Kindergarten, Book Study, Week 18

Our Book Study was The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins by Dr. Seuss. Monday I read the entire book to K. Tuesday I read the first half again, Wednesday I finished the book. Thursday and Friday I did the same thing. Here are activities to go with the book. Most of them are from Games with Books.

• Talk about Courage
• Bartholomew was courageous

For a moment Bartholomew was terrible frightened. "Still," he thought to himself, "the King can do nothing dreadful to punish me, because I really haven't done anything wrong. it would be cowardly to feel afraid."

• Vocabulary Words -- these are the words we looked up in the dictionary. Your child might know these, but have other words that need explanation or definitions.
• Impudence/impudent
• Fury
• Trickster
• Gutter
• Turret
• How Much Is 500, Anyway? -- this activity gives your child practice counting by 10s and an introduction to our base 10 number system
• You'll Need: 500 pennies, 10 paper cups or empty yogurt containers, 5 zipper style plastic bags
• You can go to the bank and buy 500 pennies, or if you want the activity to last a while, just dump out your purse and your husband's pockets every few days.
• Tell your child she is going to collect 500 pennies and when the collection is complete, she can spend the money any way she wants.
• In order to know how many pennies have been collected, have your child put 10 pennies in each cup (they can be stacked).
• When each cup is full (count by 10s) they will have 100 pennies.
• The 100 pennies go into a plastic bag, and your child starts filling the cups again.
• Make a Hat -- this is a very simple hat that even a 5 year old can easily fold. We both made a hat, sitting side by side, and following the instructions, K. was able to fold her own.
• Take an 18" square of newsprint
• Fold it in half into a triangle
• Fold in in half again, making a smaller triangle
• Lay the triangle so the base is on the bottom
• One side, or leg, of the triangle is closed, the other is open
• Use transparent tape to seal the open side
• The base of the triangle has 4 layers of paper, pull the front 2 layers away from the back 2 layers, and there is your hat.
• Decorate your hat!

• Yeoman of the Bowmen -- this is a fun game and you can use tally marks to keep score, and it is good for hand and eye coordination
• You'll Need: plastic caps from soda or water bottles, empty yogurt container, feather and tape (optional)
• The yogurt container is the "hat". You can cover it with paper and decorate it, we just taped a feather to it.
• The bottle caps are the "arrows".
• Place the "hat" at a certain point on the table (or floor if you prefer)
• Mark the place for the "arrows" to be "shot" from (2 feet away - if your child is really good at this you can increase the distance)
• Take turns being the Yeoman of the Bowmen and flicking or pushing the "arrow", trying to hit the "hat"
• We played games of 10 turns each, the winner having the most hits. But you could also play until one person has 6 (or any designated number) points.
• Here K. is pushing her arrow. We had fun wearing the hats we made.

•  Instead of a Sword
• In the book, Sir Alaric "wore in his belt, instead of a sword, a long silver ruler." and Sir Snipps "Instead of a sword, he wore at his side a large pair of scissors."
• Talk about why a records keeper would need a ruler and why a hat maker would need scissors.
• Then ask about other professions, "What would a house builder have at his side?"
• If your child can think of professions, let them ask you.
• We got some pretty interesting ones, such as: zoo keeper, baker, clown, cashier, banker, teacher, king, gardener, fireman, cowboy, etc.
• I also asked, "What would Daddy have at his side?" silence "Think about what he does." K.'s answer: a trophy

We also reviewed our memory verses this week.