Latticed Learning: Week 3

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Welcome back to another installment of Latticed Learning!  Today I'll be sharing the third week of our journey with you.  You'll get a chance to see what we did, the resources we used (click here to see what we're using week after week), and hopefully come away with lots of fun ideas for things to do with your own little one!

Bible Lesson

Noah (pages 26-33 in this Bible and 23-29 in this one)

Memory Verse

1 John 3:16 - This is the third song on this album, which I've raved about before.  I also created this card:



to post on the fridge each week (and then add to a mini photo album from the local dollar store when we take it down) and I'm amazed that Gv can say this first verse - minus the reference - by herself already!

You can download your own copy of this card for free here!  Want the whole set right now?  Get them here.

Saint 

Catherine (I know nothing about the lives of the saints, but when I saw these cuter-than-cute cards, I decided they gave me the perfect excuse to learn!  They're honestly more for me than Gv at this point, although she can put the name to the card after having it up on the fridge and talking about it all week.)

Letter

(Print out your free "C" phonics card here!)

Topic to Explore

Life Cycles 

Shape

Circle (I'm kind of going in order of vertices/sides and each one will last for several weeks.)

Number

2 (Like I said in this post about the alphabet, we'll talk about all (well, maybe not all) the numbers every week, but I'm choosing one to focus on each week and you'll see some repetition as time goes on with a few of them.)

Best Books We Read This Week

Noah's Ark



This has been a favorite every since Grammy and Papa gave it to Gv soon after she was born.  It's been nice to focus on it again.

On Noah's Ark



Because there's just so much to get out of a Jan Brett book!

An Egg is Quiet



Although the content of this book is a bit over Gv's head, the illustrations are gorgeous and we enjoyed just spending time looking over all the different types of eggs shown on each page.

Pig's Egg



This was a book that we brought with us camping and although we've read it again and again, none of us are sick of it yet.  I think the critters are just so darn cute in this thing!

The Beautiful Butterfly Book



I can tell this will be a fabulous book for years to come.  It has flaps to lift, dials to turn, fuzzy caterpillars to feel, and more facts about butterflies than you can take in at one sitting.  At this stage, we've mainly enjoyed reading the portions that focus on the life cycle and body parts, but I can see Gv really learning to distinguish between butterfly types from this book in the future.

Science Vocabulary Readers:  Life Cycles

 

I have several of these vocabulary reader sets from my classroom and think they are great introductions to nonfiction topics.  They're well organized, have lots of photos, give just the right amount of facts, and even work great for reading comprehension and writing lessons.  If I were a zillionaire, I'd definitely have every one of these that's out there!

Other Great Books We Read

To be honest, I love these books just as much as the others, so maybe I should have added them to the list above:

Fly, Monarch!  Fly!

From Tadpole to Frog

Tadpole and frog

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Songs We Played By

I went through all the children's songs on my iPod and created a playlist just for this week.  Here are some of the best selections from our list:

This is How We Know from this album helped Gv learn our memory verse

Elementary, My Dear from this

C is for Cookie, the classic I shared here

My Butterfly from the album I talked about here

The Frog Song from this post

I Know a Chicken from my post on this fun gal

And so many more, but I'll let you search through your own music collection to see what types of life cycle-related songs you can add to a playlist.

Videos We Explored


This video matched up with our Bible lesson perfectly.

We did "C" things on this site.

We watched this clip and a few of the others for the letter "C."

This video fit perfectly not only for the number 2, but our Noah's Ark lesson, too!

How We Played

We did lots of things to learn about Noah:

I printed out this adorable mini flip book (scroll down to find it), punched a hole in the corner of each page, and stuck it all on a ring (a plastic one I'd had in my classroom, but you could use one like this) so that Gv could have something handy to carry around and refer to.  This was such a hit, I'm planning to use this idea for every week I can and then keep all the ring books in a basket.  G and I were both amazed at how well Gv could retell the whole story, using these cards, after just one day!




We printed out, colored and glued (I actually colored the cardstock version while Gv colored a paper version) this cute doorknob hanger to put in Gv's room.




I printed out page 17 from this mega pack and let Gv have some gluing fun.  She'd name each animal, squirt glue on the back, and then I'd tell her to place it in a specific position around the ark (on the left, right, above, below).   She did pretty well with these positional words, but it's definitely an area we can continue to talk about.




We displayed this prominently all week (it was the cake topper from my baby shower):




Remembering how much Gv enjoyed this rainbow scavenger hunt idea from St. Patrick's Day, I came up with this activity, which was a huge hit (you can read about it here, if you missed it before). 




We also did a few things (besides reading books) to correspond to our life cycle topic:

We made a bunch of different life cycles to go along with our favorite books.  We pretty much did one a day and they really provided a fun way to play with what we'd been reading.  Click here to see all the details of what we did, but here's a sneak peek:



We acted out the butterfly life cycle:

Be as quiet as an egg:

Curl up into a ball


Crawl like a caterpillar:


Fuzzy action shot of crawling on the floor


Be as still as a chrysalis:


Grab your feet (pull them up to your head, if you can) and balance on your bum


Fly like a butterfly:


Another fuzzy action shot of all her wild arm flapping

Looking for all the great posts associated with this concept in one place?  Check out my Latticed Learning page here!

What's your favorite thing that we did this week?  I'd love to hear!  Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

Also, if you don't want to miss a single minute of great tips like this and all the fun around here, be sure to sign up for free updates and then look forward to having each post delivered right to your inbox. 


41 comments:

  1. The book Pig's Egg looks SO cute! I haven't heard of that one before.

    I enjoyed reading about your active week of learning, and will have to check out some of your links, thanks!

