Week 2

Week two:

Corduroy, by Dan Freeman is sweet book about a bear in department store named Corduroy! One day a little girl comes to the department store with her mother. Lisa spots Corduroy, picks him up and falls in love.  She begs her mother to let her take him home but Lisa's mother points out the little bear is missing a button on his overalls. Lisa reluctantly follows her mother out of the store leaving Corduroy behind. Later that evening when the department store closes, Corduroy begins to search for his missing button. He had no idea it was even missing and is determined to find it.  Corduroy ends up in the furniture department and tries to take a button off of a mattress to replace his missing one. He pulls so hard that he falls to the ground and the night watchman comes after hearing a loud bang. The watchman finds Corduroy and takes him back to the toy department. The next morning Corduroy awakens to see Lisa! She has come back to purchase him with the money from her piggy bank. Lisa takes Corduroy home and sews on his missing button. Corduroy is so happy because not only does his button get sewn back on, but he has a real home and someone to love and cherish him.  

First published in 1968, from the illustrations, I couldn't help but think of some huge, old department store that my Grandma used to work at in downtown Buffalo, NY. Or even Macy's at Christmas time!  This book has proven to be a classic for children and we so enjoyed our week learning about Corduroy.

Co-op day this week was at a friend's house.  One reason I love our co-op preschool group is because each one of the moms brings something different as we bounce ideas back and forth.  After our usual playtime we all gathered around the kitchen table to read Corduroy.  

Our shape for the week was circle and we played a game which I also duplicated a few times throughout the week.  Since I forgot to take pictures at the co-op of the circle recognition game here is my version below:

The kids had to take turns finding items on the tray shaped like a circle.  

Next was a lacing project. A button (just like Corduroy's) was attached to a long piece of ribbon and slits were cut into felt shapes.  

Snack time!  Yummy circle cut out rice krispy treats and apples.  I had not had a rice krispy treat in years so this was a real treat for me too!

A few other activities we did courtesy of www.homeschoolcreations.com included a matching memory game with objects from the book.

My window paint from amazon came in! It shows up a lot better than dry-erase markers and I am pretty happy with it so far. I think I will end up going through a lot of it though so that is the downside. 

Palmer Window Paint

Since Corduroy is a bear I thought it would be a good idea to bring out the counting bears this week.  This was the first time using them and the kids really liked them.  Each package come with 50 bears and 5 cups.  The idea is to sort the bears by color into the cups, or count them.  This activity kept them busy for a while which was nice!

After counting bears we worked on our sewing skills. These were colored shapes, another great printable from Homeschool Creations. I printed, cut out and laminated the shapes so we will be able to use them again. Just an aside, I have fallen in love with my laminator! 

 One last thing we did was practice counting with pennies and a picture of a piggy bank. I would write out a number and then put that many pennies in the piggy bank.  This they found a little tricky because we have not spent a lot of time on number recognition. 

Next week we are learning all things fall, with an emphasis on pumpkins!!!