Tuesday, November 02, 2010

G is for St. George, Gorse Fairy, Gratitude, and God!

We have completed G week along the Alphabet Path! We had a couple projects spill over into this week, and we didn't get through all our garden and other G-themed books, but fortunately H week is lighter on the literature, so we can catch up!

Here are our themes for the week, all of which went into the Word Box, as usual.

~Circle Time~

The girls brought a giraffe and Curious George for G week show and tell. The item in the mystery sound pouch was a garlic press! Neither of them guessed that one... they couldn't remember the name of it!

Songs and Rhymes
Georgy Porgy
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
Goosey, Goosey, Gander
Grand Old Duke of York
Garden fingerplay

~Foods for G Week~

Gorilla Munch cereal

granola

They ate it with both milk and yogurt for breakfast most mornings

Green lunch: spinach in the mac n cheese, kiwi, and of course, green grapes

grits (with cheddar cheese - yum!) and grape juice

gnocchi (took some work to convince Caroline this was a G word!)

grilled eggplant and gouda sandwich

Other G fods we enjoyed: grapefruit, graham crackers, grilled cheese sandwiches, green beans, guacamole, fig and goat cheese pizza... we were going to have chicken gumbo one night, but then we went trick-or-treating instead. :)

~Tea Time~

We had green smoothies, pumpkin granola bars, and ginger cat cookies

The green in the smoothies was avocado... and I wouldn't recommend making them, either. The recipe claimed that "kids love it," but maybe they mean kids who aren't used to having plain avocado and guacamole and such... these smoothies had sugar in them, and sugar plus avocados is just weird to me. The granola bars weren't outstanding either, just so-so. I will be sticking with my favorite peanut butter and honey granola bars recipe. The ginger cats??? Two thumbs up from me. "Too spicy" was Cecilia's comment.

~Letter Formation~

forming letter Gg using playdough

writing G's in cornmeal

Cut and Paste G Collage

Punch Out the Letter - Capital and Lowercase Gg

~Flower Fairy for Letter G: Gorse~

Caroline coloring her flower fairy page from the Flower Fairies coloring book

Caroline's completed Gorse Fairy

~Saint for Letter F: St. George~

painted St. George

St. George poem copywork from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints

Caroline's completed work - she opted to color a picture of St. George rather than illustrate him herself, as she was feeling a little sick this day

~In the Book Baskets~


Science Theme: Gardens

Here is a photo of Caroline reading the Alphabet Path story for G. Her fluency and expression while reading amaze me... no formal instruction on it, either. Everything she has learned, she has picked up by being read to and asking questions here and there, I guess. As a former elementary teacher, I always said I didn't want to teach below 3rd grade, 2nd at the youngest, because I didn't want the responsibility of making sure kids learned how to read. I have managed to avoid that responsibility yet again, by sheer luck! Perhaps I will have to give Cecilia more direct instruction... too soon to tell.

After reading the story, we wrote down some words selected from the reading and then sorted the G words by hard and soft G sounds.

~Picture Study: G is for Games~

This painting is called Boy with a House of Cards by Francois Hubert Drouais. Caroline convinced me to participate again. I do love to draw and haven't really done it in so long.

~ABC Virtue of the Week: Gratitude~

These are virtue coloring sheets found here. Using the great idea of another Catholic homeschooling mom, I am reading Caroline a relevant story from this sweet little book full of stories with morals to them. I am choosing a story from Devotional Stories for Little Folks that reinforces the virtue for each week. We read a story about a boy who was grateful for the things he did have, even they weren't as popular and expensive as things his friend had (and his friend came to realize that he should have been more grateful for his possessions as well).

Caroline's finished picture

~Activities for G Week~

G is for Grids

Caroline used a grid to color a "hidden picture." At first she didn't get it at all, but she caught on faster than I thought she would! After showing her one example, I thought I'd just put it away until next year, but after a couple more examples, she completely picked up on the concept.

Here it is, all finished. It was a part of her...

