Sheep, Tigers & Urchins

 On Day 16 we learned about sheep.  When everyone else was asleep, Lachlan and I got started.  It is pretty unusual for us to do MGT one on one, so it was a fun day.  First I set up a space to work on making our Scratchy Sheep.  Wool is scratchy, so I thought this was a great idea.

 He drizzled on a bunch of glue, then I cut the corner off the bag and let him pour it over the glue.  Next we had to let it sit and dry.  So we moved on to the Soft and Scratchy.  This was a major concept in this day's lesson, soft versus scratchy.  I got out some cotton balls and some sand paper and had him describe the difference to me.  He got their descriptions right on.  Then we talked about sheep wool, that it looks soft but actually feels quite scratchy.  Very fun texture comparison.  Next we headed out to the living room to find something scratchy, he found the couch which is a pretty rough material. 

 For Animal Shapes we worked on the Logic Game.  We talked about our shadows and how they look like us.  Lachlan saw the game on the counter and jumped right in.  He really didn't want to discuss our shadows any longer.  I tried to point out, isn't it amazing that we can tell what the animal is just by its shape?  He very quickly matched up the animals. 

 Since it was just the two of us and we did get done rather quickly, I got out our More Math & More Reading work books.  These are amazing work books that can be added to MGT.  They go along with the monthly theme but, honestly, they could stand alone, if you are just looking for good work books.  This Zoo Signs page had you color the shapes according to the key at the top.  Lachlan did not worry about coloring in the lines, at all, but he got all the colors right and shapes.  We did a couple other pages.  One in which there were vines for the Gorillas to climb.  On the vines there was a series of numbers in order but one was missing.  Like 11, 12, ____, 14, 15.  You had to fill in the blank to help the Gorilla make it to the top.  Lachlan has not quite grasped this bigger numbers just on recall, so I moved him in front of our number line that is posted on the wall.  I asked him to find the first number in the sequence on the number line and use his finger to count up and find the missing number.  Then he studied the number on the number line and did his best to write it in.  It was so great to see him work through this. 

When Peter woke up from his nap I had him work on his Scratchy Sheep.  I moved it to a smaller tray and had him pinch and sprinkle the sand over the sheep.  With the left over black sand in this white tray Peter and I did some pre writing work.  I spread the sand out thin and even then would use my finger to write in the sand.  It showed up really well because of the contrasting colors.  I have wanted to set up a sand tray forever, so this was a good way to try it out.  I drew a big P and then helped him draw the straight line of the P and asked him to try the round part.  He started, and then started doing big spirals.  So maybe we would have to use it on a more routine basis for the novelty to wear off. 

 On T is for Tiger day we started with making the mask.  I used some tin foil to make a tray for the paint because I needed something long enough for the straw to fit in.  They used the straw to make stripes on the Tiger mask.  It was a bit of a challenge to keep there fingers out of the way.  But they still turned out cute. 

Not a great picture of the tray but I like the idea and wanted to pass it along. 

Next we introduced the Poetry Poster in Tiger by the Toe.  First we asked, how would you catch a Tiger?

 This is how Peter would catch a Tiger.

How Lachlan would catch a Tiger.

Next Peter and Grant tried to catch each other like they would catch a tiger.  Pretty funny.  Through out this whole conversation and fun I read the poem to them.  Next I asked what do you think would happen if you tried to catch a tiger by his toe.  They didn't think the tiger would be happy, I think they are right. 

For the Tiger Stripes lesson we got out a stamp pad and a blank piece of paper for them to make stripes with their finger prints.  At the same time we talked about how every tiger has it's own unique pattern of stripes just like we have our unique pattern on our finger tips.  We got out a magnify glass and studied the stripes on our finger prints.  Lachlan thought that was pretty cool. 

Lastly we played Hiding Tigers.  I played the Tiger song on our A to Zoo CD.  The song says to tiptoes around the tiger while whispering the sound of /t/.  Pretty cute song.  When the song was playing they danced and tiptoed, when I turned the song off they ran and hid.  When it was time to come out of hiding we would let out a big roar.  Here are some of their dance moves.

On U is for Urchin we had some water fun.  We explored the feel of different things under the water.  First I had them find the things that were pokey, like an urchin, and put them in the water.  Then they just had fun playing in the water. 

This kitchen scrubber was perfect for urchin fun.