to make the words.
**To watch me teach this go to

Writing Core Standard
Preparation
Pour colored sugar or jell-o in a thin layer on a plate
Materials
jell-o/sugar
Teaching
1. Show your child how to form the letter "A," and "a."
2. Let them write the letters, one at a time, in the sugar.
3.The fun is being able to lick your fingers as you write the letter!

**This sis great for tactile learning!

Math Core Standard - Counting & Cardinality 4.a.
Preparation
Make a mini book writing the numbers 1-20 with one number on each page
Materials
Mini book
Stamps or stickers
Teaching
1. Have your child stamp the number of animals that are written on the page (stamp one bunny for the number one, 2 cats for 2, etc).
2. Do this for each number up to 20.

Art
Preparation
Get a paper plate or large paper bag
markers or crayons
Materials
Get a paper plate or large paper bag
markers or crayons
scissorsTeaching
1. Have your child create an Anansi mask.
**My son really doesn't like art, so his mask was as simple as he could make it. A circle cut out of bag, circles cut out for eyes and he was Anansi.  He thought for sure he was going to scare his older sister when she came home from school.

Valentines - Day 1

Reading Core Standard Craft & Structures 6, 7, 10
Preparation
none
Materials
How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague
Teaching
1. On the cover of the book point out the author and illustrator.
2. Explain the job of the author (to write the words) and the illustrator (to draw pictures to show what the words are saying).
3. After reading each page, ask your child, "How does the illustrator show this?"
This is how I teach it (YouTube video).
Phonics Core Standard Phonics 3.c.
Preparation
In highlighter or marker write the following words on a piece of paper:
the, to and, is

Materials
Newspaper article
Highlighters or Light Markers in various colors

Teaching
1. Have your child take the marker in the corresponding color and highlight each "the" in the article. (In other words, you have written the word "the" in pink, so your child takes a pink marker and finds all "the"'s in the text and highlights them in the pink marker.
2. Repeat for the other words.
3. As your child looks for the words they may find others they missed, so keep all the markers handy.

Writing Core Standard Conventions of English 1.a.
Preparation
Create a race track in the form of the letter "V" on a piece of paper Write "Go" at beginning of letter and "stop" at the end

Materials

"V" track

Small toy car

Teaching
1. Have your child push the toy car along the "V" track, starting at go, and ending at "Stop."

2. Do not let your child go backward.  This is about practicing the letter formation of "V."
3. Let your child race different cars, different speeds, along the track.Math Core Standard - Comparing Numbers 6
Preparation
Create a chart with the different color hearts from a box of conversation hearts with a column for each color

Materials

Chart

Box of conversation hearts
Teaching
1. Have child open box of hearts and arrange hearts in their columns.
2. Ask which column has more or less than the other columns.  Ask which column has the most, which has the least.
3. Ask, "How many hearts from this column would you have to eat to have equal hearts with that column?"
4. Eat some hearts
Watch me teach this here
Art
Preparation
Materials

Paper

Scissors

Glue
Markers

Stickers
Teaching
1. Teach your child how to cut hearts from paper.
2. Have your child create a Valentine for someone they love.
3. Have them decorate it.  You can have them write "I Love You" because seeing "I love you" in child writing is the best Valentine present  ever.

4. Your child can create as many Valentines as he would like.  For my son that was one Valentine.  For my daughter who joined us that was several.

Writing

I have been diligent in having my son follow the writing criteria for the core standards, and he manages to form the letters in his own way to complete the task.  But there's a problem.  He's forming the letters in his own way.  This makes writing more laborious, and more like art, which he hates.  Misery for me.  Misery for him.  I don't believe that misery and education should be simpatico, so until we've learned proper formation of all the letters Writing will be learning proper letter formation.  And so that this won't be boring to him we'll be learning letter formation several ways.  We'll explore the letter formation for 1-2 days, then actually write the letter the third day.  This, I hope, will help get technique down better, and make him a better writer.  Knowing proper letter formation makes for cleaner, neater faster writing.
Teaching for me has always been a work in progress, so while Writing may change, I hope it's a change for the better. 

