Theme Thursday: Spiders

Well, I definitely have fallen short when it has come to doing my Theme Thursday posts.  We still have been doing our theme days, but I have not had the time or energy to post the photos and links and instructions.  Hopefully I will be able to put up a few of these posts in the next week and catch up.  I've got these themes to cover:  spiders, pumpkins, popcorn, pirates, and Thanksgiving.

 

Here on Temporary Insanity, I will be posting Theme Thursdays each week to share what activities we did and what resources we used on our special day. All of the instructions and links will be right here so please feel free to use them. I am including lots of extra ideas as well - no need to do them all, of course! Keep in mind that my activities are tailored to two kindergarteners and one second-grader; you can adjust them to fit your family.  You can find previous themes here.

 

Today's theme is spiders.

Let's get right into the reading.  For this theme day, we spent a lot of time with our books because my children have an intense interest (and fear of!) in spiders.  Oddly enough, the kids are no longer shrieking in fear at every spider they find in the house, probably because they know a lot more about them.

1.  The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Iza Trapani was our choice to begin the day.  It has lots of extra verses so the kids can explore all the places that the spider went.  The older kids helped make up motions for the new verses, and we got our exercise in.

2.  Spider on the Floor by Raffi and illustrated by True Kelley was another action-packed book.  It featured all the lyrics to Raffi's song "Spider on the Floor" and was great for repetition and finding rhythm in a song. As a bonus, it is extremely silly, and all my kids delighted in the outrageous things the spider caught in its web.

3.  Spiders by Nic Bishop is a book full of beautiful photographs and wonderful information on all types of spiders.  We probably spent a good thirty minutes poring over this book and learning all the interesting spider facts.

4.  Spiders' Secrets by Richard Platt was also a book chock full of incredible spider facts.

5.  Freaky Facts about Spiders by Christine Morley was yet another book that taught us new things about spiders.  I let the kids explore this book on their own while they ate their snack. 

 

Some other books that would be fantastic for a spider-themed day would be:

6.  Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott

7.  The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

8.  Ice Cream and Spiders: A Story about Learning Two Times Tables by Professor Paradox





Kitchen Activity:  My original idea was to make these spiderweb brownies with the kids.  We made them the night before because whole wheat brownies are better if they sit overnight.  They were pretty time-intensive so I'm not sure I would recommend them as a theme day activity.  Though, the recipe did give the kids plenty of practice in reading, measuring, and other kitchen skills.  Here's the link to the whole wheat brownie recipe and a link to the method for making the spiderweb on the brownies. 

 The brownies were a bit rich for snack time; so I had the kids help me make these cute little spiders instead.  They are made from round crackers (we like the ones from Trader Joe's), peanut butter, chocolate chips, and small pieces of apple.  You might also want to try making Oreo Cookie spiders following the instructions here.

For our craft, we made these adorable pool noodle spiders.  Earlier in the week, I had used a serrated knife to cut three pool noodles into rings.  I gave them to the kids with long pieces of ribbons so they could string gigantic necklaces and work on their fine motor skills. 

To make the pool noodle spider, you need just one of the pool noodle slices, pipe cleaners or bendaroos, wiggly eyes, and craft glue.  Cut the pipe cleaners into 5 inch pieces.  Loop one through the center hole of the pool noodle piece and twist to secure.  Once your child sees how to do that, let them do the remaining seven legs.  My four-year-old needed additional help with this step.  Then let them choose a set of wiggly eyes and glue them to their spiders.  We actually made these before we did the Itsy Bitsy spider book so we could use our spiders while doing the motions.

Next, I made this worksheet for the kids to practice a variety of skills.  They colored the SPIDER letters and the spider.  All three kids chose to put the red hourglass symbol on the spider to make it a black widow spider.  They learned how to skip-count by eights, and they worked on the phonics sound of "sp in spider".  Finally, they practiced reading all of the spider words that they learned from the various spider books we read.  You can click on the image above and save it to your computer to print out for your own use.

The last thing we did on Spider Day was go exploring.  Since we live in the rainy Northwest, we have lots of garden spiders and house spiders, especially this time of the year.  We had one particular garden spider that had spun a web right outside our kitchen window and had just caught a moth.  The kids got to watch the spider spin its silk around the moth and start liquefying it with its digestive juices.  It sounds gross, but I couldn't have set up a better learning experience if I had tried.

Next Theme Thursday post will be on pumpkins. 

Theme Thursdays - Apples

A few weeks ago, I wrote up my first Theme Thursday, documenting what we do on our theme days in homeschooling.  Here's the next one in the series.

 

Here on Temporary Insanity, I will be posting Theme Thursdays each week to share what activities we did and what resources we used on our special day. All of the instructions and links will be right here so please feel free to use them. I am including lots of extra ideas as well - no need to do them all, of course! Keep in mind that my activities are tailored to two kindergarteners and one second-grader; you can adjust them to fit your family.

This week, the theme is apples.  You can find previous themes here. 

BOOKS:

1.  The Life and Times of the Apple by Charles Micucci.  This read is full of interesting facts about apples and how they grow.  The hand-drawn illustrations are fascinating!

