BFIAR: Ask Mr. Bear

This week we rowed Ask Mr. Bear by Marjorie Flack.  It was a really cute story about a little boy who tries to find a birthday present for his mother.

Our companion books with a farm animal theme were:

• Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
• Pete the Cat: Old MacDonald Had a Farm by James Dean
• Once Upon MacDonald's Farm by Stephen Gammell
• Moo, Moo, Brown Cow! Have You Any Milk? by Phillis Gershator
• Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins
• Thump, Quack, Moo by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
• books by Sara Swan Miller: Chickens, Sheep, Cows, Pigs, Goats

Other companion books about presents/gifts were:

• The Present by Bob Gill
• Mama's Perfect Present by Diane Goode

The first activity we did after reading the book was learning about the colors: brights vs. pastels.  This is a difficult concept to grasp, so I just introduced it and let Joshua draw a picture using each.

We learned about farm and forest animals. Joshua cut out and glued the animals in the correct place. I had hoped to walk to a forest near our house, but it's closed due to construction.

We also worked on the letter Bb and the number 2. 

The next day we matched cards with pictures of animals to their products: cow/milk, hen/egg, sheep/wool, goose/feathers, goat/cheese. Joshua loved this!

On Wednesday, we had a Farm Fresh Breakfast! This included eggs, bacon, goat cheese, biscuits and honey, and milk from a jar! It was so special and I loved that Joshua showed enthusiasm for everything. He notices every detail.

watching the bacon/biscuits 

We then worked on rhyming words and putting events from the story in order.  Both of these tasks were quite challenging for Joshua.  He had trouble remembering the order in which Danny met the farm animals. When I realized Danny met them in order of smallest to biggest (hen, goose, goat, sheep, cow, bear), I tried to get Joshua to put them in order that way. But all the pictures on the cards were the same size and even the pretend animals I have are not to scale. 

side note: I'm so thankful for my years and training at Shelton and the privilege to be Joshua's teacher.  Homeschooling him has taken quite a bit of patience that teachers of a large class simply don't have time for.  I know the gaps Joshua has can be remediated with lots of repetition and use of hands on materials. I am blessed to have accumulated so many resources and manipulatives through my years as a teacher and am so grateful that time was not wasted. I humbled to see yet another way God has used every part of my life for good, no matter how insignificant the enemy makes it seem sometimes.

On the last day, we performed our puppet show for Nana! (see the video here) I made a puppet theatre using this tutorial. Joshua was Danny and I was the narrator/animals. He did a great job remembering his part and staying focused! I was so proud of him!!

The we talked about the concept of an "un-birthday" from Disney's Alice in Wonderland. We had an unbirthday party with pizza and cupcakes!

Our last activity was learning directional words: in front of, behind, between, etc. Joshua cut and glued the egg in the appropriate places. He loves this book!