This wonderful book unit contains lots and lots of hands on activities linked to the book Angus Lost. A lovely dog-themed book unit!
Becca had her last two teeth coming through, and spent most of the week crying day and night. These last two were taking their time and teething was always a HUGE issue for Becca. We were all exhausted from being woken so many times at night. Becca therefore did not do much this week, bar cuddling and crying, and so there are almost no photos of her. Teeth, please come!
Read More: All of my book units collected into one place – I will be adding to them so please do check back!
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Angus Lost Topic: Dogs
I created the girls an Angus Lost preschool adventure box, all themed around dogs. This included some dressing up, face paints, doggy Lego, Doggy cuddly toys, some lovely doggy figurines and a few dog themed books, including, of course, Angus Lost. Activities included (all doggy themed 😊) dominoes, threading and lacing, colouring sheets, stickers, crayon picture rubbings, puzzles, classification cards and a doggy walking toy:
I collected all of the books around the house that even mentioned dogs. These were read out to the littles each day by one of us:
Another regular time in our day was placing some play dough at the girls’ table with a photocopied sheet of the cover of the book we are studying. They both really enjoy play dough and having different themed cutters and molds each week keeps it fresh and exciting.
Contents of the Preschool Adventure Box
Angus Lost Dressing Up
A main stay in the preschool adventure box is always dressing up. On this week, we reused their bear costumes from a couple of weeks previous, added a pin-on tail and face painted a doggy face on them. This was a big treat only to be done in the afternoon (near to bath time!):
Items for the Quiet-Time Box
I put together a small tub of the animals mentioned in Angus Lost and popped it into Abigail’s quiet time box so she could play act the story out. I also managed to get my hands on some cuddly toys – dogs, cats and the like from our local charity shop for 20p each. They all went into her quiet time box with the books
Related: Read how we make the most of quiet-time in our home and how it encourages us all to achieve more!
Angus Lost Activity Trays
I love collecting things for the girls’ activity trays. Most of our bits and pieces are got from the charity shops. I tried to make everything dog themed, but some of the activities are more generally animal themed:
Activity trays are made so much better when an older sister is added into the mix
Classification Cards
I was hoping that when we read about the fox A4 would tell me it wasn’t a dog but a fox. That is exactly what she did say! I was then able to explain that a fox comes from the canine or dog family of animals. And I reinforced this learning by going through the cards with her (which she adores!) and have her put to one side any animals she felt came from the canine family.
Angus Lost Group Activities
The girls played with the soft toy dogs. This was totally impromptu, unplanned by me play, which they were at, on and off, all day:
Printables
http://homeschoolcreations.com/AngusLostPrintables.html
Angus Lost Themed Food
I served pretend doggy kibble (mixed cereal) in doggy dish:
Lillie and Abigail meant dog shaped tortilla pizza (I cut out a dog face using a pair of scissors):
- digestive biscuits carved into bone or dog shapes with cheese slices:
We did make bone shaped banana muffins in our new muffin tin (at least that’s what I thought it was). Unfortunately, when we put it in the oven for the muffins to cook the tin melted! Obviously it wasn’t made for actually baking the muffins!
Special Abigail and Mummy Activity
One of Thomas’ chores is to feed and water the animals. For the past year Abs has tagged along with him, helping out if she could. He felt she was ready to take over this chore and I agreed. Abs has made her bed everyday, without me having to remind her once and she has done it perfectly. She has shown responsibility in the small things so she is ready and eager for more. I made a set of cards for her, illustrating the chores she was to do each morning after breakfast. As we were doing a unit on dogs this was the ideal opportunity to teach her to care for her our lab, Oscar:
Snuggling Up to a Film
Rebecca was a very unhappy little girl on this week (hence the lack of photos of her). Snuggling together watching a few doggy films felt like the best use of our time. So we hunkered down and together watched Disney’s Lady and the Tramp and Homeward Bound. We ate our Angus Lost Muffin Tim Meal as we watched.
Angus Lost Muffin Tin Meal
This week I simply did a doggy themed muffin tin which they ate whilst watching their DVD:
I made a doggy shaped beef pie, using carrots for his eyes and mouth; I cut paw shaped carrots which I served with peas and sweetcorn; I cut out bone shaped potato and fried lightly; I also gave them a glass of goat’s milk in a baby food jar and I made a terrier dog from white and dark chocolate with fudge bits mixed in and popped it into a snow bed of marshmallow fluff! The tiny pies went down a treat with all my children so I could see those cropping up in muffin tins again.
It was a tricky week this week because B1 was struggling with pain for most of it (and let us know of this fact in no uncertain terms!) but we still managed to get bits and pieces done. Anything I had planned but didn’t use I will keep for another day so no biggy!
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Updated Post: 2023