We've had a very "chillaxed" (that's a word I picked up from Casey) Tot School lesson these past few weeks. Just like with everything else, I'm trying to take it back a notch and not put a weekly expectation on it. I have to say, this has been the biggest relief in freeing up my time. I know it's not something I have to do but I enjoy it so much and I know Will and Sophie do too, so I've been trying so hard to keep up weekly activities on various topics. But between summer agendas and our current focus on house projects... it's just too much. Good thing I'm not homeschooling, huh? :)
One thing I always fall back on when I haven't had time to put an activity together is reading books. It's an effortless learning opportunity and we all enjoy it. So we checked out a whole bunch of books on the subject of trees, plants and seeds and kept them longer than usual so that we got a fair amount of reading from each book.
Here's a look at what we've been reading:
1) How a Seed Grows was a "Let's Read and Find Out Science Book" with easy to understand step-by-step instructions. Cute but not Will's fave.
2) Jody's Beans - more planting and growing stories. I have to say, after this lesson, I am more motivated than ever to start a vegetable and herb garden next spring. It's something I've wanted to do for A LONG TIME and just never found the courage and time I needed to make it happen. Sophie will be two next spring (what?? ahhh!) and it will be the first time in a few years when I feel like I'm at a stage in my life where I can learn a new craft: gardening!! I'm so excited for the kids and I (and Craig too - after all, he IS a farmer's son!) to learn this together. But you can be sure I'll be taking lots of advice (and having many question-filled phone calls) from Craig's Uncle Ron and my Aunt Lori - the gardening gurus in our families.
3) The Giving Tree - Wow! It's been awhile since I've read this one and, man, is it depressing!? I think we only read this once or twice. I wasn't a fan. We found several others along the same message of "what-trees-provide-for-us" without the selfish (and ugly, I might add!) human as such a thief.
4) For example, The Growing-Up Tree - a similar story of a boy growing up with a tree and the tree providing food, shade and beauty, etc. The boy did croak as an old man in the story, but it was a little less harsh, in my opinion. 
5) A Tree is Nice - I'm blanking on this one... but I think it was another story of the things a tree provides for our environment. We got this one a little later and didn't read it as much. I know I liked it though.
6) Sunflower House - Definitely a favorite. And what a cool idea! The boy and his parents plant sunflowers in a circle and they quickly grow into a cool "hide-out"/summer fort for the boy and his friends. I also didn't know that the sunflower seeds are all easily accessible in the center of the flower come late summer/fall?
7) From Little Acorns - Will really liked this one. From it, we learned that Oak Trees are 40 years old before they produce their first acorns, which start out looking like brown flowers on the tree. We also learned vocab like "seedling" and "sapling". It's a life cycle story and it's very cute.
8) A Tree for Emmy - #1 favorite for both Will and I. Kelly (Garman), I always think of your little Emmy when I read this - you should check it out. It's not a super educational book but it's just a cute story of a little girl who is very passionate about a mimosa tree in her grandmother's yard and wants one for herself. Her grandmother tells her that the mimosa tree is quite similar to Emmy herself: stubborn and strong and a little big wild. So cute. I love the illustrations. I love the prints on everyone's clothes. I love that the mom holds the baby sister in a sling on one page. And I love that the dad tells the store clerk "We want what Emmy wants." You'll see what I mean if you read it. Great book - must purchase!
9) Jacob's Tree - I just searched "trees" in the library's online catalog and this was one hit. Will really liked it, but it really has nothing to do with what we're learning. It's actually about a little bear who wants to grow big and tall like his siblings and his dad measures his height on a tree trunk. It's cute though.
10) Zinnia's Flower Garden - Switching gears to flower gardens and how things grow. It didn't hold Will's attention, but it was a pretty book. 
A lot of what we did these past few weeks came from ideas I found on one of my favorite blogs that I follow. She did a whole unit on trees and leaves and had lots of links and suggestions - very helpful! Gotta' love the Internet!One cool thing that Will got to see (though it's terribly sad for the tree) was the inside of a tree trunk after we cut all three Ash trees down in our yard.
