PeeWees: Bailey Goes Camping (week 2)

 Welcome back for Week 2 of Bailey Goes Camping, sadly the last time I will teach PeeWees.  I'm first in the rotation, so I'm also first to be last.

Arrival:  We started this week with more art - coloring bunny ears for our headbands.  I thought we would wear them on our bear hunt, but they didn't really want to.  They were still fun to color.  Some took it pretty seriously and colored both sides.  I also asked them to write the first letter of their name somewhere on an ear to identify them.  This had mixed success.  Poppy's "P" looks like a lollipop, for example.  But it's a start.   

 After they colored, I stapled the headbands together and added the ears, one kid at a time.  While I finished, the kids broke into a spontaneous bunny parade.  Any excuse to run the circle track!

Circle Time:  "Stand Up" song, alphabet, finding our name letters, then counting.  I laid out the camping bingo pictures from last time, and we reviewed what they each were.  Most are obvious and easy, like tent, sleeping bag, backpack, etc.  I called the "kabob" picture "hot dog."  There were a few I had to explain, like stake, but they recognized most of them.  "Mushroom" was a favorite.  We counted one way and then the other - they really only get hung up around 17 now, especially if someone is a little ahead.  

Activity 1:  We did things a little out of order this week.  Normally at this point we read our main book.  But we couldn't do that yet because we needed our bears for that, and our bears were currently hidden out in the yard.  So, bear hunt first.  We gathered in the tent and read We're Going on a Bear Hunt. One of the things Bailey's brother and sister tell them they do camping is hunt for bears, so this was an obvious choice.  But I also wanted to do this book because they'd already done it with Corduroy so it would be a fun review/connection.

 Then we gathered up our binoculars that we painted last time, and headed out into the yard.  Bodie was particularly worried about the bear hunt, and wanted to make sure we weren't really going to a real forest to hunt real bears.  I promised him we would stay in the yard and it wouldn't be scary. 

 The binoculars were a hit. 

I'd "hidden" them pretty well in sight, but they still needed a little help finding them.  Everyone got to find one; it was pretty fun.  It's amazing how those nocs really do seem to bring things closer. 

Reading:  Back into the tent we went, and put our bears in our prop bags.  Then everyone took out their flashlights and shined them on their chins, remembering from the ghost story last time.  We read through Bailey again, taking out our items as they appeared in the story.  So fun.

 Snack:  Another thing Bailey learned you do camping is eat hot dogs, so we had turkey hot dogs and carrots for snack, outside because it was a perfect day for camping!  I gave them each a half dog in half bun but they all took out the dogs and ate them and the bun separately.  Carrots had mixed reception.  I taught them the phrase "al fresco."

Activity 2:  Since we were already outside, we played another round of Camping Bingo with marshmallows - they are experts at this now.  Until someone knocks the table and all the marshmallows slide around.

Activity 3:  Reading the ghost story last time was pretty popular, so by request we went back in the tent with flashlights and read the "silly" ghost story again.

Activity 4:  According to Bailey, the very best thing about camping is roasting marshmallows, so we had to do it!  I busted out my crème brûlée torch and showed them what roasting marshmallows is all about.  Reactions ranged from surprised to horrified.  Poppy and Henry were the only ones that would try them.  Jackson and Bodie politely requested to just have "plain marshmallows."  I may have also eaten one or two or three.  They are irresistable!

Closing:  The day was too perfect; there was no point in going inside.  So I brought out some sidewalk chalk and let them doodle on the back walk until parents arrived.  Things fell apart a little at this point; Poppy had an accident, my neighbor came out to chat, Henry got hurt, etc.  The end there was harried but the rest of the day was wonderfully perfect!  I hope everyone was worn out enough to blissfully fall asleep under the stars that night!

PeeWees: Baily Goes Camping (week 1)

Bailey Goes Camping by Kevin Henkes is one of my very favorite children's books in our whole library.  There's something about the rhythm plus the parenting plus the symmetry plus the illustrations that almost makes me swoon with literary perfection.  Perhaps I exaggerate.  But I really love it.

