Kindergarten Prep

I have tried to be a little more focused in the last month on preping Hunter for Kindergarten in the fall.  So we have started working on some word families and also sightword flashcards.  Hunter wanted to play with squirtguns outside Saturday and I remembered that my friend C had just passed on a great idea for practicing sightwords outside.  I wrote 8 sightwords on the driveway.  Then when I called one out, Hunter had to find it and say it and spell it as he squirted the letters off the driveway with his squirtgun.  I wish I had had this idea when I was teaching because my students would have loved practicing sightwords by using squirtguns to get them off the chalkboard.

a few of the sight words (the, is, a, me)

 

We also dug out some of Aunt Sherri's kindergarten readers that were still in Grandma's basement.  Hunter is thrilled that he can read some books now!  This video shows him reading the first one on Easter Sunday, and he has since been able to read the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th books in the series as well.  There are about 50 little readers in the series.  Hopefully he will be able to read them all by Kindergarten.  Of course my husband commented that if he does that then what will he have to learn at school?!  Little does he realize how much it has changed in the last 35 years and how much I am praying for a really good Kindergarten teacher for Hunter.

Ok...tried twice to upload the video, and each time it won't upload.  I'm guessing it is too big.  I'll have to make a smaller one and post it soon!

Ugly Pie

 Hunter and I found a new book at the library that we just loved.  It's called:

 It's about Ol' Bear who is just itchin' -truly itchin'- for some ugly pie.  He goes around visiting all his other bear friends who each give him something "ugly" from their kitchens which he ends up making into an ugly pie which he shares with them all.  The book is definitely folk-tale-ish with good rhyming verse and repetition that had Hunter chiming in.  It needs to be read aloud with different voices for each of the bears, a southern accent, and Ol' Bear's singing done in a gravelly blues rendition.  Very fun.  Needless to say we've renewed it twice already.  At the back of the book, the recipe for ugly pie is included, so this week I gathered all the ingredients, called Hunter into the kitchen, and set to work.

He had to flute the edges of the crust in the pie dish (above), and then mix in all the ingredients (below).  It definitely looked ugly to us, but as it baked, it smelled quite good.

 

The finished product

 We took the finished pie up to Grandma and Grandpa S.'s for their anniversary.  I have to say I didn't really care for the taste too much and probably won't make it again.  It wasn't too bad, but I didn't like the molasses in it.  I'm not a huge molasses fan anyway.  If that was left out, it really would be an apple pie with raisins and nuts in it which would probably be better, in my opinion.  Oh well, it was a fun way to take our reading into the kitchen and even mix in a little math with measurements.  It also made for a fun way to spend yet another cold, snowy day indoors.
If the snow and cold are getting to ya, check out what's new at your local library.  We've been quite pleased with ours, even though it is very small.  Over the past month or so, Hunter and I have been in there at least once a week (yes, they greet us by name now) and have read or listened to over 100 books.  We've even started listening to some chapter books on cd as we eat lunch together and discussing them.  It's been a good way to perk up the winter doldrums.  Thanks for the idea, C.