Space - Day 3

Reading Core Standard Range of Reading 7
Preparation
Materials
Cat in the Hat: There's No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe
Teaching
1. Before reading each page to your child have them be a detective and look for clues in the illustration to guess what the words say.
2.   Praise your child when they correctly guess the text using illustration clues.
Phonics Core Standard Rhyming words
Preparation

Materials

Teaching
1. Say a space word and have your child come up with a word that rhymes with it.  Let your child give you a space word to rhyme.  Laugh at your silly rhymes.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer

Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3.  Have your child find pictures on Internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:
A- Astronomer
B - Bright
C- Constellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - Quick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3
Preparation
I have boxes of small items that I use for teaching this: stamps, beads, fake leaves, fake flowers, colored blocks, etc.
Materials
Small items
Teaching
1. Tell your child to make the number 5 (or chose a smaller number if 5 is too large) with the items.
2.Ask them to explain each time they create the number 5. For example, "I made three bunny stamps and two giraffe stamps." or "I have five blue beads" or "I have one circle and four rectangles."
3. Write their creation as an equation.  Example:
"I made three bunny stamps and two giraffe stamps."  Write 3+2= 5.
Say, "Just like words  say a story.  These numbers tell us what you made." Go through step by step how you created the equation.  ("You stamped three bunnies, so I wrote this three.  This '+' means you added more.  This two says you added the two giraffes."

Art
Preparation
Materials
Large sheet of paper
Water colors
Paintbrushes
Black tempera paint

Teaching
1. Have your child paint their own planet using the water colors.
2.Have your child create the space around the planet using the black tempera paint.
** My son wanted half his planet to be in daylight, half at night so he only painted half of his paper black

Space - Day 2

Sad News  - I can not find any of the pictures I took from this day.  I'm so sorry! I have the video from our Math, though.

Reading Core Standard Reading 8
Preparation
Create a solar system on a large piece of paper labeling the sun and each of the 8 planets. Leave room on or next to each planet to record information learned.
Materials
Solar system paper
Pen
The Planets  by Gail Gibbons
Teaching
1.  Read the book The Planets by Gail Gibbons.
2.After reading return to the book and look at each page.  Have your child tell you one or more things he learned about that planet.  Record what he learned on or in the planet.

Phonics Core Standard Phonemic Awareness 2.d.,e.
Preparation
Write the word "Planet" on a piece of paper. Cut into individual letters.
Materials
Cut up word
Teaching
1. Have your child use the letters from the word "Planets" to create the following words in order.
2. at, pat, sat, set, pet, let, net, ten, pen, pan, tan, tap, lap, sap, nap
3. When you teach this say, "Make the word "at."
4. "Add a letter to make "Pat."
5."Change a letter to make "sat." Etc.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer
 Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3.  Have your child find pictures on internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:


B - Bright
C- COnstellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - QUick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 4
Preparation
Materials
Deck of cards, jacks, quenns, and kings removed

Teaching
1. Shuffle cards and deal 5 cards to each player.
2. Players go through their cards to see if they can put two cards together  to make ten (4+6, 5+5, etc)
3.  Players ask each other for cards to make ten (Example: If a player has a seven they ask the other player for a three)
4.  If other player doesn't have card asked for then player will "go fish" for another card.
5.  When player has two cards that equal ten they have a match and get to keep it.
6.  Player with most matches wins.
Watch how we play here


Art
Preparation
Materials
Black paper
Glue stick
Glitter
Circles cut out of colored paper
Ellipses cut out of colored paper, with center cut out (these become rings for the plantets)

Teaching
1. Have child rub glue stick all over paper.
2.  Have child sprinkle glitter all over paper.
3.  Have child arrange plantes all over paper.
Voila!  A solar system!

