Mrs. Katz and Tush
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 this: sorting and counting the baked goods in the deli Mrs. Katz visits with Larnel. We read Jane Brockett's concept book Spotty, Stripey, Swirly: What Are Patterns?, and we began to find groups in the patterns. This led to multiplying the polka dots on Mrs. Katz dress and the pairs of leaves on her purple chair, etc. We also did an exercise multiplying kittens. Tush had 4 kittens, how many would there be if each kitten had 4, and those kittens had 4 as well! Cats multiply!
For Science we learned about cats and yeast. We have learned about yeast in the past, but this week Tristan seemed to understand that yeast is a living organism. Our Danish pastry came out nicely, and the children and I enjoyed comparing the texture of the soft, flaky, pastry to the crisp of a Saltine cracker. Animal books are the kids favorites, but we don't usually read about the tame animals. It was interesting to read about domestic cats and how they are similar to their wild relatives yet different. I found it particularly interesting to read that cats do not instinctively hunt and kill prey (small rodents). They have to be taught how to be good mousers by watching their mothers, or older cats. Otherwise, they simply ignore the mice living around them.
Art this week consisted of drawing and coloring. We drew patterns onto a plain coloring page and we drew the view from a window in our home. We enjoyed the illustrations in the story, noting the patterns that defined Mrs. Katz apartment and we tried to understand what emotion the characters were showing on each page of the story by looking at their faces.
Our vocabulary words this week, all Yiddish words: Bubeleh, tush, kugel, Shalom. The theme of the book is spoken quite cleverly in the title, Katz being Yiddish for cats and a very common Jewish surname. These themes are woven throughout the tale as Mrs. Katz recounts her vacations to the Catskill mountains and shares her Jewish heritage with Larnel, by explaining Passover and sharing the Passover meal with him.
Though we were not instantly in love with this story, it definitely grew on us. By the fourth read, the kids were laughing at the antics of Tush and I was tearing up reading the last page about the Kaddish.
In any case, we learned a lot!
Some other books we enjoyed this week: I Love Cats, Catherine Matthias (A great one to get the kids reading along)
So Many Cats, Beatrice Schenk De Regniers (Cute counting book)
The Ultimate Cat Book, David Taylor
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 this: sorting and counting the baked goods in the deli Mrs. Katz visits with Larnel. We read Jane Brockett's concept book Spotty, Stripey, Swirly: What Are Patterns?, and we began to find groups in the patterns. This led to multiplying the polka dots on Mrs. Katz dress and the pairs of leaves on her purple chair, etc. We also did an exercise multiplying kittens. Tush had 4 kittens, how many would there be if each kitten had 4, and those kittens had 4 as well! Cats multiply!
For Science we learned about cats and yeast. We have learned about yeast in the past, but this week Tristan seemed to understand that yeast is a living organism. Our Danish pastry came out nicely, and the children and I enjoyed comparing the texture of the soft, flaky, pastry to the crisp of a Saltine cracker. Animal books are the kids favorites, but we don't usually read about the tame animals. It was interesting to read about domestic cats and how they are similar to their wild relatives yet different. I found it particularly interesting to read that cats do not instinctively hunt and kill prey (small rodents). They have to be taught how to be good mousers by watching their mothers, or older cats. Otherwise, they simply ignore the mice living around them.
Art this week consisted of drawing and coloring. We drew patterns onto a plain coloring page and we drew the view from a window in our home. We enjoyed the illustrations in the story, noting the patterns that defined Mrs. Katz apartment and we tried to understand what emotion the characters were showing on each page of the story by looking at their faces.
Our vocabulary words this week, all Yiddish words: Bubeleh, tush, kugel, Shalom. The theme of the book is spoken quite cleverly in the title, Katz being Yiddish for cats and a very common Jewish surname. These themes are woven throughout the tale as Mrs. Katz recounts her vacations to the Catskill mountains and shares her Jewish heritage with Larnel, by explaining Passover and sharing the Passover meal with him.
Though we were not instantly in love with this story, it definitely grew on us. By the fourth read, the kids were laughing at the antics of Tush and I was tearing up reading the last page about the Kaddish.
In any case, we learned a lot!
Some other books we enjoyed this week: I Love Cats, Catherine Matthias (A great one to get the kids reading along)
So Many Cats, Beatrice Schenk De Regniers (Cute counting book)
The Ultimate Cat Book, David Taylor
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