READY TO ROW:

I put together a story basket with our copy of The%20Story of FerdinandThe Story of Ferdinand, Melissa & Doug Band-in-a-Box Hum! Jangle! Shake! – 7-Piece Musical Instrument Setcastanets, eeBoo Spanish Flash CardsSpanish Flash Cards, Spanish chocolate and some picture cards.

Jordan colored our story disk so we could add it to Spain on our world map.

BIBLE:

Memory Verse:

I  chose I Peter 3:4 for our memory verse, because there is great worth in a gentle and quiet spirit.

You can purchase our Bible verse pack here at our TPT Store.  There’s a bonus FREEbie tracer in the Preview.

Jordan traced the memory verse on the first day.

The following day I cut it apart like a puzzle and he pasted it together in his FIAR notebook.

He used the puzzle the remainder of our time rowing the book until he was able to recite it from memory.

Wonderfully Made (Psalm 139):

I remember we studied this Bible passage during Parker’s BFIAR preschool days rowing The Runaway Bunny .   I’m filled with nostalgia anytime we dust off a BFIAR book.

We read Always%20Near MeAlways Near Me by Susie Pool.  This was a perfect summary of Psalm 139 for younger kids.  Sometimes a simple book is all you need to stir the waters….

We talked about how we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.  I thought it would be fun to create self-portraits “Picasso” style!

We read Picasso and the Girl with a Ponytail.  We saw his first sketch of the girl and how true-to-life it was (my favorite style).  Then he kept tweaking it until it morphed into the style on the front cover.

I printed a self-portrait worksheet for the kids to use to sketch themselves in whatever artistic style they chose.

They each sketched their self-portraits in different styles.

This was a fun way to explore Bible (Psalm 139), art (sketching self portraits), and history (Picasso, a Spanish artist) in one activity!

Be Still:

In keeping with our “quiet and gentle spirit” theme, I chose a devotion about being still.  We did a similar activity while rowing The Quiet Way Home, another one of our BFIAR books!

I created bookmarks for the kids to color as well as a fun Guess the Mystery Sound activity to accompany this topic.

I read The Sounds of Silence from Indescribable:%20100 Devotions for Kids About God and ScienceIndescribable.

The Five Senses (Hearing):

We read about hearing from God Made Our Bodies and Hearing (The Five Senses)The Five Senses Hearing.

We explored the sense of hearing with a fun My Five Senses Mystery Sounds activity based on the printable by Our Time to Learn.  I filled the eggs with various items and marked them with a letter.  I created a worksheet for the kids to record their answers on.

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

The kids took turns shaking the eggs and marking their guesses.

We also read No One Knows Where Gobo Goes on our Epic app.  This book is about a Fraggle that goes to a secret place to be alone.  We talked about how it’s important to carve a little space that’s all their own.  Those are the quiet places you need to enjoy peace, reflect, and talk to God.

SOCIAL STUDIES:

Spain:

We read Spain and Exploring Countries Spain on our Epic app.

We also opened up our World Atlas to Europe and saw pictures of Spain.

We opened up our Around%20the World with Kate and MackAround the World with Kate and Mack book and looked at the Catalan Sign Language pages again.

LANGUAGE ARTS:

ABC Order:

I created a Ferdinand ABC Order Worksheet since the boys were working on alphabetical order in their Sonlight Language Arts program.

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

The boys put the labels in alphabetical order.  This was a great way to incorporate vocabulary words from the book and practice putting words in alphabetical order.

Interjections:

We read Fantastic!%20Wow! and Unreal!: A Book About Interjections and Conjunctions (Explore!)Fantastic! Wow! And Unreal! to cover the topic of interjections.

Spanish Garden Words:

Ferdinand LOVES flowers, so I decided to read Flowers Are Calling and make some Spanish flash cards.

Before reading Flowers%20Are CallingFlowers are Calling, I passed out coordinating stickers to the kids.  As we came across each Spanish word, the kids would add the stickers to the cards.

We reviewed them over dinner that night, trying to see how many we knew from heart.

Spanish Color Words:

Just for fun, Parker’s phonics activity was color words in Spanish.  I set out our toddler color flash cards along with little dollar store containers with letter tiles to spell each color in Spanish.