2.  Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins.  Fun counting book!

3.  How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? The Story of Food by Chris Butterworth.  We just read the part about how apples are made into apple juice and put in juice boxes. 

4.  Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.  This is the book that gave us the idea for our craft project. 

     Here are some other apple reading suggestions:

5.   How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro

6.  The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons

7.  Apple Fractions by Jerry Pallotta and Rob Bolster

8.  Ten Apples Up on Top by Theo LeSieg     

 I drew up some pages for the kids to make their own apple book.  They colored the cover, and we worked on the pages together.  We reviewed the sound a makes and made a list of words with a in them.  We labeled the parts of an apple on another page and did some apple math problems on the next.  We talked about how the apple tree changes throughout the seasons and colored a page to go along with that discussion.  Just click on the pictures below, save them to your computer, and then print them out for your apple book activity. 

 ART PROJECT: 
     The kids really enjoyed making star stamps with apple cores.  As you can see in the photos above, we cut an apple in half horizontally, cut out the center, removed the seeds, painted the apple stamp with white paint, and then carefully stamped in on colored cardstock.  When the prints dried, the kids folded their paper and made cards for their grandparents.  (handwriting practice!)
Some other apple-themed arts/crafts:
1.  Fingerprint Apple Tree
2.  Paper Plate Apple
3.  Apple Shrunken Heads

 KITCHEN ACTIVITY:
     We decided to make baked apples for our snack.  Simply take your apples (we used Pink Lady apples) and core them almost down to the bottom.  Make a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon and let the kids fill up their apple with it.  Cut some small pieces of butter to top off the apples.  Put a few inches of water in a pan and place the apples in the water.  Bake for fifteen minutes at 350 degrees. 
Some other apple-themed kitchen activities:
1.  Applesauce
2.  Apple Pie Party Dip
3.  Caramel Apples

HISTORY:
    A natural history study for an apple theme is Johnny Appleseed.  There are lots of printables and other activities on the internet that you can use to learn more about Johnny Appleseed as well as many books available.  The Drama Queen happened to have a story about Johnny Appleseed in her reader that she read aloud to all of us, and then we reenacted his story in the living room. :)

Have fun;  our next theme will be Spiders!

Theme Thursdays - Pigs



In our homeschooling adventures this year, I am seeking to break free of traditional school methods and curriculum.  As a classically-trained teacher, just the thought of shying away from the familiar and the "normal" frightens me.

 

But we are doing it.

 

And the more we venture out of MY comfort zone, the more relaxed and more excited I become.  THIS, I realize, is exactly why - the intangible reason why - I wanted my kids home with me in the first place.

 

As part of our new adventures, we are doing a theme day once a week in which we abandon our regular activities, take up a theme, and focus all of our activities on the theme.  I plan the day in advance to be sure we will get in mathematics and reading and all the important subjects (all in theme of course).  I also plan a kitchen activity and an art project as well. 

 

Here on Temporary Insanity, I will be posting Theme Thursdays each week to share what activities we did and what resources we used on our special day.  All of the instructions and links will be right here so please feel free to use them.  I am including lots of extra ideas as well - no need to do them all, of course!  Keep in mind that my activities are tailored to two kindergarteners and one second-grader;  you can adjust them to fit your family.

 

This week, the theme is pigs. 

 BOOKS: 
      One of my favorite things about theme days is the amount of books we delve into together.  Here's what we read:
1.  Pink Pigs APlenty by Sandy Nightingale (a counting book - great for practicing math skills)
2.  Piggies in the Kitchen by Michelle Meadows 
3.  Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud by Lynne Plourde (lots of onamatopoeia and silly words - fun for new readers!)
4.  If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
And here are some other book ideas:
5.  Any of the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.  My daughter LOVES reading these books aloud to her brothers, and her brothers think Piggie is hilarious.
6.  Perfect Piggies by Sandra Boynton
7.  Any of the Mercy Watson books by Kate DiCamillo (great for early readers!)
8.  ABC - I Like Me by Nancy Carlson (super cute alphabet book)
9.  Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (just read a few excerpts from this longer book - can't miss with this classic)
10.  Do Not Open This Book by Michaela Muntean
 READING:
     Of course, we read books #1-4 together.  After reading Pink Pigs APlenty, we talked about the letter P and the sound it makes.  The kids helped come up with a list of twenty words that started with P, and the Drama Queen practiced her writing (and spelling!) by putting them up on the white board.  The Drama Queen got to read If You Give a Pig a Pancake  aloud to all of us.  We talked about actions and consequences, and then made up our own "If you...then" story. 
MATHEMATICS:
     The boys are still working on counting and identifying numbers.  So, I told them the story of the three pigs.  Then we made houses out of "sticks" (toothpicks) and counted them, practicing writing the numbers on the paper next to the houses.  The Drama Queen worked on her "skip-counting" with the same project.  I had her focus on counting by twos, fives, and tens. 
KITCHEN ACTIVITY:
   

