Literature

Each day I read them the following books:

My main literature goal this week was to introduce A5 to the idea of sequencing.  As most of you know I visit the charity shops fairly regularly and since starting Mr Men school I am always on the look out for Mr Men books, which second-hand cost around 20 pence.  I often double up because I know the second copy will come in handy for something.  And so it is with Mr Greedy.  I have two copies so decided to cut up my grottier copy, choosing key pictures which would prompt A5 to remember the story.  My plan was to spread them out in no particular order and, retelling the story to me verbally, place the pictures in the order in which events occurred during the story:

This was an amazing activity, which she really did very well at.  I read the story everyday to them and, handily, each bit of writing has a corresponding picture to go with it.  Her memory of the actual story and in particular the specific words that the author used was phenomenal.  I have never done an activity like this with any of my children and I really expected her to have difficulty, but she enjoyed it and completed it to a very high standard.  I now intend to do this with every book I have a double up of.  In fact, I think it was such a great narration exercise that I would consider buying two books just so I could do it.

A5 practiced writing her name, just like last week.

In addition, their older siblings were roped into reading any old Mr Men books throughout the week:

Maths

This week A5 did the Mr Greedy page of addition from her Mr Men maths book.  In order to work out the addition sum I taught her how to use the number line provided at the bottom of the page:

She checked her answer by using piles of mini marsh mallows:

After which she found the number from her Mr Men number tool box and using that as a guide she wrote the answer down in her book:

Colour science

How do we make pink?  B2 is finally showing signs that she understands what colours are and very, very occasionally she matches the right colour to the correct colour name!  A5 is enjoying figuring out which colours combine to make the colour of the week.  This week was pink and as such was easy for her to surmise that it would be made from white and red paint.  I put the girls to test out her theory:

Art

Using our jelly molds, I made two  Mr Greedy plaster casts, which I gave to the girls to paint after they had finished experimenting with their red and white paint:

With the left over paint they painted a picture of a Mr and Mrs Greedy holding some cakes:

I also photocopied a colouring-in sheet from this website and collected anything pink from around the house.  Filling a paper plate with glue, the girls pasted and stuck to their heart content, and had a ball:

Textiles

I added a felt Mr Greedy to our make a Mr Men Kit:

Mr Greedy activity

I made a big ‘Feed Me’ Mr Greedy and the little ones fed him with their plastic food by throwing it into his mouth.  This was not only a game but served to improve hand and eye co-ordination:

Peculiarly, the older children loved this and played with it frequently throughout the week, taking great delight in feeding Mr Greedy all his Mr Men beanie friends to eat!  Yes, I have lovely children!

A5 made a Mr Greedy face from her sticker book, although I was told it was a Mrs Greedy on ‘account of the bow, mummy’:

When I first had the idea to do a Mr Men school I had come across some small puzzles for 33 pennies each and Mr Greedy was one of the characters.  A5 loved putting this one together:

There were one or two pages from our Mr Men activity book that were Mr Greedy themed, so A5 did these whilst B2 napped:

One of the pages taught her step by step how to draw a Mr Greedy, which she attempted and coloured in.  I thought she did a great job:

Life skills

We chatted about what being greedy actually meant and I emphasised trying not to be greedy and to think about others.

For our easy peasy recipe we made some Mr Greedy pink strawberry milk jellies from our Mr Men jelly molds, by simply adding milk instead of water to the jelly crystals:

I made a quick cutting and sticking box out of a margarine tub:

I had photocopied the back of the Mr Men books onto A4 and enlarged A3 sheets and cut these out into strips for the children to practice their cutting with:

I added some scissors and also included some figures from the Mr Men magazine to cut out and stick on the back ground provided.  Here is L11 helping B2 cut by holding the paper for her.  She loved the cutting which was an entirely new experience for her:

A5 snipped away easily:

And then had a go at the magazine figures.  I only gave her the figures of the books we had covered so far.  Each one had a cutting line around it to make it easier for the child to cut well:

The strips of Mr Men and Little Miss characters that the girls had cut were then pasted onto a large sheet of paper to make a collage.  A2 enjoyed this whole activity so much that I think it will be one we will repeat daily for a while:

Last but not least, issue two of the Mr Men magazine came out, with two more toys each (I buy them a copy each) which the little ones enjoyed playing with as well as flicking through the magazine.  A5 knows nearly every character by name now and asks to do Mr Men activities all. the. time.

The magazine’s focus was on a Christmassy theme, which come mid December we will be adopting.  So much fun!