Little Red Hen Unit

Monday

Oh Mondays. We started off a little shaky this morning, but we managed to turn things around pretty quickly with help from YouTube, G-ma’s Kindle Firestick and some shows that are not available on our TV for free. Crisis averted! We all cheered up and ate some breakfast, then got dressed and hung out a little bit longer, watching some TV and videos we liked. Some days you just have to go with what will make everyone happy! I had written lesson plans and had ideas in my head for project prep, but we had a busy weekend so I never got around to it. Oops! I had quickly cut out some shapes for the kids to glue together with glue sticks to make their very own Little Red Hens when I woke up this morning, which wasn’t the first project I had planned but it was the simplest. After we did our calendar, I got out the little table for them to use for project. Another quick fix for grumpy moods is slightly changing up the routine to something they enjoy doing or using. We read The Little Red Hen, then started our project. I helped them place the bodies on their papers, but let them decide where everything else went. I love seeing their final abstract creations. We tried to have some piano time while I searched for worksheets on sequencing events of the book for them, but that ended quickly once a fight broke out, so we just colored some blank pages instead. They drew me their adaptations of the books and then explained to me what each line on the paper was. We had snack and then got our bathing suits on for some pool time. Jordan had let Lily cross contaminate the pool and the sandbox this weekend so of course she wanted to do it again. I gave in because I am trying to work on my OCD. And I knew they would really enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, I love the beach and I love sand and water, and I don’t mind getting dirty or letting them get dirty, but not so much when it comes to trying to get it out of every crevice before returning inside. We finished the morning off with some popsicles in the sun while we dried off, then came inside for some stories and nap.

Tuesday

Today was definitely a relaxed one to start. The weather is gray and yucky and we were all feeling a little lazy. We watched some TV and had some free play time for a little bit after breakfast. Once we got moving, we cleaned up and did our chores and then watched Super Why’s episode about the Little Red Hen. It was very cute to see them compare Red’s problem with Little Red Hen’s problem, and then compare the story we read with the story Wyatt helped retell. In our story, there is a pig, a duck, and a cat, and in this story, the pig was replaced with a dog. It was slightly mindblowing at first for them, but they moved on! While they watched the episode, they colored a worksheet I found on sequencing the events that occur in the story. The pictures are a little different than what our book shows, so I am not sure when we attempt to put them in order how it will go, but the fun part is trying! Our second project of the day was talking about the life cycle of a hen via pictures then gluing those pictures in order on a large egg. The hen stage was completely by painting their hands and using their handprint. They came out really cute and it was a simple project to explain the life of a hen. We read some books and took some naps.

Wednesday

We made it to the middle of the week! It also happens to be absolutely gorgeous out right now so all is good in the world. We had a busy morning and stayed on task pretty well! We ate our breakfast then we helped bake a cake, unlike the characters in the Little Red Hen story. Lily and Tristan were both big helpers making a cake so we can celebrate Tristan’s mommy’s birthday later tonight! They also helped clean up and got dressed with being asked only half a dozen times versus the usual four dozen. After we were all dressed and ready to go, and the cake was out of the oven, we took a nice long walk in the stroller. I cut down our time from last week by 2 whole minutes, so we were flying! When we got home, we loaded up into the car with our new balls from Aunt Lyss and headed to the ‘spider web’ park. The grass was a little high (and we have noticed a lot more ticks this year) so we opted to play on the playground and climb the spider web for the majority of the time we were there. We played catch for a little bit and had some snack, then went right back to climbing. I am so impressed with how fast they caught on to climbing the ropes and also how brave they both are! We came home and read some books and got ready for nap. After nap and lunch, the kiddos helped me shuck some corn. They pretended to be the Little Red Hen’s friends and say “NOT I” when I asked, which was fun, but they were so excited to be able to help!