     We decided to make Perfect Piggie Eggs to learn kitchen skills and make a snack.  Making perfect hard-boiled eggs is a great kitchen skill to learn.  I taught the kids to put the eggs into the pot first before covering them with cold water and a dash of vinegar.  When the water came to a full boil, we removed the pot from the hot burner and covered it for fifteen minutes.  (Science lesson here:  If the eggs cook too long, the iron in the egg yolk and the sulfur in the egg white react to form a grayish-green color.)  After fifteen minutes, the kids helped me move the eggs immediately into ice water to stop the eggs from cooking any further.  Peeling the eggs proved to be too stressful a task for the boys; so I did that myself before we got to the fun part.  We deviled the yolks with a simple mix of mayo, yellow mustard, and salt.  I cut the carrots into ears and nostrils while the Drama Queen cut string cheese into pig snouts.  We put the peas, carrots, cheese snouts, and deviled yolk mixture on the table, and everyone got to creating their pigs.  And eating them. 
Some other kitchen activities to go with a pig theme:
1.  Pigs in a Blanket
2.  Piggie Cupcakes
3.  Pig Cookies

ART PROJECT
     I like to keep art projects simple, especially for the Beast.  He gets easily frustrated with complicated projects.  These paper bag pig puppets were super easy to make.  The kids practiced cutting and gluing skills to make these, and then they had the opportunity to demonstrate their drama skills to their baby sister.
Some other pig art projects you might consider:
1.  Piggy Bottle Bank
2.  Egg Carton Pigs
3.  Balloon Piggy
SCIENCE
     We borrowed National Geographic's Really Wild Farm Animals dvd from the library and watched it during lunch.  The kids learned that farm pigs have relatives in the wild (warthogs) and a host of other pig facts that even I didn't know.
Other science activities in a pig theme:
1.  Fun Pig Fact Website
2.  Experiments based on The Three Little Pigs

The kids loved it.  They can't wait for Theme Day every week!  I usually tell them on Monday what the theme is so they can look forward to it all week. :)

Next week is Apples! 

Homeschooling and Autism

I knew that homeschooling our autistic child would be a challenge this year.  He is strong-willed and very opinionated, and I would be lying if I said I didn't consider putting him in school just so "someone else could deal with trying to teach him."  I feel very inexperienced and unqualified to teach anyone on the autism spectrum.

But I'm his mom.  I know him better than anyone else.  I can sense his mood swings, communicate with him patiently, and use his favorite things to my advantage.  Most of all, I love him like crazy and want him to learn; so you'd better believe that I'll do whatever it takes to make that happen.

I have a college degree in education.  I am trained to teach in a classroom setting.  All of that training has been thrown out the window as the Beast forces me to think outside the box. 

This morning, during math class, I gave him a worksheet in which he had to read the number and then color the same number of boxes above it.  Then, he simply had to trace the number to practice writing it. 

And the drama began.  "This isn't right, Momma!  The number says eight and there are ten boxes!"

"I know, honey.  So just color in eight of them, okay?"

"But there are too many!  I can't do it!  It's too hard!  There are ten, not eight!"

This conversation went on in a similar and very repetitive manner until I finally convinced him to color in eight boxes.  He hates coloring.  I never understood why until I started teaching him at home.  The poor kid is a perfectionist and freezes up when he can't color the object perfectly.  He drew one tiny dot in the first square and stared at it, obviously frustrated.

"Momma, I can't!  This crayon isn't working!  It's not right, it's not right!  Here, you do it for me.  I can't make it right."

"No, you have to do it.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  Just color eight boxes."

"I caaaaaaaan't.  This is not working, Momma!"

And he was right.  It wasn't working.  He was frustrated;  I was frustrated.  Then I thought, "What am I trying to teach him here?  To color boxes?  Or to work on his numbers?"  Did it matter how we got there, as long as we got there?  I suddenly had an idea and fished a few packs of stickers out of a drawer. 

"Here, use these to fill in the squares.  Show me eight."

"But that's not what you said to do. . ."

"I know - it's okay.  Let's just make it easier so you can focus on the numbers."

"Okay."  And he cheerfully and (dare I say it?!) eagerly put the stickers in the correct places on his worksheet.  He did indeed know how many eight was.  For that matter, he was able to easily demonstrate that he knew how many six was, and five was, and ten was.  It just took a different (and perhaps a little unconventional) path to get there.

Now don't go asking me how he did when it came time to trace the numbers.  There just isn't any fun, catchy way to go about doing that.  It's a lot of "I can't do this" and "Yes you can.  I will help you." 

We are in our third week of the school year so far.  I am learning that he learns better when he lies on the floor or hangs upside down off his chair.  I am finding that he digests information in little bites so as soon as I see the frustration becoming too much, I cut the class short and return to it later.  I am seeing that he is an extremely tactile learner and am digging deep to find ways to use this information. 

This is why we chose homeschooling for him - for all of my children.  I have the time and the freedom to teach each child how he best learns. 

Just remind me of that when the Beast and I butt heads again tomorrow morning. 

PS.  Yes, I know the kitchen floor in the picture is disgusting.  Can you guess why he had thrown himself so dramatically there?