Cake Color Match ~ Once Upon a Book

A Birthday For Frances by Russell Hoban

Summary: Sometimes it is hard when siblings have birthdays. Frances is a little envious of her sister Gloria and all her birthday attention. Mother and Father Badger are gentle and wise in their handling of their imaginative and precocious offspring.

 Fine Motor Skills Plus Color Recognition:

Here’s a simple activity that your tot can do to work their finger muscles and learn their colors at the same time.

Supplies:

Cake Color Match Printable
cardstock
clothespins
markers

 

Directions:

Print the cake color wheel out on to cardstock. Cut around the circle and laminate if desired. Gather 8 clothes pins. Color a dot on the end that opens.  Have your child match the color dots.

 

 

I originally made this with my young tot in mind, but it was my older tot (almost preschooler) who really enjoyed it! For young children, learning how to open and close the pins will be a new skill. If they can’t grasp the pins, have them lay the clothes pin on the right color. In order to practice working those finger muscles, just let your child clip clothes pins around the circle in any order.

Click here for all the Birthday-themed posts.

Wrapping Paper Station ~ Once Upon a Book

A Birthday For Frances by Russell Hoban

Summary: Sometimes it is hard when siblings have birthdays. Frances is a little envious of her sister Gloria and all her birthday attention. Mother and Father Badger are gentle and wise in their handling of their imaginative and precocious offspring.

Wrapping Paper Station:

Whenever I have gifts to wrap, my children always want to help. I set up this activity so that my older toddler could practice helping me wrap presents.

 

Supplies:

wrapping paper
scissors
medium-size objects
tape or pop-up tape
optional: bows

 

First I cut the wrapping paper into manageable pieces. Then I went ahead and placed several pieces of tape along the edge of the yellow bin. My daughter was not able to use a tape dispenser on her own. Having pop-up tape dispensers would make this activity a little more independent for students. I helped her wrap one of her toys. I would hold the fold while she taped it. After a few times, she was able to wrap things on her own—in a toddler fashion ;).

 

She wrapped and rewrapped items. Then she handed them out to her sisters and had a pretend birthday party.

Extension:

Another extension of this activity would be to have long strips of wrapping paper already cut. Then let your tot cut little strips off. Use as confetti.

Click here for all the Birthday-themed posts.

Birthday Party Game ~ Once Upon a Book

A Birthday For Frances by Russell Hoban

Summary: Sometimes it is hard when siblings have birthdays. Frances is a little envious of her sister Gloria and all her birthday attention. Mother and Father Badger are gentle and wise in their handling of their imaginative and precocious offspring.

Birthday Games:

Here is a simple yet fun game to play at a real or pretend birthday party! You will need party blowers and pom poms.

Place the pom poms in a line by your child. Have them try to blow the pom poms across the table with the party blower. My girls had so much fun trying to get the pom poms across the table. This simple game allowed them to focus and work those mouth muscles needed for speech.

My three-year old decided to try using the blower to keep a balloon up in the air. That was hard! Next she tried to see how high she could get the balloon in the air.

We did a different version of this game with my preschool co-op class a couple years ago. The children were playing with our birthday party sensory bin and one child started using the blower to knock all the Noodles off the table.

Click here for all the Birthday-themed posts.

A Birthday for Frances ~ Once Upon a Book

A Birthday For Frances by Russell Hoban

 

Summary: Sometimes it is hard when siblings have birthdays. Frances is a little envious of her sister Gloria and all her birthday attention. Mother and Father Badger are gentle and wise in their handling of their imaginative and precocious offspring.

Practicing Colors, Shapes, and Numbers:

 

 

Practicing colors and shapes can be so much fun with a birthday theme. One of the activities we did was roll and create a birthday hat. Using foam stickers and our photo-block dice, each child created a custom hat craft and practiced learning their shapes. You can find the complete birthday hat craft instructions on Spell Outloud.

 

Using the same photo-blocks but just changing the inserts, my girls played a cute feed-the-cat game. You can download the cat and cupcake printables under the Letter C.

We also printed some of the pages from the birthday pack from 2 Teaching Mommies. We worked on our colors by coloring the balloon coloring book.

 

We also practiced sequencing with a balloon sequencing printable from Homeschool Creations.

Birthday celebrations don’t have to be just once a year. Let your toddler have fun throwing a party for a stuffed animal, favorite doll, or even for himself. Check back next week for more birthday-themed ideas.

Jack’s Garden: Vocabulary ~Once Upon a Book

  Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole

Book Summary: A beautifully illustrated story based on the House That Jack Built, Jack’s Garden doesn’t just tell a story but teaches as well. It has labeled drawings of garden tools, insects in the soil, seeds, clouds, parts of plants, plants, butterflies, birds, and other insects.

 

Garden Vocabulary:

So how is your garden growing? Observing your garden each week is a wonderful way to practice vocabulary:

stem

leaves

bud

roots

veins

fruit

vegetable

 

 

We also printed out this printable from Homeschool Creations. I printed the full page in grey-scale and then another copy in color. I cut the color copy apart and then my girls worked on matching the correct pieces.