Space -Day 1

Reading Core Standard Reading # 4, 5, 6
Preparation
Write the following words on 3x5 cards or strips of paper:
Galaxy, milky way, planet, constellations, Solar System, universe, orbit, rotate, Earth
Materials
Stars, Stars, Stars by Bob Barner
Me and My Place in Space by Joan Sweeney
Words

Teaching
1. Read the books, point to the words that you have written on the paper strips.
2. After reading ask your child what each of the words means.
3. Define the words together.  You can review what the book said about the words if you need to.
4.  Hold up each word, and have your child define it.

Phonics Core Standard Phonics 2b
Preparation
Use same word strips from last activity
Divide a piece of paper into 4 sections.  Number each section 1-4.
Materials
Strips used in Reading activity

Teaching
1. Segment each word into their syllables ("ga-la-xy").
2. Count the syllables in the word ("ga-la-xy" - three syllables)
3. Place the word in the corresponding column on your segmented paper (galaxy goes under 3 because it has 3 syllables)

4. Cover all but the first syllable in the word.  Sound it out together ("ga")
5. Repeat for other syllables.("la," "ksy")
6.  Blend syllables together (Galaxy)
7.  Repeat for remaining words.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer

Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3.  Have your child find pictures on Internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:

A- Astronomer
B - Bright
C- Constellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - Quick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 1, 3,5
Preparation
Cut out two sets of 8 circles out of paper and label them with the name of each planet and the number distance from the sun (Mercury - 1, Venus -2 , Earth -3, Mars - 4, etc)
Materials
Paper Planets
2 Dice
Teaching
1. Place one set of planets in front of each player (probably you and your child).
2.  Have someone roll the dice.  They use the roll to take a planet out of their solar system.  So, if they get a six and a five.  They can take planet six and five out of their solar system.  If they roll a one and a four they can take planets one and four out of their solar system or planet five out of their solar system.
3.  Take turns.
4.  If a player roll a number that they cannot use, it is the other player's turn.
5.  If all numbers are rolled except one, that player can roll both dice, one at a time to try to get the number one.
You can watch how we play here

Exploration
Preparation
Make a black mark on the ball
Materials
Small ball (size of a baseball)
Flashlight

Teaching
1.  Shine the flashlight on the ball.
2.  Point out the flashlight is the sun, the ball is earth.
3. Point the flashlight at the ball.
4. Half the ball will be in the light of the flashlight, half in dark.  This is like the day and the night.  Rotate the ball.
5. Show your child the spot going from the light (day) to the dark (night).

Three Little Pigs - Day 3

Reading Core Standard  Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 9
Preparation
Materials
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
Three Little Pigs
Teaching
1. Show your child the book Three Little Pigs. Ask, "Is the wolf a good guy or bad guy?"
2. Show your child the book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and say, "The wolf wrote his own story about what happened. This is what the wolf said."
3. Read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.
4. Ask, "Does this story make the wolf seem nicer? What do you think of the wolf in this story? Did he still eat the pigs?  What happened to him at the end of the three pigs? What happened to him at the end of this story? Who do you believe?  Do you believe the wolf's story about getting sugar, or do you think he wanted to just eat the pigs? Is the wolf a good guy or bad guy?"


Phonics Core Standard Phonological Awareness 2.c.,d.,e
Preparation
Make a small flip book with 27 sheets of paper (see my video here of how I did it)
Cut book in half from bottom to fold at top
Write one of each of the following letters on each page of the first half of the book: b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,qu,r,s,t,v,w,x,y,z, bl, st, sp, tr, gl, sn
Write one of each of the following rimes on each page of the second half of the book:
ack, ad, ag, am, an, ap, at, ed, ell, en, et, ick, id, ig, ill, in, ip, it, ock, og, op, ot, ub, ug, um, un, ut
Materials
book
Teaching
1. Using the book flip to any beginning sound (first half of book) and any rime (second half of book) have your child sound it out to create a word.
2. Keep this with other books and continue practicing sounding out the new words.

