Tot School–“Corduroy”

- Adam is 37 months old -

We are finally back in the swing of using Before Five in a Row to “study” a book each week.  This week we focused on “Corduroy” by Don Freeman.

This book, along with “A Pocket for Corduroy” were two of Adam’s favorite books as a toddler.  I put them away planning on bringing them back out within a couple of months but this unit got pushed back several times so Adam hadn’t seen them for probably 6 or 8 months or so.  He loves them just as much today as he did back then!  Both Nat and I have nearly have them memorized we’ve read them so many times in the past and SO many times this week!

To go along with reading “Corduroy” and “A Pocket for Corduroy” we checked out a third book, “Corduroy Lost and Found”

We had fun with the following rhymes:

“Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear”
“Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear touch your nose,
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear touch your toes.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear touch the ground,
Teddy Bear Teddy Bear, turn around.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear climb the stairs,
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear say your prayers.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn off the light,
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear say ‘goodnight’.”

“The Teddy Bear Song”
“Hug, hug, hug your bear,
Squeeze him very tight.
Hold him high, watch him fly,
Then hug with all your might!”

Adam glued on Corduroy’s green overalls with two buttons, a purple pocket, and a slip of paper with Corduroy’s name to put inside the pocket, just like in the books. 
(This bear and the following color/counting/sorting bears are from Homeschool Share.)

We sorted and counted gummy bears.
Whenever he sorts something he always says one is a baby and that the baby needs his Mama and Daddy.  I then have to encourage him to continue sorting or he’d stop at a happy family of 3 pieces each.

We counted the beds, lamps, and sofas on this page of the book.

Adam played with these big shape buttons from Oriental Trading.  He was pretending they were cookies.  I think this kid has a cookie obsession!  Lots of things turn into cookies in our house.

Making a ‘gingerbread man’….I guess because gingerbread men have buttons on them.

We used the big buttons to make “Button Soup”.  I asked for a particular color and shape and he carefully spooned it into the bowl and stirred it up.

Little Sister also go in on the action.  She LOVES these buttons!  They played with them nearly every day this week.

This picture needs the explanation that he was putting buttons on his own pair of overalls.

I attempted to have him practice lacing….he did one button and declared he was done.

We also played with some small buttons. 
He sorted them into colors….for about 5 minutes.  Then we wanted to play kitchen and bake, you guessed it, cookies.

“It’s a kaleidoscope!”He noticed the transparent buttons and we talked about the difference between see-through and not see-through.  We also talked about light vs. dark colors.

Teddy Graham counting
(counting sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler)
He made it to 7 and was done and just wanted to eat them.

So he did….in my bed while watching a little TV.  What could be better?

We also had a short discussion on manners (Lisa is a very polite little girl) and spent some time acting out the action words that Corduroy does in the story, (looking, climbing, tugging, falling, etc.)  He LOVED acting out the story!
I had planned on taking him to the mall to ride on the escalator (Corduroy rides an escalator) but it didn’t happen.

It was fun being back to using Before Five in a Row for our Tot School.   I forgot how much work it was to plan and execute everything.  It’s worth it, but man, it’s a lot of work!  I’m going to do a post on Abby’s impromptu mini Tot School this week.  I think she’s ready but I’m not!