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Welcome back to Latticed Learning! This year, we're continuing to learn while we play - repeating many of our favorites from the past while adding in all sorts of new activities as well.
This day's post is devoted to our weekly themes - some weeks have more activities than others, but each lesson will be fun for you to explore with your little one!
Read All About It
I think we pulled about 127 general animal books (!) off of Gv's bookshelves, but here were just a few of our favorites:
Llama Llama Red Pajama is one of our favorite picture books ever - all three of us love its rhyming verse and Gv especially loves the page at the end where the mama llama races frantically to her baby llama's side.
(Note: If your child is like ours and makes all sorts of panicked mama sound effects to go along with that page in the book, don't pack this selection in your church bag - because your child will choose to look at it during the most inopportune time possible, like the prayer immediately before the Eucharist. Ask me how I know...)
From Head to Toe is another family favorite because you get to move around while you read it. It's also the perfect book to grab whenever your little one takes a tumble and you want to make sure they can move everything without it hurting.
Gv woke up crying that her neck hurt a few weeks ago - like screaming in pain - and to help rule out the scary meningitis option (even though she had no fever), we used this book to help get her to move her neck enough to see if she could touch her chin to her chest (she could). We couldn't get her to move her head at all on her own initially, but once we started reading this book, she was perfectly willing to go through all the book's motions!
One Was Johnny is honestly one that we hardly look at any more, but that's just because we all know the whole book by heart - it's what I'm usually reciting (although I pause and let Gv chime in as each animal joins the fray) whenever I'm driving around in the car.
Animal Tracks is a book that often joins us in the summer and it continues to be a favorite. We had fun doing several activities that coordinated with its theme this week.
Everyone Poops has been an extended-family favorite ever since the first cousin was born. Gv gets the giggles as she reads through this one by herself each day.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
is a great book all the time, but we had even more fun with it when we paired it with this activity.
We watched a ton of random animal videos on youtube, and then a few different versions of City Mouse/Country Mouse, like this one.
First, we talked about the difference between living and non-living things. This wasn't anything formal or fancy, we just had a little chat.
Next, I asked Gv to name off all the different types of animals she could think of and we used different color highlighters to sort them by group. (I can't find this paper now, but imagine all the birds highlighted in yellow, all the fish in blue, all the bugs in purple, all the amphibians in green, all the reptiles in orange and all the mammals in pink...you get the idea.)
Then, I shrunk down these adorable animal A-Z pages so they'd print 8 to a page and then stapled them into a mini-coloring book for Gv.
We made a "Feed the Old Lady" box and it ended up being a better idea than I'd even expected. Look for all the details on making this yourself in this post!
I'm not sure whether Gv got more ink on her fingers or these great animal track stamps, but she had a blast, regardless.
I wasn't in the painting mood this week, but I'm hoping to do these with Gv when I am.
We read lots of this book and acted it out:
And finally, we made these yummy cookies to enjoy all week long (or at least for the three nights they lasted!) The recipe was right up our alley and already healthy, so I didn't even have to change a thing!
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 straight to your inbox!
Linked up with: Favorite Things, Over the Moon, Share the Wealth Sunday, Dishing it & Digging it, What's for Dinner?, Family Joy Blog Link-Up, Literacy Musings Monday, Practical Mondays, Homeschool Nook Link Up, Happiness is Homemade, Merry Monday, Motivation Monday, What'd You Do This Weekend, Meet Up Monday, Totally Terrific Tuesday, Together on Tuesdays, Show Me Yours Linky, Tasty Tuesdays, Little Learning Link Up, Two Uses Tuesday, Hip Homeschool Hop, Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party Tuesday Talk, Wonderful Wednesday, A Little Bird Told Me, Everything Early Childhood, Creative Muster, Party in Your PJs,What to Read,I Am Pinnable, Christian Bloggers Link Up, This Is How We Roll, Creative Ways, Hearts for Home, Creative Exchange, 100 Happy Days, Try It Like It, No Rules Weekend Blog Party, Tune in Thursdays, Booknificent Thursdays, Thursday Favorite Things, I'm Lovin' It, Inspiration Spotlight, Home Matters, Pretty Pintastic Party, Weekend Potluck, Awesome Life Friday, Creative Collection, The Beautifully Creative Inspired , Bloggers Pit Stop, Weekend Traffic Jam, Pin Me Party, From the Archives, Family Fun Friday, Friday Frivolity, Bloggers Spotlight, Make My Saturday Sweet, Weekend Wind-Down Party,Friday Features Linky, Funtastic Friday , Best of the Weekend, Sweet Inspiration Link Party, Small Victories Sunday, You're Invited, Love to Learn Tuesdays
Llama Llama Red Pajama is one of our favorite picture books ever - all three of us love its rhyming verse and Gv especially loves the page at the end where the mama llama races frantically to her baby llama's side.