I showed him how you can count the lines on the tree stump to determine how many years old the tree was. Too bad for Will, this tree was standing longer than 30 years 'cause that's all the higher he can count! LOL :)
We were also able to collect pieces of the downed trees for closer inspection to learn the different parts of the tree: "bark" (Will thought it was funny that trees have bark, "because that's what a doggy says!"), branches, leaves (there weren't many leaves left on any of these trees).
PreKinders has a whole forest unit with tons of book suggestions, activities, links and printables. That website is such an awesome resource!
I showed him how you can count the lines on the tree stump to determine how many years old the tree was. Too bad for Will, this tree was standing longer than 30 years 'cause that's all the higher he can count! LOL :)
We were also able to collect pieces of the downed trees for closer inspection to learn the different parts of the tree: "bark" (Will thought it was funny that trees have bark, "because that's what a doggy says!"), branches, leaves (there weren't many leaves left on any of these trees).
PreKinders has a whole forest unit with tons of book suggestions, activities, links and printables. That website is such an awesome resource!Here, he was sequencing the cards appropriately for an oak tree life cycle. Admittedly, he didn't love this.
But he did love this! A makeshift Montessori tree puzzle that I created from felt like I saw on that blog. I drew a picture of the tree with the individual parts pieced correctly (to compare his work) and also labeled everything: roots, trunk, branches, leaves.
I gave him this activity with all the individual pieces spread out and he had to make it look like the control. Then he found the appropriate labels for each part - this required studying the letters of the words to make sure they matched the control - and placing them onto the puzzle. 
Next up, a leaf matching game from PreKinders. We didn't use it as a memory game (though maybe in the future...), but it was challenging and interesting enough for Will to distinguish the minute details to find the matches.
On another day, the kids and I made family "trees" using their arm and hand as the trunk and branches. Then I cut out a bunch of green leaves (ugh - tedious) and we talked about the people in our family.
Oh, one last book that is super cute and educational is called Seeds! Seeds! Seeds! I would love to do all the activities in this book - what a cool grandfather Buddy (the main character) has!
But instead, we just started a seed collection like Buddy's for Will to examine and compare. Fun!
Other non-picture-worthy lessons this week included the following concepts:
But he did love this! A makeshift Montessori tree puzzle that I created from felt like I saw on that blog. I drew a picture of the tree with the individual parts pieced correctly (to compare his work) and also labeled everything: roots, trunk, branches, leaves.
I gave him this activity with all the individual pieces spread out and he had to make it look like the control. Then he found the appropriate labels for each part - this required studying the letters of the words to make sure they matched the control - and placing them onto the puzzle. Similarly, I made a felt flower puzzle and labeled the stem, calyx, ovary, pistil, stamen and corolla. He loved these! And he requested them several times.
Next up, a leaf matching game from PreKinders. We didn't use it as a memory game (though maybe in the future...), but it was challenging and interesting enough for Will to distinguish the minute details to find the matches.
On another day, the kids and I made family "trees" using their arm and hand as the trunk and branches. Then I cut out a bunch of green leaves (ugh - tedious) and we talked about the people in our family.
Oh, one last book that is super cute and educational is called Seeds! Seeds! Seeds! I would love to do all the activities in this book - what a cool grandfather Buddy (the main character) has!
But instead, we just started a seed collection like Buddy's for Will to examine and compare. Fun!
Other non-picture-worthy lessons this week included the following concepts:1) Some trees' "leaves" are needles. We have a couple pine trees in our yard to explain this.
2) Trees are habitats for animals and insects.
3) Trees are important because they provide food (nuts, fruit), shelter, wood to build things and keep us warm, and also make paper and oxygen.
4) Trees are alive (he still remembers that What is Alive? book we borrowed awhile back) and need sunlight, nutrients and water to grow.
You can check out this website for detailed lesson plans on tree topics. I printed off "Where Does the Green Go?" from Unit 2 for us to talk about this fall. We loved watching and talking about the leaves changing last year. This year we can get a little more in depth and talk about sunlight and chlorophyll (ooh! big word!) for explanation.
And one other activity I'd like to do yet (but, again, may save for this fall) is to do leaf presses in play doh. How cool!
I have a handful of Tot School activities that Sophie's been doing too, but I'll make a separate post for those.
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