BFIAR: The Runaway Bunny

How I love Margaret Wise Brown's books! Autumn is finally in swing here and "The Runaway Bunny" goes along splendidly with the weather.

Reading 
This has been a favorite book of ours since she was a baby. We read it every day this week, along with "Goodnight Moon" again for comparison. She found the swapping of illustrations between the books hilarious. We point it out each time we read them.

We discussed crops, scarecrows, and crocuses. She traced a few of her handprints and taped them around some pencils. She looooves using her crocus pencils!

We read Jeremiah 31:3 about God's everlasting love. We also read Psalm 139 to remind us that God will be with us no matter where we go, similar to the mother and baby bunny.

Letter of the Week: I
She completed another Bada Namu alphabet project!

Science

The first color illustration is of a decaying tree. This was a great new word for us to discuss, especially now that it's autumn. We went on a leaf scavenger hunt and paid special attention to any plants in decay. We used this leaf scavenger hunt page and this leaf graphing worksheet. We then used the leaves to make crayon rubbings! 

Apples were perfect for an experiment this week! We discussed the parts of an apple: leaf, stem, flesh, seeds, core, and skin. I read this apple star story from Happy Home Fairy and then cut the apple horizontally to show her the star inside. 

We took the seeds out and put them in a cup of soda to watch them "dance." We talked about why they bounce up and down. The seeds are more dense than the soda, so they sink, then air bubbles from the soda form around the seed, and they float back up again!

We had 6 labelled bowls. The first bowl was our "control" with only apples in it. Each bowl after that was apples submersed in a liquid. The second bowl had water, then salt water, then apple cider vinegar, then lemon juice, and finally soda. We used this worksheet from Pre-K Pages. We checked in on the experiment after 2 hours, and then we checked it the next day! She loved recording the data and using new scientific words.

And to end our apple experiments, we made a volcano! Scoop out the inside of an apple, add baking soda and apple cider vinegar, and watch what happens.

Math

We compared disks, 2D circles, and 3D circles and pointed out they're all still considered round.

Art

Cutting apples in half (and small handle on the back) proved to be great stamps! She stamped them in paint to create her own orchard.

She made a corn on the corn out of construction paper and glued cheerios onto it as kernels.

Music

This week was full of fun songs!

BFIAR: The Big Green Pocketbook

Reading 
"The Big Green Pocketbook" was our darling story for this week. We discussed the manners and kindness shown by the characters in the book. We talked about what she would carry in her own pocketbook versus what the girl collected. She also liked pointing out different emotions on their faces by looking at the illustrations.

We practice summarizing the story again verbally and she filled out a book report. She improves every week at her summaries.

I printed phonemic segmentation car mats from Teachers Pay Teachers to practice blending her words!

Letter of the Week: H
We used the printable from Bada Namu letter crafts for letter H! These are great for practicing cutting with scissors, pasting, and handwriting.

Math
We sorted the coins and dollars in her piggy bank. Then I gave her a magnifying glass to observe each of them! I also drew a pig on a white sheet of paper, then let her go to town with some coin rubbings and colored pencils.

The Measured Mom's emergent reader book for money was a hit!

Kindergarten Boom Boom's money flip book was also super fun.

This Learning Coins game from Abcya.com was simple and sweet.

She's been singing this song all week long.

Art

She created her very own green pocketbook! 

BFIAR: Goodnight Moon

Reading
We read "Goodnight Moon" over and over this week! We read Psalm 127:2b and discussed God caring for us even while we sleep. We also read Genesis 1:14-19 to review His creation of the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day.

Homeschool Creation's "Goodnight Moon" pdf had many useful printables. We printed page 16 for syllable practice. Pages 17-18 were used for rhyming practice. Then we used pages 23-24 with a bingo marker to find words within the story.

We completed another book report and practiced verbally summarizing the story.

Related Stories and Poems

• Goldilocks and The Three Bears
• The Three Little Kittens
• Hey Diddle Diddle
• "The Runaway Bunny"by Margaret Wise Brown

Letter of the Week: G

Bada Namu offers printables for all letters of the alphabet! It was different and fun for her to complete.