Writing Core Standard - Text Types and Purposes 1.
Preparation
Write on a piece of paper "The wolf is..."
Materials
Paper
Markers
Teaching
1.Ask your child whether they think the wolf  is good or bad and why.
2. Write, or help your child to write, their opinion on the piece of paper. 
3. Have your child illustrate their opinion.

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3
Preparation
I have boxes of small items that I use for teaching this: stamps, beads, fake leaves, fake flowers, colored blocks, etc.
Materials
Small items
Teaching
1. Tell your child to make the number 7 (or chose a smaller number if 7 is too large) with the items.
2.Ask them to explain each time they create the number 7. For example, "I made three bunny stamps and four giraffe stamps." or "I have five blue beads and two red beads" or "I have one circle and six rectangles."
3. Write their creation as an equation.  Examples:
"I made three bunny stamps and four giraffe stamps."  Write 3+4=7
or "I have five blue beads and two red beads" Write 5+2=7
 or "I have one circle and six rectangles." Write 1+6=7
4. Say, "Just like words  say a story.  These numbers tell us what you made." Go through step by step how you created the equation.  ("You stamped five bunnies, so I wrote this five.  This '+' means you added more.  This two says you added the two giraffes."

Exploration
Preparation
Get some Legos or other interlocking blocks
Materials
Legos
Teaching
1. Have your child create a house made out of bricks with you.  Have fun making the sides and roof of the pig's house.  Talk about the colors you are using, the size of the house, how many bricks.  Make it a great learning and doing together experience.

Art
Preparation
Materials
Paper
Art Supplies (your choice of paint, crayon, marker, colored pencil, etc)
Teaching
1. Have your child draw (paint, etc) a picture of his house.

Three Little Pigs - Day 2

**We're starting with Art because we need the puppets for Reading**

Art

Preparation

Cut 6 elongated ovals out of pink paper

Cut 2 elongated oval out of gray or brown paper

Cut six triangles out of pink paper
Cut two triangles out of gray or brown paper
Put two ovals together, tape around the edges to create a finger puppet.  Repeat with remaining ovals until you have 3 pig finger puppets and 1 wolf finger puppet

Draw elongated ovals

Cut out

Tape two ovals together

Cut out small triangles

Materials
Finger puppets
Markers
Glue
Teaching
1. Have your child glue ears on each puppet.
2. Have your child draw a face on each puppet.  They can also draw other details such as clothes, etc depending on their interest. 

Reading
Reading Core Standard Key Ideas and Details 2
Preparation
Get puppets together
Materials
Three Little Pigs book (James Marshall has a good book)
Puppets
Teaching
1. Read The Three Little Pigs to your child.
2. Have your child retell the story using the puppets to retell the story.

Phonics Core Standard Phonological Awareness 2.e.
Preparation
on separate, small pieces of paper write the following "p," "i," "g," "r," "a," "s" "t," "h"
Materials
Papers with letters
Teaching
1. Place the letters "p" "i" "g" in front of your child.  Have your child sound out the word.
2.Say, "We are going to turn a pig into a hat!"

3. Have child sound our "pig" again.  Say, "Change a letter to make "rig."
4. Change a letter to make "rag."
5. Change a letter to make "sag."
6.  Change a letter to make "sat."
7. Change a letter to make "hat."

Writing Core Standard Text Types and Purposes 1
Preparation
Materials
Markers
Paper
Teaching
1. Have child draw their favorite pig house.
2.Have child write why this is their favorite pig house.

