LDS Activity Days - Russia

I taught the girls about former Soviet Union today - the country where I grew up.
First, I showed them the countries that Soviet Union got divided into on the map.
Then we learned a few phrases in Russian:

Привет  - Preevyet  - hello

Как дела?  -  Kak dyela? – how are you?

Хорошо  - Kharasho  - doing well

I loved hearing the girls speak Russian.

Then we watch my favorite episode of "Masha and Medved". Even though the cartoon is in Russian, but it has minimum talking and plenty of laughter.

Then we played Morskoi Boi - Sea battle - one of my favorite quite games ever. 

If you want to play it with your friend, print the "seas" (one copy for you and one for the opponent), position your battleship and have fun. 

Then we had yummy Russian Medovik - Honey cake. It is not too sweet; just right to satisfy a sweet tooth.

We finished our activity by playing Rezinki - some people call it Chinese jump rope. This was my all time favorite active game when I was growing up. There are levels, so I enjoy the fun of progressing - just like in video games, but it is also a wonderful exercise. 

Laptime "Bathtime"

1. Hello song (I put the bathrobe on for this laptime)
2. Who like to take baths? Story about animals who didn't like baths.
 "Mrs Wishy-Washy's Farm"

3. Bathtab song (take props out of the tub as you sing)
("If you're happy and you know it" tune)
There is a duckie in the tub, in the tub,
There is a duckie in the tub, in the tub,
There is a duckie in the tub
Rub-a-dub-a-dub-a -dub
There is a duckie in the tub, in the tub.

(other props: dolphin, fishy, turtle, diver)

4. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive

5. Rubber duckie from Sesame Street

6. I had a little turtle rhyme and fingerplay


7. "The treasure bath"

8. This is the way we wash ("Here we go round the mulberry bush" tune) Give out washcloths

This is the way we wash our face,
Wash our face, wash our face.
This is the way we wash our face
Rub-a-dub-dub in the tub.

(our hair, fingers, arms, bellies).

This is the way we brush our teeth...

9. The teeth book Dr.Suess

10. Bathtime by Raffi and catching bubbles

11. Now it's time to say goodbye

Laptime "the Moon"

1. Hello song
2. Hey diddle, diddle on a flannel board
3. Give kids white paper plates and let's all jump over the moon
4. Book "Kitten's First Moon" Kevin Henkes

5. 1 little, 2 little, 3 little moons (counting song)
6. Take a trip in my rocket ship to the Moon.

Zoom, zoom, zoom, We are going to the moon,
Zoom, zoom, zoom, We'll be there very soon.
5,4,3,2,1  Blast off.

Fly around the library.

7. Aiken Drum with props (ladle, spaghetti hair and such). Kids make music with shakers.
8. "Goodnight moon" by Margaret Wise Brown
8. Now it's time to say goodbye.

Audrey Wood

We have been reading books by Audrey Wood and we love them. Here are a few of our favorites.

 "The Napping House"

This book came with a CD and we had a blast listening to the Napping house songs in the car.

 "Silly Sally"

Audrey Wood's website has images from her books for coloring.

 "Quick as a cricket"

Kids can relate to this one :) These books have fabulous words and beautiful illustrations.

Lori Walburg

I usually have a list of books that I want to check out for my kids at the library; however, my girls like to go through the rows of books and randomly pull some out. I look through the books to make sure that they will be interesting for my girls' age group. Last time they pulled out two books that turned out to be true treasures. They are written by Lori Walburg "The Legend of the Easter Egg" and "The Legend of the Candy Cane". The words, the pictures, and the messages were amazing. My girls have big smiles on their faces every time we read these books. Even though they are about Easter and Christmas, we enjoyed reading them now.

