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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
Our books were mainly about families and homes this week. Here were just a few of our favorites:
What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best is two books in one and although the text is the same for both sides, we all love how the mommies and daddies do things differently (and not always in the way you'd expect!)
Night Noises provides a peek into the mind of an elderly woman as she drowsily sits by the fire one night. I love that there is a book out there introducing little ones to the different stages of life and I can see it launching lots of positive conversations in the future.
Froggy's Baby Sister continues all the froggy fun I've spoken about before. This time, a new baby joins the family and Froggy can't wait to help take care of her.
That's Not My Mom! is a fold-out-flap book that is lots of fun to read. Besides the action of the flaps, we make a game out of guessing what type of animal Gerry the giraffe thinks is his mom on each page.
A House Is a House for Me is a clever book that highlights all sorts of different homes - even for things like corn and peas! This book's illustrations are so chock-full of details that it can keep your little one occupied for hours and is one that you'll love returning to again and again.
Me and My Family Tree
A Mud Pie for Mother
I Love My Mommy Because...
The Kissing Hand & A Pocket Full of Kisses
The Keeping Quilt
I'm a Big Sister
The Baby Sister
Darcy and Gran Don't Like Babies
What Grandmas Can't Do
If It Weren't For You
One Hundred is a Family
You can pretty easily find great cartoons out there about family-related topics, but two of Gv's favorites are this one and this from the Berenstain Bears:
We looked through Gv's photo album (similar to this) filled with pictures of family and friends - one of her favorite toys since when she was tiny.
Then we used our handy-dandy dollar store photo albums to create a family & friends book that not only includes photos of each person, but fun facts, as well (which especially helps your child get to know those special people who live out of town).
To do this, ask your loved ones to send you a list of some of their favorite things, or have them create their own page (this would particularly be fun if the album is a gift), or just grab photos and information off their Facebook page.
You can't cover this week's topic without creating a Me Book! In the past, ours was simple. I just grabbed a few sheets of construction paper, added an old photo to the cover, and created pages highlighting her favorite things, things she knew (like letters, numbers, shapes and colors), tracings of her hands and feet, and a page for her to create her own drawing. Everything got stapled together and then we set it out so she could look at it whenever she wanted to.
This year, however, Gv was excited to do something more involved. She'd seen an "All About Me" book I would have my students create each year (one of the Evan Moor Pocket Books) and asked if she could do her own.
We played with a personalized photo puzzle, using blocks like these. To make one, just stack together enough blocks for your photo to fit on, then cut the photo along the seams. Use tape to keep the photo on the blocks.
We created a life-sized Gv - I just taped together several sheets of copy paper and then had Gv lay down on her back while I traced around her body. We "dressed" this paper version of her up with markers:
Gv loves to create her own little person on this website, so I made sure she had the chance to do it again this week.
We created a family tree - first taking a trip out to the backyard to hunt for the perfect stick, then nabbing a tracing of Grammy & Papa's hands during their recent visit, then tracing all the handprints in our house, and finally making leaves for the out-of-town uncles. I punched a hole in each one and then used large paper clips to hang them on the branch. To prop the stick up, I just filled a vase with beans and jammed it in.
We took a tour of our house (naming things like sinks, the oven, furniture, etc.), then built this home for her farmer out of blocks:
I had also planned on building houses with graham crackers and nut butter, but ended up being too lazy to make either the crackers or the butter this week. But if we hadn't been out of both, I know this activity would have been fun.
We also did a bunch of name activities, like:
Matching the letters in her name using clothespins:
We played with her puzzle sticks:
I printed out these alphabet letters, which we colored and cut out. Gv can put the letters in the correct order to spell her name.
I also printed this sheet full of mixed-up letters (scroll down on the linked page to find it). The idea is to find and color the letters in your name:
Gv has had a set of magnet letters spelling out her name on the front of the washing machine for some time now. I placed them there initially to help her just recognize her name and to play around with, but now she's working on arranging the letters in the correct order. To help her with this, I got out some simple letter cards so she could match up the correct magnet letters to the appropriate cards (this would be a great way to practice spelling words, too):
Not everyone has some of these great pattern blocks, but since I have several sets from my days in the classroom, I printed out these alphabet cards and we built her name using them:
I found a random piece of poster board, so I created a simple name puzzle for her out of that:
I wrote her name on a sheet of paper and then let her cover each letter with stickers:
And finally, I wrote a large "G" on a sheet of paper, told her to trace it with wet glue, then she ripped up pieces of tissue paper to cover it all with. I'd suggest sticking with just the initial letter for this one, because it takes for-ev-er to rip and stick all those little scraps on!
Additionally, we read The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name as well as The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home to help Gv better know her name and address and then also The Kingdom of You, which focuses on her favorite things.
Whew! What a fun week we had!
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
What Mommies Do Best/What Daddies Do Best is two books in one and although the text is the same for both sides, we all love how the mommies and daddies do things differently (and not always in the way you'd expect!)
Night Noises provides a peek into the mind of an elderly woman as she drowsily sits by the fire one night. I love that there is a book out there introducing little ones to the different stages of life and I can see it launching lots of positive conversations in the future.
