Homeschool–“Caps for Sale”

- Abigail is 2.5 years old –


- Adam is 4.75 years old -

This week for Preschool and Tot School, we read the book Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina and did activities from Before Five in a Row, Homeschool Share, and Homeschool Creations.  Caps for Sale has long been a favorite in our house and also goes back to when I was a little girl!

Abby matched different hats.

Stacked caps on a monkey in the order the Peddler stacked his caps in the story.

She also worked on a counting/number puzzle and a pattern file folder game…..although patterning is apparently over her head.
 

Adam’s individual activities included playing with a matching book.  He was supposed to flip the pictures to match up the hat, face, and body of a person, i.e. policeman, cook, farmer, etc.  It didn’t go over very well and he got bored really quickly.

Coin Counting
He counted the number of pennies on the sheet, and used a real penny to mark the correct number.

Word Families
He sorted words into groups of –ap and –at endings.  He surprised me by being able to easily read each word, with minimal sounding out!  He could look at the first letter, the ending blend and put them together fairly quickly.  It is beyond fun to see him learning to read!

He also did a few pages of his math and handwriting curriculums, as well as reading lessons.  I love this picture of him concentrating hard, with his tongue sticking out, as he drew in his handwriting workbook.

We did lots of activities together this week too!  The favorite was playing “Monkey, Monkey, Sittin’ in a Tree”.  They took turns being the monkey and we would call up to them, “Monkey, monkey, sittin’ in a tree.  Throw the _______ cap down to me!”  And the monkey would throw that colored cap down.  Adam also loved this game when he was about Abby’s age.

They even kept playing while I left to make lunch!  On a side note, I learned that Abby can identify the colors red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, pink, and black.  She also said “black” for brown and grey.

Pre-writing practice pages

“5 Little Monkeys” stick puppets

Coin Graphing
We rolled a die with pictures of a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, silver dollar, and gold dollar on it and then graphed which coin was rolled each time.  (I say we did this together…..most of the time, Abby is just along for the ride!)

Another favorite was playing a game called “Caps for Sale!!”.  I wrote different prices, from 1-5 cents on the back of each cap and we took turns picking a cap off the tree and paying for it.  It was a good introduction into the value of money and making change for Adam.  My kids love anything to do with money!

Measurement
They also both really enjoyed using a ruler to measure stacks of caps.  Adam decided that instead of trying to copy the numeral, he would make tally marks.

Which then Abby had to do also.

Playing the Peddler!
How fun to stack a bunch of hats on your head and try to walk around!!

I couldn’t resist pulling out this picture.  This is Adam in June of 2010 at 2.5 years old.  Look at my cute baby!

Our art project this week was a 5 step process!
First the kids painted an outline of a tree brown.  When they were dry, I cut them out and glued them to white cardstock.

Then they used green paint to paint leaves.

When that was dry, they made monkeys using their finger prints and brown paint.

Finally, I used a colored pencil and pen to add details and attempt to make the monkeys look less like mice!
The finished product……Monkeys in a Tree

Adam narrated Caps for Sale and wanted to write his last name for the first time.  He’s never written a G, R, N, or E before!

What happened in the story?

“So, the first thing I know, is that he sat down for a nap and monkeys came and took his caps.  But they left out his own checked cap.  And then he feeled to see if his caps were in the right place.  All he could feel was his own checked cap!
First, he looked to the right of him.  Then he looked to the left of him.  He looked behind the tree – no caps!  Then he looked up in the tree, and what do you think he saw?  Monkeys!  And on every monkey sat a grey, or a brown, or a blue, or a red cap!
He stamped his feet – ‘You monkeys you!  You give me back my caps!’  But then the monkeys only stamped their feet and said, ‘A-tsz tsz tsz tsz tsz’.  Then he stamped both his feet and said, ‘You monkeys you!  You better give me back my caps!’  But they stamped both their feet and said, ‘A-tsz tsz tsz tsz tsz tsz tsz’.  He took off his own checked cap, threw in on the ground, and began to walk away.  But then, the monkeys took of their caps, and all the grey caps, and all the brown caps, and all the blue caps, and all the red caps, came flying down out of the tree.”

My favorite part of the book was…

“My favorite part of the book was when he stamped both his feet and said, ‘You monkeys you!  You better give me back my caps!’”

As you can see, we’ve read this book a lot so he knows a lot of it by heart!  I find it funny how he completely left out the peddler calling, “Caps!  Caps for sale!  Fifty cents a cap!”

I’m linking up to Tot School and Preschool Corner.