Friday, December 8, 2017

Rain Forest Favorites: Sloths!

It has been a few weeks since I've had a chance to update the blog. We welcomed our third blessing from the Lord, John Langdon, on November 25th and it has been a whirling dervish around here since then!

I wanted to take some time to recap. Although I haven't been able to update our readers as often as I might like, we have certainly still been doing lessons as much as possible. Last month, we finished our study about the rainforest with Mother Goose Time and I discovered a whole new love for this fun and engaging curriculum!

I'd like to remind you that while we do receive our monthly curriculum from Mother Goose Time free of charge in exchange for sharing our journey with our readers, the journey is truly ours and that means my opinions are completely my own.

So how are we still doing homeschool with a brand new baby at our house? We did slow down some, but having a curriculum like Mother Goose Time is most of the reason. Those lovely organized packets for every single day that are largely just "open and learn" have saved our homeschool! I've even been able to give lessons to my mom & my husband to do with the kids - it's that easy!

With all that in mind, I'd like to share one of our favorite rainforest lessons that you didn't get to see...

Lesson 11: Sloths

We started this lesson with a Community Challenge called "Upside Down" where the children took turns laying upside down on the couch to look around the room. They tried to do things like roll a ball back and forth with comical difficulty.
Then we did upside down puzzles as our Little Goose "Tray Play" activity. For this activity, I did have to do some prep work. I hand made the puzzles by cutting pictures from magazines the night before, but you could use a store bought puzzle just as easily.

Next, we explored the I Can Read books with sight word pointers and picture cards. The children really have fun memorizing these books and reading them to each other.

Their favorite book was Eric Carle's "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth. I can't count how many times they asked me to read it!

I had a doctor's appointment that day, so we took the "Sloth Snacks" math activity with us to keep them occupied in the waiting room. They had fun matching their fruit to the pattern cards. I was glad for an easy activity to stash in my bag on a busy day!
When we got home from the doctor, Daddy got to finish up lessons with the children because this day's Invitation to Create involved exploring Michelangelo's masterpiece on the Sistine Chapel and creating "Upside-Down Art." At the time, I was 39 weeks pregnant and completely incapable of laying flat on my back in the floor. They had fun coloring upside down with Daddy though and again I found myself grateful for a curriculum that allows us to do things like "switch teachers" in the middle of the day.

Stay tuned for another rainforest favorite next week... snakes!!!


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