Science

Since the eclipse a few weeks ago, Addie has been highly curious about space and the moon. We printed a moon observation journal from 3 Dinosaurs. She kept a weather journal in the past for a week, so she was thrilled to keep a new one. The pdf also includes moon phases bookmarks - we used them to scramble and then put in order of the moon phases.

SciShow Kids' channel includes this video on the moon phases!

StoryBots Super Songs Episode 1, Part 1 is on Outer Space. The songs are on the sun, the moon, the planets, the Earth, and the stars. "It's My Time to Shine" went along perfectly for this week, but she enjoyed them all! She specifically loved the sassy Earth saying, "The moon is kinda like my hula hoop!" when talking about the orbit.

Math

Pointing out many different shapes within the illustrations of "Goodnight Moon" was easy. We mainly reviewed clocks this week. We have a wonderful book called "Tick-Tock Let's Read The Clock" by Bobbi Katz. We also used page 15 of Homeschool Creation's pdf to create a clock.

We practiced number sequencing using Homeschool Creation's sequencing cards. Wonderful printable!

Art

We worked on blending primary colors this week to make secondary colors. We used clay, or "play-clay" as she calls it, to make new colors!

Painting her own moon was so much fun! She used tin foil to create texture in the paint, as well as sprinkling epsom salt on top. Then she used a thin paintbrush to dot stars around it.

BFIAR: Blueberries for Sal

Reading
We read "Blueberries for Sal" by Robert McCloskey. We also read Ruth 1:16 and related Ruth following Naomi to Sal following her mother. We talked about staying alert in public to not get separated.

The wood-burning stove in Sal's kitchen was interesting to talk about and compare to our gas stove. She also would like to use an old-fashioned egg beater like the one in their kitchen drawer! The old car in the front yard was another interesting illustration.

We completed another book report this week as well. Verbally summarizing stories is getting easier for her.

Prepositions
We used Homeschool Creation's pdf pages 10-14 for the "Where is Little Bear?" booklet. It was great practice for directional words and prepositions.

Rhyming
Page 20 from Homeschool Creation's pdf was a wonderful worksheet for rhyming.

Phonemics
Mrs.Ricca's Kindergarten blogpost includes beginning sound and middle sound stamp workpages. This was wonderful practice for Addie. This can be difficult, but it is so very important to work on phonemics before phonics!

We used pages 7-9 of this ending sound activity from Teachers Pay Teachers.

I printed and laminated a few of these Elkonin boxes from The Measured Mom! I did the same with these rhyming sorting mats. I love her site's resources.

And we taped boxes on the floor to sound out words in similar fashion to Elkonin boxes!

Math
We used a printable from this mom's printable pack. We used pages 7-8 of the pdf and some blue mold-able clay to compare amounts of blueberries in the pails. We also used page 10 of the pdf to practice addition.

Letter of the Week: F
Here was our project for letter F!

Science
We discussed blueberries and their season in our area. Unfortunately, their season is over now, but I would love to go blueberry picking together next June-August! In the meantime, she created her own pail out of tin foil and finger painted the blueberries on with paint.

Talking about the animals in "Blueberries for Sal," we discussed crows, partridges, and bears. She specifically asked me while reading our book, "Why are they gathering food for winter?" I thought this was a wonderful way to start talking about hibernation! These video from YouTube explained well. We talked about different animals who hibernate, animals who migrate, and animals who don't do either - like us.

And of course, we had to play around with felt bear masks I already made for her Masha and Bear birthday party. 

Songs and Poems

• A Little Brown Bear 
• Bear is Sleeping 
• Pop Goes the Berry (We substituted strawberry with blueberry!)
• Picked a Strawberry (We again said blueberry instead of strawberry!)
• Two Little Black Bears 
• Grizzly Bears
• 5 Little Bears and Bear is Sleeping

BFIAR: Ask Mr.Bear

Reading
Week 5 of BFIAR features the classic "Ask Mr.Bear" by Marjorie Flack! We discussed 2 Corinthians 9:7 and cheerfully giving gifts. Then we talked about problem-solving and asking for advice when we're unsure how to handle a problem. We discussed products animals provide for us as well.