I flipped the cards on the side with the Spanish spelling of the word.  Parker popped open each container and had to figure out which Spanish color word he needed to spell.

He did a great job working through the containers.  I also created a set of Spanish Color Words worksheets for the kids to work on.

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

I gave each kid a different version of the worksheet and they all did a great job matching and coloring each Spanish color word.

MATH:

Counting in Spanish:

I created an Autumn Trees – Counting to Ten in Spanish printable for a fun bilingual math activity.

You can download it for FREE for a short time here, but it will ALWAYS be available at our TPT Store with a FREEbie in the Preview!

First, we listened to our favorite Spanish counting song on Sesame Street (a part of our Ferdinand playlist).

Next, I laid out the number cards in an empty Melissa and Doug box.  You could use a tray with empty containers too!

We started with one and counted in Spanish using our fall scatter until we reached ten, “uno, dos, tres…diez”.

Afterwards, the boys cut out the numbers and glued them to the matching Spanish number words.

Measuring:

I created a special My Measurement Book for the kids to work on during our measuring math unit.

You can purchase your copy here at our TPT Store.

After plugging in their own growth information, they moved on to measuring things around the house.

This was a great review for both Haley and Jordan and a more in-depth measuring lesson for Parker.

SCIENCE:

Cows:

We couldn’t study The Story of Ferdinand with out studying cows.

We read Cows%20and Their Calves: A 4D Book (Animal Offspring)Cows and Their Calves which talked about all the members of the cow family.

I brought out our Cow Farm Family cards (can’t find where I found these, but The Helpful Garden has a beautiful set) and I also added some cow inserts in his FIAR notebook.

I added a black-line cow diagram in his notebook.  Using my cow nomenclature cards (Montessori Print Shop) we reviewed the various parts of the cow while he color-coded his diagram.

Trees:

Ferdinand loved resting under his favorite cork tree and I love studying trees, so this was a unit I looked forward to.

I checked out a bunch of tree books from the Library and brought out our Tell%20Me, Tree: All About Trees for KidsTell Me Tree book too!

We started our morning with Max Lucado’s The%20Oak Inside the AcornThe Oak Inside the Acorn over breakfast.

Learning Lane was decked out with all kinds of Tree activities!  I also created a From Acorn to Oak – Little Science Pack for the kids to work on.

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

Many pages have close reading text with coordinating questions that require cutting and pasting or coloring in.  This is a really fun way to practice reading comprehension.

Parker colored, cut, and pasted the pictures in order after reading the short story.

Haley preferred to write in the answers rather than cut and paste the labels.

This printable is packed with information about life cycles, photosynthesis, and more!

We read Be%20a Friend to Trees (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out, Stage 2)Be a Friend to Trees and headed outside to check out our young trees.

We have many Japanese Maples that drop their helicopter seeds.  I try to find and rescue many of the seedlings in hopes to transplant them in our landscaping.  Here’s a little one I’ve grown over a year.

Here’s another that made it home over the winter months in our impatient pot.

We went over to the apple trees we planted while rowing The Runaway Bunny.  They are slow growing, but very happy in the backyard.

I took a picture of the kids to show their height against the apple trees.  The apple trees have surpassed them.

Here’s a little oak that sprouted from a forgotten acorn.  That’s what I wanted them to see, an oak sapling.  After all, the cork tree is an evergreen oak.

We came inside and worked on labeling the parts of the tree.

We dug deep into the earth and read many great books about soil on our Epic app.

Haley created this bookmark composed of the various layers of soil.  I love how she finds ways of being creative with every subject.

We watched a clip about the layers of the earth and the boys worked on a Types of Soil worksheet (Mrs. Jones Creation Station).

Parker ate his lunch and worked on a What Do Plants Need sorting worksheet (In My World).

Jordan colored, cut, and pasted his too!

I read BertoltBertolt over lunch with Haley and Jordan since it was a longer story.

Vultures:

We didn’t study the vulture very long, but we did read a few non-fiction books about this bird.

Then we read EliEli which was a cute and humorous book about a lion, a flock of vultures, and how a single act of kindness .

