Harold and the Purple Crayon (Purple Crayon Books) has a special place in our hearts. We’ve read this classic MANY times, but it will always tug on my heart strings reminding me of our preschool years.

Oh my little loves! Time flies too quickly, but there’s always new ideas to explore, memories to make, and fun to be had.  To quote Papa, “The Best is Yet to Come!”.

READY TO ROW:

Learning Lane was decked out in purple during this row.  I left a myriad of activities for the kids to explore.

Our Story Sensory Box was bursting with purple.  I placed elements of our story in a purple container and sprinkled the box with purple blocks, letters, buttons, and MANY shades of purple pom-poms!

Invitation to Create:

I set out an invitation to create the night before.  The kids gathered around the table after reading Harold and the Purple Crayon (Purple Crayon Books) at Breakfast.

Everyone joined in this activity.  It’s funny how one simple activity can create a stir in the classroom.

They turned out really nice!  We hung them up on our art walls.

BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

I created a Bible verse printable pack to accompany this book.

You can purchase it here at our TPT Store.  There’s even a FREEbie in the Preview!

Jordan traced the verse the first day.  The following day we cut apart the verse like a puzzle and he glued it together in his lapbook.

He continued to work on the Bible verse puzzle throughout our time rowing this book.

MATH:

Story Sequencing & Ordinal Numbers:

Since Harold ran into a moose, I decided to take a moment to give a moose a muffin and review ordinal numbers and story sequencing.

I created an If You Give a Moose a Muffin pack for the boys to work on.

You can purchase the pack here at our TPT Store.  There’s even a FREEbie in the Preview!

I set out a special sensory bin for this activity.  There were the main elements from the story along with our ordinal number cards.

After reading the book, the boys colored their story elements and cut them apart.

Next, they added their ordinal number words.  This gives them familiarity with the spelling of their ordinal numbers.

Lastly, they glued their story elements in order as they remembered.  Once finished, we reviewed the order of each to see how many they recalled correctly.  They both did an excellent job!

Counting:

I thought it would be great review to have Parker work on counting coins during this unit.  I set up a purple counting tray on our Learning Lane.

The tray included sample coins for him to match to the “coin name labels” I set out, three coin counting cups and a purple pen for him to write the total cents.

I also created a quick “Harold Skip Counting” worksheet with tall buildings and windows.  Parker skip counting the windows by TWOs, THREEs, and FOURs.

Area & Perimeter:

I thought it might be fun to do a fun picnic themed area and perimeter math activity.  I made a quick “Harold’s Picnic Problem” worksheet.  The boys had to find both the area and perimeter for each picnic blanket.

Parker worked on perimeter last year, but I did a quick review ahead of time.  Afterwards, he was able to figure out the perimeter of each blanket.  He also calculated the area by counting the blocks, because he’s not familiar with multiplication yet.

I set up a separate math activity with purple cubes and cut-up “picnic blanket squares” with various measurements.  I provided a recording sheet so he could calculate and write the perimeter, area, and volume.

Fractions:

Apple Fractions:

I created an Apple Fraction Review pack for Parker to work on.

You can download your FREE copy here at our TPT Store.

I brought out our Learning Resources Magnetic Apple FractionsLearning Resources Magnetic Apple Fractions and had Parker match up the apple pieces to the fraction cards.

Next, I had Parker match the fraction cards to the fraction word cards.

Last, I had him match the fraction picture cards to the fraction pairs.

He used his dot paints to color in the fractions as a final review.  This was a GREAT fraction lesson for him!

I printed a copy of our Apple Fractions Worksheets for Jordan.   He colored them in perfectly.  Later, I wrote the fraction words on apple stickers and had him match them in his lapbook.

Pies – Eating Fractions:

Near the end of our unit, we had a Harold picnic with mini pies!  My husband bought me a mini pie maker a while back and I planned to use it while rowing this book!

First, I cooked down the pie fillings.  We had apple-cranberry, blueberry, plum, and mixed berry.

The mini pie maker came with a cookie-cutter for the crust.  I used pre-made dough for this activity.  Everyone placed their order and I was a mini-pie-making machine!  It was SO easy AND fun!

I spread out a cloth and set them out on small paper plates…voila!  Our Harold picnic was all ready to go.

We talked about fractions BEFORE diving into our sweet treats!  Afterwards, they munched and sipped and chatted about their favorite flavor!

Science:

Color Lab – Purple:

We couldn’t study Harold and the Purple Crayon with out studying the color purple!

We read many books about the color purple.

We read A%20Color of His OwnA Color of His Own and the boys took turns working on the purple tray.

We read a few color theory books and I set out a “Little Color Lab” purple color mixing activity like we did with orange during Storm in the Night.

 

The boys used blue and red tinted water and a dropper to make various shades of purple.

This is always a favorite activity and an excellent way to talk about shades and hues.

We had a fun purple lunch too!  The kids ate bagels with purple cream cheese, purple carrots, purple fruits, and even some purple potato chips (those were a HUGE hit)!

We read more books about purple and other colors too!  This was our MOST colorful row to date!

We ended our Purple day with a colorful chicken dinner including grapes, purple carrots, plums, and purple potatoes!  Everything was DELICIOUS!

Color Theory:

We continued our colorful row the following day with rainbow spiced hootenanies for breakfast.

This is a HUGE hit with the kiddos.  Who wouldn’t want to eat the rainbow dusted with powdered sugar.  If you’ve never had them, you should try them!

I read Little Frog and the Scary Autumn Thing (Little Frog and the Four Seasons)Little Frog and the Scary Autumn Thing while the kids ate breakfast.

