B is for Barn

Week 2: Letter B as in barn

Letter Based Craft: We made a barn and it involved all of Riley’s favorite things – glue and paint.  I cut out a “barnish” shape from cardstock and the kids painted it red.  After it had dried we glued it to a piece of black paper and the kids added popsicle sticks.  

Sorry it is sideways - I need to work on my computer skills. :/

Reading/Phonics: We did several different letter B worksheets and worked on tracing the letter B.  Landon liked this one and I caught him saying it out loud- “line, bubble, bubble” – as he was writing.  They have both also started to recognize a “Big B” versus a “little b.”  We are still reading through all of the farming books we got from the library as well. 

Math: We completed a worksheet where the kids were able to count animals and then practice writing out the number. 

Outing: We attended story time at the library, which so happened to have a bit of a farm/animal theme.  They love sitting and listening to the story as well as singing along with the songs.  I had planned to take them to Discovery Place Kids this week, but that adventure was not in the cards – maybe next week. 

Science: We planted some “magic beans” this week and watching them grow has been the highlight of the last several days.  I kept this one simple and we filled a glass jar with cotton balls and I stuck several small beans in around the outer edge of the jar.  We used a spray bottle to water them daily for several days and the beans grew… and grew… and grew. 

Music:  We watched Barney goes to the Farm (Neflix) and they sang and danced along with the songs.  Luckily they don’t watch much Barney as I don’t think I could handle it, but they did like this episode.  We also sang Baa Baa Black sheep and did a sheep craft.  I traced the outline of a sheep on contact paper and taped it to the window.  The kids enjoyed being able to add cotton balls to the sheep to make it fluffy.  

Week 3: Letter C as in corn, cow, chicken

Letter Based Craft: We painted a picture of corn.  Landon chose to paint his corn blue and who am I to stop his creativity.  After the paint dried, we used another favorite item – glue.  We glued Cheerios to the corn.    

Reading/Phonics: We did several different letter C worksheets and worked on tracing the letter C.  We talked about words that began with the letter C and pointed things out around the house.  They love to watch the Leapfrog movies on Netflix and we watched Phonics Farm and Shapeville Park a few times this week. 

Math: We added apples (colored pom poms) to a tree.  I had found the shape of the tree online and added the numbered circles.  The kids added the glue and pom poms and we practiced our counting to 10.  As an additional math activity this week, I took an empty milk carton and numbered each space (1-12).  The kids added white pom poms to the carton counting to 12 and reading me the number in the bottom of the carton.  They used clothes pins to pick up the pom poms adding some tactile skill to the activity.    

Outing: We honestly didn’t make it out this week.  We played a lot of games in the house and went on a bike ride outside.  The kids played with the Little People farm set a lot this week, making the animal noises. 

Science: I found an experiment on Pinterest I wanted to try called Magic Milk.  We didn’t get a chance to do this one together as I tried it on my own first.  Theoretically, you have a shallow dish with milk and add drops of food coloring.  You then dip a q-tip in dish soap and dip it into the water.  The colors are supposed to spread away from the q-tip due to a reaction with the fat.  What I think went wrong is that I could only find food color gel and it is thicker than the traditional food coloring liquid, so the drop sank to the bottom.  I am going to keep searching for food coloring and we will have to try this one again later.   

Music:  We sang Old McDonald and made the different animal noises and movements. One of their favorite books is The Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton.  They like to read the book and do the movements of the animals so we read that at bedtime this week. 

We did an additional color sorting activity this week that they enjoyed so much we did it twice.  I set up a container with three cardboard toilet paper tubes.  I added a yellow, red, and green “tree” to each of the tubes and filled the container with red, green, and yellow pom poms.  They used clothespins to pick up the pompoms and put them in the appropriate tubes.  They would ask me “Mommy, which one is yellow?” and then they would put it into the appropriate tube without my response.  They just liked to keep me involved in the game and were testing my skills.