Kindergarten, Book Study, Week 24

Our Book Study was Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Since this is a shorter book, we read it each day. One day, let your child "read" the book just from the pictures. Here are a few activities that go with the book. Most of them are from Games with Books.

• Discussions
• Talk about how alike both Mothers are
• Collecting food for winter
• Reactions to wrong child
• Talk about how alike Sal and the bear cub are
• sit down to eat blueberries because they are tired
• drift off and find the wrong mother
• not yet learned to be afraid
• Kuplink, Kuplank, Kuplunk -- this is a counting activity, to learn to assign 1 number to 1 item
• You'll Need: a bowl (I think metal works best) and 10 paper clips (or similar item)
• How to Play: Player #1 closes her eyes while Player #2 drops some of the paper clips, one at a time, into the bowl. Player #1 counts the number of clips dropped into the bowl by listening to the "Kaplinks" the paper clips make. When Player #2 has dropped in as many as she wants, she asks Player #1 how many she dropped in. Player #1 gives her answer and then counts the paper clips to see if she was correct.
• You can have Player #1 say "Kuplink" each time a paper clip is dropped and use her fingers to keep track of the number or just say the number each time a clip is dropped.
• Make sure Player #2 waits a moment or two between dropping each clip, so if it bounces Player #1 won't be confused.
• Picking Blueberries
• I made sure we read this book when blueberries would be in season. I bought an 18 oz. container of fresh blueberries. I kept telling K. that sometime this week we were going to pick blueberries.
• While K. was busy in her room, I moved our coffee table in the living room and spread an old clean sheet over the floor and 1 couch.
• Then I sprinkled fresh, washed blueberries on the sheet, making sure there was a path for us to walk on without stepping on blueberries.
• Next, I called her into my bedroom and we sat on my bed and read the book.
• When we were through I handed her a pail and led her into the living room and said, "Let's pick blueberries."
• We acted out the story while we were picking.
• I picked enough blueberries for our pancakes and let her eat the rest. She ate a lot while picking, but saved some for lunch.
• Here are pictures:

• Blueberry Count -- an estimating game
• You'll Need: blueberries (or blue beads you pretend are blueberries), spoon, knife, lids, etc.
• How to Play: Have your child guess (estimate) how many blueberries he can fit on a spoon, then have him fill the spoon and then count the berries to see how close he was. Do the same thing for the length of a knife, how many blueberries can fit in a lid, how many blueberries are needed to go around a napkin, etc.
• Blueberry Treats -- learning about measuring
• Make a something with the blueberries. There are some recipes in the book, but we are going to make Blueberry Pancakes for Sunday breakfast.

We also reviewed our memory verses and catechism this week.