J is for Jellyfish


~Malachi is 4 years, 3 months~
ABC Book:
Memory Verse:
Sing the Word from A-Z
"Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and today and forever . . . (Hebrews 13:8)


Books:
Bread and Jam for Frances,  by Russell & Lillian Hoban
Jamberry, by Bruce Degen
No Jumping on the Bed, by Tedd Arnold Joseph Had a Little Overcoat, by Simms Taback
Jesse Bear, What will You Wear?, by Nancy White Carlstrom


Songs:
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down In My Heart


Get Set for the Code Activities:
Malachi is moving through the activities with more confidence and speed.  He still needs prompting to decode the sounds.  For example, I will ask, "What sound do you her at the beginning of jumprope?" And he will say "/n/" I will then ask him to say the word outloud himself and he will correct himself and say "/j/."  He is also writing more on his own. He asks for notebooking pages that his brothers are doing and writes the letter he knows (he recognizes and writes more than we have studied).  


Art and Activities:
The inspiration for our first activity:
'Jam in the morning, jam on toast,
Jam is what I like most.' ~ Frances
Making Jam 
This went along nicely with our book, Bread and Jam for Frances, and we have been enjoying jam! Mali helped me smash the strawberries and I made 10 half pints of jam.  (We have already eaten 2 jars).


Jellyfish
I got the idea for this cute little guy here


Java Dough
A silky smooth dough that smells like fresh-brewed coffee.  We experimented with the recipe from Kid Concoctions and came up with a fun dough with an interesting feel and smells good!
We used:
3/4 cup fresh brewed strong coffee  2 cups cornstarch 1/2 cup salt then added flour to desired consistency


Jumping and Jumping Jacks

This made for some fun and active movement for both of my little ones. We tried to see how high we can jump (jumping off of furniture did not count!) and practiced doing jumping jacks counting to 10. 


Math:
Jelly Bean Sorting and Counting

We sorted jellybeans by color and then counted to see how many of each color we had (left). I bought two bags, but we could not find one, so Mali shared the tray with his sister. It was so cute how they worked together, shared and counted together. We found the bag later and they got to do it all over again. :-)

I realized that we need to work more on numbers. He cannot consistently count to 10 yet (but his 2 year old sister can) so I am singing more to him.

Delightful Books:



Delightful Links:

3 comments

  1. Ooooo...JAM!! :) How fun!!

    Hoping we can make some this next week too if the strawberries are ready for picking!!

    Jolanthe

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  2. Hi, I found your blog a couple months ago and absolutely love it! I am new to homeschooling and have found so much help through your blog. I have a question--is their a way to make the Trail Guide to World Geography a Geography and History curriculum, or do you have to have a separate History? I am asking in reference to my 5th grade daughter. She loves the look of this curriculum but I need to know about the history aspect of it before placing my order for her curriculums the end of this week. I appreciate any help you can be and thank you so much for your resourceful blogging!!

    Susana
    customblog@gmail.com

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  3. What a fun time you have had with the letter J! I've never really done a letter of the week, but reading your post sure does make me want to! My little ones would love this! Thank you for sharing so many fun ideas.

    Blessings
    Leslie

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