Week 5 - Moses is Respectful

Printables for this week:

Respectful Bible page

Respectful Chart from Hubbard’s Cupboard

1 Peter 2:17a from Hubbard’s Cupboard

Zoo ABC - letter e

Zoo Math E - #5

I know that on the schedule for this week was the story of the centurion’s servant in Luke 7, as I thought that it might be a good way to explain authority and respect.  Well, we tried that on Monday, complete with little green army men to act out the story.  By the end of the day, I could see that they weren’t really understanding and were only consumed by the army men’s tiny guns, so our new respectful story illustration is....Moses and the Burning Bush!  This one was much easier to capture.  When God began to speak to Moses through the burning bush, he didn’t stop and think about whether or not to remove the shoes...he threw them off and hid his face too!!

My children love this story, and acting it out is a favorite activity at our home.  Although Levi's sugar cane staff disappeared to the trash last month, it lasted for over a year's worth of playing Moses.  This week's production was about 10 minutes long, but I had to include a short clip of Pharaoh Levi coaching Moses Mamita in her lines.  

We also talked about practical ways to be respectful, including using manners and being polite.  Each day we focused on a different scenario; meeting someone for the first time, answering the phone, answering the door, table manners, and using please, thank you, and excuse me.  It was fun to role play in English and Spanish and talk about cultural differences, like greeting someone with a handshake in the U.S. versus kissing on the cheek here in Panama.

My highlight of the week was our cooking day.  Not only were elephant ears super fun to make, but we decided to practice our table manners while eating them.  We put a candle on the table to set the atmosphere, then went to answer the door as the children pretended to enter our fancy restaurant.  They really got into it, copying my accent and all with Levi calling me “Sir Cook.”  Halfway through the meal, Josh staring at the candle in the middle of the table yelled “Look!  It’s the burning bush!”  hehe
   

As for the recipe, I decided to take a risk and try a new recipe found on the back of the Coach’s Oats, a new oatmeal they are carrying at PriceSmart.  We were all pleasantly surprised even with substituting whole wheat flour.  So much so, that I had to make another batch for lunch to share with Papito.  We decided go with the new recipe since elephants are herbivores, adding oats and wheat “grass” to the recipe.  I was just going to make elephant ears (pancakes with a honey e)... but got inspired by memories of my sister's chocolate chip pancake creativity, and we ended up with Ellie Elephant holding a blueberry in her trunk for a second course.  

I got a little carried away researching Ellie, and was pleasantly surprised that Ari was a walking elephant encyclopedia too!  We had lots of fun walking like elephants, swinging our trunks, and hiding the babies in the middle of the mommy circle when the big lion came to attack.  We learned that they have a big sweet tooth, preferring things like mango, coconut, pineapple, plums, berries, and at the zoo...pumpkins and watermelon!  

I won’t retype all my findings, but check out these sites for more interesting elephant facts and youtube for some videos of elephants eating too.

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/AsianElephants/factasianelephant.cfm  Their web cam is down at the time, but they have a great fact page and photo gallery

http://www.elephantcenter.com/New_Calf_Videos.aspx  Baby elephant video and a concise fact page

http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/wildlife/elephants/elephant_about.html Another good overall page

http://www.elephants.com/meetElephants.php  Interesting page introducing all elephants in the sanctuary and their favorite food

For our Friday edition of Jungle School, we had an elephant art project planned.  However, the children were playing so well together that we made the day’s project “to go.”  Jungle Mamas, check the slideshow at the top to see the shapes needed and how our elephants turned out.

Character Training in Action - Lose a Letter

We’ve been talking about being respectful, attentive, and obedient, and Levi could verbally define, role play, and give his own examples of each one. However, when the heat was on...it all went out the window! Let’s just say that Papito and I were both realizing the need for some more intense consequences in order to keep the peace.


Last Friday, I had an idea. I had a little talk with Levi explaining why we’re learning about these traits, and how important they are to learn when you are young vs. when you are older with BIGGER consequences. We talked about what being disrespectful to your parents, sister, and friends looked like, then we went to our favorite whiteboard (the fridge) and I drew a circle. I asked him what his favorite toy was. “My armor.” (Cardboard and duct tape brillance from the artistic husband...post on that soon) So, non-artistic Mamita drew her very best armor in the circle, then crossed it out. Next I wrote an equals sign and his name. Lesson being, no more armor if your lose all your letters.