Acting out the story was fun! She did lots of skipping, galloping, trotting, running, and accompanying animal noises while we read along.

We filled out another book report this week. We also worked on verbally summarizing the story again.

Prepositions
I printed pages 17-20 of Homeschool Creation's pdf for "Where is the Hen's Egg?" She enjoyed stapling the pages together to make her own booklet.

Rhyming
Homeschool Creation's pdf for "Ask Mr.Bear" (page 16) is a rhyming word match. Then I printed out page 21 for the word families. We used two pouches on our wall calendar to sort them.

Riddles
TeachersPayTeachers had a wonderful pdf with 7 farm animals riddles. These were fun and she answered them quickly.

All About Me! Project
Addie has been asking me for a while now to do a project about herself. She greatly enjoyed filling it out! I used this pdf from Tot Schooling.

Music

• Old MacDonald Had a Farm
• The Chicken Family
• A Very Merry Unbirthday to You!

Unbirthday Party!
We had our own little picnic with her teddy bear as Mr.Bear, her dolls as Danny and his mother, and she dressed up as Alice. We listened to "A Very Merry Unbirthday to You" several times while we had our picnic/tea/unbirthday party. 

Letter of the Week: E
We cut out eyes from a magazine and pasted them to a large uppercase E. We also made the lowercase letter e as a bird in an egg.

Science
We went on an outdoor scavenger hunt. I printed out this nature scavenger hunt from StayAtHomeMum.

BFIAR: The Little Rabbit

This week makes a full month of homeschooling Adelaide! We had a ball.

BFIAR: The Little Rabbit

Reading
We read "The Little Rabbit" by Judy Dunn this week! Our library did not have it, so we read along on YouTube. We of course listened to it with all our stuffed bunnies! We used this bunny questionnaire on page 2 of Homeschool Share's pdf. She named her stuffed bunny Pinka, said she loved playing fetch, and eating carrots!

We talked about Proverbs 12:10a like the manual suggests. She related the verse to how she loves and cares for our cat Simon. We also practiced problem solving by brainstorming how Sarah could have adopted the rabbits out!

Each week, we've been filling out a book report together. Verbally summarizing the story is something I'm definitely working on with her, but she has improved greatly!

We also used a worksheet with comprehension questions about the wild bunny and Buttercup. It is page 24 of Homeschool Creation's The Little Rabbit pdf.

Syllables
We used page 22 "Say and Clap Story Words" from Homeschool Creation's The Little Rabbit pdf. I used two empty pouches of out calendar wall for this! She loved this activity. Instead of clapping the syllables, we placed our hands under our chins and felt our mouths make the syllables.

Letter of the Week: D 
She decorated an uppercase donut and a lowercase dragon!

Alphabet Game 
We played a "Bunny Hop" alphabet recognition game! We spread the flashcards across the floor, grabbed her bunny Pinka, and set to hopping! Once she hopped to the correct letter, we'd pick up that card and set it aside, until they were all gone. 

Days of the Week
I especially enjoyed Buttercup's babies names being the days of the week! I made one finger puppet bunny to be Buttercup. Then 7 identical bunnies with their names written on them. We used them to practice the days of the week order, but she has played with them throughout the entire week.

I used Homeschool Creation's The Little Rabbit pdf for page 14. It has Buttercup and all seven baby bunnies. Addie cut them out and pasted them in order on a piece of construction paper.

We sang two wonderful songs from 1+1+1=1's Calender Part 1. You can save the songs as a pdf. The first song is "Days of the Week" with the tune of "The Adams' Family". We use clap-clap, then snap-snap, and end with stomp-stomp. The second song is "Every Week" with the tune of "Frère Jacques."

Music
Together we sang many adorable songs about rabbits this week!

• Robbie the Rabbit
• Did You Ever See a Bunny?
• Little Bunny FooFoo
• Ten Little Bunnies
• 5 Little Bunnies

Rabbits 
We discussed the placement of rabbits' ears and eyes. We also talked about their strong muscles in their legs; their sharp teeth that are always growing; and how they have several babies at one time. She enjoyed hearing females are called does, males are bucks, and babies are kittens!

