z is for zebra fish (year 3, week 20)

For the next several weeks, we'll be focusing on the ocean and the many type of animals that live there.  This week, we looked a little at fish.



Monday
The most exciting thing is that Dragonfly and Skimmer started reading lessons over the weekend using the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons" book.  Dragonfly went through about 1/3 of the book over a year ago, so we're reviewing very quickly to get her ready to move onto the rest of the book.  She's already on lesson 10.  Skimmer is just learning his letter sounds, so we're going the normal pace and giving him lots of encouragement.  He's on lesson 2.  Both children are doing very well and reading enthusiastically.

The nice thing about the reading book is that it separates into 100 lessons, which translates very well into math.  Each of the children have 100-charts on the wall for keeping track of their progress.  I'm hoping that the charts will also help us talk about the number patterns to 100 and get both kids familiar with the numbers.






Tuesday

So, Disney's Moana came out on this week, and we have spent a lot of time watching the movie.  It is set on the volcanic islands of the South Pacific, so the kids have been asking lots of questions about volcanoes.  We watched two videos today (linked at the end of the post), one that talked about real volcanoes and one that showed a kid making a baking soda/vinegar eruption.


Then, made our very own volcanoes!  Skimmer was especially excited about the "explosion."  They're eager to do it again and again.  I made the outside of volcano with foam sheets and hot glue.  After a quick rinse, they were good to go again.  Of course, we had to show Daddy the explosions after dinner.

Blog Posts About Fish
- o is for ocean (year 2)
- ocean sensory bin
- fish 10-frames

Printables
- parts of a volcano 3-part cards
- famous volcanoes cards

- fishing for letters sensory bin
- goldfish cracker addition
- ocean grammar cards
- letter tracing with goldfish crackers

Ideas
- pop rocks volcano

- rainbow fish invitation to play


Videos
- All About Volcanoes for Kids
- Vinegar Volcano Experiment

- How Do Fish Breathe Underwater