Math Core Standard - Counting & Cardinality: Count to tell the number of objects 4.a.,b.,5Compare Numbers 6
Preparation
Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper
Materials
Paper

Small items (chocolate chips, we used puffed corn)

Teaching

1. Have your child take two handfuls of the treat and place each handful on one side of the sheet of paper.

2. Have your child count and write the number of items on each side of the paper.

3. Ask, "Which side has more?" Which side has less?"

4. Do this a few times with your child to practice counting and comparing numbers.

Exploration

Preparation

Materials

Craft Sticks

Glue

Teaching

1. Build a stick house together with your child. Talk with them about how to make walls and a roof.

2. Use the glue and craft sticks to build the house.

Three Little Pigs - Day One

Reading Core Standard Key Ideas & Details 3 - Characters, setting, Major events; Craft & Structure 5 - Recognize common types of text & 6 - Author and illustrator and role of each
Preparation
Divide four pieces of paper into five sections each
On Top of first section write: Who, second section: Where/When third section: What, Fifth section: Why.
On first piece of paper write Pig One with a picture of Pig One

Second piece of paper write pig 2 with picture of pig 2
Third piece of paper write Pig 3, with picture of Pig 3
Fourth Piece of Paper write Wolf with picture of wolf
Materials
Book: Three Little Pigs, I used the books by James Marchall and Margot Zemach, but there are dozens to choose from
Divided sheets
Markers
Teaching
1. Read The Three Little Pigs. Before opening the book, point out the title, author and illustrator.  Tell your child this is a storybook.
Here is how I pointed out author, title, etc:

2. Fill out a  divided paper for each character.
3. Tell your child who the character is. Make sure to use proper terms (character)
4. Ask where the pig was (city, forest, etc). Have your child draw a picture or write a word describing where the story takes place
5. Ask when the story happened (night, spring, look at details in pictures for clues).  Have your child draw or write in the column to summarize when the story takes place.Say, "This is the setting; when and where the story happens is the setting."
6.  Ask What pig 1 did. Have child draw or write in the "What" column what Pig 1 did.
7.  Ask why Pig 1 did what he did.  Have child draw or write in last column why Pig one did what he did.
8.  Repeat for remaining characters. 
**Learning takes place on a spectrum from teacher directed (you telling, doing, child listening) to teacher-child (doing project together) to independent (Child doing learning all on his own).  You can do this project, and any lesson, for that matter, along this spectrum.  If you need to direct more, then you fill out the papers.  I set up this lesson as a teacher/child to be done together, but gauge your child's abilities and teach accordingly**

Phonics Core Standard Print Concepts, Common High Frequency words
Preparation
On computer write your own, very simple, short Three Little Pigs story, or use mine (email me amyiswrite@gmail.com)
Materials
Book
Highlighters ( I use light colored markers)

Teaching

1. Starting on page one, word one, say, "This is the first letter of the first word we are going to read.  We always start here,on the left side of the page when we read or write.  This letter makes a sound.  We put it together with the other letters next to it and it tells us a word! 
2. Have your child tell you the sound of each letter. Put the sounds together to form the word. Underline the word in green.  Read the word.
3. Say, "This space next to the word tells us the word is done." Color the space red.

4. Repeat for each word on the page.
5. Say, "We read a sentence!" Underline the sentence in green.
6. For the word "the" tell them "This is the word 'the.'  We use this word often, but it doesn't look the way it sounds, so we just memorize t-h-e is the." Highlight "the" in blue.
7. Repeat this for each sentence.

Writing Core Standard Text Types & Purposes 3
Preparation
Write dotted lines on the bottom of a blank sheet of paper. Write "My favorite part is..." followed by enough space for child to answer question.
Materials
Paper
Markers, crayons, etc
Teaching
1. Talk about story.  Share your favorite parts with each other.

2. Have child write his favorite part on the paper.

3.Have him illustrate it..

Math Core Standard - Counting and cardinality 2, 4.a., Operations and Algebraic Thinking 1&2
Preparation

Materials
stacking (not interlocking) blocks
Die (one dice)
Teaching
1. Person 1 rolls die, then stacks that number of blocks up on top of each other.
2. Person 2 rolls die, then stacks their blocks on top of blocks person one made.  Have person 2 count on to person one's blocks to find out how many blocks there are altogether.
3. Person 1 rolls die again.  This number indicates how many "puffs" this person has to blow the "piggie blocks" down.
4. Restack blocks (if necessary).  Have person 2 roll die and "puff."
5. The person who can blow down stack in allotted puffs win (which means both people can win).
**I had no trouble blowing down the stacks, but my son did, so we ended up throwing a small block at the stacks**

Exploration
Preparation

Materials
pipe cleaners
Teaching
1.Not having straw readily available, we used pipe cleanersto create our straw house. Talk with your child about how you might put the house together, how to walls, the roof, etc. 
2.  This doesn't have to be perfect.  It's an exercise in building and problem solving.

