Wednesday, November 5, 2014

BFIAR - Ask Mr. Bear

Ask Mr. Bear, by Marjorie Flack is a super sweet story of a little boy who asked his farm animal friends what to give his mother or her birthday.  Since they could not tell her what to give her that she did not already have, he went into the woods and talked with Mr. Bear regarding a suitable gift.

Farm themed toys are a favorite in our home, so we had a blast with pretend play during the two weeks we spent on this book.  Our favorites were playing with the Little People farm set, the Melissa and Doug farm set, and a Farm Themed Read and Build.





We watched two you-tube videos to go along with our studies.  Our first was a clip of when Mr. Rogers (does anyone else remember him?) went to visit cows, and the other was of chicks hatching.

Other activities included matching the product with the "critter" it came from, such as eggs to the chicken, dividing animal pictures of what animals live on a farm and which ones do not, and playing with "muddy pigs."  For the Muddy Pigs, I mixed cornstarch with water and brown paint in an aluminum foil 13x9 pan and added some plastic pigs.  The kids had a BLAST!  We also used the Melissa and Doug stamps to stamp the correct number of animals requested. (For example if I wrote "5 horses," they stamped five horses.)


We also went on two field trips.  We visited a friend's goat farm.  She has goats, chickens, a calf, named Wellington, bee hives, and of course dogs and cats.  We all enjoyed playing with the animals and checking out her veggie garden and herbs.











Our second field trip was to Charlestowne Landing.  We did not explore the history portion of this phenomenal attraction, but rather stuck with the "zoo" portion.  Within that area are animals that are native to our region.







Everyday Life

As I was flipping through my pictures to see what I wanted to bog about, I noticed I had some priceless moments that I wanted to share with you, especially since I never seem to forward pictures to family and friends :/  (Yes - I know I need to get better at that!)  So here are a few pictures of my blessings, in our everyday life...

Reading can be exhausting:


And Laundry Baskets are the best toy EVER!

Music is a must - even if it is from the three year old!

And for the rest of them, crafting never gets old!






Bowling

Before my surgery, we tried to get a few field trips in, since we knew that I would be "out of commission" for awhile.  One of the things our family enjoys doing is going bowling.  The kids had an absolute blast!!!  Get ready for picture overload ;)