Synopsis:  Bruce and Betty are Bunny Scouts, so they are going camping.  Little brother Bailey is too little to go, but he wishes he could.  Bruce and Betty try to console him by telling him it's not that great.  "All we do is eat hot dogs and live in a tent and go swimming and fishing and hunt for bears and tell ghost stories and fall asleep under the stars.  And best of all, roast marshmallows."  (A PeeWee lesson plan practically writes itself off this list.)  After they leave, Mama and Papa try to distract Bailey, but all he wants to do is those camping things.  So Mama says, "You can do all those things right here."  And they proceed to do them at home, ending with roasting marshmallows at the stove burner and falling asleep under a star-covered quilt  by the open window with stars in the sky.

When I told Hazel and Ginger yesterday we were doing this book, they wanted to help, so they made "Bailey Goes Camping" banners to welcome the PeeWees.

Arrival:  We started the day with some painting.  We painted cardboard tubes that, once dry, we will make into binoculars for our bear hunt next time.

 

While they painted, I played some bluegrass background music.  I told them it was called "bluegrass" or "mountain" music, and was distinguishable by its quick fiddle (a special way to play violin) and sometimes banjo, like a round guitar.

Circle Time:  We sang our welcome song, and reviewed the alphabet and the letters in our names.   For counting, I had 20 pictures of camping things that we laid out, named, and briefly discussed.  Things like hiking boots, campfire, mosquitoes, and pocket knife.  Got the pictures from here. 

Then for reading the book, we went out back into the tent Ed had set up for us.

 

Our carpet squares were already in there, along with prop bags similar to the ones we had with Harry.  Everyone got their bag, and we pulled things out one at a time to see what we had - a plate, a cookie cutter, a bear, sunglasses, etc.  Then we put everything back on our bags and read the story.  Almost every page had a corresponding item, so we paused to take that out and see how it related to the story before going on.

 After reading Bailey through one time, it was back into the house to wash hands and have snack.

Snack:  One thing Bailey does is go fishing in his bathtub, so our snack had a "Gone Fishin'" theme.  A "pond" of goldfish, with a fishing rod made of pretzel stick and string licorice, with a gummy worm tied on the end.  It also helped that everyone likes goldfish and I remembered what a hit gummy worms were when we did Grumpy Bird.

Art:  For art, we made paper collage campfires.  Yesterday the girls helped me tear/cut up red, orange, and yellow cellophane, tissue paper, and construction paper.  I drizzled glue all over black paper, and the PeeWees stuck the paper pieces on.  At the end, we glued some twigs along the bottom.  These will probably take awhile to dry.  Many of the kids didn't like having sticky gluey fingers, but since this was the activity, they didn't have any choice, and pushed through.

 

  
Activity 1:  Ghost Stories.  One of the things you do when camping, is tell ghost stories.  At home, there is a picture of Bailey on his Dad's lap, and Papa and Mama with scared looks on their faces as Bailey spins them a tale.  I wanted to bring in this concept, without (hopefully) actually scaring our children.  We went back in the tent, and with the flashlights from our prop bags, I showed them how to turn them on and shine them up from the chin to look "scary."  Then, while we all held our flashlights this way, I read them a 2-page story called "Never Kick a Ghost."  It was pretty benign, so hopefully no one will be really scared.  We just were supposed to pretend to be scared, but really it was just silly.  Did it work?

Selfie

 Afterward they made their own game of jumping to see who could touch the tip top of the tent ceiling.

Activity 2: Camping Bingo.  Back inside, we used the picture cards we had counted earlier, and of course some marshmallows for markers, to play Bingo.  This is at least the third time they've done bingo, and they've really gotten the hang of it.

Activity 3:  Marshmallow Stacking.  Next I brought out a tray of large marshmallows, and we tried to see how high we could stack them before toppling over.  Pretty hard to get more than three.  Short-lived activity.

Re-read:  Back out in the tent, we re-read the book, but this time took our Camping Bingo cards with us to see how many of those things we could find in the story.

