Humpty Dumpty Egg Unit

Humpty Dumpty & Egg Unit

Spring is the perfect time for an egg unit ! Eggs are everywhere! I didn't want to make eggs a tie in for Easter though so we are doing a unit on Humpty Dumpty instead.
We started with me introducing the poem and then the boys followed along.
Then I asked them to work together and make a wall that Humpty could sit on.
Imagine their delight as we sat down a REAL egg, complete with a face, and acted out the poem. SPLAT ! Poor Humpty !

It's easy to make stories come to life !

A closer examination was necessary....

Hands on learning as often as you can !

What fun

Then we sat together and tried to solve the mystery.... What happened ? How did Humpty Dumpty manage to fall off that wall ? 

the things they come up with  

 

 

While the younger children focused on the letter "H"....

age 2

age 4

My grade 1 child answered and illustrated what they did with the broken pieces....

age 6

We identified rhyming words ...

4 year old underlined and the 6 year old also rewrote the words

And then we made a craft. Sponge painting a brick wall for Humpty Dumpty !

Worked well for a multi aged group

Working carefully

He took it so seriously !

I let my two year old play with the cleaned up egg shells.

 

It bounced !

Puppets to act out the story using your arm as the wall

The shell disappears

The King wasn't the only one with an army

Science for little ones !

Stepping into Spring

Stepping into Spring ! 

Enjoying some of the trails around our house

Checking out the creek

Every year we kick off into spring with a Signs of Spring walk around our neighbourhood.
It's always such a great time ! Our academic year approaches the end and we look forward to  more fun , free time and sunshine ! 
I will quickly share some of the activities we have done in the last couple of years before spring officially kicks off next week and we venture out for this year.

Sorting out the treasures

When we go for out signs of spring nature walk we always stop to observe - using all our senses. The boys love to collect treasures to bring home. As you could imagine with 5 boys that can certainly end up being a LOT of twigs and pebbles ! So we have a rule that what we collect will have to fit into our egg carton nature kit.

Creating a masterpiece !

On other occasions we may bring home some too-hard-to-resist larger items. We may make a collage or use them to create art works. When we are done we can get rid of the branches , etc, and have a lovely keepsake to hang on our wall.

Working hard and loving it !

Kids love to do grown up jobs and can easily be taught that work can be enjoyable !

Concentrate

Plastic eggs are plentiful during the spring and can be used in so many fun ways ! In this picture I filled pairs of eggs with items like ; rice, shells, water , buttons - use whatever you have on hand. Kids will have to sit very quietly and concentrate in order to match up the sounds ! The best one contained chocolate chips which of course, they got to enjoy for  a job well done !

 Keep a steady hand

Lots of hand eye coordination is needed for these wobbly eggs !

Hair ties from the dollar store

A simple bag of colourful hair ties from a dollar store can provide numerous activities from sorting to patterning. You can use them as counters for math. Be creative and make the most of all your items ! 

Community Helpers

Community Helpers 

 We started a new unit this week about communities. We are using a unit study called "Animal Town" but I don't have any information I can really give you except the publisher and address.
We start each day reading the story. We've talked about the words that rhyme - which they underlined in their copies. We learned how to put the different professions in alphabetical order. Each day I set out a different dramatic play center in my living room. I will update the blog throughout the week as we do each one. 

Here's a sample of the unit's Language component

On Tuesday I set up a doctor's office/Hospital.

Administering some medicine

Listening to the heartbeat

The doctor hard at work

On Wednesday I set up a grocery store.

Working the cash area

Setting up the store

Deep into the play !

On Thursday we spent time learning how to use the phone and who to call for emergency help. It is so important to teach your child how to use all the phones in the house. Some are simple and only require lifting the receiver. However, others you need to press "talk" or know how to unlock the phone in order to use it.












 We also learned our own phone number and practiced good telephone manners. Here's the printable I used http://www.hsprintables.com/earlymath.html