Library - picks of this week

Our family loves the library. We had amazing libraries where we used to live, but now our library is very small, so we commute to another nearby city to get a bigger selection of book.
My children get so much joy from going to the library and reading the books we check out. The benefits of reading a great: vocabulary, imagination, fun, healthy.
We usually check out about 20 books a week. Some we like so much that we keep them longer and can't stand parting with them.
Here are some of our favorites from the last couple of weeks.
Ella Sarah gets dresses by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
My girls love this book a lot, because they can relate to Ella Sarah, who chooses the clothes that her parents and older sister consider too "dressy", "fancy", and "silly". But to little Ella Sarah and her friends the clothes is just right to have a tea party.

"Llama llama red pajama" by Anna Dewdney
Another favorite. My children and I can relate to llama's experience: minds of little kids can't understand that mamas can be busy. However, "mama llama's always near, even if she's not here".

"Our library" by Eve Bunting

This is why we love our library. We can learn anything from the books we check out.

"There is no place like space"

An awesome book about space. I think I will be buying this one. My girls loved learning about different planets, the Sun, the Moon, constellations from this easy to understand rhymed book. It can also be a base for a lesson about the Solar System.

Week 2 topics

We chose Australia for our country.
Alisa said she wanted to learn about koalas.
Science: water and water cycle.

Week 1: Rabbit

1. Rabbits can be black, gray, brown, white. Then I gave them a picture of rabbit to color. They chose pencils themselves. We had a plush rabbit toy that was our favorite while we were learning about rabbits.

2. Read books: Velveteen rabbit, Peter Rabbit, and some non-fiction books with very cute pictures of bunnies.

3. How do the move? Do they walk? No. Do they fly? No. Do they hop? Yes. So we tried hopping like rabbits.

4. What do they eat? Vegetables, plants (especially clover), and flowers in summer; bark and twigs in winter

5. Describe a rabbit: long ears, strong hind legs, long front teeth (always grow, that's why rabbits need to gnaw on twigs); quiet animals, until in danger

6. Where do they live? In burrows under ground (can dig very well)

Week 1: Argentina

Until now I have been teaching my children on a consistent basis, but nothing organized. This week we started an official school for them - for my 3 year old mostly. My one year old still wants to play more than learn, but we are learning shapes, colors, ABSs, and numbers with her.

Let me tell you how I teach. I plan a number of topics each week. Then read up on them, get books from the library, get activity ideas online, and plan simple points I want to emphasize.

Here are the points that we discussed this week.

Argentina. Ask your child to pronounce the name as many times as necessary. Make a song, clap hand, whatever it takes. We got some books from the library about Argentina that we read during the week. They have wonderful pictures.



1. Where is it? South America. (Close to Antarctica where penguins live). Show on the map. We have a World map place map, so we talk about location of the country when we eat. Big mountain range (the Andes) to the west of Argentina (show pictures).

2. Big or small country? BIG. #8 in the world.

3. Who lives there? European descent, Indian descent, gauchos (we made a poncho that gauchos used to wear during the day and use as a blanket at night from a piece of fabric that I didn't need anymore - my daughter had no problem memorizing the word gaucho this way)

4. Buenos Aires: capital

5. Language: Spanish. We learned Hola! Como estas? Bien, gracias. I made a connection that Dora (one of her favorite characters) speaks Spanish too.

6. Number one sport? Soccer. Guess what game we played in our apartment this week. You got it. I emphasized that the sport is played with feet only.

7. Food: empanadas. On Friday we had them for dinner. I love to cook, so it is fun to try foods from different places. They were yummy. I got my recipe on food.com.
This is what went inside.

This is how they turned out. Not the most authentic look, I know, but I was going more for taste.

Kids enjoyed them. Well, maybe with the exception of green olives inside.

8. For our coloring activity we colored Argentinian flag. I asked my daughter to describe it. We discussed that the sunshine symbolizes freedom. You can find a coloring page of the flag on the internet.

Now I want to see Buenos Aires with it's Casa Rosada.

Satellite

A few days ago was the day "Explorer 1" was launched many years ago.

