Tot School: Week 3

I haven’t kept up with my Tot School plans at all!  We didn’t get much done this week, and I didn’t take photos of everything we did.  I’m allowed an off-week, right?

Ocean Theme

We’re still on our ocean theme unit—one more week after this, and I think I’ll be able to bring it to a close.  There are so many great ocean-themed activities to do!

This is a tin bank I found at a charity shop.  It has fish all over it, a hinged lid, and a tiny padlock with key.  It would be so Montessori-like to have her work on the little padlock and key (which was one thing I really liked about it), but unlocking it is difficult even for ME!  She did try.

I printed off a lot of fish clip-art on a page, laminated the page, and cut the fish apart to make fish counters.  I began by letting Gabriela put them into the coin slot.  Then, we practiced counting the fish as she put them in the slot (I had 10 of one kind of fish, 9 of another, 8 of another, and so on, down to 1).

Ocean animal 3-part cards (from 1+1+1=1):

Tweezing whale erasers (continued from last week)  

Letter C Activities

As with the first 2 weeks, Gabriela played with a basket of letter C’s that I collected from amongst all my Tot School supplies.  She also practiced writing the letter “C” in salt and on the magnetic drawing board.  We have also been making letters out of the purplinker! 

We didn’t use the C rubber ink stamp this week, but Gabriela did stamp Cs in her playdough.

Practical Life Skills—helping Daddy make pancakes!

I'm linking this post to "Tot School" at 1+1+1=1.

Geography Travels: Oklahoma

I grew up in Oklahoma (1st-6th grades), and to this day I still have a place in my heart for this wonderful state.  I remember studying Oklahoma history in 4th grade, and getting to take part in my school’s Oklahoma land run re-enactment that year still remains one of my most favorite school memories.  It’s something students below 4th grade eagerly looked forward to.  Anyway, enough reminiscing…here’s what we did in our Oklahoma unit (last school year—I’m playing catch-up):

Week 1

Located Oklahoma on a map and discussed the capital and major cities.

Listened to the Middle United States Song (Geography Songs)

Discussed what the name “Oklahoma” means and did a notebook page (Homeschool Creations):

Looked up these geography terms in the book Geography from A to Z: mountains, plains, canyons, mesas, prairies, rivers, forests

Discussed what a “panhandle” is and did a map page (Enchanted Learning):

Flag page (Apples 4 the Teacher), website on flag

Listened to the state song (from the movie Oklahoma!):

Discussed the dust bowl, and read the book Angels in the Dust by Margot Theis Raven.  I enjoyed telling Isaac about my own dust storm experience.  In six years of living in Oklahoma, I remember it happening only once.  I was at school, and I remember we couldn’t go outside for recess.  It really was quite amazing to watch!  We watched some videos about the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s, which was, of course, far more severe.

Here are a few more links to Dust Bowl videos on YouTube:

The Dust Bowl: A Story of Survival

Oklahoma Family Resilience in the Face of Overwhelming Odds (the story of one family)

Dust Bowl Refugee (a song written by Woody Guthrie)

Week 2

Famous People Chart (Oklahoma had so many that we had to do two pages):  Discussed the following famous singers from Oklahoma and added them to our chart: Garth Brooks, Woody Guthrie, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Patti Page, Carrie Underwood, Vince Gill

Link: YouTube video on Woody Guthrie (DiscoverOklahoma)

Began reading Where the Red Fern Grows, a classic story that takes place in the Oklahoma Ozarks. I loved this story as a child, and Isaac loved it as well. He cried at the end—the only time I’ve ever seen a book affect him like that.

More famous people from Oklahoma: Will Rogers, Wiley Post, Paul Harvey, Ron Howard, Mickey Mantle, Jim Thorpe, Thomas Stafford (astronaut)

Links to YouTube videos we watched:

1935 Newsreel on tragic deaths of Will Roger and Wiley Post (1935 Newsreel)

Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story

Clip from the Andy Griffith Show: “Opie and the Spoiled Kid” (Ron Howard)

Mickey Mantle: In His Own Words

Jim Thorpe, The World’s Greatest Athlete: Official Trailer

Tom Stafford Tribute, Part 1 and Part 2 (separate links)

Discussed Native Americans, the Trail of Tears, and the 5 civilized tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole)

Creek Indian Fact Sheet (website about Muskogee Creeks)

Discussed oil and oil wells, the Chisholm Trail, and cowboys

Chisholm Trail Cattle Drive 2007 (YouTube link)

At the end of our studies, we discussed and re-enacted the Oklahoma Land Run (of 1889).  Trying to do an “Oklahoma land run” with only 3 children in a really small back garden (yard), with a trampoline covering the middle third of the garden, in England…well, it just wasn’t the same.  However, the kids still enjoyed it!  And luckily, we had good weather for the great event.

Ready to start:

Off they go!

