Our Little Monkeys: MFW K Unit 4

{CLICK HERE} to view the rest of our MFW K unit posts.
{CLICK HERE} to read our 2012 Apple Unit post with our older son.

In this unit, we learned the letter Aa for sun.
Our Bible words were:
If I stay in Jesus, I will have much fruit!

These are the books we enjoyed throughout the week – click on any book image below to read the book description on Amazon. (We love to buy used copies; they’re usually in good shape, and the price is right!)

Max loved How To Make An Apple Pie and See The World, and we all enjoyed the rest of the books as well. Down The Road is a neat story that I’d recommend. We made our apple pie using the recipe found in the back of the Amelia Bedelia book.

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Once or twice a week, we start our school day with a YouTube playlist of 4-6 songs/videos that go along with our current school lessons.

During this unit, we watched Johnny Appleseed.

We don’t exactly do calendar time the MFW K way. We print a calendar page from HERE (preK and K options available), and Max fills in the numbers. (Sometimes I do, too, depending on the day.) I wrote November at the bottom, and he traced it.

For the rest of our calendar time, we’re using a foam board that we can bring out during school time (and put away later, as our kitchen table is our school room). Right now, we’re:

adding a straw for each school day to our place value pocket chart
writing that school day’s number on the MFW K 100 Chart (not pictured…on the left side of the board)
singing a Days Of The Week and Months Of The Year song while Max points to the day/month on the board.

During this unit, we learned about the Fruits of the Spirit. We read Bible verses, had short discussions, and made a mini book and did a coloring page. (You’ll see those below in the art section, although they are nothing fancy!)

Learning about A and it’s /a/ sound

writing the correct beginning sound by the pictures

Max opted to color and write the correct letter
rather than cutting/pasting the correct letter in the box.

sorting picture cards by beginning sound

letter A, number 4

(my own page…available HERE for MFW K users only)

MFW K recommends using real apples to do a graph, but we did it a little differently using a page I created. It’s available here on the blog if you’d like to use it. Just look under the MFW K tab.

MFW K attributes graph, cuisenaire rods A page

Max LOVES math, so I made the page below for him based on one on that I found (for free) HERE. I prefer a different tracing font than what she used, so I designed my own. I don’t plan to share it, due to copyright, so I’ll just direct you to the original author’s site. (Site has been removed…I’m not sure how to share it with you, sorry!)

We’re using raisins, chocolate chips, and other fun items as manipulatives to fill in the ‘ten frame’, and we’re then using the food to work on ‘even/odd’, ‘1 more’ and ‘1 less’. He may eat the snacks when he’s finished with the page.

We read about apples and apple orchards, visited an apple orchard (in September),
and we did a fun apple taste test using the printables from 1Plus1Plus1Equals1.

Max absolutely LOVED this taste test, and he declared that every apple was delicious!

I know it’s not as cutesy as what we did with Alex a few years ago, but it’s what we had time to do…fruit of the spirit coloring page & mini book. With co-op preparation and a big brother with schoolwork, as well, it’s hard to fit it all in. Since we did so much baking, something had to give!

Max absolutely loves to help me in the kitchen. He was SO excited to purchase apples and help me make applesauce and apple pie. He was SUPER proud of his own little apple pie, just like Amelia Bedelia’s little apple pie!

our baking projects in progress…

We went on a field trip to the apple orchard with our co-op friends!

(Jensyn is 3.5 years old.)

I don’t insist on participation from Jensyn. She is free to join us or to wander away, but so far, she almost always wants to be a part of MFW K! She sits with us as we read picture books, does the art or science projects, and completes papers or puzzles at the table. She loves the Lauri alphabet puzzle included in MFW K!

My only goal for her this year is to learn the uppercase alphabet letters, and you may notice that in many of the activities that she’s working on…

I’ve designed lots of pages that can be used to keep a preschool sibling busy while you’re working with your kindergartener. You can find most of these pages HERE and even more in the photo albums of the MFW-Kindergarten Facebook group.

cutting apples (with butter knives) to make applesauce & apple pie

using pattern blocks to build letter A (pattern block alphabet pages from Confessions of a Homeschooler) and playing with the cuisenaire rods