Art
Preparation
Circle cut out of pink paper for pig nose
two triangles cut out of pink paper for ears
Materials
Pink paint
paper plate
circle, triangles
glue
black marker

Teaching
1. Have child paint paper plate.
2. Have child glue nose and ears of plate.
3.Have child draw mouth.
4.  Have child draw eyes for pig.

Frogs - Day 3

Reading Core Standard - Reading Standards for Informational Text1
Preparation
This will be asking and answering questions about the text. 
Materials.
book - I used Gail Gibbons Frogs again
Teaching
1. Read book Frogs by Gail Gibbons.  Ask your child questions about the book.  Ask if they have questions.

Phonics Core Standard - Phonological Awareness 2.b.
Preparation
Write the following words on a piece of paper:
hibernation, camouflage, webbed, amphibians, vegetarian, algae, frog, tadpole, egg, gills, tail, legs, insects, water
Divide a piece of paper into five sections and number 1-5
Materials
word strips
divided paper
glue stick
Teaching
1. Sound out each word for your child.  Count together the number of syllables in each word. 
2. Have child glue the word under the number corresponding to the amount of syllables in the word.
3. Go through each word again.
4.Sound out the single syllable words together

Writing Core Standard Text Types and Purposes 2
Preparation
Create a mini Book.  Write "Frogs can" on Title page and each page in the book (your choice if you want one idea per two page spread, or 2 ideas per two sheet spread)
Materials
Mini book
Markers

Teaching
1. Ask your child some things that frogs can do that they learned from teh book.
2.Write, or have your child write, what frogs can do.  For example: "Frogs can jump."  The child will write "jump."

3.Have child illustrate the book.

4.Have child read the book to you.

Math Core Standard - Geometry - Identify and Describe Shapes 2
Preparation
Prepare a piece of paper with a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and hexagon for you and ond one for your child
Materials
Shape Paper
Crayon
Teaching
1. Go on a shape scavenger hunt.  Walk your house, and/or neighborhood to find real-life shapes.
2.When you or your child finds a shape, they color it in on the paper.
3 The first person to find all shapes on their sheet is the winner.
Shapes We Found:

Art
Preparation
Find the page in Gail Gibbon's Frogs that shows a frog's body parts.
Materials
Picture
Playdough
Teaching
1. Have your child create a frog with the playdough, making sure they show all the parts of the frog (eyes, mouth, front and back legs, ridges on back).
2. The easiest way to do this is to make each part seperately (body with ridges, add head, add eyes, add front legs, add back legs, add tongue).

My Frog

William's Frog

**You can also make the frog life cycle, creating a frog egg, tadpole, and morphing it into the frog**

Materials

Frogs - Day 2

Reading Core Standard - Craft & Structure 6, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 10, Preparation
Materials
Paper
Marker
Book: Frogs by Gail Saunders-Smith (or, if you can't find this at your local library, another good easy reader Frog book)
Teaching
1. Before reading ask, "How does a frog become a frog?"
2. Your child might remember from yesterday's book, Frogs By Gail Gibbons, a few details.  Tell child that you are going to find out how a frog becomes a frog in the book for today.
3. Show child book.  Point out title, see if child can read it.  Point out picture of frog.  Point out the author's name at the bottom.  Open the book and begin reading.
4. As you read document on the paper each part of life cycle of frog with a word and a very simple illustration.