Staking their claims:

They used a toy shopping trolley for a covered wagon (when I was in 4th grade, my dad turned my red wagon into a “covered wagon”…it was pretty cool), and I packed a snack (popcorn) inside for them to picnic on:

Filing their “claims”

I'm linking this post to "History and Geography" at All Things Beautiful!

Tot School: Week 2

 Letter B Activities

Ocean Theme (continued from last week)

“Sea Urchins” with Crab chopsticks:

(Idea first seen at Playing House)

Tweezing and counting whale erasers:

Ocean sensory tub:

Ocean stick puppets (found at First Palette)

On Pinterest, I found a link to an adorable ocean animal video to show Gabriela:  You can watch it HERE.

Miscellaneous Activities

Magnetic Draw—Her drawing has really improved.  Here’s the cat she drew:   

Playdough (spice-scented): 

Love the Welsh hat!       

This week, we listened to Beethoven and looked at a book of Van Gogh art:

Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? Activities (continued from last week)

Playing peek-a-boo:

“Catching Butterflies” using Elefun game:  

I’ll be linking this post to “Tot School” at 1+1+1=1.

Geography Travels: Texas

I’m just trying to catch up on last year’s geography travels.  Here’s our unit on Texas!

We began by locating Texas on a map, finding its capital and major cities, and listening to the Southern Border United States Song (Geography Songs).

We put together a notebook page (Homeschool Creations).

Using Geography from A to Z, we discussed river, plains, gulf, prairie, steppe, hills, plateau, valley, desert, canyon, mountains, swamp, forest, and coast

We did a map page (Enchanted Learning)

We discussed Texas Regions using THIS website

I allowed Isaac to come up with his own idea for making the flag of Texas, and he chose to paint it (print-out from Apples for the Teacher)

We also discussed the six flags in Texan history (using The Six National Flags of Texas website).  I made a matching game to help him learn the different flags and countries that claimed Texas.

We discussed Texas bluebonnets, and Isaac made a Q-tip painting (click link for photos of bluebonnets):

According to the American Grub cookbook, chili is the state dish, so of course we had some chili!

Week 2

Famous People from Texas…

Just a quick note, since I haven’t said it before:  Whenever we put together a list of famous people from a state, we count those who were born there as well as those who lived there for any length of time.  I should also mention that we do not include every famous person that’s from a state.  I choose from various famous people lists I find online, and I base my choices on several things:  1)  whether or not I’ve heard of the person myself, 2) the importance of the person in history (sorry, I personally find US presidents to be more important than movie stars), and 3) whether or not I personally admire the person (I always include presidents whether I admire them or not).  Therefore, I do choose actors and singers that I personally like or that I feel are extremely famous (even if I don’t like them).  If I’m desperate to find a famous person from a particular state, sometimes I will choose people I don’t really admire.  When possible, I also include athletes, artists, inventors, scientists, politicians and more—as long as I know who they are.  Anyway, that’s how I choose who to cover.  So, please forgive me if I leave out someone you think is important.   : )

We began filling in our chart with US Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Here’s the White House page on George W. Bush.  You can click on the other presidents to read more about them.

YouTube videos on some of the presidents (I think we watched some for the others, but I can’t find them).

We discussed Texas history, and Isaac did a page on the Alamo.  We also looked at this website about the Alamo.  You can find more links for Texas history HERE.

Learned about Longhorn cattle HERE and HERE.

Texas songs and Gene Autry.  Let me tell you…there are LOADS of songs about Texas!  Just google “songs about Texas,” and you’ll find a list.  We listened to several on YouTube.  We also added Gene Autry (the “Singing Cowboy”) to our Famous People chart.

This one has low-quality volume—I chose it for the video, but you can find other videos with the same song:

I had to include this one, because it’s the most well-known Gene Autry song to ME!  I grew up with it.  : )

Here’s the Texas State Song:

I could put on a lot more videos of Texas songs, but it’s just too many.  Here’s a list of songs, instead (all linked to YouTube videos):

Marty Robbins—Ballad of the Alamo 

Johnny Cash—Remember the Alamo

Yellow Rose of Texas

Marty Robbins—El Paso

George Strait—Amarillo By Morning

Glen Campbell—Galveston

Jason Aldean—Amarillo Sky

Tanya Tucker—San Antonio Stroll

Here’s another version of Deep in the Heart of Texas (better sound)

Learned about the armor-plated armadillo and read the books Armadillo Rodeo (Jan Brett) and The Armadillo From Amarillo (Lynne Cherry).

We concluded our Texas study by discussing NASA (see link below) and Dallas Cowboys.   We also mentioned Sandra Day O’Connor, although we apparently forgot to add her to our chart.

Space Center Houston

Houston, We Have a Problem

More Texas Info Websites:

Texas SenateKids

Apples for the Teacher

Texas coloring pages HERE 

I'm linking this post to "History and Geography" at All Things Beautiful.

Road Trip Across Texas