Start the morning
Begin your day with a walk outside to get fresh air and for movement. What is the weather like today? Are there changes since yesterday? Draw a picture of what the sky and branches look like when you look up. Are there clouds or is the sky cloudless and blue? Can you feel the heat of the sun? Is it breezy or windy? Record your observations in your nature journal.
Poetry
See if you can enunciate this fun tongue twister. Try to say it with emotion, rather than just as fast as possible! Your grown-up can upload a video of you saying it if you would like. I’d love to hear some of these!
Bobby Bippy bought a bat.
Bobby Bippy bought a ball.
With his bat Bob banged the ball
Banged it bump against the wall
But so boldly Bobby banged it
That he burst his rubber ball
“Boo!” cried Bobby
Bad luck ball
Bad luck Bobby, bad luck ball
Now to drown his many troubles
Bobby Bippy’s blowing bubbles.
Singing
This is an oldie, but it’s a beautiful song. It is called the echo song, because the children can echo each phrase. “Purple light…purple light, in the canyon…in the canyon, etc. The singers come together on, “My knapsack, my pony, and me”. Enjoy!
Math Skills
Review the two math worksheets from yesterday: Four times tables maze and Four times tables groupings. Continue practicing the three and especially four times tables.
Play the game, Get a Jump on it! Look at page three for more detailed instructions on how to play it with the times tables. Practice threes and fours times tables. Children can also do times tables that they are more comfortable with after they have done threes and fours. Tens would be a fun (and simple) one to try first to get the hang of the game.
Language Arts Skills
Finish worksheets from Ms. Far from yesterday. Word Sort and Short Vowel vs Long Vowel Sounds
Story: Recall the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. What happened in the story? How do you think the boy felt when he really needed help and no one came to help him? Do you think he felt scared? Angry? Angry with himself? Have you ever played a trick on someone and then regretted it? Imagine if you were a villager and had to talk to the boy after he tricked everyone the first time. What would you tell him to stop him from doing it again?
Draw the picture of the boy who cried wolf in your main lesson book. Make sure to hide the wolf somewhere in the woods!
French
Bonjour Classe! In the brown paper bag you picked up at school is a “boule de surprise”. When you have a moment to sit with your family, explain to them that you are going to pass the “boule de surprise” around in a circle while you say the verse. When the verse ends, whoever is holding the “boule de surprise” gets to unwrap one color, they may find something as they unwrap one layer. Start again with the same verse or a different one following the same rules until you get to the middle.
Passe, Passe
Passe, passe, petit rat,
Par le trou de la serrure.
Passe, passe, petit rat,
La dernière restera!
Painting
Starting with lemon yellow, make a small oval at the top middle of the paper. Use golden yellow to scoop under it and scoop up towards the top of the paper. Use more lemon yellow to blend from the top left corner into the gold. From the top right, bring red around the golden yellow. Blend this down to the bottom right. Use a small amount of light ultramarine blue to make the bottom right corner purple by blending it into the red.
Next, use bold ultramarine to scoop from the bottom left of the painting, blending slightly into the red and blending into the lemon yellow at the top left to make green.
Tips for painting with your child:
• To mix Stockmar paint, put about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of liquid paint pigment into a tiny jar. The jar holds about 1/4 cup liquid. Fill the jar 2/3 with water and swirl around so that some paint remains on the bottom of the jar. Now it’s ready. To get a softer color, the child will touch the surface of the liquid. To get more intense color, they will touch the pigment at the bottom of the jar.
• For these paintings, we always start with wet watercolor paper. You can soak the paper in warm water for 10 minutes and then put it on a flat surface before beginning to paint.
• Use a damp sponge to wipe the paper down so it’s not sopping wet before beginning to paint.
• Rinse your brush well in clean water before changing colors.
• Hold your brush upright at a 90 degree angle to the paper and brush in horizontal or vertical strokes to get the best coverage and smoothest lines.
• Once the painting is dry, avoid re-wetting it. Doing so increases the risk that it will dry with strange and unpleasant water marks.
Closing
The earth is firm beneath my feet
The sun shines bright below
And here I stand so straight and tall
All things to know and love.
Project Day: Sample Assignment
Friday is project day!
This week, you will be starting a diorama! A diorama is a 3D model of a scene. We’re going to make ours contained in a box. Dioramas were one of my favorite things to make as a child. You can make them as elaborate or simple as you want.
Directions: Open your shoebox and turn it some the open side is facing you. You could put the lid under that so it makes a little base. The second picture shows what this looks like.
Think about the fables we have learned so far this year. Look through your yellow main lesson book if you would like to get some ideas and remember all the fables. Once you have picked a fable that you like, think about creating a scene for the fable with the characters that were in it. What would the background look like? I like to start there and draw a picture on a piece of paper to use as my backdrop. Remember to also line the sides and top of the box with the paper for the background and sky. You can glue that to the back, sides, and top inside of the shoebox.
Then you can put in the ground (sand, dirt, grass, etc). After you have that, think about adding the other elements like trees, bushes, mountains, and hills. Does your sky have puffy clouds? Fluffed up and pulled apart cotton balls work great for puffy clouds! If the clouds are grey, you can add color to the puffed cotton balls with some chalk. Finally, sculpt your characters to add to the diorama. You can sculpt them out of air-dry clay and once they have dried you can paint them. You could also sculpt them out of beeswax of various colors.
Materials: These are just suggested materials-you do not need all of them.
Shoe box or similar sized box turned sideways so the opening is facing out.
Glue
Crayons
Paint
Paper to line the box (you can draw or color it any color you want)
Beeswax or clay to sculpt the characters
Tree branches, dried grasses, leaves, dried berries, sand, etc for the trees, plants and ground. Remember if you use fresh plants that they will dry out or could become moldy, so dried plants may be better.
Cardboard or fabric scraps
Any other miniature items that you have around that you could use in the diorama.
This is a time to be creative! Remember, you will have next week to work on the diorama too, so no need to rush it! I’m attaching quite a few pictures for inspiration, but really, let your imagination run wild and have fun! I’d love to see any in-progress photos!
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