BFIAR: Jessie Bear What Will You Wear?

We have had such a busy summer so far, but I wanted to make this a "Before Five in a Row Summer" for Zeke. We took two weeks to "row" Jessie Bear, What Will You Wear?. This quickly became a favorite book for Zeke and we've read it many times! I can't remember what we did each day, so I'll just break it down by activity.

Bear Matching Game

I got this matching game for Zeke, and we have played it over and over again! The bears are so durable and beautifully colored, and it makes playing Concentration so much fun. 

Bear Number Puzzles

We worked on number recognition and counting with these number puzzles.

Counting Bears Patterns

We used our counting bears to learn about ABAB patterns. I made a few patterns and had him finish them for me, and then he began making his own patterns! This was a good thirty minutes of math play on the porch one morning.

Counting Bear Addition

We used these free worksheets to introduce simple addition problems. We placed counting bears on each picture and wrote the numbers in the boxes. I wrote with a yellow highlighter and Zeke traced the numbers. A few numbers he wanted to write on his own!

Shapes Book

We made a shapes book using this free template. We talked about each shape - how many sides it had, what objects had this shape - and then Zeke traced the shapes.

Fruits and Vegetables

We talked about fruits and vegetables and learned the difference between them. There were several cut and glue sorting worksheets that he completed - this one, and this one.

Teddy Bear Stew

I printed and laminated these free Teddy Bear Stew Recipe Cards for Zeke. He "read the recipe" and added the correct number and color combination of counting bears to his "bowl." He really enjoyed this simple activity!

Find the Bears

I hid six cardstock bear faces in the homeschool room and Zeke found all of them! Sometimes I'm tempted to skip the "simple" activities, but he always loves them!

What's The Weather? Flip Book

We talked about appropriate clothing for different weather situations. Then Zeke made this little flip book. He colored the clothing items and then glued them under the correct weather condition!

Jessie Bear Lapbook Activities

We did several of the activities from this free lapbook from Homeschool Share. I glue the small booklets onto cardstock, hole punch it, and store them in three-prong folders.

Here is where we rowed Jessie Bear What Will You Wear? with Silas and Titus! Click the button below to see all of our BFIAR books so far! 

The Little Rabbit: BFIAR

I decided to make this summer a Before Five in a Row summer for Zeke. He does so much better with structured days and predictable routines, and I love BFIAR and FIAR! I decided to start with The Little Rabbit. Having an eight-month old who just started crawling has limited me a little bit. Instead of creating my own worksheets (which I love to do), I pulled together lots of free or inexpensive resources. I'm trying to link everything for you. 

Monday

The book and our go-along books! I just grabbed the first couple of rabbit books off our shelves.

We read the book for the first time today, and he really enjoyed it. I think he liked the photographs as it was a change from the illustrations in most of his picture books. I kept it simple today. We talked about the photos and about his cousin Laylah's pet rabbit, Bad Bunny. 

Zeke did a tracing worksheet with the letter R. He is getting pretty good at tracing, but we need to add handwriting in much more.

He also colored, cut, and labeled the parts of a rabbit. I read the label, and he glued it in the appropriate spot. 

We then talked a little about the life cycle of a rabbit and completed a life cycle worksheet.

Lastly, he used our lacing strings to lace up two beautiful watercolor rabbit lacing cards. I printed and laminated these and then punched holes around the edges. He really enjoyed this activity.

It was preschool in pajamas morning.

Tuesday

We started out today with a Pet Homes matching worksheet from Teacher File Box. We talked about where pets live, and which pet he would like to have from the worksheet. He said he would like to have the bird as a pet!

We then did a Mother and Baby Animal matching worksheet. He loves cut and glue activities, and cut and glued this entire activity on his own.

Then he put together our Animal Family matching puzzles. We have had these for a while now, and he enjoys doing them. I picked them up from TJ Maxx for less than $5.00!

Wednesday

We read a book called Hop, Bunny, Hop. He did a counting and clip card activity. I printed and laminated these and used some mini-clothespins I picked up on the clearance aisle at WalMart last week. He loved clipping! He asked to do this again, so he did it twice.

Then we did a foldable about pets. He colored the pets and then drew a green check mark under the pets he would like to have and a red x under the pets he would not like to have. He checked a dog, cat, and fish (all pets we have) and put an x on the snake, hamster, and bird. He loves to feed Silas's fish and Silas is kind enough to let him do it often.

He made a cut and glue bunny craft. 

I printed, cut out, and taped a bunny template to a sheet of cardstock. Then Zeke used dot markers to dot all around the template. When we pulled off the bunny template, we had a white bunny! This was very cute and easy.

Thursday

Today we just did a few simple activities. I wrote the names for the rabbit family (buck, doe, and kit) in highlighter and he traced them with a pencil.

He colored the foods a rabbit eats.

He made a book about a pretend pet rabbit. He named it Shep (we have a dog named Shep), it eats grass for fun, and is very multi-colored!

Saturday

We skipped school yesterday and instead did the rest of his activities today on the porch! First we did a counting activity. I printed a carrot template on orange cardstock and cut out 12 of them. He rolled the dice and fed the rabbit that many carrots.

We have been working on the days of the week this week, and he can sort of say them with me. That is one of the things on our list to learn this school year. I found this worksheet and he traced the days of the week, cut them out, and we glued them in order. 

I had several more activities planned this week, but I didn't get to them all. This was such a sweet book and theme to begin our BFIAR Summer!

Next week - Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?