5. Review chart with child.  See if they can tell you the life cycle.

Phonics Core Standard - Phonological Awareness 2.d.
Preparation
Write "Og" on paper
write on small pieces of paper each consonant of the alphabet.  Also "st," "sl," "sp," "tr," "pr," "pl,"
On a piece of paper write "Word" on one side, "Jail" on the other
Materials
Papers with "og," etc.
Word/Jail Paper
Teaching
1. Place a consonant or the "st," etc in front of "og."
2. Sound out word with your child, or have them sound it out independently.
3. If it creates a word, put it in the "word" section of the paper.
4.If it doesn't create a word put it in "jail."

5. After going through each letter, reread your real words.
Writing Core Standard - Text Types and Purposes 2.
Preparation
Make a mini book.  On Title Page write "Life Cycle of Frog"
**Don't write anything in the book until lesson, this is just to let you know how book will be laid out**
The book is made up of three double pages.
On page one write: Eggs
Page two (facing page 1) write:tadpole
Page 3 write:Back legs
Page 4:Front legs
Page 5: Tail shrinks
Page 6: Frog
OR You can have child write the words, or write the first letter of each word. Depends on child's level, or attention span.
Materials
Mini Book
Markers
Chart from Reading
Teaching
1. Show child chart again.  Explain you will be making a book about Life cycles to show to the family.
2. Ask child what a frog looks like at first.  Talk about the eggs, what they look like, feel like (Gail Gibbons said they were like "jelly." Maybe touch some jelly to get an idea?" Say, "It looks like frogs start out as eggs.  Let's write "Eggs" on the first page. (This is when you write the word, you have child guess first letter and write first letter, or let child write the entire word.)

3. Ask, "What happens when the frogs hatch?  Do they look like frogs?" Child will (hopefully) say "Tadpoles." Say, "Then we write "tadpoles." Write "tadpole" then have child illustrate.
4. Repeat for remaining pages, having a guided discussion with your child to get back legs, front legs, tail shrinks, and frog.

Math Core standard - Geometry - Analyze, Compare, and Compose Shapes
Preparation
Draw a circle, triangle, square, rectangle, hexagon on a piece of paper
tape two craft sticks together to form a long stick, make two sets of this
Materials
chenille stick ("pipe cleaners" back in the day)
craft sticks ("Popsicle sticks" back in the day)
Teaching
1. Give your child a chenille stick and ask her to make a circle with it.  You can help by using your own chenille stick and talking through the process (smoothing it, explaining it can't have any angles, etc.)
2. Give child three Popsicle sticks and tell her to make a triangle.  Emphasize that a triangle has three sides that touch and make angles. Tri=three, three sides, three angles
3. Give child four sticks.  Have child put the Popsicle sticks on top of each other.  Point out that all the sticks are the same length.  Have child create a square.  Point out the four equal sides, and the four angles.
4. Give child the two long Popsicle sticks and two regular sticks. Have them create a rectangle.  Talk about opposite sides being the same length, four sides, four angles.
5. Give child 6 craft sticks.  Have them create a hexagon.  Talk about the six sides and six angles.
** IMPORTANT**
A.  If your child has a hard time forming shapes, give as much necessary help as needed.  You can do this activity again and again until your child has mastered ability to create shapes on their own.
B.  Notice I am using mathematical terms like angles, etc.  lease use correct terminology when explaining Math. These words will not confuse your child if you explain them.  When correct terminology is used it becomes a part of your child's vocabulary very easily.
C.  You can watch the video of how I taught this on youtube.
Exploration

Watch a Frog Video - these can be found at your local library (I love that place)


Art
Preparation
Cut out 2 small and one large heart from green paper
Materials
google eyes
hearts
glue
markers, crayons, etc
Teaching
1.Draw a green line down middle of large green heart to form a lily pad.

2. Glue small green heart on top of other small green heart, as seen in photo.

 3. On the top of first green hear glue google eyes at top of heart (see photo)

4. Using a marker draw frog details like mouth, spots, toes, etc.

Key Ideas and Details 2