Parker Prep: C is for Corn

I grew up on a farm, so every September and October of my childhood was spent riding with my dad, uncles, brother, and cousins in the combine, grain cart, and semi. Parker had his first ride when he was just nine days old. From then on, he's been incredibly interested in everything farming. My husband and I had the honor of spending an entire week at my parents to help bring in the harvest. That's why C is for Corn! I had so many ideas for C week! We did have three solid preschool times, and then I just squeezed in some other C activities and books when I could. It was a super fun week!

Day 1

We started off, like usual, with songs. Parker requested Sticky Bubble Gum, and then we learned a new one called, "Clap, Clap, Clap," by Carol Peterson. Then we reviewed letters A and B and their verses, and I introduced the letter C card. We learned our new verse,
"Children obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20,"
and we talked about what that means. We moved into the living room where I had the letter C activity set up.

Then we talked about how 'car,' starts with C, and he drove the cars on the tape.

While he did that, I set up the paint for the car art.

He dipped the car wheels in paint and then drove them on the paper.

It turned out a little different than I thought imagined, but here's the finished product.

After he finished washing the cars in the sink, we came back to the living room to listen to

The music is by Camille Saint-Saens, and Jack Prelutsky wrote a poem for each member of the carnival. I absolutely love this music. It is catchy, fun, and it has so many recognizable sounds that go with the animals. Parker's favorite was the lion's roar. We decided it'd be fun to act like the animals when we listened to their part of the music. We listened to a few animals each day of the week.

That night, we rode in the combine

and later read,

(By the way, if you are ever looking for a great book for a certain non-fiction topic, Gail is your girl!)

Day 2

Caterpillar Day! We started by singing "Fuzzy, Wuzzy Caterpillar/Butterfly." It's a cute little song to introduce the caterpillar's life journey. Then we did a caterpillar number match. Just to be clear, Parker doesn't know what numbers look like in text. This is to designed to start teaching that. We pointed to the numbers while we counted, Parker matched them all up visually, and then we pointed and counted again.

Then we read the famous,

Before we started reading, I told Parker to pay close attention to the different stages of the caterpillar's life. After I read it once, I went back to the beginning and helped him tell the story by pointing to the pictures and prompting him. Then we reviewed the life stages of the caterpillar and made a project out of it.

A bean for the egg, puff balls for the caterpillar, wound up yarn for the cocoon (I wrote chrysalis but the book says cocoon), and fingerprints for the butterfly.

While we were making it, my dad walked in and Parker told him the whole story. "There was an egg by the light of the moon. Then he was a caterpillar. He ate some pie, salami, chocolate cake, a lollipop...a lotta lotta stuff, and then he got a stomach ache. Then he ate a nice green leaf and he felt better. He went in to the cocoon for two week and came out a beautiful butterfly!" Nice job, Parker!

Then we colored Thank You cards for his birthday presents.

Day 3

My mom and Ryan were around that morning, so we we all sang songs together. Then Ryan read,

It is such a cute book! One of my dad's favorite snacks to eat in the field is chocolate chip cookies, so we just had to make them =) We delivered them to the field, and Parker rode for the rest of the day.