I taught my 2-year old daughter about it.

Show a picture of "Explorer 1" that you can find on the internet.

Teach all or as many concepts as you feel appropriate:

1. Satellite

2. Earth

3. Going around the Earth

4. Sending signals or information

5. Launching

6. Planet

Activities:

1. Make a satellite and the Earth from playdough

2. Imitate launching the satellite (Put the palms of your hands together by your chest - they represent "the nose" of the satellite. Make a motor sound and slowly raise your hands higher and higher until you stretch them all the way up reaching for the sky).

3. Song:

Put a ball (or something else that is round) on the floor. Ask your child to imagine that the ball is our planet Earth. Take your child's hand and going around the ball, sing the following song using the melody from "Going aroung the Mulberry bush".

Going around the planet Earth, the planet Earth, the planet Earth.

Going around the planet Earth, "name of your child" the satellite.

Sending signals to the planet Earth, the planet Earth, the planet Earth.

Sending signals to the planet Earth, "name of your child" the satellite.

Going around the planet Earth, the planet Earth, the planet Earth.

Going around the planet Earth, Mommy the satellite.

Sending signals to the planet Earth, the planet Earth, the planet Earth.

Sending signals to the planet Earth, Mommy the satellite.

Bees

Show pictures of honeybees.

You can find them on the internet. I printed a picture of a beehive and a picture of a bee on a card stock. (Use a toy if you have it).

Talk about what bees have: legs, wings, and eyes.

Books: coming soon.

Explain all or as many of the following concepts as you want

1. Insect (other examples: ants, flies, spiders)

2. Beehive (their home)

3. Honey (yummy!)

4. Stings (we don't pick them)

5. Pollination (flowers, fruits, vegetables) - explain in simple terms

Songs and activities:

1. I am bringing home a baby bumble bee

Won't my mommy be so proud of me

I am bringing home a baby bumble bee

Ouch! He stung me.

2. Here is a beehive. (hold up fist)

Where are the bees?

Hidden away where nobody sees. (shake fist)

Watch and you'll see the come out of the hive, (move head close to fist)

One, two, three, four, five. (hold fingers up one at a time as you count)

Bzzzzzz... all fly away! (wave fingers)

3. Beehive and bee coloring page can be found here.

4. Have bread and honey for a treat. (My daughter likes Honey milk - warm milk, add some honey, and mix).

5. Pretend to be bees: "fly" around the room and bzzzzz.

Mozart

Mozart's birthday is January 27th.

So we learned about him with my two-year old today.

Here is the lesson.

I showed her a picture of Mozart and asked her who it was.

I told her his name. We repeated it quite a few times.

Alisa was having a hard time with his gender. She kept calling Mozart a girl. I guess it's the hair.

Then I told her that Mozart was a composer and explained who the composer is.

I related the "writing music" part to the music she likes. I said that music to "I am a child of God" was written by a composer too.

Then we learned that Mozart was born in Austria and found it on the world map. We love Geography.

We also listened to his music (just a piano piece that I had on a CD). She couldn't handle the whole thing, but just a little bit is okay too.

The whole thing ended with a fun part - Baby Mozart.

Throughout the day we reviewed things that we learned.

1. Mozart

2. composer

3. Austria

Happy teaching, everybody!

Teaching - No greater call.

I know that there is nothing more important than teaching our children.

Teaching our children is not only about teaching them secular knowledge like math, reading, drawing, but also teaching them to become happy, compassionate, confident, kind, strong people, loyal friends, faithful spouses, honest citizens, and loving parents.

Sometimes, I get overwhelmed by the task on my plate, and those are the day that my hands fall down and I am not able to do anything.

However, when I prepared and plan ahead, I succeed and I couldn't be happier.

This blog is my attempt to get myself more organized.

I will post unit studies, crafts, activities, lessons, inspirational thoughts, book and magazine reviews.

Let the organized learning begin.