Observing a garden is also a great way to learn the names of different herbs, fruits, and vegetables.

 

I had my toddlers up to my teens help create custom plant markers for our garden. It was fun and easy for even the littlest ones. Check out my step-by-step tutorial on how to create these plant markers with your family.

 

You can find even more plant and garden ideas on my Garden-themed Pinterest board.

Don’t miss the other book ideas for Jack’s Garden:

• What Will Be in Your Garden?

• Seed Observation

• Printable Bible Craft

• Garden Rhymes

Jack’s Garden: Rhymes ~ Once Upon a Book

  Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole

Book Summary: A beautifully illustrated story based on the House That Jack Built, Jack’s Garden doesn’t just tell a story but teaches as well. It has labeled drawings of garden tools, insects in the soil, seeds, clouds, parts of plants, plants, butterflies, birds, and other insects.

Garden Poems and Rhymes:

 

A Seed Needs

To the tune of "Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay"

I see you are a seed,
Tell me what do you need,
I need some soil to grow,
And then the sun to glow,
Water to make me wet,
Air for my leaves to get,
Space for my roots to spread,
Now I'm a plant.

Iram Khan
http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems22.html

 

The Gardening Song

First you take a shovel, a rake, and a hoe
Plant a little garden, Plant seeds in a row
Water them and weed them
Through all the summer heat
And then you'll have some…
Flowers or vegetables to eat.
http://www.preschooleducation.com/sgarden.shtml

There are so many rhymes and poems that go along with the plant and garden theme. Pick a few to work on during the week. Sing them while observing plants, while watering your garden, or after reading a book. I’m always amazed that when paired with a song or rhyme, my young children can memorize anything.

 

For even more garden ideas, check out my Garden-themed Pinterest board.

Don’t miss the other book ideas for Jack’s Garden:

• What Will Be in Your Garden?

• Seed Observation

• Printable Bible Craft

Jack’s Garden: Bible Lesson ~ Once Upon a Book

 Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole 

Book Summary: A beautifully illustrated story based on the House That Jack Built, Jack’s Garden doesn’t just tell a story but teaches as well. It has labeled drawings of garden tools, insects in the soil, seeds, clouds, parts of plants, plants, butterflies, birds, and other insects.

Bible: God Cares for Me

 

Supplies:

Flower printable
small craft sticks
tape
crayons
glue
small paper cup
Flower song printable from Homeschool Creations

Hold up the “What Do Plants Need?” poster and sing the song (or read it).

“Plants need air, soil, water, and sunlight. Do you remember how God makes a flower? (from a seed). Remember how we put seeds in the soil and they grew?  The Bible says that God takes care of plants when they are growing. God knows exactly what the plants need! We are even more important to God than plants. Flowers don’t worry about when it is going to rain, or if they are going to get enough sunlight. They just grow. God loves us more than the flowers. That means we don’t have to worry about things. God will take care of us and make sure we have what we need. We can trust Jesus to take care of us.”

Print the flowers onto white paper. Cut along the edge and fold in half. Have your children color the flowers.

After the flower is colored, fold the paper in half. Make a small slit in the center of the fold. Push a small craft stick through and tape down. Next use a glue stick to glue down all the edges.

 

 

Make a small hole in the center of the paper cup. Place the craft stick though. Now it looks like the flower was planted in a pot! Go over the Bible verse and the saying on the back of the flower.

 “Do not worry about what you will eat or drink; or what you will wear. See how the lilies grow?” Matthew 6:25-34

 

For even more garden ideas, check out my Garden-themed Pinterest board.

Don’t miss the other book ideas for Jack’s Garden:

• What Will Be in Your Garden?
• Seed Observation

   

Jack's Garden- Seed Observation ~ Once Upon a Book

   Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole

 

Science: Seed Observation

 

After reading Jack’s Garden and One Bean, set up a seed observation center. Open up some seed packs and place the seeds in an ice-cube tray. I used an ice-stick tray so that we could contain the seeds easily.

Observed and talk about the different characteristics of the seeds:

Which seed is the biggest seed?
Which seed is the smallest?
This seed is ______ (color).
What shape is this seed?
What do you think will grow from this seed?

 

The Montessori Print Shop has a wonderful set of “Plants We Eat” cards. I placed the correct seeds on the cards so that the children could see what would grow from that seed. Can you believe broccoli grows from such tiny seeds?

 

Look around your house for other types of seeds to observe. Can you find the seed in a banana? What about an orange? How about an avocado? In a previous Totally Tots garden post, Jenn shared several seed activities she did with her boys. They sorted seeds, sorted seed packets, and even made their own seed packets.

 

 

Last week I shared how I let my little girls plant their own herbs. Look how many seedlings we have already! They obviously did not follow the “only put 3 seeds in” rule. :)  Of course after reading One Bean, we will be planting beans too. We might try planting seeds in a cd case or on cotton balls. We’ve done this before and it is a wonderful way for young children to observe what happens to a seed once it is planted. For even more garden ideas, check out my Garden-themed Pinterest board.