African Dunk

This morning, Aidyn and I made a lion craft to officially kick off Africa month. Basically I took an old soap box, taped it shut, and showed Aidyn how to paint it. While he painted the box, I cut out shapes for the lion's head, legs, and tail. We waited for the paint to dry and Aidyn glued the limbs on the box thus creating a soap box lion. He decided to name him "Babu," and we talked about how he lives in Africa and grew a mane when he became a daddy. Looking at pictures of younger male lions and lionesses, we discussed who has a mane and who doesn't.

Afterwards, we read many Africa-themed books such as The Sleepy Litttle Lion by Margaret Wise Brown, Moja Means One by Muriel and Tom Feelings, Emeka's Gift by Ifeoma Onyefulu, Kente Colors by Debbi Chocolate, and we browsed through the Eyewitness: Africa text. With Brown's book, we were able to bring up the subject of manes again, as our sleepy little lion had yet to develop one. With Kente Colors and Emeka's Gift we absorbed some African culture and words unfamiliar to us. With Moja Means One, we test-drove some Swahili words. In these books and with our globe at home, we identified the continent of Africa as well. All of these activities were done while we listened to Putumayo Kids: African Dreamland on the cd player.

I am excited to have started off African month so positively and creatively. So far, Aidyn seems enthusiastic about the subjects we've covered. We can't wait to learn more!

Africa Month

Theme: Africa
Music: African Music
Goal Trip: African exhibit at Haggin Museum

This month's theme will take us to the continent of Africa. We will not only explore the animal life that roams the area, but we'll learn about African culture, music, and language. We plan to read some books about the Swahili language and learn some new words. African music will play randomly throughout the month, and we'll watch videos about African life.

This month marks the end for our current destination-based curriculum. After this study concludes, we will review what we've learned so far, and then we are ready to jet to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The rest of the year will be spent continuing unit studies (only without a marked destination), and I plan to include units on specific authors (Dr. Suess, Beatrice Potter, Maurice Sendak weeks!), activities (karate, baseball, etc), and other stuff. I will also be building the curriculum for next year; we have a grand plan for our apex destination!

Bugs in the Garden Synopsis

Although this month was more of a review, Aidyn still learned new things. Throughout the month, we read really sweet books about both bugs and gardens. Our favorites had to be The Very Quiet Cricket and Zinnia's Flower Garden. We also created some bug crafts, played with bug models, and Aidyn even ate bug-themed foods. Exploring local gardens, Aidyn added many new plants' names to his vocabulary and was introduced to common garden tools. Additionally, this month I learned to compost and Aidyn involved himself in the process. We're still dying to add worms to our heap and watch them attack the food!

We also took in some side experiences at our local library: once we saw a ventriliquist and recently we heard a very animated storyteller.

As an ending project, Aidyn and I crafted an outdoor bug-'n'-garden scene. On a sky blue piece of construction paper, I added a strip of green construction paper and cut the top so it appeared to be grass. After I added a yellow sun, Aidyn applied bug and flower stickers everywhere. It was a great time to review who went where. Do flowers go on the sun, in the sky, or in the grass? Does this caterpillar fly in the sky or crawl on the ground? Where does this tomato grow?

On the whole, we had a blast this month!

Ventriloquist

Yesterday Aidyn, his daddy, and I went to the library's first summer program featuring a ventriloquist. He was a zany and educational performer, and we all had a blast watching his antics. Afterward, Aidyn played on the playground with a zillion children and then we called it a day. : )

Bug Play

Yesterday I picked up a small set of bug toys for Aidyn. We scattered them on the table, played with, and talked about them. For some of the less familiar insects, we flipped through our Eyewitness Insects book for further pictures and details. Playing around with these figures proved a valuable learning lesson for us both.

Dirt and Bugs

Over the past two days, Aidyn has been helping me with our compost. I introduced it to him on Sunday morning and he watched me dump new kitchen scraps on the pile. He was a captive audience to my turning the compost and he then helped me gather dry leaves for the top layer. This morning, he helped me add pine needles, weeds, and tiny fistfuls of dry leaves and watched again as I turned it in. Later we sat on the ground near our sandy soil and "crunched" dirt rocks. We even found a few colorful pebbles and alloted them to their own pile. Later we took a small side trip to the park and Aidyn ran around with a troop of fifth graders. On the way, we spied bugs, picked flowers, and sang our phonics song. Hungry, we arrived home and I fixed Aidyn some butterfly toast. I toasted a slice of bread and cut it diagonally. I arranged the two halves so that they looked like butterfly wings. Cutting a strawberry in half, I created a head and constructed antennae. I made a blueberry body and used sliced strawberries for wing decorations. After I drizzled some honey over it, Aidyn scarfed it down with enthusiasm.

A couple days ago, we also took in the books Bugs by David T. Greenburg, What Does Bunny See? by Linda Sue Park, and our favorite among the three, Be Nice to Spiders by Margaret Bloy Graham. We also signed up for our yearly summer reading at our local library and are looking forward to their upcoming programs.

OSH tour

This morning, Aidyn and I toured our local Orchard Supply Warehouse--notably, the garden section. We walked through the outdoor aisles of plants and touched and smelled many flowers, leaves, cacti, and shrubs. Aidyn daringly examined the big water fountains (which he called "mountains") and slipped his hand on the streaming water. Next, we looked around at the garden tools and I explained most of their names and functions (Aidyn liked the weedwhackers!). Later we went to the library and checked out more books on bugs and gardens.