I explained that he wasn’t going to get lots of chances or warnings, just the four letters on the fridge. I knew I could not make it a battleground... no yelling, no stomping to the fridge to erase, no threatening, no show, no emotion...just consequences for disobeying or disrespecting. I was surprised at how his standards were much higher than mine! “Mamita, before I stopped myself and had self-control I growled at Sissy, so you need to erase a letter.” He went the whole week, and finally, yesterday, the inevitable happened. All four letters gone by 4 p.m.


There was some drama in the bedroom about a toy and Sissy, and I said “Levi, come here please.” In the anger of the moment he yelled “No!” Big mistake. Huge! hehe So, I left the room without saying a word, erased the last letter, walked back in and said, “Let’s try that again. Levi, come here please.” He walked over, and we solved the drama. Then with no mama drama, no guilt trip, and no explanation needed, I walked over and picked up his armor bag and took it into the office. He didn’t ask questions at all, at the moment, and I knew he had no idea of the truth depth of his chosen consequences.


We spent the next couple of hours keeping busy in our preparations for company coming over. I knew that we was going to want to play with his armor when company arrived, as he and Tia had a great time with it the last time she was over. He was busy preparing a pretend fancy dinner for her though, and it wasn’t until about 9:30, way past bedtime when he came up to ask where his armor bag was. I reminded him he lost all his letters, and it was put away for the day. Wow, let the howls begin!! The tears were flying out horizontally, and after dropping to the floor in anguish a few times, he began to tell me how he really felt. “You are the BADDEST MAMITA ever in the whole world! I wish I didn’t have a mamita so there could be NO rules and NO consequences! I just want there to be NO MORE CONSEQUENCES. AAAHHHHH!!!!!” I told him I understood how angry and upset he was, but I would be a bad mamita if I didn’t have those consequences. Then he ran and laid down on his bed, and fell asleep.


He was still upset this morning, but calm enough for us to talk it over. I had rubbed in discussed the lesson enough and he was starting to get fired up again, so I told him to follow me as I ran to the kitchen. I took the cleaner and got all of yesterday’s green marker residue and smears off the fridge. I explained about how God’ mercies are new every morning, and when we ask for forgiveness he wipes everything clean and gives us a fresh start. I neatly redrew our equation, and on with the day we went. Guess what. Not one letter erased today! Woooohooooo!!!!

Week 4 - Noah is Obedient

Printables for this week:

Obedient Bible page
Obedient Chart from Hubbard’s Cupboard 
Colossians 3:20 from Hubbard’s Cupboard
Zoo ABC - letter d
Zoo Math D - #4




This week has to be a mommy’s favorite as the topic of discussion is...being obedient!  Woooohoooo!!!  Although the song had me convicted with “...you’ll do it right away, and with a happy heart...”  There’s always room for growth, right?  Anyway, on to Noah and all the great things you can learn through this story!

We started the week with our first official “science experiment,” and thanks to the PBS show Dinosaur Train, we are familiar with “making a hypothesis.”  So we had everyone make a hypothesis (or good guess) about how many animals could fit on our “ark” before it began to sink.  The hypotheses were from 2 - 40, and the result...85!  We left the tub out as a water exploration activity for the rest of the day.  The children loved it so much, I decided to bring in our water table from the patio (which gave us some great character lessons on sharing and and taking turns too ;-).   

The most anticipated activity of the week was definitely making banana boats.  Here’s what you need per child:
-Blue bowl/plate (optional)
-banana
-whipped cream
-animal cookies
-2 mini-marshmallows (or anything to represent Noah and his wife)
We used our blue banana split bowls for the water, then let each child peel a banana boat to float in the water.  They needed a little help to use the knife to carve out the ark (make a v-cut the length of the banana, kind of like a dug-out canoe).  Then we added some whipped cream “hay” to rest our animals on, and finally Noah and his wife.  (I was waiting for Levi to request more marshmallows for Noah’s sons and their wives, but he was too focused on the food to correct me...hehe)  Don’t rock the boat, it’s time to munch!

Other possible activities:
-See Me Obey booklet from Hubbard’s Cupboard
-Rise and Shine song page
-a float/sink experiment (predicting, then testing which objects would float and sink)

For Friday's edition of Jungle School, we decided to have a free day of Noah-themed fun.  However, had I found this great Noah's Ark paper plate craft by Mama Jenn before Friday, it would have definitely been on the day's itinerary! 

