Letter C:C is for cowboy:cowgirl magnet page

Free to download here from Making Learning Fun

Letter C:C is for chicken:master list

dot to dot

Letter C: c is for chicken:dot to dot

Free to download here from Making Learning Fun

Letter C:c is for caterpillar:master list

magnet page

size sort

split pin animal

Letter C: c is for cowboy:master list

magnet page

cowgirl magnet

Letter C:resources master list

C is for cowboy
c is for caterpillar
c is for chicken

letter C: c is for cowboy :magnet page

Free to download from here at Making Learning Fun

Letter C: C is for caterpillar: Magnet Page

Free to download from Confession of a Homeschooler.

Click here for a whole page of related activities - scroll down for the magnet page

Letter C:c is for caterpillar: size sort

Confessions of a Homeschooler has included another free size sort in the "C is for caterpillar" activities. Click here for the whole page.

Letter c:c is for caterpillar: split pin character craft

Find out how we made it here

Letter C: c is for Cat: Magnet Page

Download the magnet page pdf from here

For use with round magnets, coins, counters, buttons, stickers,bottle caps, bingo dabbers etc etc etc...

Letter C: c is for car: See, Trace, Make

Download the pdf from here

Letter C: c is for Car: Magnet Page

c is for car magnet page to download from here.

Letter C: C is for Caterpillar: Counting Caterpillar

As an attempt to get my anti-numbers 2 year old to do counting we have been trying to do "different" ways of counting objects.  Since he loves animals and has a compulsion to match things  I created this caterpillar with 10 body segments.

The idea obviously is to put one manipulative of your choice in each body segment.
So far so good, then Mummy had to go and count them "No Counting!" and everything hit the floor - back to the drawing board :)

Letter C: C is for caterpillar, the Very Hungry Caterpillar lacing cards and online animated video

Having put together the resources for the Hungry Caterpillar on my own post here I came across a mention of hungry caterpillar lacing cards for download from Confessions of a Homeschooler. The link for the download is near the bottom of the post for the letter C so you will need to scroll down.  Brilliant as we still have to get around to actually producing these here.
 This is a fantastic site with millions of great ideas (many available free for download), just be sure you stock up on printer ink before visiting because I guarantee there will be something there you just have to print out and use!

We also found the online animated version here for if you want a change from the book.

Letter C: C is for Camera: Camera I-Spy

There is something irresistible about digital cameras for my kids.  So much so that often I put my camera away save and sound and when I come back to it it has no battery left and a full SD card.  It is interesting to see what they think are noteworthy things to take photos of. 
One of the things that A likes to do is just look at the world through the camera - not necessarily take photos but just use the camera to focus more clearly on what he is doing.  B has picked up on this and I saw him doing this yesterday.  So why camera I-Spy? because the camera can be used to build his vocabulary.  Here's how it works.  I sit him on my lap so we can both see the screen and I zoom onto something of interest in the room, I then ask B what it is, what colour it is, what shape it is, who it belongs to etc (he's not quite up to what letter it begins with yet but we'll get there!).  Having the screen limit the field of view is perfect for helping him concentrate on a limited number of objects and makes it easier for him to guess what it is I'm talking about.

stART - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Since most of the stuff we have been doing this week is inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle I thought that it would be a good idea to link up to the stART project over at A Mommy's Adventures.


At  the start of the week I wrote this post about what we intended to do with the book.Here are some of the things  we actually did.
A decided to be very literal.

B was a bit bemused by the caterpillar though the holes stuff...and mummy discovered how hard it is to take a decent picture at arms length whilst reading a story and balancing a book!

We decided that it would be easier to make a butterfly mobile rather than a food mobile.  I cut out plain butterfiles from blank white paper.

B coloured some along with the table

R coloured others

A decided he wanted his own mobile with bees instead

We laminated the coloured butterfiles.  R helped by cutting them out then we hole punched top and bottom and attached some string.

the end result looked brilliant.

For more ideas check out 
over at  A Mommy's Adventures.

Letter C: C is for caterpillar, the Very Hungry Caterpillar

"In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf."
When it comes to caterpillars there can only be one book. It is one of the best selling children's books of all time, has been translated into practically every language known to man and celebrated its 40th birthday last year. It is of course "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.
Where to start? It all depends on the age of the child(ren) you are using the book with. The book can be used to introduce the concepts of big and little; counting; colours; days of the week; life cycles of caterpillars and butterflies;nutrition and healthy eating; even symmetry. By the time you add some crafts and creative play around the butterfly/caterpillar theme you have enough there for one week all on its own!
One thing I intend to do is put together a story sack based on the book before we start the week so I have everything in one place.
What is a story sack?
Storysacks were developed by a Headteacher from the UK for use in his classroom and at home to engage the children in his school more actively with books and allow a fun shared interactive experience for carers and young children that could be tailored for all kinds of ages and abilities.
Here is more from Communigate who are sponsored by Northumbria University in the UK.
Mine will be a storybox rather than a sack (easier to store) but you get the idea!

OK Here's mine so far - bear in mind I have a toddler, a kindergartener and a second grader and (since homeschooling is illegal in Germany) it is a supplementary activity for the older ones. As always use you own discretion when choosing the tasks relevant to your child's age and ability.

• the book itself - alas not the super pop-up one featured in the Amazon ad above just the plain paperback but hey doesn't matter.
• a little caterpillar made out of a pipecleaner (chenille craft stick) who can be threaded through the holes in the pages as we go, thus interacting with the book.
• Story sequencing cards from DLTK.
• puppets made from the felt board characters at DLTK
• Butterfly lifecycle wheel from Enchanted Learning
• Butterfly wordsearch from Enchanted Learning
• craft activity - make a papier mache cocoon
• fruit and vegetable file folder game from File Folder Fun
• painting activity - make a puffy paint caterpillar using the puffy paint recipe used on No Time for Flashcards (she uses it for a textured lunar landscape but the second I saw it I thought puffy caterpillar I don't know why!)
• threading activity - take pictures of the food the caterpillar ate and laminate them and punch holes in to thread onto a pipecleaner or lace.
• mobile use the images above to construct a mobile we can use as a decoration
• Days of the week tracer pages from First School
• leaf/caterpillar/butterfly lacing cards
• colouring pages
• counting game- count out the appropriate fruit 1-5
• match the halves food activity
• write your own version of what the caterpillar might have eaten

Looks like a long list and there are even more activities that we could add but this will do for a start. As always photos will follow if we get a chance to do an activity.