If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

We have really been enjoying picking a book and then doing activities centered around that book for a week.  Our latest book was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff.

Hunter really liked making a puffy paint chocolate chip cookie.  He mixed up shaving cream, glue, and brown paint.

Then he spread the paint mixture onto a paper plate.

Finally he added some chocolate chips.  When it dries it is puffy and it is really fun to touch and poke at it.

I cut out some brown circles and numbered them 1-10.  Then we counted out the correct number of chocolate chips to add to each one.  This took a little while to finish because the chocolate chips kept disappearing 😉

In the story the mouse draws a picture of his family, so Hunter drew a picture of his family.

Hunter practiced writing some lines.  (from Royal Baloo)

And of course, how could we read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie without making cookies?  So, we baked chocolate chips cookies together.

Hunter thought they were yummy!

Hailey wanted to help with the taste testing too.

Hunter definitely loved this story and asked to hear it over and over again!  We are having lots of fun in preschool!

The Bear Snores On

A fun book for winter time is The Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson.  Hunter is very scared of bears, so I wasn’t sure if we should do this book or not.  But, I decided to try it and see if it might help him not to be so scared of bears.  He ended up loving this book!  He asked to hear it over and over again.

Here are the activities we did to go along with the book:

We made a picture of a bear in a cave.

Hailey wanted to make one too.

The finished pictures.

In the book the animals make a snack-  so we did too.  We had some popcorn and some yummy chocolate covered nuts.  We found The Bear Snores On on YouTube, so Hailey and Hunter watched it while they ate their snack.

We made a bear cave.  Hailey and Hunter painted a shoe box brown and then glued cotton on it.

Hunter learned what hibernating means and put a bear in the cave so that he could hibernate.

We made a bigger cave too using furniture and a blanket.  Hunter liked hanging out in the cave throughout the week.  He loved watching The Bear Snores On, so he gathered up some stuffed bears and took them into the cave to watch it with him.

 It was a fun week of activities!

The Snowy Day

One of my favorite winter books is The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and we recently had a lot of fun doing a unit to go along with the book.  Hunter loved the book too, and asked to read it every day.

Here are the activities we did to go along with book:

After we read the book, Hunter made his own snowy day scene.

We mixed up some shaving cream and glue (equal parts) to make some puffy paint and then he added it to his scene.

Hunter’s snowy day scene

In the book, Peter sees the older boys having a snowball fight.  It has been super cold where we live, so Hailey and Hunter had an indoor snowball fight using socks.

We also brought some snow inside.  Hunter used a stick to make lines in the snow just like Peter did.

We kept the snow inside to see what would happen to it.  It melted, just like the snow in Peter’s pocket did.

Then we made some delicious snowflakes.  We cut tortilla shells to look like snowflakes.  Then I fried them in butter and put cinnamon and sugar on them.

They tasted so good that Hailey and Hunter requested to make them again when Rich came home from work.

Hunter did this paper from Homeschool Creations about which clothes he would wear during winter and summer.

We made this really cool fake snow- you mix shaving cream and baking soda together.  I added the shaving cream first and then I stirred in the baking soda until it looked like snow.  It was really neat- it could be molded like real snow and it even felt cold.  (If it happens to get spilled all over your dining room floor- it does not vacuum up easily.  You will end up having to scrub your hardwood floor to get it off.  But, it will smell very nice.  Don’t ask me how I know.)

Hunter had a great time playing with it.  When he was all done using it, we poured some vinegar in it to watch the snow erupt.

We had such a fun time doing this unit!!