Letter R

Rabbits, Rain, and Rainbows were the focus of Letter R week.

I found these cheap awesome lacing cards at the dollar store and love them!  The rabbit pops out so you can trace it if you'd like (which we did), or just use it in regular fashion.  It came in a set with a bunch of animal choices.  Little Guy canot stand lacing cards, so we've come up with a new system of doing them together.  I lace a hole, he laces the next hole, etc.  He likes it much better when it doesn't feel like such a big task to do alone. 

Then we did a cut and paste page.  These are great, because Little Guy loves cutting and pasting, and I love how he has to put the pictures in the order that they happened. 

We learned all about rain; what makes it happen, and how the system works.  I drew Little Guy a picture to explain the rain cycle. 
Then we boiled water and pretended it was the sun warming up the water and causing it to turn to steam.  When I put the (clear, glass) lid on the pot, we watched to see how our "rain drops" started forming on the lid our cloud.  I lifted the lid our cloud off of the pot and said, "Oh no!  Our cloud is getting heavy!  What do you think will happen?"  Little Guy said, "It's going to rain!"  and I shook the lid a bit to make our raindrops fall.  It was pretty fun and I think it really helped Little Guy to see how the cycle works.

We also did another experiment using cotton balls and water.  I gave Little Guy some cotton balls and asked him to describe them.  Were they heavy or light?  Soft or hard?  Wet or dry? 

Then he dipped them in water and described them.  We observed that when they were heavy with water they started dripping.  

Then......we went a little nuts and just had a free for all playing with the water and the cotton balls! 

Fun, Fun!!

I found a really great Rain themed prewriting page at 2 Teaching Mommies.  It's a free printable, and they have a whole unit on rain.

I also made this prewriting page using a rainbow and had Little Guy use the corresponding color to draw a line on each arc.

This week we read:

My R Book by Jane Belk Moncure

(we just love this series)

Rabbit's Good News by Ruth Lercher Bornstein

(We both really loved this one.  Little Guy had me read it 3 times in a row. Great book for Spring)

Rain, Rain, Everywhere by Christine Leeson

(Little Guy was into it, but I just thought it was ok)

Little Bill:  A Rainy Day to Remember by Kitty Fross

(Little Guy just loves Little Bill)

The Story of Rumplestiltskin by Heather Amery & Stephen Cartwright

(this was an Usborne First Stories book, so it grows with your child)

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Over the River

(great interactive book)