K is for King

Day 2 in our Letter of the Week for K and today we are looking at "King" and with that comes one of the most beautifully illustrated children's books, "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub" by Don and Audrey Wood.

We have a very fun sequencing reading literacy activity (in our letter K packet) that goes along with this story, and Little Miss did an amazing job on it, too. 

But first, a little K practice.  She is getting such great pencil control and really zoomed through this one. 

 Also, I am seeing a better awareness/understanding of the fact that there is a big letter K and a little letter k, and she asked me to write them on her hand today.

Now, to the Sequencing activity.  We haven't done anything like this before, so I wanted to take it gently and make it fun for her.  I began by cutting out the pieces she would be gluing in order, and I prepared a strip of paper for her to glue them to. 

Then, I stopped reading the story after I got the the king and the duke playing in the tub.  I asked Little Miss, "Can you find the picture with the boat?"  And of course, she could and did.

Next, we read on...until we came to the Queen and the King eating lunch.  And then I stopped.

Since the picture on the activity sheet shows a chicken, Little Miss is pointing out the chicken in the story as well.  She glues that one down, and we go on.  I stop when the King goes fishing...

And she quickly found the next image and took a little time studying the incredible illustration on this page.  We moved on to the final images and she has this down, now:  and completes it independently.  Yay for a successful first Sequencing experience!

For the King Craft, Little Miss decided to color her little King like King Bidgood, so we kept the book open so she could double-check.

I cut the King out for her, and since I didn't have a paper cup on hand, I made a cone from paper.  We used tape so that Little Miss could affix the King's head and sword arm to his body.

And then, since we are Mr. Roger's Neighborhood watchers over here, she commented that this was King Friday and she needed a Queen Sarah.  Hmm....I'll have to come up with that one another time.  :)

For all the printables seen here, check out our Letter of the Week packet for K in our store:  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Letter-of-the-Week-K-2055248

K is for Karate

K is for Karate!  It doesn't get more fun than this.  But since my children have no prior background in "Karate", other than a few moves from Kung Fu Panda, we had to start with a video.  So, I found this short one of a child breaking a board with a marital arts move:

Now I explained to my kids a very basic martial arts background:  "A long time ago, there was a country that did not allow its people to have weapons to protect themselves.  So they developed a way to fight where they used their hands and feet to protect themselves.  And one of the ways they fought was through a kind of protection called 'Karate'."

Like I said, very basic.  Point is, it's important for children to understand that Karate is for self-defense.  So, I absolutely loved finding this version of the Three Little Pigs, which illustrates this idea very well as the Ninja pigs take down the bully wolf through their amazing skills in martial arts (the girl pig is skilled in karate!).  This book, called "The Three Ninja Pigs", by Corey Rosen Shwartz, is read aloud on this YouTube video.  (I'm now going to buy a copy because I fell in love with this story!)

After we watched this YouTube video, Little Miss was feeling her oats.  Now, I brought in our Introduction to the Letter K story card which shows our fiesty Glimmercat kicking a board with the sound, "K!"

At this point, Little Miss decided she needed to try out a few karate kicks herself.  "I'm a Karate Kitty, Mommy!" she exclaimed and kicked (that's her kicking, 3rd picture in).

I asked her, "What does the letter K say?" And she announced "K!" and kicked again.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a successful mnemonic.

So I brought in our Path of Motion for the Letter K page, and showed Little Miss the way to write a K with my finger.  We traced it together, and then I gave her a marker for her to try it out herself.  After she was done with that, she decided to color it a bit more...I notice above she is coloring in the cracking board first.  :)

After this, we finished up with a book called "Nighttime Ninja", by Barbara DeCosta, recommended by a friend who has boys in Martial Arts classes (thanks, Elizabeth!)...

After my children watched this one, they were in all the way.  "I want to learn Karate, Mommy!" my five year old announced.

I'd say it was a successful day introducing the letter K.

For all the printables seen in this blog, head over to our Letter K Packet in our store:  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Letter-of-the-Week-K-2055248

Letter of the Week for K

Our Letter of the Week packet for K is filled with karate kicks, koalas, kings and kangaroos!

Our Glimmercat character introduces the letter K with an exciting karate kick!

Every kiddo loves karate.  And one of the best picture books that covers the tale of the Three Little Pigs with a twist, is this one, "The Three Ninja Pigs":

This is a favorite of our own children, and spurred a new interest in martial arts in our family.  We did our best to channel this excitement into the letter K.  

On another day, we focus on kangaroos...

We include a craft and a puzzle for this day, and this little craft was one of our favorites.

I watched a few videos of Kangaroos on You Tube before drawing this fellow.  And I'm pretty pleased with how he (or she, come to think of it!) turned out.

And if you need to prove to children that a Kangaroo baby does indeed fit into a pouch, check out this adorable Joey squeezing himself into that small space:

Since Kangaroos aren't something my kids see everyday here in the states, it really helped to give them context for what a kangaroo is.  Before she saw this, my daughter was calling the craft picture a bunny rabbit.

Now, we created our Reading Literacy page on Don and Audrey Wood's picture book "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub."

Anyone who has read this book likely remembers it because of the incredible artistry of the pictures.  My son, especially, will pour over the images inside, looking at all the details and laughing over them.

 We decided to create our Reading Literacy page as a Sequencing activity:

Learning "Sequence of Events" is an important step, and this book is such a fun to learn it on.   After cutting out the pictures, my daughter used the book to flip through to help her remember what came next in the sequence of events.

 We decided the craft for this day, should probably revolve around a King, as well.  So here's our little King:

He's a little reminiscent of the king that follows the Queen of Hearts around in Alice in Wonderland.  You don't have to add the sword if you don't wish to, but somehow it made him just a bit more than a face and a cup.  Haha!

My last craft was one of those sleeper favorites that really surprised me.

My kids loved this little kite.  It was hanging around our house for weeks afterward.

 And every once in awhile, they'd go outside to swing it around again.

And here's what the craft looks like (from the lesson plan for that day):

We used the black and white version for ours and then colored it with crayons.  I had ribbon and yarn on hand and so we added both for the fishy's tail.  Very fun!

Everything seen here is available for purchase in one Letter K packet: 

For more information of our other Letter of the Week packets, be sure to check out:

Letter of the Week for A

Letter of the Week for B

Letter of the Week for C

Letter of the Week for D

Letter of the Week for E  

Letter of the Week for F

Letter of the Week for G

Letter of the Week for H

Letter of the Week for I

Letter of the Week for J

Letter of the Week for L

Letter of the Week for M

Letter of the Week for N

Letter of the Week for O

Letter of the Week for P

Letter of the Week for Q

Letter of the Week for R