Prayer Dictionary

Living far away from lots of family and friends, I am always on the look out for ways to help keep those connections strong.  This is a great opportunity to tie in family, prayer, and language arts all at the same time!

Since we have limited wall space, we are doing a revised version of the Friend and Family Word Wall explained here at Hubbard’s Cupboard.

To make the actual dictionary, you will need:

- 1/2“ binder

- 26 sheet proctectors

- Dictionary Cover (to personalize it, you could glue a photo of your child praying on top of the clip art)

- 26 sheets of white paper 

- Zoo friends dictionary page

- Name sheets  (Here is a Word template I created to be able to type in the names and add photos in the boxes.  In case that doesn’t work, here is blank pdf version you can fill in yourself (in your best teacher printing of course.)  ;-)  If you print a contact sheet of photos from whatever photo program you use, they should be just the right size.

Here is a sample of the template complete on the left, and blank on the right.

  

I am using uppercase letters specifically because we are only putting names in our dictionary at the moment.  I have another idea for lowercase letters on the next round.  

For non-Zoophonics users:  If you would like simple pages with uppercase letters, simply print out pages 2-27 of the Alphabet Book from Homeschool Creations (click on the image of the book to download the pdf).  If you would like pages with both upper and lowercase, you can print out a cover and alphabet pages by going to the Hubbard’s Cupboard link, then clicking on Friend and Family Name Binder Sheets.

Note: We are in a bilingual environment with half the names in English/half in Spanish.  In order to make pronunciation less confusing (”How come ‘Jose’ is on the J page when it starts like Honey Horse?“) Spanish names will be a different color.  Since I am only including first names, we will also be practicing titles in English and Spanish as we go over our names every morning.  

Week 3 - Zacchaeus is Teachable

Printables for this week:


Teachable Bible page
Teachable Chart (BW) from Hubbard's Cupboard
Bible Memory Tune Chart: Hebrews 12:11 from Hubbard's Cupboard
Zoo ABC - letter c
Zoo Math C - #3
Zacchaeus Dance
Zacchaeus Lift-A-Flap

We had a lot of fun with Zacchaeus this week. We used The Young Learner’s Bible Storybook to read the story, which emphasized the words “up” and “down.” Now the title says “bible storybook” mind you, so they take liberty to add some imagination at times. Like where “Zacchaeus stretched up as tall as he could, but only saw the back of the crowd. Then he scrunched down to the ground, but Zacchaeus only saw hairy legs.” Of course, after just reading it one time, the hairy legs detail was included in Levi’s retelling every single time this week. hehe


We also learned the Zacchaeus dance! (Thank you to Doris Johnson who posted her movement idea at www.rotation.org’s Ideas & Lesson Exchange) I just explained the story and actions to the children, then we practiced it all together doing each movement for eight beats. Any kind of movement for preschoolers is great fun, especially if you call it a dance. ;-)


Another highlight was the lift a flap activity from the Zacchaeus ideas at Danielle’s Place. I had a little trouble getting it lined up on my computer, so I made a pdf version that is sure to line up. I printed the first page on regular paper, and the second on card stock. I had the children color Zacchaeus and the animals only on the first page, then gave them the second page to color completely. When they’re finished, take an exacto knife (and with cardboard underneath), cut along the dotted lines on the top page. Open up the flaps so you can be sure not to glue the windows, then turn it over and put glue on the remaining parts. Flip it, stick it, and let it dry, and your children will have great fun playing peek-a-boo with Zacchaeus. Unless of course you have a daughter like mine, who refused to let me cut out the flaps “Don’t ruin it Mamita! I yike it yike dis.”


Since Aryelle loves cats or “meow-me’s” as she calls them, Catina Cat was definitely a hit. However, we had so much fun with Zacchaeus that all our extra cat activities (like this recipe for Black Cat Snack) got pushed aside.


For Friday’s edition of Jungle School, we used shaving “c”ream to practice writing the letter C, our names, and any other “c”reations they wanted to make. I was surprised that they were ready to be finished so soon, but remembering the drama of dirty hands last year at this time I can say...we’ve come a long way baby! (Except for my son...the oldest, and of course the one who insisted on a straw so his hands wouldn’t get dirty. At least he lets me do his handprints now though!)