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I am a week behind on blogging. The reason for this slight delay is that we were very excited to meet our new niece, born last Saturday morning. Beautiful, perfectly healthy and born on the first day of Spring, it doesn't get much better. Anyway, this is what we read last week, Mirette on the Highwire, by Emily Arnold McCully . The story of the young protégée to tightrope walker, The Great Bellini. This is a fictional story based on the true story of famous tightrope walker Charles Blondin (born, Jean Francios Gravelet). We also read the sequel to this story, Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls. These stories are fun, bright and entertaining, and it is easy to see why Mirette on the Highwire won the Caldecott Medal (1993). Our vocabulary words this week: wench, protégée, feats, vagabond. We learned what makes a compound word, and proceeded to find them in our story every day. These stories provide many examples, Highwire being the first. For math this week, w...

Last week we read the Babar Story by Jellybean Press, Babar: To Duet or not To Duet. As I mentioned in my last post, we enjoyed learning about music this week, and we always enjoy Babar. This story is about humility, knowing your limitations and learning from others mistakes. Our vocabulary words this week were quite difficult: Illusion, Affectation, Limitations, and Regulations.  We learned about etiquette and manners, as well as how to give a speech. Then we practiced. For math we learned about fractions. We began with a whole pie (a paper plate colored to look like pie:) then cut it in half and again, and again. Then when we had our pie cut into eighths we each ate one slice. We said that even one eighth of our pie was a large piece and maybe some people would like half of that! One sixteenth!!! Then I introduced the music notes and how they are whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth. They all look different and hopefully the children will remember which is ...

Last week I strayed from Five In A Row and used some ideas from Ruth Beechick's Language and Thinking for Young Children. We read Henny Penny by Paul Galdone and The Goose that Layed the Golden Egg , found in Aesop's Fables retold by Tom Paxton . Henny Penny was our main text and we learned about birds and kept things light and simple. Our vocabulary words were the  different names for chickens (as well as a few other bird species): Cock and Hen. We made a book about birds. The children could practice writing and also use glue and stickers. For Science we read the Eyewitness Book Birds as well as a book about ducks, and turkeys. Jim Arnosky's book I'm a Turkey was great fun and we visited the Scholastic website to hear him sing that one to us a few times. Even Gwendolyn enjoyed it:) It was neat to gain such insight into Jim Arnosky's personality as well, since we love his literature. We practiced making nicknames for ourselves following the pattern in...

This week we read Mrs. Katz and Tush, by Patricia Polocco. A sweet story of friendship and community. Mrs. Katz, a polish immigrant and Larnel, an African American boy form a strong friendship and the little cat without a tail is the catalyst for this unlikely friendship. Following   A New Coat for Anna, by Harriet Zeifert last week, the concept of immigration into America post WW11 was an easy one to grasp.  Our Social Studies this week centered around immigration. We read a book about Ellis Island as well as Watch the Stars Come Out , by Riki Levinson and Keeping Quilt, by Patricia Polocco. A study of the Statue of Liberty would have fit in well this week, but I did not make time. We also learned about Poland. We read a little book about Poland, located it on the map and tracked the voyage Mrs. Katz would have taken across the ocean. For Math: we began simple multiplication: counting by groups of numbers instead of one. A great exercise for thi...