My Blue Boat – Before Five in a Row

Last week Jack and I rowed Yellow Ball, by Molly Bang, and this week we set sail with My Blue Boat, by Chris L. Demarest.  After reading in the B4FIAR manual how closely these two books compliment one another, I knew My Blue Boat would be a perfect follow-up. 

Now, on to our row!  Day 1

After reading My Blue Boat and doing an activity from the B4FIAR manual—tracking from left to right—I introduced the animal classification cards—whales and dolphins—and he put them on our display board.  We read about whales and dolphins in our Usborne First Encyclopedia of Seas and Oceans.  We looked at a few videos on YouTube of whales spouting, dolphins swimming, and listened to the sounds of each of these sea creatures.  Jack was pretty surprised at some of the noises the different types of whales make.

I thought it would be fun to learn the song Baby Belluga, by Raffi.  I remembered I also had the book.  We read it, and watched a YouTube video of Baby Belluga.  We’ve been singing the song all week, per Jack’s request :-).

I made blue ice boats with blue foam sails for Jack.I filled up a large rubbermaid container with water and let Captain Jack set sail with his ice boats.  Jack LOVED this!  After his ice boats melted, he got into the rubbermaid container and told me he was in an ocean.  He played in his ‘ocean’ for quite some time.  He was genuinely happy-so sweet to see. Next, I asked Jack if he wanted to ‘dance like whales and play tag with dolphins’, just like the blue boat in the book.  He was SO excited, and we jumped in the pool.

“I dance with whales,…play tag with dolphins,…and steer through storms.” ~excerpt from My Blue Boat~ Jack wanted us to keep making storms over and over and over again.  He also decided he would become a ‘killer’ whale during the storms, and in the last picture below, you will see his ‘killer whale face’ :-). Day 2

After reading the book, we completed another Tracking Activity—this time B4FIAR had Jack tracking the blue boat on each page of the book as I turned the pages very quickly.  He enjoyed this.

Hanna made a blue sailboat for Jack (thank you, thank you, sweet Hanna) using a mini foil loaf pan, wooden skewer, blue plastic school folder and a ball of modeling clay to secure the sail.  It turned out great! Jack had fun again setting his blue boat out to sea.  I also had more ice boats for him.  I have to say, the ice boats won hands down as far as Jack’s favorite boat.  I gave him small plastic whales and dolphins from an Ocean Toob.  He had fun making an ocean for them in a small container that one of the ice boats had been in.  He was even making sounds like whales and dolphins—he remembered them from the YouTube videos :-).  But, the most fun was had with the whales and dolphins in the pool—While counting them, Jack would throw them randomly around the pool and then Hanna and Joe would swim for them and bring them back.  They did this for the longest time.  In the afternoon, Jack and I made some blue Jell-O to be finished on Day 3. Day 3

After reading the book, we completed a comparison activity from the B4FIAR manual.  I got out Yellow Ball and we looked for similar scenes in My Blue Boat. 

Watercolors are used throughout the book.  Hanna drew a sailboat with black oil pastels on watercolor paper.  I very briefly looked at a few pages of the book with Jack pointing out that the pictures were painted with his favorite kind of paint.  (He loves watercolors, and asks to paint with them often.)  I told him he was going to be able to paint his own sailboat with watercolors just like in the book.  He was very happy to do so, and did a great job!  I love how this turned out.    I plan to include Jack’s narrations on his artwork when I can, and did above.

“The boat says hello to fishers.  The blue boat was going down and up on the waves.  It played tag with the dolphins and danced with the whales.  The girl sailed home asleep on the boat and saw the light.”  ~Jack, 3 years and five months old~

I made another bag book for Jack.  We finished our Jell-O treat, which is supposed to be an ocean (blue Jell-O) filled with fish (Swedish Gummy Fish).  His favorite part of making it was poking the gummy fish into the Jell-O with a wooden skewer. Day 4

We spent our last day rowing My Blue Boat visiting the aquarium and harbor in Charleston.  I was happy to be able to have somewhere ‘real’ to finish off this row and cement it in Jack’s mind.

We saw real sailboats docked and one out at sea.  Jack was so excited when he saw the sailboat in the ocean.  We also saw a big ship loaded with containers that semi trucks carry. We looked for dolphins ‘playing tag’.  Often when we’ve visited the harbor we’ve seen dolphins leaping out of the water.  Today we did not, but Jack still had fun looking for them.  He was calling them as loudly as he could :-). I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this row with Jack.  I know he enjoyed it just as much.  He is so excited about his school time each day.  He didn’t even know today’s trip was school related.  But, tonight at dinner he told me, “I had fun at ‘cool’ today.”  So, see, he is already tying our school and what we read to our daily experiences together.  Just what FIAR is supposed to do.  It is learning and loving, making memories together at it’s best. 

Inspiration, ideas and printables I used for My Blue Boat can be found at:

• Before Five in a Row Manual
• Delightful Learning
• All of a Kind Family
• Homeschool Share
• Me and Marie Learning
• Family Fun
• Walking By the Way
• Martha Stewart

I am linking this post to Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations.