Plants:

The night before, I set out several garden and flower activities on Learning Lane.  I wanted to start our plant unit with We%20Are the GardenersWe Are the Gardeners.

This was a really cute story by Joanna Gaines and her kids about their own family garden.

We read the whole plant series by Vijaya Khisty Bodach.

I set out many plant and bug activities on Learning Lane.  I challenged the kids to read the book and do the activity.

Jordan drank his tea while reading Jack’s%20GardenJack’s Garden.

Afterwards, he sorted a basket of bugs by “good for the garden” or “bad for the garden”.

Parker read The%20Grouchy LadybugThe Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.

Afterwards, he played the Cute Critters match game.

Haley read Up%20in the Garden and Down in the DirtUp in the Garden and Down in the Dirt.

Afterwards, Haley and Jordan played the butterfly match activity I paired with this book.

Bug Survey:

I planned to have the kids do a garden bug survey during our plant unit.

We worked together making a poster for our survey.  Everyone helped draw the garden bugs and color the poster.

The poster turned out SO pretty and colorful.  They did a great job!

The kids sent the video to our family and friends.  We waited for the results to come in and they tallied them on the board.  The winner was…..

The beautiful butterfly!  Great job kiddos!  Surveys are a fun and easy way to incorporate classroom type activities using text.

Parts of the Plant:

I set out Let it Grow with a fun Parts of the Plant CRAFTivity (A Dab of Glue Will Do).

I prepped everything including gluing the blue paper to the brown paper for the background.

We read Let it Grow and the kids glued the stem to the bottom of the page.

Next, they glued the leaves and slowly added the petals with the plant pictures on the underside.

They matched the petals/pictures to each part of the lifecycle.

When they added all the petals, they used a white crayon to draw a healthy root system.

Lastly, they added the labels to all the various plant parts.  This was a great review and end to our plant unit.

Bees:

We then moved to our favorite garden helper, the buzzing honeybee.  I thought it would be fun to start up our bee unit with a breakfast of biscuits and honey.

Jordan helped me whip up a batch of drop biscuits.

We placed them in the oven and waited…

I served them on the side of eggs and sausage.  They were SUPER yummy!

Parker’s Sonlight poem this week featured the bee and warning us not to harm any living thing.  God created each of these little insects to serve its purpose.

We read several books about bees on our Epic app.

The kids colored and labeled the parts of the bee (Momma’s Learning Corner).  Later we added them in their FIAR notebooks.

I found a really cute pollination activity, but I can’t seem to find it’s source.  Anyway, the kids colored their bee and we cut out the circles.

While the kids were working I set out the snack.  I put Cheetos in a folded paper bag with the cut-out flower stapled on top.  Next, I made “nectar” (fresh lemonade) for the kids to sip.

They wee so excited to see the activity all set out for them.

They munched a sipped until their little bee fingers were covered with pollen dust!

A friend of ours gave us a honeycomb from a beekeeper friend.  The kids ate a slice!

Creative Writing:

Since we were studying bees, I thought it would be fun to make bee crafts and use them as the subject of a poem.

Parker made a paper roll bee.  It turned our really cute!

Jordan chose to make a origami bee using a tutorial on our Ferdinand playlist.

They both did a great job!

Clover:

I created a Label the Clover worksheet for Jordan to work on.

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

We read a little about red clovers and Jordan colored and labeled the worksheet.

ARTS, CRAFTS, & MORE FUN:

Churros:

I found a baked churros recipe to make on our free-day.  I whipped up a batch and set out a few at the table.

I read The%20Little MatadorThe Little Matador while the kids munched on their churros.

They LOVED them!  We saved the rest for after dinner.

The following day we read Maria%20the MatadorMaria the Matador which was all about a girl who LOVED churros!  This was a perfect book pairing for our next churro date!

HELPFUL LINKS:

The Story of Ferdinand Playlist:

As with our other rows, we created The Story of Ferdinand playlist with read-alouds, music, science, and other clips.

 

Pinterest Board:

You can find most of the activities, ideas, and printables from this post on our The Story of Ferdinand Pinterest Board.