Robert McCloskey - Day 2 Blueberries for Sal

Book Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

**This week we are doing books by Robert McCloskey so we will always begin with Reading instead of Phonics/Writing**

Reading

Preparation:
Materials

Blueberries for Sal  by Robert McCloskey

Teaching:

1.  Read Blueberries for Sal.
2.  Explain what characters are. Discuss which two characters are alike (mom and mother bear, Sal and little bear). How are they alike?  How are they different?

Phonics/Writing
Preparation:
Make rhyming words cards with words from the book - print words with picture, cut out and glue on to 3X5 cards

(Sal, Pal, Bear, chair, eat, feet, hill, mill, whale, pail, clue, blue)

 Materials

Rhyming Cards

Teaching:

1.  Play a matching game with your child matching the rhymes.
2.  Separate the cards into piles of "Endings look alike," and "Endings that look different."  We like to          send the endings that are spelled differently to "jail."
3.  Point to the words and talk about the different ways we spell the same sound (bear/chair, whale/pail)

**Writing - have your child practice writing the letter "B", both capital and lower case.**

Math

Preparation:

Create 2 large pictures of pails.  Draw 8 cirlces on each bucket.
Cut several circles out of blue paper that match the size of the circles on pails

Materials

Pails
Blue circles
Spinner

Teaching:

1.      You'll be playing the game "Sal's Blueberry Bucket."
2.  Take turns spinning and adding blueberries to your bucket.  WHoever fills in their 8 circles first, wins.
3.  As you play ask questions such as, "How many more blueberries do you need to win?"

Exploration

Preparation:

Materials

2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 TBSP corn starch
1/4 cup water

Teaching:

1.   Place blueberries (I used frozen) in a medium saucepan.  Add sugar, cinnamon, cornstarch and toss blueberries.  Add water.  Let child help add ingredients.
2.  Have adult cook blueberries.  When cool, eat your "canned blueberries" like Sal and her mother.

Art

Preparation

Materials

paper
blue paint
white paint
black paint
paintbrush

Teaching:

1.      Show your child the Robert McCloskey books for hte week.  POInt out that McCloskey uses only 1-2 colors to draw his pictures.
2.  Have your child paint a picture using blue paint.  He can mix black or white paint into the blue to vary the shades of blue.

Robert McCloskey - Day 1 Make Way for Ducklings

Book Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

**This week we are doing books by Robert McCloskey so we will always begin with Reading instead of Phonics/Writing**

Reading

Preparation: Materials

Mini book (directions for Mini Book Here) on cover of book write "Ducks Can! by ____________," On each page write "Ducks can ______." 

Mini book
Crayons or markers

Teaching:

1.  Point to Robert McCloskey's name on the cover of the book.  Say, "The author of a book writes the story (point to the words).  The illustrator draws the pictures (point to the pictures). This book was written and illustrated by the same person, Robert McCloskey (point to his name)."

2. Read the book to child.

3. After reading the book point again to Robert McCloskey's name and remind them that he wrote the book.  He was the author.  He was also the illustrator and drew the pictures.  Say, "You get to be an author and an illustrator today.  You're going to write a book about what ducks can do."

4.  Point to the cover of the mini book and say, "you get to writer your name here on the cover because you are the author and the illustrator."

5.  On page one point to the words, "Ducks can ____" and ask, "What can ducks do?"  Fill in the blank with your child's answer, or have them write the word with help.  Then have them draw a picture to go with text. Repeat for each page.

 

Phonics/Writing (Letter Learner) 

Preparation:
Make the "D" poem from Letter Sounds
 Materials

"D" Poem
Crayon or Marker

Teaching:

Letter Learner (Learning letters and letter sounds):

1.       Read the poem together.

2.       Have child circle capital letter "D" in one color, lower case "d" in another color.

3.       Go through each letter of the alphabet, practicing sounds. 

Phonics/Writing (Emergent Reader) 

Preparation:

 Materials

Write the letters "ack" on a piece of paper

On separate small strips of paper write letters "b," "j," "l," "m," "n," "p," "qu," "r," "s," and "t"
Teaching

1.  Show child the paper with "ack" written on it.  Sound out "ack" together.

Identify ack, saying, "This is 'ack.'  We are going to make some words by adding letters to the beginning of 'ack.'"

Add letters one at a time, having child sound out letter, then "ack."

If child dos well try putting two letters, like "sn" in front of "ack."  This is hard, and my son had a difficult time with it, but it's okay to stretch a little.  You can watch the video of how we sounded out "ack" here, and how we practiced adding blends here. 

**Writing - have your child practice writing the letter "D", both capital and lower case.**

Math

Preparation:

Pictures of 8 ducklings, cut out

Picture of Mother Duck

Paper with a hill on it, post it note stuck in the upper right hand corner

Write numbers 0-8 on separate pieces of paper

Materials

Ducks

Paper

Post it note

 

(I copied a page out of the book, cut out my ducks and created my own background)

Teaching:

1.      Sing "Five Little Ducks" with your child, except start at eight since in Make Way for Ducklings Mother Duck has eight babies. Place the number 7 in the upper left hand corner and point to it as you sing "Only seven little ducks came back." For each number that come back, place that number in the left hand corner as a representation of the written number.
2. When the baby ducks go "far away" have your child hide them behind the post it note.
3.  When the baby ducks come back have your child count out the ducks.  To see how we did it, watch the video here (sorry about my singing).

Exploration

Preparation:

Materials

day old bread

Teaching:

1.    Go feed some ducks.  Compare and contrast real ducks to the ducks in the book. 

Art

Preparation

Materials

paper
yellow crayon or marker
orange crayon or marker
black crayon or marker

Teaching:

1.        Have your child draw a large "D" on a piece of paper in yellow.

2.  Turn the paper a quarter turn so that the straight part of "D" is now on top of paper.

3.  Draw a circle on the point of the "D" on the right side (this will create the duck's head).

4.  Make one,or two (if you want your duck to have an open mouth) triangles to the circle.

5.  Add a black dot for an eye (my son made his orange) and some blue water under your duck.

You just turned a "D" into a duck!!!