Yellow Ball – Before Five in a Row

Our school year is scheduled to begin the second week of September.  I thought it would be a good idea to start several weeks early with just my Jack.  For our first row I chose, Yellow Ball, by Molly Bang.  I wanted a book with a summer theme, as well as something simple to start out with.  I wasn’t sure how Jack would react to scheduled school time, but I should have known he would treasure any one-on-one time with Mama.  This first week of rowing has been all I’d hoped it would be and more.  I am so excited to be using Five in a Row this school year.  I feel it will bless our family and create memories that will last far beyond each row.

I kept our row of Yellow Ball pretty simple.  I focused on memory making and fun with Jack.  There will be plenty of time for academics down the road.  Right now I want to spend time snuggling and trying my best to build up Jack’s self esteem and confidence.  

Day 1

We read Yellow Ball and discussed the setting—the beach—one of our most favorite places to be in the summer.  We talked about all the things we like to do at the beach, things we see, the ocean and what kinds of creatures live in the ocean.  Jack was so patient in answering my questions and talking about the things in the book.

Next, we put our animal classification card for the story—fish—on our display board.  We talked about fish and looked at different fish in our Apologia Swimming Creatures book briefly.

I told Jack we were going to go to the store on a yellow scavenger hunt.  He was excited.  He spotted all sorts of yellow things in the grocery store.  I made sure we ended in the produce section, and told him it was time to look for round, yellow things.  He found the lemons (just as I’d hoped).  We counted out and bagged up 8, paid for them and went home to make a sweet treat. When we got home we made fresh squeezed lemonade.  I took some of the seeds out for us to look at.  We talked about how lemons grow on trees—a foreign concept to Jack :-). Jack loved helping to make the lemonade!  We had the lemonade with our supper.  It tasted really good, and Jack was so proud he made it.Day 2

While reading Yellow Ball Jack found the ball on each page.  On some pages the ball is pretty tiny.  All my kids love any sort of ‘find it’ games, so this was right up his alley.  After this I gave Jack his own yellow ball.  I could not believe how much Jack appreciated and enjoyed this ball.  He told me his favorite thing from school this week was his ‘big yellow ball’.  We played several games with it for quite some time after I gave it to him.  This whole week he has carried it with him—around the house, to the minivan when we left the house, and, I found him a couple nights ago like this in his bed……just like the little boy in the book.  He slept with his ball this whole week.And, this morning when I got home from running I found him on the couch with Joe like this:After we played ball, we read a little more in Apologia Swimming Creatures, then took a trip to the pet store to look at fish.  Day 3

Wednesday was art day.  Joe wanted to join in for our art project.  I had the boys use chalks and draw a picture like the one on the front cover of the book.  I talked a bit with Joe beforehand about chalks and drawing techniques like the picture on the front cover used.  Joe did a super job. Bless Jack’s heart, he tried his best and did an awesome 3 year old job.  I let him do his own thing.  I just wanted him to have fun.  I wanted him to notice the feel of the chalks, how they feel differently than crayons, not only in your hand, but as you draw and color with them. I made a little counting game from an egg carton, foam shapes cut into ocean creatures—courtesy of Hanna—and blue paint.  I took a Sharpie and wrote a number in the bottom of each egg carton compartment.  Jack and I together counted out Goldfish crackers and put them into the compartments.  He enjoyed doing this way more than I thought he would. Day 4

I loved the idea of bag books as soon as I saw them, and knew it was something I wanted to make for Jack this school year.  I made him a yellow bag book for this row.  He loved it!  He asked it we could ‘do it again next day’, and asked if I would make him a red one.  Well, I’ve got plenty of bag books ready to go, and red is one of them in the near future :-).  He enjoyed doing all of the little activities in the book. I had Jack narrate Yellow Ball for me.  I am going to type it up and glue it onto his Yellow Ball chalk drawing to keep in our Five in a Row lapjournal we will compile this school year.  He said:

“The yellow ball washed out in the water.  Then, it came back at the beach.  A little boy found it and hugged it and took it home.”  *Jack is 3 years, 5 months old.*

I thought the concept of reading the same book each day might bore Jack, however, I was wrong.  He seemed to look forward to hearing it each time, excited even.  He surprised me by sitting on the floor one afternoon with his yellow ball and saying to me, “The floor is the water and the ball is going away.”  He pushed it toward me.  Then he said, “Now, roll it back to me and it will come back like the yellow ball.”

We made yellow (lemon) cake pops together to wrap up our row, and served them for dessert. What a fun week we have had!  A wonderful first week of preschool.  I can tell we are going to have so much fun with Five in a Row!  After this week, I am excited to get back into the groove of school with my older two.  They, on the other hand, are still hanging on to their last few weeks of summer vacation :-).  In the meantime, I am going to enjoy this one-on-one time each afternoon with my Jack.

Inspiration, ideas and printables I used for Yellow Ball can be found at:

• Before Five in a Row manual
• Delightful Learning-idea of having a new, yellow ball
• All of a Kind Family-bag book, cake balls and lemonade
• Homeschool Share-printables
• Lakeshore Learning-egg carton fish counting game
• Me and Marie Learning-yellow color pack

I am linking this post to Preschool Corner @ Homeschool Creations and Weekly Wrap-Up @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.