This was a short week, as Caleb had a special overnight stay at Grandma's and Grandpa's Sunday to Monday. I have to say, it was a nice "break" for me to just be a mom on Monday (not that there's anything about being a Mom that justifies the word "just"!). But, to not have to do any formal teaching that day was almost like a day off. =)
It was also a trying week. This kids all have minor colds (sniffly noses, coughs, etc.) and I am just feeling very weary. Weary in parenting and weary in teaching. The combination of all of these things made for a challenging week.
It was also a trying week. This kids all have minor colds (sniffly noses, coughs, etc.) and I am just feeling very weary. Weary in parenting and weary in teaching. The combination of all of these things made for a challenging week.
Anyway, spiders was our focus. Eew. I have to say, when I was at the library looking at books, I could barely touch the nonfiction texts with the real-to-life photos. I am such a wimp.
Anyway....we read this book to start off our study...
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| This is a great nonfiction text that doesn't creep me out. =) And, it's a Level 2 science reader, so the sentences are fairly simple....not something that is always easy to find with nonfiction. |
After we read Mighty Spiders, we created these lists as we recalled information from the text. We talked about what verbs and adjectives are.
The kids also made these simple construction paper spiders:
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| Each of the legs on Caleb's had a spider fact. |
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| The legs on Meredith's had the numbers 1-8, with the corresponding amount of spiders. |
And of course, we had to learn about spider parts...
Math: Patterns
Math: Patterns
I came across this Spider Patterns worksheet here. Caleb practiced a variety of different patterns, using Dot markers to "color" the spiders.
While he was doing that, Meredith used the dot markers to add "spiders" to these webs. She had to make as many dots as the number in the corresponding circle.
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| This worksheet was found at learncreatelove.com. |
Math: Pattern Blocks
The pumpkin template I made for the pattern blocks last week was a hit, so I made a spider one for this week:
Meredith colored-by-letter with the pattern block template as well.
Some other good spider books:
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| This has become one of our favorite books to read during this season! Click here to see the projects that Caleb and Tamara (little girl we had staying with us at the time) did 2 years ago to go along with this book. |
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| Classic story. Love Eric Carle. |
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| Meredith's |
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| Caleb's (My spider has 10 eyes. My spider is scary. My spider is spooky.) |
The kids each painted a paper plate black. After they dried, I put notches around the outside of the circle so they could create their web. This was actually a difficult task for both of them, so I had to help with the "weaving". Then they stuck some spider stickers on to their webs.