Activity 4:  We had time for one more marshmallow activity, so I put them in two teams.  Each team got a bucket of marshmallows, an ice tray, and two pairs of tongs.  Anyone who's played at my house knows I love to do this activity with pompoms.  Each team had to pick up marshmallows with the tongs and put one marshmallow in each section of the ice tray.

Activity 5:  Closing/water table.  We quickly did our goodbye song, then outside to play in the water table.  We put fish in the water, but I didn't have enough fishing poles, so we did mostly watering cans and cups - dump and fill stuff.  I tried to do this at the very end so they wouldn't get too wet, but Poppy still managed to completely soak herself.  Super awesome PeeWee day!

PeeWees: Olivia (week 2)

Due to various scheduling problems, our second week of Olivia was actually about 2 months after the first one.  And I will post all the intervening PeeWee sessions and field trips and eventually get caught up on things.  But for now, Olivia, week 2.

Arrival:  I set out the dollhouse and dolls again, like last time.  At first Bodie said he didn't want to play with the dollhouse, and started to wander off.  Immediately Jackson and Henry said they didn't want to, either, and they followed Bodie.  This was the first time I've seen something like this from the PeeWees.  They are growing and changing so much!  So I sat down and played dollhouse with Poppy, and after a few minutes the boys came around and started to be interested in the dolls and furniture.  Henry liked putting the drawers in and out of a desk.  Jackson was interested in setting up the bathroom fixtures - tub, sink, shower, toilet.  Bodie took dolls up and down the stairs, then sliding on the roof. 

Circle Time:  We sang our stand up song, did the ABC's, and I had everyone find their name's letters on the alphabet chart.  Then because they are getting so good at their letters, I had everyone find all the letters in their names, one at a time.  It was painful for Henry to allow other kids to find their own letters - he clearly knows them so well and is very fast at finding!  But given time, everyone spelled their name out pointing at letters.  

For counting to 20, we counted black & white stripes (since Olivia wears striped tights, and that color scheme is popular with our PeeWees.) 

Then we took off socks and did "This Little Piggy" several times - they struggled a little to always grab the right toe, but everyone thinks the chant and of course the "Wee wee wee!" part is fun.

Before we read Olivia again, I asked what, if anything, they remembered.  Someone remembered that she went to the beach.  Someone else remembered the mask she wore to scare her brother.  Not too bad.  Then we read the book.

Snack:  Pig snout biscuits with strawberries.  They were just homemade biscuits dyed pink , brushed with lemon glaze, and two blueberries stuck on.  Two loved them, two detested them.  Not my best outcome, I admit. 

Snack took a long time.  The ones eating the biscuits took a pretty long time, and I made everyone stay at the table until they were done.  I felt bad making them wait so I also offered cheese sticks to keep them busy, and showed them how to peel them into strings. 

Art:  On rainy days, Olivia's mom takes her to the art museum.  She just doesn't get a modern splatter piece by Jackson Pollock.  "I could do that in about five minutes," she says.  When she gets home, she gives it a try...on the living room wall.  So for art today, we did a mural.

First we started with markers.  I took pictures for awhile, then just sat back on the stairs and watched the creativity flow.  Poppy was making a very detailed map that led to each PeeWee's house.  Henry was drawing roads and mountains.  Jackson and Bodie were just having fun using many different colors. 

It seriously went on and on.  I had many other activities planned, but I wanted to let this collaboration continue until it naturally ended.  When they finally felt done, I asked if they wanted to add paint, or do something else. It was unanimous.

 The finished masterpiece:

Activity:  With not much time remaining, I brought out the paper bag masks they painted last time, and carefully helped put them on.  I said they looked sooo scary, and they took that as invitation to chase me.  We turned it into a mask parade, which Poppy pointed out rhymed with masquerade from King Bidgood (last week's book.) 

We did a final read of the book, our farewell song, and while we waited for pick-up, we did a little matching game, picking up picture cards and finding the match in the book.

When Hazel and Ginger came home from school, the mural was still drying, and the paint cups were still out.  They were so excited, they asked if they could paint on it, too.  Looks like mural painting is a hit with all ages.