Despite the changes to our schedule and lack of normalcy, we still managed to fit in some decent learning times with the next two books in our Before Five in a Row series, so I'll recap both of those weeks in one post here:
The Big Green Pocketbook
This sweet book easily became a new favorite for both kids! It is the story of a day spent between a mother and daughter riding the city bus to accomplish several tasks and errands. The main character starts her day with her mama with an empty green bag and fills it up with various bits of ephemera and trinkets from each stop. Perhaps it was the simplicity of the tale that made Lucy and Collin connect to it so well, or possibly the emotions experienced by the girl when she loses her bag at the end of the day were relatable but they NEVER got tired of reading and connecting with the story.
Here's just a quick look at our activities together with this book:
Letter "P" collage with pipe cleaners:
Practicing writing the letter "P".
We had some great fine motor practice with cutting and story sequencing with this lapbook activity from Homeschool Share. They each created a paper "pocketbook" pouch and then cut out pictures of each item that the girl in the story placed in her book. Both Lucy and Collin enjoyed listening to the story and filling their pocketbooks along with their "friend" in the book.
Perhaps the highlight of the week was getting to experience an afternoon of riding a bus and making stops around downtown Des Moines with our sweet play group friends! This week was my turn to plan our activities for our get together, so I arranged for us all to meet downtown where we read our book at the sculpture garden and then hopped onto a free shuttle bus for an adventure.
Each child brought an empty backpack to fill with treasures from our stops, our final and most productive stop being the public library where each enthusiastic little one picked out a stack of books to take and enjoy at home! How fun!
The Runaway Bunny
The Runaway Bunny is a story about the enduring love between mother and child. No matter how hard the little bunny in the story determines to run away from his mother, she is doubly determined to never let him far from her sight. This is another book that has special meaning for me as it was also one that was a part of my childhood. It definitely ranks as one of my mother's all-time favorite children's books and our copy was a gift from her and my dad when Lucy was a newborn! It just so happened that my parents were visiting from out of town during our week with this book, so it was wonderful to invite my mom to participate in our school time while they were here!
The kids with my parents, "Mama Gail and Grandpa!"
Here's some highlights from our week:
The recent addition of BUNNIES to our household made the book's subject matter particularly meaningful. Here Lucy and Collin share a moment with little Cottontail:
We used paper straws to blow pom poms across the table, just like the mama bunny said she would become the "wind" and blow her baby bunny where she wanted him to go should he "become a sailboat and sail away from her."
We also made the bunny masks which you see on their heads. This was an activity from The Runaway Bunny "Fold and Learn" printable pack which is available for purchase from the Five in a Row website. (Sidenote: the fold and learn packs are fun but a little pricey, so they are not something I can afford for every unit! But it was fun to give it a try and we did make use of it!)
We also enjoyed various activities from the wonderful Runaway Bunny printable pack from Homeschool Creations:
This ended up being a fun and fairly relaxed learning week. It was also nice to let my mom and dad have a little peek into what our learning endeavors are like, which was a rare opportunity as we only see each other about twice a year. I love the memories we made together this week!
xoxo,
