{learning} Papa Piccolo (and a little Italy too…)

Another country traveled and two more weeks under our belt.  While I had high hopes for our Italy unit, well…I guess it was a good lesson in rolling with the punches.  Nothing seemed to go as planned: I didn’t get a book I wanted to read in time, I discovered that I was out of a critical ingredient for a project, the boys didn’t listen to directions and totally ruined the science experiment…sigh!  But life’s too short to get all bent out of shape about trivial things like those.  So I kept rollin’ and I think the boys still learned a lot.

The books we used were:

• Papa Piccolo
• Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes
• The Color Kittens

Our Art Gallery for Papa Piccolo

Not really related to any of our themes, but the boys LOVED this I Spy sheet I found online.

ROY G BIV puppets – M and D totally didn’t get ROY G BIV and insisted they call him “Rainbow Hair Man”.

Learning about mixing colors

Pete the Cat puppets.  I saw this book mentioned on many teacher blogs, so bought it blindly.  But it’s so great!  The message is that no matter what happens, “just keep walking along and singing your song, because it’s all good.”  It’s the perfect book for a kid like M, who tends to freak out unexpectedly.

Making gondolas out of Legos.  What?  You can’t tell that’s a gondola?  haha  Me neither…another one of the “roll with it” episodes.

This was supposed to be a really cool experiment.  You have a pie plate of milk and add a few drops of food coloring.  Then after dipping a Q-Tip in dishsoap, you are supposed to insert into the milk and hold it there.  Key word: hold.  The colors are supposed to swirl away from the soap, making a really cool effect.  Instead, in casa “I don’t listen to Mamma’s directions”, he started in on making his own swirl, making everything brown and just…gross.  Oh well, it’s only PreK right?



A peek into our lapbook…

We are taking a break from Five in a Row for the next two weeks to do a little seasonal unit on Fall!  Pumpkins, leaves, and squirrels are on the list with lots of baking and crafts.  I’m excited for a little change of pace and I think M and D will love it too.  Wish me luck!