    My favorite thing that you did? Acting out the life cycle. Totally going to do that with my crew!

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  2. Wow! I love this post! My favorite thing is all the books you read this week! We love reading at my house. Looks like you had a fun week. I really enjoyed this and I'll be back ;). Thanks!

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  3. This is so cute! We are one Letter C in our preschool this week too, and we did Noah's Ark last week. How fun! I love seeing all your great pictures.

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  4. Wow, you guys have been busy! So many fun activities, and I love all of the books you've been reading. Thanks for sharing with us at the Merry Monday Link Party!

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  5. Way to go for being an organized teacher mom!

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  6. Wow! What great lessons! I am loving the card stock Noah's Arc that you did! That is super cute! I will have to come back and print off some of these awesome resources you have provided! Thank you!

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  7. Looks like a great lesson. Those photos of her acting out the butterfly life cycle are adorable! Thanks for sharing with us at the #HomeMattersParty link party.

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  8. That Noah's Ark door hanger is lovely :) And how fun to act out the life cycle of a butterfly. Great learning week indeed.

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  9. All my children are grown now but i do like your strategy especially the life cycle.

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  10. Looks like you have a lot of great resources! Fun learning going on there!

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  11. Some excellent resources - will be using some of the video and lesson for our little 3 year old in addition since he attends PreK-3. All looks real fun.

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  12. Wow- some great ways to teach the lifecycle, c and 2. I really love the way you make it so interactive and fun. Much easier to process and remember. My daughter would have loved making the crafts and acting out the lifecycle. I am working on an app and book series about Penny p Pug for 3/4 year olds inspired by my daughter and rescue pug. I'll have to check out all those books. You have really inspired me. I am hoping to share the joys of active discovery and help kids to focus. X Susie

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  13. great lessons! thanks for sharing.

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  14. Love this post! Looks like you had a full week! We just might look out for some of the books that you mentioned here!

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  15. Wow, what a jammed pack week full of fun learning activities. You have put an amazing amount of effort and thought into your week. Songs, numbers, letters of the alphabet, books - truly inspiring. Thank you.

    Rachel

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  16. It looks like you've had a fun and educational time together. Your girls are truly adorable looking. They look so happy to be exploring their flexibility.

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  17. Wow, that is quite a week! I love that your number was 2 for the week you were exploring the story of Noah, couldn't have been more perfect! We homeschooled when the kids were young, and we did acting out/skits quite a lot, as all three kids really enjoyed this activity. How adorable is your little girl flying like a butterfly! I think that's my favorite activity, just to see them come alive with their new knowledge and act it out for you. So cute!

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  18. I think the saint cards are very cute! I've only recently started to get into the saints and think they are kind of cool to learn about!

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  19. Wow! My first time to hear about latticed learning and I love the concept. Thanks for what you have shared and in so much detail. I love reading and learning and seeing what other moms are doing especially because I want to absorb as much as I can as I plan to homeschool my son and his future siblings :D. Your daughter is two years old? My boy will be two soon and thinking ahead of what I can do with/for him.

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  20. Lots of great craft ideas and activities in general - wow! Thanks for sharing.

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  21. This lesson looks perfect for my little girl! I love the Noah's Ark flip book, what a great idea!

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  22. Some really great ideas and fun activities - thank you for joining in with Frugal Family Linky last week!

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  23. It looks like you had a great week! You must spend a lot of time prepping!

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  24. Busy week. I have several moms that homeschool that will just love your blog. Sending it now. I can't imagine the patience it must take to do all of this with little ones. How blessed they are.

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  25. Wow you look like you had tons of fun in one week. Thanks for the breakdown so that other homeschoolers can learn.

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  26. Very nice weekly wrap-up! I always enjoy reading about what other homeschoolers are doing. It's fun to get some new ideas! I like the way she acted out the butterfly stages. Cute!

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  27. Oh I remember those days when I was homeschooling and my kids were little. They're teen and preteens now and we do things a little differently. Sounds like you're doing a fabulous job with your daughter!

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  28. Lot's of great ideas here! Awesome post, thanks for sharing.

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  29. This is a great resource for parents with young kids. Thank you for sharing!

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  30. We have three of our seven still at home--ages 10, 6 and 2--so this post was a ton of fun and very helpful. My favorite? The darling doorknob hanger!

    God bless you! It's been fun "meeting" everyone in these posts.

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  31. Great ideas! I am going to share your post with some homeschooling friends of mine. I know they will enjoy and really use your ideas.

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  32. I love everything you incorporated into this lesson!! I'm bookmarking it for later! I've got a 2 year old right now that I'm just starting totschool with. Thanks for the ideas!!

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  33. What a nice set of books and activities :D

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  34. I don't have kids, but it looks she's having fun learning :-)

    Monica.

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  35. This is so fun! I'm so excited to homeschool our little one someday (He's just about to turn one) and you had some great ideas! He loves Noah's ark and animals so I imagine I'll be doing some of these with him.

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  36. What a fun way to teach the kids!! Wish this would have been around when my son was younger!

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  37. It's rare to see a homeschooling mom put as much effort into that you do. Your daughter will reap the reward for many, many years to come. Kudos to you!

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  38. That's one full lesson plan for her. I started homeschooling my children this year and I realize that it's a series of 10 minute exercises. It's a lot that they need to get through the day. I'm not sure I'm up to it.

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  39. Pig's Egg is a great book. My oldest asked so many questions with this book. It was great to start a little conversation.

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  40. I have read a few of the books while teaching @ at a daycare center. I haven't read The Pig's Egg as of yet. This one looks really interesting! I enjoyed all of your lessons :) thanks for sharing :)

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