Camouflage 
Some animals use camouflage to accomplish different things! We watched SciShow Kids' video and talked about why the wild bunny would be brown and Buttercup would be white. 

BFIAR: My Blue Boat

Solar Eclipse!

To kick off our third week of school, we took a library trip to observe the solar eclipse. Our librarian gave us NASA glasses to view the eclipse safely. The library also had Moon Pies and half vanilla/chocolate Oreos! It had been 99 years since a Great American Eclipse! It was a great day.

We sang "Tuning Up For Outer Space" all week long!

We read many great picture books about the sun and moon. I have to share the book "The Moon is Going to Addy's House" by Ida Pearle. It was the perfect find for Monday. I want to add it to our home library (even if we don't spell Addie with a Y)!

We created our own solar eclipse project. She took dark blue paper, traced a circle with yellow chalk, and spread the chalk down to look like the eclipse!

BFIAR: My Blue Boat

Reading 

We read "My Blue Boat" by Chris L. Demarest. The new vocabulary included channel, harbor, fleet, beacon, and more. She asked about each of their meanings! We tracked the boat on its journey and left to right. We also compared a few similar pages with "Yellow Ball."

Thank goodness for our library, because she consumed many new books this week about harbors, boats, lighthouses, oceans, whales, dolphins, and more!

We used this preschool book report. We also practiced verbally summarizing the story.

Letter of the Week: C 

For letter C, we created this adorable uppercase cat and lowercase cookie!

Science: Floating vs Sinking
This science experiment was her favorite. We filled two containers: one with regular tap water and the other with salt water. We grabbed items throughout the house to predict, observe, and record whether or not they sink or float. The printable was pulled from The Measured Mom's blogpost.

Art: Watercolors 
First we used a white crayon to draw her boat. Then she painted with watercolors! She of course added a yellow sun and purple waves.

Art: Clay 

We created a copy of the little girl's boat in the story. We talked about the mast, the bow, and the sails. 

Music

Here were our favorites songs from the week! Many were already familiar to us, or we already knew the tune.

• "Row, Row Your Boat"
• "Once I Caught a Fish Alive"
• "Waves in the Sea"
• "Take Me Out to the Sea"
• "Baby Shark"

BFIAR: Yellow Ball

Second week of BFIAR, we've got this!

Reading 
Our book this week was "Yellow Ball" by Molly Bang! I couldn't find this in the library near me, so we read along on YouTube. Since this book features few words, we focused on tracking the ball and sequencing this week. We also spoke about Luke 8:22-25 and how Jesus also went through a storm.

We completed the same book report as last week. It's a great way to practice summarizing the story!

Prepositions 
While playing ball, I asked her to raise the ball above her head, between her knees, below her foot, kick the ball around in a circle, inside and outside of a basket, and we've been talking about many other prepositions this week!

Letter of the Week: B This week we made an uppercase B bumblebee and a lowercase b butterfly!

Storms In "Yellow Ball," a great storm sweeps up the ball. So this week, we talked about storms and weather! We watched The Magic School Bus episodes on weather (Season 1 Episode 13) and the water cycle (Season 2 Episode 5). Thank you Netflix!

We attempted to make a cloud in a jar and it went well initially... then melded into this storm-looking mess in a jar! If anything, it was interesting and fun to make. It was water, food coloring, shaving cream, and cotton balls in a mason jar.

Weather 
These videos from Sci Show Kids on YouTube captured her attention! I was worried it might be too advanced, but several times this week she's asked me about "the tiny pieces in the air" (particles) and a plethora of new questions! She also finds the idea of being shocked by a doorknob hilarious (static electricity).

After learning about weather diaries, she begged to begin one! I printed these pages from Sparkle Box. They are just her speed.

This fun, online game is about the seasons, weather, and thermometers! Here is the link: e-Learning for Kids - Weather. Some areas were advanced for her, such as Fahrenheit and Celsius measurements, but it was a good introduction.