Froggy's Baby Sister continues all the froggy fun I've spoken about before. This time, a new baby joins the family and Froggy can't wait to help take care of her.
That's Not My Mom! is a fold-out-flap book that is lots of fun to read. Besides the action of the flaps, we make a game out of guessing what type of animal Gerry the giraffe thinks is his mom on each page.
A House Is a House for Me is a clever book that highlights all sorts of different homes - even for things like corn and peas! This book's illustrations are so chock-full of details that it can keep your little one occupied for hours and is one that you'll love returning to again and again.
Me and My Family Tree
A Mud Pie for Mother
I Love My Mommy Because...
The Kissing Hand & A Pocket Full of Kisses
The Keeping Quilt
I'm a Big Sister
The Baby Sister
Darcy and Gran Don't Like Babies
What Grandmas Can't Do
If It Weren't For You
One Hundred is a Family
Sing Some Songs
We have a lot of children's songs that feature families and homes. Some talk about loving your parents, some about being annoyed by a sibling, others about visiting relatives over the holidays.
Here are just a couple to get you started:
Here are just a couple to get you started:
This album fits this week's theme perfectly.
I also think pretty much any song from the albums I highlighted here would work well.
I also think pretty much any song from the albums I highlighted here would work well.
And so many more, but I'll let you search through your own music collection to see what types of family-related songs you can add to a playlist.
Watch Some Videos
You can pretty easily find great cartoons out there about family-related topics, but two of Gv's favorites are this one and this from the Berenstain Bears:
Play and Create
We did so many things to correspond to our all about me/my family topic:We looked through Gv's photo album (similar to this) filled with pictures of family and friends - one of her favorite toys since when she was tiny.
Then we used our handy-dandy dollar store photo albums to create a family & friends book that not only includes photos of each person, but fun facts, as well (which especially helps your child get to know those special people who live out of town).
To do this, ask your loved ones to send you a list of some of their favorite things, or have them create their own page (this would particularly be fun if the album is a gift), or just grab photos and information off their Facebook page.
You can't cover this week's topic without creating a Me Book! In the past, ours was simple. I just grabbed a few sheets of construction paper, added an old photo to the cover, and created pages highlighting her favorite things, things she knew (like letters, numbers, shapes and colors), tracings of her hands and feet, and a page for her to create her own drawing. Everything got stapled together and then we set it out so she could look at it whenever she wanted to.
 |
| Our color printer wasn't working this week, so I had to use old baby photos that we had lying around for everything |
We played with a personalized photo puzzle, using blocks like these. To make one, just stack together enough blocks for your photo to fit on, then cut the photo along the seams. Use tape to keep the photo on the blocks.
 |
| See, another baby photo! |
 |
| Hopefully you do a better job on your face and it doesn't turn out as creepy as this one! |
We created a family tree - first taking a trip out to the backyard to hunt for the perfect stick, then nabbing a tracing of Grammy & Papa's hands during their recent visit, then tracing all the handprints in our house, and finally making leaves for the out-of-town uncles. I punched a hole in each one and then used large paper clips to hang them on the branch. To prop the stick up, I just filled a vase with beans and jammed it in.
 |
| We found the perfect stick - top level for the grandparents, then we're on the middle level (with the uncles on a separate branch), and Gv on the bottom |
I had also planned on building houses with graham crackers and nut butter, but ended up being too lazy to make either the crackers or the butter this week. But if we hadn't been out of both, I know this activity would have been fun.
We also did a bunch of name activities, like:
Matching the letters in her name using clothespins:
 |
| I drew a little elephant onto card stock, wrote her name across the top edge, then gave her clothespins with the letters written on them. Not only will this help her learn to spell her name, but it's great for her fine motor skills, as well! |
 |
| We used a set similar to these to build her name - see how to make them here |
 |
| She has a set of these for her name, too. Read the post here. |
I also printed this sheet full of mixed-up letters (scroll down on the linked page to find it). The idea is to find and color the letters in your name:
Gv has had a set of magnet letters spelling out her name on the front of the washing machine for some time now. I placed them there initially to help her just recognize her name and to play around with, but now she's working on arranging the letters in the correct order. To help her with this, I got out some simple letter cards so she could match up the correct magnet letters to the appropriate cards (this would be a great way to practice spelling words, too):
Not everyone has some of these great pattern blocks, but since I have several sets from my days in the classroom, I printed out these alphabet cards and we built her name using them:
I found a random piece of poster board, so I created a simple name puzzle for her out of that:
 |
| You'll notice that I've made a set of almost all these name activities for my name, as well. That's so I can sit there and work on something while she's putting her name together. I figure that allows me to model the activity for her, without explicitly telling her what to do. So far, it's worked pretty well, especially for this puzzle, since I used different cuts between each letter. |
 |
| Tiny stickers work best for this activity |
Additionally, we read The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name as well as The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home to help Gv better know her name and address and then also The Kingdom of You, which focuses on her favorite things.
Whew! What a fun week we had!
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