Thursday

The only thing worse than a Thursday is a Thursday that feels like a Friday. Whomp whomp. We ate breakfast and got dressed this morning while watching some TV. I asked what they wanted to play with and they chose our play food to have a picnic. I took this time to straighten up and decide what my plan for the day was. It already started drizzling and was quite chilly so a walk was out of the options, along with the park. I was considering a trip to the library, but I ran out of my allergy medicine yesterday and my head was feeling it. I decided to skip to Friday’s lesson plan and make salt dough, and just to switch things up a bit, we ran to Giant to get our ingredients along with more Allegra. I curse the car carts at food stores. Luckily there was one in the cart return so I parked right next to it and snagged it. Then inside, I set out with my plan but as usual got sidetracked. Of course because it’s Thursday and we’ve had enough of each other, every time one of them moved a foot or arm too close to the other, head butting or pushing occurred, causing me to almost slam into random displays set up in the aisles. We stopped at the lobsters before jetting out of there before we caused any more chaos. Once we were home and snacked, we took turns helping stir up the salt dough. There was a slight mishap with the flour and Tristan ended up covering half himself, but we laughed through that and shook it off literally (outside). We used our play dough toys to cut out shapes and I had intentions on baking them and letting them paint what the made later today, but that didn’t happen. I was also trying to make their foot print or hand print of thumbprint to bake, but the dough wasn’t cooperating and I gave up. The best laid plans or whatever that saying is. We shall try again someday! 

Friday

Woo! Nothing sweeter than the Friday of a nice little three day weekend AND Jordan and Ash will be home early! Clearly, we kept it simple today. We hung around and packed for the cabin and cleaned up around the house. I’ve been trying to give them more responsibilities, like wiping their trays or moving their high chairs back, or helping me sweep. They love to help so I really need to utilize that and train them young! We took a nice long stroller walk and returned our library books. They were pretty good considering the detours we took to make sure I got my 3 miles in so we played outside in the sandbox and with hula hoops when we got home. We read The Little Red Hen again before nap, except to see if they were paying attention, I would add in different events or animals. They were cracking up and also very focused on the story.

Have a fun (hopefully) three day weekend! 

Little Red Hen Unit Lesson Plans

Since we’ve finished our ABCs and are using our calendar to learn our 123s, I decided our next focus will be on different books we can get from the library, using ones with a lesson that we can use in our own day to day activities. For the first unit, I have chosen The Little Red Hen. We are using Byron Barton’s version. We read his adaptation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears a few weeks ago, and I like his simple pictures and easy wording. I found a bunch of activities via Pinterest to pair along with the book, and I looked up some other titles that also have a ‘helping others’ theme. I wrote up some lesson plans for the week (that I probably won’t follow in order) to keep me on track for what projects I want to do, what fine and gross motor tasks I want to work on, and a general focus skill for the kids to pick up on. I included my plans and I will update at the end of the week with pictures of our finished projects, and how things went!

Helping Others

May 18-May 22

Book of the Week: Little Red Hen – Byron Barton

Related Books for the week: Little Blue Truck, Little Miss Helpful

Monday May 18

Art & Sensory: Making our own Little Red Hens out of shapes

Fine Motor: Using a glue stick to glue the hen together

Language: How did the Little Hen feel when her friends wouldn’t help her?

Music & Movement: Hellabaloo Game

Focus Skill: Helping others

Tuesday May 19

Art & Sensory: Life Cycle of a Chicken (gluing)

Fine Motor: Gluing parts of the life cycle to another paper

Language: Talking about the life cycle of a chicken

Music & Movement: Walking on a ‘tightrope’ (carpenter’s tape) across the floor

Focus Skill: Helping others

Wednesday May 20

Art & Sensory: Coloring in pictures of events that happened during the book

Fine Motor: Using glue sticks to glue the events in order

Language: Talking about the order of the events in the book, using key words like first, second, last

Music & Movement: Chicken Dance

Focus Skill: Helping others

Thursday May 21

Art & Sensory: Red Hen Handprint Picture

Fine Motor: Putting up the pieces of the story on the felt board

Language: Retelling the Little Red Hen story ourselves with the felt board

Music & Movement: Cosmic Yoga

Focus Skill: Helping others

Friday May 22

Art & Sensory: Making bread like the Little Red Hen (salt dough)

Fine Motor: Kneading the salt dough to the right consistancy

Language:  Who will we share our dough with? Who helped us?

