Henry the Castaway
We just finished Henry the Castaway by Mark Taylor. Because this book came from another county's library system, I got it two weeks ago, midweek and decided to begin right away and spend a week and a half reading and digging into this book. It is a really cute book, perfect for early June. The story is packed with alliterations and references and Graham Booth's beautiful artwork. Tristan correctly identified the pictures as watercolor (I think Graham Booth used multiple mediums, watercolor being one), so that is where we began.
Tristan and Ana are getting better at using watercolor. Their paintings are looking more than just watery blobs, and Ana hasn't disintegrated her paper in quite some time, now. In addition to painting, we made crocodile crafts, kingfisher handprint crafts and toilet paper tube terriers. While crafting these animals we were able to chat about different kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and mammals. We discussed what characteristics are unique to each class of animals and how their differences help them survive.
We counted all of the animals in the book and worked on the concept of tallying. This was very confusing and a little fast paced, but I think we are getting it. Then we counted by fives all of our tally marks. I plan to follow up on this concept now that I've introduced it. We played a couple of simple games over the past few weeks and I've used tally marks to keep score, thus reinforcing the concept. We also reviewed counting by twos.
Henry is an explorer, and we talked about what makes an explorer and what modes of transportation are used to explore? Anastasia has the ability to quickly catch onto concepts and she immediately identified that Henry used his feet to explore. He walked out his front door! This led me to ask the question, "How have people explored in the past?" The children didn't know, so we set about to learn about a few well-known explorers. We made a Mini book filled with coloring pages, Christopher Columbus and his ships, James Cook and his ships, Matthew A. Henson, and Buzz Aldrin. The children added a picture of themselves for the final page. Tristan drew himself in an airplane discovering all kinds of animals. Very fun. We talked about how Earth has been explored, but space is an unknown, and that's why we are so interested in going out into space.
We had a fun time talking about rivers. How they start and end. What is current? What kind of animals live in, on, by rivers. Where is the Orinoco river? We had a fun time playing "Pooh sticks" at a little stream on the Daniel Boone Homestead. We were able to see the current and hear the water. I introduced some river vocabulary, upstream, downstream, mouth and current, not to mention, "uncharted seas".
All in all it was an enjoyable week and a half. We even worked the kids blanket forts into acting out the story. They were stranded on the island, but I found them! Gwendolyn just loved the fort!
Tristan and Ana are getting better at using watercolor. Their paintings are looking more than just watery blobs, and Ana hasn't disintegrated her paper in quite some time, now. In addition to painting, we made crocodile crafts, kingfisher handprint crafts and toilet paper tube terriers. While crafting these animals we were able to chat about different kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and mammals. We discussed what characteristics are unique to each class of animals and how their differences help them survive.
We counted all of the animals in the book and worked on the concept of tallying. This was very confusing and a little fast paced, but I think we are getting it. Then we counted by fives all of our tally marks. I plan to follow up on this concept now that I've introduced it. We played a couple of simple games over the past few weeks and I've used tally marks to keep score, thus reinforcing the concept. We also reviewed counting by twos.
Henry is an explorer, and we talked about what makes an explorer and what modes of transportation are used to explore? Anastasia has the ability to quickly catch onto concepts and she immediately identified that Henry used his feet to explore. He walked out his front door! This led me to ask the question, "How have people explored in the past?" The children didn't know, so we set about to learn about a few well-known explorers. We made a Mini book filled with coloring pages, Christopher Columbus and his ships, James Cook and his ships, Matthew A. Henson, and Buzz Aldrin. The children added a picture of themselves for the final page. Tristan drew himself in an airplane discovering all kinds of animals. Very fun. We talked about how Earth has been explored, but space is an unknown, and that's why we are so interested in going out into space.
We had a fun time talking about rivers. How they start and end. What is current? What kind of animals live in, on, by rivers. Where is the Orinoco river? We had a fun time playing "Pooh sticks" at a little stream on the Daniel Boone Homestead. We were able to see the current and hear the water. I introduced some river vocabulary, upstream, downstream, mouth and current, not to mention, "uncharted seas".
All in all it was an enjoyable week and a half. We even worked the kids blanket forts into acting out the story. They were stranded on the island, but I found them! Gwendolyn just loved the fort!
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