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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
At the Pond is a really different type of book - a close-up photo is presented of a pond creature along with a clue to its identity. Then the reader gets to turn the page and find out what it is. It's great for not only presenting plenty of facts, but really engaging the reader, as well.
Fish is Fish is a cute little story about a minnow and tadpole. When they get older, fish's frog friend tells him all about the wonders he sees out in the big, wide, world, but little fish's interpretations of the creatures aren't quite on the mark.
Five Green and Speckled Frogs is such a fun song to sing. I love the silly illustrations in this version, but I think Gv most loves the fact that the final page of this book includes sheet music for the song. Oh, yes, my piano-playing skills are really being put to the test...
Fat Frogs on a Skinny Log - if you're looking for alliteration or adjectives, this book's for you! It's also sure to make you laugh as you watch the scene unfold while these fat frogs all cram themselves on this one tiny little log...
Down By the Cool of the Pool - repetition, rhyme and sound effects fill the pages of this wacky tale of a frog and all of his dancing friends. Plus, just look at that cover - doesn't it just scream fun?
A Frog in the Bog
Frog's Lunch
Frog and Toad Are Friends
Jump, Frog, Jump
In the Small, Small Pond
Make Way for Ducklings
Beaver Gets Lost
Curious Critters
Same or Different?
The River Grows
My River
Little Otter's Big Journey
The Giving Tree
And the entire Froggy collection (yes, we have them all!)
Sing Some Songs
We listened to these selections this week:
We watched the Magic School Bus episode Hops Home.
Gv loves Nature Cat, so she had fun watching Ponds Are Pond-tastic.
She also discovered this appropriate Dinosaur Train episode.
Finally, we had a little lounging fun together and enjoyed this movie.
We did several things to correspond to our topic this week:
Gv went fishing for magnet letters in her own little "pond" bucket:
Then I made her a little duck hat and she donned her special duck robe:
We used a plastic container full of water so Gv's rubber duckies could float around in their own pond.
Then I gave her a squirt bottle full of water so she could try and move them around by spraying them.
Then we removed the ducks and I zipped a sandwich bag over one of Gv's hands so she could see what a difference webbed feet made in the water:
We ate "frog on a log" snacks:
I printed out pages 4 and 6 of these cute pond printables for Gv to do.
Gv and I made our own version of Monet's Water Lilies (inspired by this).
She used watercolors to turn a cupcake liner green, then painted the swirly water background.
We snipped some chunks out of the flower and the lily pad, then glued it all down.
Finally, I saw this and created a 5 Frogs on a Log printable that you can use to make this fun toy:
Want to get your free copy of the printable, along with the instructions on how to make it? Just click on over here!
There were plenty of perfect songs on the Frog Trouble album that I mentioned in this post.
This album continued to be appropriate.
Even if we hadn't watched the movie, this soundtrack was fun to listen to this week.
This album continued to be appropriate.
Even if we hadn't watched the movie, this soundtrack was fun to listen to this week.
Watch Some Videos
Gv loves Nature Cat, so she had fun watching Ponds Are Pond-tastic.
She also discovered this appropriate Dinosaur Train episode.
Finally, we had a little lounging fun together and enjoyed this movie.
Play and Create
We did several things to correspond to our topic this week:
Gv went fishing for magnet letters in her own little "pond" bucket:
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| The original bucket I gave her kind of swallowed her up... |
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| So we switched it out for one that was more manageable. Her fishing pole was just a paper clip tied to the end of some yarn. |
Then I made her a little duck hat and she donned her special duck robe:
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| All ducked out - I just used construction paper to create a Mo Willems-inspired duckling hat |
We used a plastic container full of water so Gv's rubber duckies could float around in their own pond.
Then I gave her a squirt bottle full of water so she could try and move them around by spraying them.
Then we removed the ducks and I zipped a sandwich bag over one of Gv's hands so she could see what a difference webbed feet made in the water:
We ate "frog on a log" snacks:
 |
| Not much different from "ants on a log," except we smeared the peanut butter onto a carrot and then stood the raisins up nice and tall before chowing down on it all. |
I printed out pages 4 and 6 of these cute pond printables for Gv to do.
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| It was interesting to see how Gv chose to do this. When I saw her going for the "1" to circle, my instinct was to stop her and correct her. So glad I didn't, because she obviously knew what she was doing, even though it was different than how I would! |
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| This was another one of those cases where I tried something, just to see what she'd do with it, even though I was guessing it was way above her level. I asked her what the four pictures were, then I told her to find the word that matched the picture. She cut out the words, then picked one up, said the first letter's name and the sound it made, then looked at the pictures and figured out which word it must be. Another case of her surprising me with what she can do! |
Gv and I made our own version of Monet's Water Lilies (inspired by this).
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| Gv ended up adding some glitter at the end, which looks quite lovely, in person. |
She used watercolors to turn a cupcake liner green, then painted the swirly water background.
We snipped some chunks out of the flower and the lily pad, then glued it all down.
Finally, I saw this and created a 5 Frogs on a Log printable that you can use to make this fun toy:
Want to get your free copy of the printable, along with the instructions on how to make it? Just click on over here!
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!