Music & Movement: Shape and Color Hunt

Focus Skill: Helping others

Another week in the books...

Monday

Wow what a beautiful (and warm) day! We started off by taking our long walk while our mini pool warmed up! We have a bigger tarp + PVC pipe pool somewhere in the garage, but for now, this baby pool and recyclables will do just fine! When we were finished with pool time, we filled our bottles up and watered all G-Ma’s plants! Then we finished off the fun with ice pops. The sights, smells and tastes of summer are upon us! We came inside and painted a little more of our Mother’s Day presents, and then settled in for some nice, long pool induced naps!

Tuesday

Another warm day! We took our walk while our pool water warmed up a bit, then we came back and got changed into our bathing suits. It wasn’t quite as warm as yesterday, so we didn’t stay in too long. We had some popsicles and watered the flowers and then came inside to play with our stacking/building manipulatives. I picked up two more sets of them from Target’s dollar bins so we made a big bridge and a very tall tower. These are a toy that I probably enjoy more than they do, but they had fun waiting til I built something tall so they could smash it.

Wednesday

It was slightly chillier today so we opted for some sandbox time after our walk. We used our new trucks to push sand around and build castles. We played with our hula hoops for a bit. We all need some practice with those and I am sure any car or person passing by got quite a show, but it was silly and we had fun! We saw two bunnies hiding under the boat, so we practiced sitting very quietly and watching them before having our snack outside. We’ve been practicing sitting at the big kid table vs our high chairs for snack, and it makes me appreciate everything the high chair does for me i.e. keeping them in one spot so I can pee/clean/sit for a moment. We came inside and took good naps after reading a few stories. We have to get to the library soon and pick out some new books to read before nap!

Thursday

We started off today by rocking out with our instruments. It got quite loud and crazy in here, but Thursdays stink so I thought maybe switching up our game plan would negate some of the crazy that occurs. I was sort of wrong, but they were able to channel their energy into pounding on drums and crashing symbols. I was able to sip my coffee and get to my ohm place before that started, so it was all good. We did some projects to help out prep for VBS. We created some campfires using different materials. The first one we did was simply construction paper that we glued together with gluesticks and then glued onto a toilet paper and paper towel roll set up. For the second one, we used markers to color on coffee filters and then sprayed them with water to spread the color around. That was a little messy and a lot of fun! We glued that fire to some popsicle sticks we colored brown. We took a walk after that and then played outside in the sandbox for a little bit to finish other projects. We put the finishing touches on our Mother’s Day projects, and got ready for nap. While the kiddos were asleep, I put my finishing touches on their Mother’s Day planters! They came out very cute and I can't wait to give them to our Grandma's!

Friday

Alas, the weekend is just about upon us! We started today off with a nice three mile walk! Tristan now loves to keep track of how far we are going (29 miles) and in which direction we are headed. I use my Fitbit app to keep track of how far we go, and he loves hearing our mile mark and the time. After we (well, I) got some exercise and steps in, we headed back home to fill up the pool and go swimming! We have been using recycled items for pool toys, and they absolutely love pouring water from their ketchup bottles to their creamer bottles and onto G-Ma’s flowers! My goal for this weekend at some point is to explore and reorganize our summer swag and brainstorm new and exciting things to play with outside. I think a sprinkler and some water guns are needed this year! Our snack of choice now is popsicles, obviously so we ate those with some juice boxes while we dried off. We came inside and warmed up by snuggling, then read a book and got ready for nap. Hopefully this afternoon is an easy one and we can start the weekend with big smiles!!