This 3D water cycle craft from Teachers Pay Teachers was adorable! I like that it went with our focus on sequencing this week. Her project is now proudly hanging above her desk.

I used free printables from Primary Theme Park to make play-dough mats. I put them in paper protectors and added them to a folder. She loved it!

Art
One of the illustrations of "Yellow Ball" included the moon reflecting on the ocean. This was a fun fold-n-print painting. She folded a piece of cardstock in half. The bottom half she painted like the ocean, the grey moon on the top half, and then folded it to transfer the moon's reflection. She painted the night sky black. For her final touch, she added a smiley face to the moon!

Introducing oil pastels, I showed her how different they were compared to crayons, colored pencils, markers, pens. She delighted in the blending abilities she now had with these! She tried blending colors together, but preferred blending white to make the colors lighter.

The BFIAR guide suggests recreating the title page. Here is Addie's rendition!

Math: Distance and Perception
Tracking the ball throughout the story, we talked about how some pictures made the ball look bigger or smaller. We also looked at our fish tanks from different angles! 

BFIAR: Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

This is Adelaide's first year homeschooling. She is beyond excited to begin. We are using 'Before Five in a Row' by Jane Claire Lambert. This curriculum offers the flexibility that definitely benefits a preschooler! Let us share with you our first week.

Good morning! Each day we wake up, get dressed, brush our teeth and hair, eat our breakfast, and head to our schoolroom.

Prayer! We begin our school day with a morning prayer. I borrowed this preschool prayer.

Calendar time! We use a hanging calendar to discuss the month, day, and year. We also discuss yesterday, today, and tomorrow and the weather.

My ABC Bible Verses by Susan Hunt This wonderful book showcases a new letter each week. Each story has an accompanying Bible verse and First Catechism questions. Before we begin "Rowing the Day," I like to focus on the verse and First Catechism questions for the week. Repetition is a wonderful way to hide God's word in our hearts.

Before Five in a Row: Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

Here is an overview of our first week with BFIAR.

Reading
We read "Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" by Nancy White Carlstrom, with our own teddy bears. She absolutely loved the story! We pointed out details and illustrations; tidiness, orderliness, loving relationships between family members, similarities and differences between Jesse's house and our own, and anything else she found interesting. We also read Proverbs 15:13 and 17:22 in a cheerful way.

By the end of the week, we had read 'Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?" countless times. I found a fantastic, free preschool book report from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Poems 
These bear-themed classic poems went along perfectly. 

• "Furry Bear" by A.A. Milne
• "Teddy Bear" by A.A. Milne
• "Three Brown Bears" by Judith McNitt 

Books 
Here are some of my all-time favorites! 

• The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach
• Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
• Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup
• Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear by Lindsay Mattick
• A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
• Corduroy by Don Freeman
• We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
• Little Bear by Elsa Holmelund Minarik
• The Teddy Bear by David McPhail
• The Teddy Bears' Picnic by Jimmy Kennedy
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr.
• The Berenstain Bears series by Stan and Jan Berenstain 
• The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne

Rhyming
This printable from Homeschool Share includes two pages of rhyming cards that I cut out. The rhyme pattern was difficult for her at first, but now she has a good grasp on it.

Letter of the Week: A
We made a construction paper tree and stuck apple stickers all over it. Then we sorted between uppercase/lowercase letter A's with this cute project!

Science: Weather
We watched Starfall's "What's the Weather?" with an adorable singing bear going through the seasons and changing outfits. She then dressed up our own paper bear with different outfits made from construction paper. The felt weather spinner was used to pick different conditions. She giggled the entire time.

She also liked pulling out her wooden, magnetic dress-up dolls and dressing them up for different weather too! Our friend came over for a play-date and he laughed along with us!

Patterns 
In Jesse Bear's kitchen, he has a wonderful patterned tile floor. We talked about the shapes on the floor. We played with play-dough and made lots of patterns ourselves! I love hearing her point out patterns she notices now. 

Music
I hope you enjoy dancing and singing along with these songs as much as we did!