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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
There are some great children's books out there that go along with the oceans theme! Here are some of our favorites:
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain is a repeating-rhyme book that shares a fascinating folktale from Africa.
Bat's Big Game is a cute little story with adorable illustrations that's sure to put a smile on your face (as well as lead into a discussion on whether bats are birds or animals).
Rhinos for Lunch and Elephants for Supper! is a funny fable from East Africa with enjoyable illustrations, to boot.
Honey...Honey...Lion! - I'm not generally a huge fan of Jan Brett (some teachers go absolutely crazy over this author!), but I do appreciate the extra details in the side-pictures on each page (it's like a little preview!) as well as the use of onomatopoeia throughout.
Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky is an old creation folk tale, told in simple style. A fun activity to go along with this would be to make masks that match those in the book.
Pinduli
Stellaluna
Keep Trying Little Zebra!
3-D Thrillers! Snakes
Dare to Find Out About...Strange Scavenging Creatures
Owls, Bats, Wolves
Incredible Owls
Amazing Snakes!
America's Deserts
Fantastic Bats
Here is the African Savanna
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain is a repeating-rhyme book that shares a fascinating folktale from Africa.
Bat's Big Game is a cute little story with adorable illustrations that's sure to put a smile on your face (as well as lead into a discussion on whether bats are birds or animals).
Rhinos for Lunch and Elephants for Supper! is a funny fable from East Africa with enjoyable illustrations, to boot.
Honey...Honey...Lion! - I'm not generally a huge fan of Jan Brett (some teachers go absolutely crazy over this author!), but I do appreciate the extra details in the side-pictures on each page (it's like a little preview!) as well as the use of onomatopoeia throughout.
Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky is an old creation folk tale, told in simple style. A fun activity to go along with this would be to make masks that match those in the book.
Pinduli
Stellaluna
Keep Trying Little Zebra!
3-D Thrillers! Snakes
Dare to Find Out About...Strange Scavenging Creatures
Owls, Bats, Wolves
Incredible Owls
Amazing Snakes!
America's Deserts
Fantastic Bats
Here is the African Savanna
Sing Some Songs
We stuck with two main albums this week:
This soundtrack was an obvious choice, as was this album, by the label I lauded here..
We did several things to correspond to our topic this week:
We revisited our "trip" to Africa, which was full of fun. Click here to see what we did as a part of our Passport to Fun travels.
We played a dice game using page 7 of pack 3 of this pack of printables.
We did the paper towel activity from here (other cute ideas, too!)
Together, we made this mosaic lizard.
Gv worked on a pattern bead snake.
And then we combined the ideas found here and here to make a little bat buddy:
This soundtrack was an obvious choice, as was this album, by the label I lauded here..
Watch Some Videos
This movie was an easy choice.
I'm guessing this one would be good, too, although we haven't ever seen it.
There are half a jillion Wild Kratts episodes that work for this week, too. This is just one season you might choose to check out.
Gv loves Plum Landing, so this page was full of fun for her, as well.
Finally, watch this PBS series online -- I bet you'll learn something yourself, too!
Play and Create
We did several things to correspond to our topic this week:
We revisited our "trip" to Africa, which was full of fun. Click here to see what we did as a part of our Passport to Fun travels.
We played a dice game using page 7 of pack 3 of this pack of printables.
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| We've played different versions of this game before and Gv always enjoys it. This time, we each rolled two dice and added them up (just counted all the dots) to find out which spot we could color. If we rolled a repeat, that just meant the turn went to the other player. We were stuck forever at the end trying to get 12, but finally got one 6, so we just kept rolling and rolling the other die until it turned up 6, as well. |
We did the paper towel activity from here (other cute ideas, too!)
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| Take 2 paper towels. Lay one out flat and fold the other up, accordion-style, like a cactus. Then saturate them both with a few squirts of a water bottle. |
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| Set the paper towels out in the sun for about 30 minutes, then come back and check them. The flat towel is now completely dried out... |
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| ...but the folded towel is still wet. It holds the water in, just like a cactus! |
Together, we made this mosaic lizard.
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| Gv chose the lizard color and then we just used paper scraps from an earlier project. Gv insisted on drawing in details on the lizard, which I thought was a cute touch. She also very strategically placed all of the back-left leg squares. |
Gv worked on a pattern bead snake.
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| Gv insisted that this snake neede a tongue, just like the one we made way back in week 2. |
And then we combined the ideas found here and here to make a little bat buddy:
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| Fold a coffee filter into fourths and cut the wing design. Color a design in marker, then grab a squirt bottle of water and spray it up good to make the colors run. |
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| This little bat comes already loaded with a mouth! |
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!
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!