After breakfast we read and worked through this wonderful color theory booklet (Kitchen Table Classroom).

They enjoyed mixing their own colors, although they found it easier to mix liquids than colored pencils when trying to achieve the “right” color.

Survival Skills:

We talked about how Harold couldn’t find his way home, so he climbed up higher to gain a better view.  This lesson REALLY hit home for Jordan.

While at the pumpkin patch, he walked the maze, but he struggled to find his way out.  I saw him climbing the bales of hay and he informed me he was gaining a better view like Harold.  I was SO impressed.  I wish I snapped a pic of THAT moment, but we both will hold that memory in our hearts!

Transportation – On Land, Sea, and Air:

I set out our Montessori Land, Water, and Air Presentation Cards (The Helpful Garden) on Learning Lane.

Jordan and I talked about all the modes of transportation Harold used throughout the story.  He knew them all from memory….this kid’s memory is AMAZING (He definitely didn’t get it from his Mommy)!  Then he sorted through the stack of cards.

We did read a few balloon themed books in honor of Harold’s balloon.

The Moon:

The moon has always had a special place in our hearts, because we read and sang about this night light since they were babies!  We dedicated a day to “moon learning”!

We made vanilla steamers and watched Kitten’s First Full Moon Board Book on our Epic app.

After enjoying the steamers, we headed to the classroom to continue our moon unit.

We read The%20Moon: Revised Edition (Out in Space)The Moon and I brought out our Moon Phase definition cards.

The boys colored their Phases of the Moon printout while I went through the definition cards.

Later, I glued their moon artwork along with our moon phases to light and dark purple construction paper pieces.

We really loved The Moon Inside and decided to add a nighttime scene to our moon phases art project.

I gave the boys a half-sheet of black construction paper and colored pencils.  We opened our book to one of the beautiful nighttime illustrations.

They each colored their own inspired nighttime scene.

The boys added “moon” with foam letters and wrote an acrostic moon poem at the bottom.  They turned out beautiful!

Later in the afternoon, the kids sat down for cookies, milk, and a read-aloud of one of our favorites, Goodnight%20MoonGoodnight Moon.

I set out their CRAFTivity to remind the kids of the various phases of the moon.

They used their knives to carve out the various phases of the moon.

They gobbled their snack while I read to them.  These are moments I’ll cherish forever!

Apples:

I’m ALWAYS excited to study apples!  Harold drew an apple tree and that was an invitation to explore one of our favorite fruits!

In addition to the many apple science books we read, we read oodles of fun apple themed picture books too!

The boys added apple inserts (Homeschool Share) in their lapbooks.

We added our Apple Tasting Tree (since our Three Names post) and added MANY varieties throughout this row!

Apple Field Trip:

We read so many fun books about growing apples, picking apples, visiting apple orchards and more!

It was SO much fun to actually take a day to go visit an apple orchard near us!

We’re still munching on all the varieties we picked up at the farm!

We continued reading about apples while sipping our the apple cider we picked up on our apple picking day!

Making Apple Pie:

We couldn’t study apples without reading Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple PieAmelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie and baking our own.

First, we gathered in the kitchen to make the dough.  We mixed all the dry ingredients and added the BUTTER….EVERYTHING is better with butter!

The kids took turns breaking apart the butter with the pastry blender.

Next, everyone took turns peeling the apples.  This is a life skill that’s ALWAYS worth spending a little time on.

We cut them up with our apple slicer and placed them in a ziplock bag with the sugar, lemon, flour, and spices.

They kids mixed them up by gently tossing the bag around.

Once the dough chilled, the kids helped roll it out.  We poured our apple mixture in, placed the crust on top, cut little holes for venting, and created a little flower on top (like Amelia).

We placed it in the oven and the whole house smelled YUMMY!

It turned a gorgeous golden brown and was flaky AND delicious!  By far our favorite apple pie recipe to date!

The kids enjoyed the fruit of their labor.  No one was FORCED to finish…too bad healthy foods don’t go down as easy ;).

They even had it for dinner another night after reading An%20Apple Pie for DinnerAn Apple Pie for Dinner!  This book was PERFECT for both our Sonlight Core B History and our FIAR unit!

THIS was something they would NEVER forget….”remember when we had apple pie for dinner?”….hee hee!

Arts, Crafts, & Fun:

Perspective – Foreshortening:

The boys got out their FIAR Art Sketch books and headed to the kitchen for a relaxed table art lesson.  We talked about perspective and I gave them a quick lesson on drawing the foreshortened picnic blanket and pie plate.

Dragons:

Since the dragon was guarding the apple tree, we took a moment to read about this fairy tale creature.

We read some cute picture books about dragons on our free day.  Then I thought of a fun treat to make while reading through our Dragons%20Love TacosDragons Love Tacos books.

I made cookie tacos with various candy fillings (chopped Swedish Fish for tomatoes, sliced Fruit by the Foot for lettuce, crumbled chocolates for taco meat, and sliced orange Starburst for cheese).

The cookies were REALLY hard to form into a taco shape.  I think a thinner, crispier dough might work better.

The kids LOVED this treat!  They dressed their tacos and gobbled the rest of the toppings.

I read Dragons Love Tacos and Dragons%20Love Tacos 2: The SequelDragons Love Tacos 2 while they munched their cookie tacos.

Helpful Links:

Harold and the Purple Crayon Playlist:

As with our other rows, we created a Harold and the Purple Crayon playlist with read-alouds, music, science, and other animated clips.

 

Pinterest Board:

You can find most of the activities, ideas, and printables from this post on our Harold and the Purple Crayon Pinterest Board.