Garden Lapbook

I found this lapbook idea at Shower of Roses, where I find many great ideas and resources. Here is Caroline putting together the "Helpful and Harmful Garden Creatures" mini book.

Caroline holds up her completed garden lapbook

G is for Gardening

We planted various things indoors to see what we could grow... here's an avocado seed suspended with just the bottom of it in water. Supposedly it will sprout this way!

pomegranate seeds

Caroline, Cecilia, and I planted them in some cups of dirt.

Caroline with some pinto beans and red beans, ready to put them in a paper towel inside a baggie after they had soaked overnight.

G is for Grapefruit Birdfeeders

This is an easy thing to do... my paternal grandmother taught me this. She had a grapefruit tree growing in their yard in St. Pete, Florida. We would often eat grapefruit for breakfast, and then she would put the empty rinds on the windowsill to dry. They harden as they dry, and then you can pour birdseed in them and nestle them in some tree branches.

Here's Cecilia holding one

Come and get it, birds! (Okay, so a couple of them fell and our chickens ate the seed...)

G is for Garden Cake

This was so much fun! Here are the supplies needed...

...plus one loaf cake. Ours was pumpkin bread with chocolate chips and walnuts in it. I lopped off the top and sides just a bit to even it up and make it more box-shaped.

First, the children spread chocolate frosting over the entire loaf.

Next, they place the "fence posts" along the sides, using more frosting. We used Biscoff cookies (I had cut points onto the tops using a serrated knife). I saw Ladyfingers recommended as another option. Any skinny, long cookie would do.

Crush chocolate cookies with a rolling pin and sprinkle them on top for dirt. We used Annie's chocolate bunnies.

Then I smushed some Trader Joe's fruit jellies and cut them into flower shapes with kitchen scissors. The girls stuck toothpicks in them...

...and then "planted" them in the "garden."

They were pleased with the finished product!

This would make a fun little girl birthday cake, I think!

~Cooking Project: G is for Granola and Granola Bars~

Here are the girls helping make granola...

...and here they help to make pumpkin granola bars (not using the granola from the previous cooking project - something totally different!).

~Chores/Practical Life: G is for Green Beans~

snapping green beans for dinner

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:48 AM

    Love the garden cake and the bird feeders. I am not cooking anything sweet for a while as we have so much candy!! The kids know how much and what they have this year too. I bet you won't have to teach Cecelia how to read either. Both of the girls have learned without any instruction at all either. It amazes me after teaching 1st grade where it was so much work to teach them to read. Katelyn was reading a financial magazine yesterday without any help. Sam is doing better than I thought on his own too and I thought he might be harder with less one on one and reading time than the girls had.

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  2. Yeah, we have lots of candy too. I already told them that we won't be eating all of it because it would be too much. They have been having a piece a day and next week, I am going to cut up all the chocolate stuff and mix it into cookie dough. Then we'll eat a few ourselves and the rest... I just came up with what to do with them last night: we will mail them to my brother and tell him to share with the other seminarians. I've been wanting to get ourselves more involved in doing something for vocations, and having a seminarian brother opens the door for doing this kind of thing. His birthday is tomorrow and I was thinking it'd be nice if I'd had time to bake him some cookies to send w/ his bday card, and then this idea popped into my head.

    It is hard to find fun kid baking projects that aren't so, so sweet... I try to adapt them to be healthier, like the original garden cake idea suggested using a loaf pound cake from the store and a can of chocolate frosting, so I made pumpkin bread and homemade frosting.

    But with all the sweets in the house, I am surprised I have not gained any weight!! I stopped losing it, though, and haven't lost a pound in close to a month!

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  3. melanie11:04 PM

    I agree that you prob. won't have to teach Cecelia to read either. She's participating in all those Alphabet Path lessons, so she's going to learn letters and the sounds. Plus, you talk to her. Some big-name reading person pointed out that learning to read and write are really an extension of learning to talk. Kids who are talked to learn to talk properly; kids who are read to will also learn to read. I'm sure there are a few exceptions, but, for the most part, I never felt like anything I did in the classroom helped my first graders learn to read.

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