Have a fun weekend! And happiest of Mother’s Days to all you moms out there! 

Lazy Week!

Tuesday

After being a part for a few days, Frick and Frack were right back on schedule, playing together like they hadn’t seen each other in years! We had our breakfast and got dressed, then did our usual quick house clean up. We had a mini dance party and then got our shoes and socks on and went for a nice walk. We stayed outside and played in the sandbox and with chalk and bubbles for a little bit until we got chilly. We came inside for snack and added a second coat of paint to our clay pots. We had our snack and read some of our library books and then got ready for a nice nap. 

Wednesday

We started today off with breakfast, piano time, and then a nice long walk! On our way home from our walk we stopped at the playground and ran around a little bit. They love to climb the ‘rock’ wall and slide down the big slide now. It is also amusing to see how they interact with other children. Lily usually tries to get someone to follow her, while Tristan is busy policing the area, telling kids to do the right thing and “no sit on the slide!” He is also Lily’s protector when she is talking to other kids. He stands and glares at them until Lily introduces him. We walked back home and continued to play outdoors. The weather is back to being just how we like it! I attempted to have them paint some clay flower pots red for more Mother’s Day gifts, but it’s so hard to stay in your chair when the sun is out and the wind is blowing! We ate our snack and had some juice boxes, then came inside to nap. As soon as nap, lunch, and potty time was over, we headed right back out to soak in some more rays!

Thursday

Thursdays are our tough ones. We started out a little rocky and cranky this morning. They forget how to use their words by this point in the week and it takes some reminding. It’s so frustrating to watch them fight over basically nothing, but they’re two, so we’re trying to work on taking a step back and calling for me, or using our words to work out the problem. I have also been trying to keep a calm and even tone while resolving these issues even though sometimes they make me want to scream. Or cry. We found some yoga OnDemand that we tried, but it wasn’t as fun and exciting as the Cosmic Yoga we’ve come to love. It did calm us down though. I decided to cure the morning grumpies with a nice long stroller walk. I also promised Lily and Tristan if they were good, we could stop at the playground on the way home. When we were almost home, I asked if they wanted to try a new playground for a change. We grabbed our cups and my keys and bag and headed down the road to a new playground that other than one little girl, all ours! It doesn’t have too much equipment, but it has a huge rope spiderweb for the kiddos to climb. It also is next to a huge field, and the picnic tables now have tents over them. We had a lot of fun running around and playing. On the way home, we all got a special treat at Dunkin Donuts. I filled up my iced coffee cup and Lily and Tristan shared some munchkins. We came home and took very good naps!

Friday

Today started off a little shaky again. The lovelies are at the point where they get mad at the other for looking at them or singing or talking to them. Always a good time that ends with high pitched screams and crying. We are working on a way to calm ourselves and I am working on ways to distract them when I see those moments on the horizon. It is a work in progress for all of us! We got dressed and had some free play until we couldn’t handle that anymore. I put on a few songs for the kids to dance to while I got in a few exercises. It’s next to impossible to do any sort of exercising without one of them hanging on me or poking their little face under me while I plank or attempt a push up. But it makes it a little more interesting and fun because working out stinks! After we grew bored with dancing, we put our shoes on and went for another looooong walk. They were very good during the whole trip and let me take the long way, so we stopped at the park on the way home and did some climbing, swinging, and running. I cannot get over how big they are and how much more than can do on the playground without help. They used the big kid swings today and I got a little teary eyed. They were ready to leave without an issue and helped me push the stroller back to the road. We were going to paint when we got home, but we ran out of time. I have some projects and activities for next week that we’ll start doing after we get dressed that way we don’t waste any of our outside time that we all enjoy so much! We ate snack, did our potty routine, then read a few books before getting ready for nap. I love how this outside time makes the naptime easier. And I love that I can get to almost 10,000 steps before noon! Double bonus!

This weekend is supposed to be beautiful so hope you all can get outside and enjoy it!!