Muffin Tin Monday: Madeline/France

Well, I guess there is no where for me to link up my muffin tin meals again. That doesn't mean I am going to stop making them though, the children wouldn't let me if I wanted to. And if I am going to make them, I am going to share them. I hope you don't mind.

This week we are reading the book Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans with the curriculum we are reviewing called Lightning Literature and Composition Grade 1, from Hewitt Homeschooling. I am also using the book Picture Book Activities by Trish Kuffner to include the younger children in the fun. So, today's muffin tin had a Madeline/France theme and I also got to use my Triangle Fun Bites cutter that I will be reviewing shortly as a part of my Back to School/5 Year Blogiversary Giveaway.

The top 3 compartments represent the French flag:

Blue-Blueberries

White-Cheese Triangles put together in the shape of a square

Red-Strawberries

Then there is a hat like the one Madeline wears made out of a dessert shell filled with vanilla yogurt, topped with half a peach and tied with a piece of a peel-able Twizzler.

The flower represents the flowers the girls bring Madeline when she is in the hospital. It is made of cheese cut with the FunBites cutter, a grape center and a green pepper stem.

Lastly, the children had a crescent roll (croissant).

I remember rowing Madeline when we were doing Five in a Row a few years ago. Though we aren't using FIAR right now, we are focusing on a book a week during the summer. It's been fun so far.

Papa Piccolo: Kittens in the Gondola Game

I had printed out some gondolas to go with our Papa Piccolo unit, but wasn't sure at first how to use them. I wanted to add some kittens to them, thought about putting numbers on the gondolas and having the girls place that many kittens on the respective gondola. I actually may still do that with Hannah, but I came up with a "game" for the girls.  They already know their numbers pretty well. So I thought some addition and subtraction practice would be fun.

This is how I set up the game. I found the gondola coloring page over at Crayola's website by googling "gondola coloring page."  The girls each colored five gondolas. Then I taped two sheets of light blue paper together to represent the water of the canals. 

I made number cards by cutting out 1.5 inch squares. I made two sets of numbers 0-5 and one set of 0-10. The kittens were also found by googling "kitten coloring page." Then I just made a sheet of them in my word processing program and printed them onto construction paper.

I had Amelia pick a number and place it on the Velcro, then she was to count out that many kittens for the first gondola.

Tabitha did the same for the second gondola.

Then they added them together.

Then we tried the subtraction.

Amelia chose to place four kittens in the first gondola.

Then I told Tabitha she could pick any number up to four. She chose four and then she was to take four kittens out of the first gondola and put them in the second.  That is the amount of kittens that left the first gondola.

Only problem was, Amelia didn't like Tabitha taking her kittens.

I told her it was just a game and she should come and pick the number to show how many kittens were left in her gondola.

She was so upset she did it so fast and disappeared.

So I told her we would do it again and I made sure Tabitha wouldn't take ALL of Amelia's kittens.

They are looking forward to playing again. Each girl will have her own game that will become a part of their notebooks, but I thought it was more fun to play together.

We are storing the pieces in envelopes on the back. All I have to do now is punch the holes to place it in the binder.

The girls have also been spending their workbook time working on math. Tabitha wants to go into space, so I told her she would have to be an astronaut. So she wanted to know what astronauts need to know. We talked about math and science. So now she thinks she is going to go to space soon as she is doing lots of math. Ooops.

She worked on most of these pages today.

This post is being linked up as a part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew Toys and Games for Homeschool Round Up.

Our Week with FIAR: Papa Piccolo

We started rowing the book Papa Piccolo by Carol Talley this week. I decided I wanted to pick books for the next few rows that take place in the countries that we were introduced to in How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. (Hopefully soon I will finish the post on our weeks with that book.) The first place the baker visited while gathering the ingredients for her pie was Italy, which is where Papa Piccolo takes place.

Unfortunately, it was a busy week (doctor appt, etc.) and we didn't get near as much done as I wanted to . Here is what we were able to accomplish this week:

Social Studies

We reviewed where we can find Italy. I printed out an Italy Shutterfold book from Homeschool Share.

They cut them out and found Italy, coloring it orange. (Hannah just colored)

(She does love gluing.)

Amelia's

 Tabitha's

Even though I have been teaching her lower case since the beginning and we practice writing upper and lower case in the BrainQuest workbooks, she insists on writing all upper case (I even wrote it properly on the paper I gave her to copy).

Hannah's

And we put our story disk on the globe. We traveled across the Atlantic Ocean, found Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. The first day they had trouble finding the boot shaped country. Today, Amelia found it!

We discussed the canals of Venice, which are very prominent in the book. Then we made our own city. I drew lines to represents the canals on brown paper.

The girls were told to trace the canals with blue paint.

They did an awesome job.

Amelia's

Tabitha's

 Hannah's

We said her canals are flooding.

 Then I went outside, gathered some rocks and we made canals in cookie sheets.

She was using one of the rocks as a person.

The floor did get a little wet.

Of course we had our muffin tin. We focused on Italy and I added a cat cutout of cheese to represent Papa Piccolo.

 

Then they requested a second muffin tin  on Wednesday.

Leftover pizza, leftover spaghetti, leftover pizza, 

Cat shaped bread and butter

Green beans, white shredded mozzarella cheese, red grapes (to represent the flag)

Language Arts

When we reread the book today I had the girls listening for words/phrases describing what Piccolo and the kittens were doing. We also listed what Piccolo taught the kittens. 

Daddy helped the girls understand some of the words by acting them out. He strutted, he wheeled and he begged for food.  Daddy became Papa Piccolo and the girls became the kittens. 

Here they are following him up the steep steps.

And curling up to sleep.

Then we finished our week with the How Kittens Grow Activity card that I found the link to over at Homeschool Share

They cut them out then Tabitha read the words in each box and they glued the correct picture in the boxes.

Next week we will be continuing Papa Piccolo.

If you are interested in a little summary and review of the book you can check out my "This Week We are Reading" post.

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