His Treasure Seekers

Last year my plan to do more with my preschoolers ended up being a flop, so as we started school this week I was determined to find time each day to be intentional with Arianna (4) and Nicholas (2).  This may look a little different from week to week, but right now that means going back to Before Five in a Row.

For our first book, I chose one of their favorites, Corduroy by Don Freeman.  I had a lot of activities in my file from when I rowed this book with the older boys a few years ago, so we pulled those out. (I don’t want to repeat myself, so check out that post for more ideas!)

Both kids really enjoyed playing with buttons all week.  I have a big jar full of all kinds of buttons, and I let them play with them in egg trays.  Nico just had fun moving them around and exploring, but Arianna chose to sort them by colors.

  I thought she might like a “sewing” activity since Lisa sews on Corduroy’s button, but I wanted to keep it simple.  I threaded an embroidery needle with string and let her string buttons onto it.  She worked on this for about half and hour and was very proud when she finished.  (I forgot to take a picture and of course the string ended up breaking later.  So we’ll get to do that again another day!)

As a reminder of our fun week with Corduroy, I cut out construction paper pieces using a pattern I found on Serving Pink Lemonade.  Then Arianna and Nico made their own bears and proudly hung them in their rooms.

They really loved Corduroy, so we also read A Pocket for Corduroy and Corduroy Lost and Found, and we’ll finish off tomorrow by watching the live action movie of the original story on DVD from the Scholastic Storybook Treasures 2 collection. (I guess this collection is no longer sold new, but the Corduroy DVD is also part of the 20 Animal Tales collection.)