This is part one for F week.  Part two is here. 

F is for…Fuschia fairy and St. Francis.  After reading Serendipity’s Flower Fairy story, Joseph and William colored pictures of the Daisy fairy.  Joseph also did some copywork from the poem that is in the Flower Fairy book (which he did while listening to the Flower Fairy CD).  Then we looked up the actual wildflower in our field guide.  We read about Saint Dominic in our Alphabet of Catholic Saints.  Joseph did some copywork.  We also used the picture from the book to practice the letter F formation.  We read about St. Francis in St. Francis and the Wolf and Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi. 

F is for…the letter F.  We practiced letter formation using the Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book, Do A Dot, Salt Dough letters, and Pin Punch letters. 

F is for…fairy houses.  Since we’ve been learning about the alphabet fairies, this was a perfect opportunity to build a fairy house.  We started with unfinished birdhouses ($1 at Joann’s), painted them with black tea (strong, strong black tea), decorated them with moss and nature walk findings, and then filled them with more nature walk findings (just in case a fairy needs to rest).  By the way, Andrew has gotten extremely good at supervising all school activities. 

F is for…farm animals. We love farm animals here…the sounds they make, the opportunity to feed them, the way they look.  We did lots of reading about farms and farm animals (see our science book basket in part two) and then had a chance to go see some farm animals up close and personal.  We went to visit Walker’s grandparents who own lots of land and cows and horses.  It’s not an actual working farm, but Joseph was convinced that where there are farm animals, there is also a farmer, so Debbie is now known adoringly as Farmer Debbie.  Joseph and William got to feed Festas some hay, which was the highlight of the trip.  Once we returned home, Joseph was happy to write a thank you note to “Farmer” Debbie, which turned out to be a wonderful form of narration.   

F is for…flowers.  F week was just full of science experiences (see part two for our book basket).  We read lots and lots about flowers and gardens and planting.  Naturally we had to do a little planting of our own.  We visited our local plant nursery, picked out our favorite plants (in William’s case, his favorite color), came home and dug in…literally.  Our little garden is beautiful and thriving (despite Daxson’s prediction that I would forget to water them). 

 

To finish up our studies of flowers, we visited one of our favorite places…the Botanical Gardens.  I gave Joseph an assignment for our trip.  He was supposed to find flowers, draw them, and label them.  I wrote at the top of the paper “We’re going on a flower hunt.  We’re going to find some pretty ones.  We might even see a butterfly.  Here we go.”  So Joseph decided that rather than drawing flowers, he’d draw all the things we saw on the way to see flowers (in imitation of the story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt).  Turned out his idea was better than mine (since most of the flowers at our Gardens are not labeled).  He was so excited to walk the trails and add to his story board. 

F is for…Friday fun with friends. F week actually turned into F weekS because there were so many “f”un “F” things to do!  Each “F”riday during our “F” weeks, we visited our “f”riends Belle, Joe, and Ms. Lori.  Auntie Jessica, Walker, and Gavin joined us on the second “F”riday.  We had a “f”antastic time!

F is for…friendly.  We’re still using these great coloring pages and we’re including one each week along with a virtue story.  The coloring page for this week showed two boys, one sitting on a rock; the other approaching with a ball in hand.  After coloring it, I asked Joseph to write what he thought each boy was saying and I was impressed with the result.  He said it was a picture of him and William and he wrote that he was asking, “Hey William, do you want to play football?”  William replied, “No, I want you to sit with me.”  Joseph then replied, “Okay.”  We also read about faith in God’s Alphabet.

We also began reviewing the letters we’ve already covered.  This week we reviewed letters A and B.  Joseph drew the letter and then came up with three words that start with that letter.  He illustrated and labeled his three choices.  Beginning next week I’m also going to have him scrapbook each letter we’ve already completed (beginning with letter A)…that way at the end of the year we’ll have a scrapbook of our Alphabet Path memories. 

More on F week soon to come in part two!