This week we completed our row of Play With Me by Marie Hall Ets.
We had begun it the week before but it ended up being such a busy week that we weren't able to do it justice.
It is such a delightful story that I felt it was worth spending the first half of this week on!
So, what is it about? Here is Piper's narration of the story:
The little girl tried to catch animals. (So they would play with her.) The animals ran away. She sat so quiet and all the animals came out and sat by her. Then a baby fawn came out and licked her cheek!
Now that you have the rundown, on to all the fun we had!
Since the story takes place near a pond and involves a frog and a snake, we played this grid game.
The grid contained lily pads and the girls used frogs and snakes for markers.
They rolled the dice and placed the corresponding number of critters on the grid.
This continued until their grid was full.
We went to a nearby lake and imitated the little girl in the story by sitting quietly and waiting to see what creatures would appear.
This was SO hard for Taitum! Haha!
That girl loves to move!
She stayed put for a few minutes and then went off to explore.
Piper, on the other hand, was very intent on this activity and sat waiting for quite awhile.
I was a little afraid nothing would appear and she'd end up being very disappointed!
We eventually moved further in to a log that was in the water.
I gave Tait a magnifying glass to keep her occupied and we waited some more....
Thankfully, some frogs began to appear!
It was hard to keep the girls still at that point!
They also saw dragonflies, butterflies, water bugs and fish jumping in the middle of the lake!
We went for a walk on the trail that surrounds the lake, too.
Piper kept making us stop and be quiet in the hopes that an animal would come out!
Taitum also really had her heart set on seeing a rabbit like the one in the story.
Although we did hear squirrels chattering in the woods, the only animal that made an appearance was a chickadee.
But that was alright because the girls were just so enthusiastic about our little adventure!
They kept thanking me as we walked for bringing them there!
We played "Who Am I?" where I would give clues and Piper and Tait would guess which animal from the story I was referring to!
Once they got it right, they would glue the picture of the animal inside the clue card.
They loved this!
Piper asked if she could play this with her Daddy when he got home so after supper I pulled the cards out and she came up with clues to give him!
We played a little addition game called "How Many Blue Jays?".
We'd say the little rhyme about the blue jay in the tree who would fly away and bring home so many friends.
Then Piper would have to add them to answer how many birds were now in the tree.
Finally, we discussed loneliness since the little girl in the story appears lonely after all the animals have run away from her.
We talked about what it meant, whether they had ever experienced it themselves and if they could think of anyone who may be lonely.
They thought of their Gran Nan since she lives alone.
I asked what we could do to help and together decided a visit was in order!
The girls baked her some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies one morning and we headed over to her place.
I think they made her day and hopefully they learned the joy of brightening someone else's day!
This week was our best so far!
We are finally settling into a good routine and rhythm.
As a result, we accomplished a lot but were so relaxed and able to truly enjoy our time together!
We also rowed I Am An Artist by Pat Lowery Collins but I'll tell you about that in another post!
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