(Note: If your child is like ours and makes all sorts of panicked mama sound effects to go along with that page in the book, don't pack this selection in your church bag - because your child will choose to look at it during the most inopportune time possible, like the prayer immediately before the Eucharist. Ask me how I know...)
From Head to Toe is another family favorite because you get to move around while you read it. It's also the perfect book to grab whenever your little one takes a tumble and you want to make sure they can move everything without it hurting.
Gv woke up crying that her neck hurt a few weeks ago - like screaming in pain - and to help rule out the scary meningitis option (even though she had no fever), we used this book to help get her to move her neck enough to see if she could touch her chin to her chest (she could). We couldn't get her to move her head at all on her own initially, but once we started reading this book, she was perfectly willing to go through all the book's motions!
One Was Johnny is honestly one that we hardly look at any more, but that's just because we all know the whole book by heart - it's what I'm usually reciting (although I pause and let Gv chime in as each animal joins the fray) whenever I'm driving around in the car.
Animal Tracks is a book that often joins us in the summer and it continues to be a favorite. We had fun doing several activities that coordinated with its theme this week.
Everyone Poops has been an extended-family favorite ever since the first cousin was born. Gv gets the giggles as she reads through this one by herself each day.
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
is a great book all the time, but we had even more fun with it when we paired it with this activity. Sing Some Songs
I have about a zillion animal-themed songs on my ipod, but here are just a few selections that are good for this theme:
The Four-Legged Zoo from this
The Four-Legged Zoo from this
Pretty much this whole album
Sam Hinton and Pete Seeger have loads of animal songs
This album is a new addition to our collection, but it's great because so many of its rhymes feature animals.
Sam Hinton and Pete Seeger have loads of animal songs
This album is a new addition to our collection, but it's great because so many of its rhymes feature animals.
And so many more, but I'll let you search through your own music collection to see what types of animal-related songs you can add to a playlist.
Watch Some Videos
We watched a ton of random animal videos on youtube, and then a few different versions of City Mouse/Country Mouse, like this one.
Play and Create
We did a few things to learn more about animals:First, we talked about the difference between living and non-living things. This wasn't anything formal or fancy, we just had a little chat.
Next, I asked Gv to name off all the different types of animals she could think of and we used different color highlighters to sort them by group. (I can't find this paper now, but imagine all the birds highlighted in yellow, all the fish in blue, all the bugs in purple, all the amphibians in green, all the reptiles in orange and all the mammals in pink...you get the idea.)
Then, I shrunk down these adorable animal A-Z pages so they'd print 8 to a page and then stapled them into a mini-coloring book for Gv.
We made a "Feed the Old Lady" box and it ended up being a better idea than I'd even expected. Look for all the details on making this yourself in this post!
I'm not sure whether Gv got more ink on her fingers or these great animal track stamps, but she had a blast, regardless.
I wasn't in the painting mood this week, but I'm hoping to do these with Gv when I am.
We read lots of this book and acted it out:
 |
| "I can do it!" |
And finally, we made these yummy cookies to enjoy all week long (or at least for the three nights they lasted!) The recipe was right up our alley and already healthy, so I didn't even have to change a thing!
 |
| Pawprint cookies - do you see them? |
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 straight to your inbox!
Linked up with: Favorite Things, Over the Moon, Share the Wealth Sunday, Dishing it & Digging it, What's for Dinner?, Family Joy Blog Link-Up, Literacy Musings Monday, Practical Mondays, Homeschool Nook Link Up, Happiness is Homemade, Merry Monday, Motivation Monday, What'd You Do This Weekend, Meet Up Monday, Totally Terrific Tuesday, Together on Tuesdays, Show Me Yours Linky, Tasty Tuesdays, Little Learning Link Up, Two Uses Tuesday, Hip Homeschool Hop, Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party Tuesday Talk, Wonderful Wednesday, A Little Bird Told Me, Everything Early Childhood, Creative Muster, Party in Your PJs,What to Read,I Am Pinnable, Christian Bloggers Link Up, This Is How We Roll, Creative Ways, Hearts for Home, Creative Exchange, 100 Happy Days, Try It Like It, No Rules Weekend Blog Party, Tune in Thursdays, Booknificent Thursdays, Thursday Favorite Things, I'm Lovin' It, Inspiration Spotlight, Home Matters, Pretty Pintastic Party, Weekend Potluck, Awesome Life Friday, Creative Collection, The Beautifully Creative Inspired , Bloggers Pit Stop, Weekend Traffic Jam, Pin Me Party, From the Archives, Family Fun Friday, Friday Frivolity, Bloggers Spotlight, Make My Saturday Sweet, Weekend Wind-Down Party,Friday Features Linky, Funtastic Friday , Best of the Weekend, Sweet Inspiration Link Party, Small Victories Sunday, You're Invited, Love to Learn Tuesdays