g is for goose

Image Source: Allposters.com

Blue Goose by Nancy Tafuri

This was Jonathan's favorite book that we read. It's about four animals who live at Farmer Gray's gray-colored barnyard. One day when Faremr Gray goes away, Blue Goose, Red Hen, Yellow Chick and White Duck decide to paint the barnyard. They each paint the barnyard their respective colors, mixing their paints along the way to make fun new colors. While there are many books about colors on the market, this is a fun twist on the topic. Jonathan enjoyed this book so much we pulled our paints to do our own painting!

Silly Suzy Goose by Petr Horacek

This is a story about a goose who is just like all the other geese. But Suzy Goose wishes that there was something special about her- something that other animals can do. She wants to be able to stretch like a giraffe, slide like a penguin, or swim under water like a seal. But in the end, she learns that being like everyone else can be a good thing. Jonathan sat through this story easily and laughed at how silly Suzy was. Personally, I have mixed feelings about this book. Sometimes it's okay to be different-- and it's not always good to be like everyone else. I think the best lesson is that it's okay to be you. It's who God made you to be! Another issue is a blatant grammatical error runs through the book. Instead of saying "If I were a penguin", for example, it says "If I was a penguin". So, in summary, although Jonathan enjoyed this book, I would recommend passing it by.

Goose on the Loose (Usborne Phonics Reader) by Phil Roxbee Cox & Stephen Cartwright

This is a phonics book with a silly story about a goose on a scooter. The goose is on the loose-- all of the other animals better watch out! Can they find a way to stop her? This phonics reader has bright illustrations and fold out pages. Jonathan had fun reading this book-- flaps are still a hit with him! I think this is a series we may explore when Jonathan is learning to read.

Goose by Molly Bang

This is the story of a little goose who was adopted by woodchucks at birth. She is loved by her family, but she never feels as though she truly belongs. Her loving family and friends try to teach her everything they think she should know, but she still doesn't feel happy. But then one day, she realizes she can fly! Bang's illustrations tell the story beautifully and show the warmth of family love as well as the loneliness the goose feels until she discovers her true identity. It's a beautiful story that is well illustrated.

Activities 


Art: We pulled out our red, yellow, white and blue paints and mixed colors just like in the story Blue Goose. Jonathan had a lot of fun making green, purple, orange as well as light blue, pink, etc. He was so proud of his artwork and showed it to daddy several times, telling him "blue and red make purple!" It's still hanging in our family room-- I'll try to take a picture of it when I locate the camera. :)

Field Trip: We went to a local nature preserve with some friends. There is a pond there and we just happened to see some geese! Jonathan was enthralled and told daddy all about it that afternoon.


Web Resources


g is for goose @ Totally Tots
g is for goose @ First School

g is for goat

Image Source: AllPosters

We continued our focus on the letter "g" by looking at goats. Carisa over at 1+1+1=1 has some great printables to go along with this theme. Head on over there and check them out!

Books 

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone


This is a classic retelling of the Norwegian folk tale by an award-winning illustrator. Galdone's illustrations do the story justice- lively realistic looking billy goats and, of course, an ugly troll. The troll is frightening, but not overly so. The story lends itself well to dramatization-- I really enjoyed hearing my husband read this out loud to Jonathan. Jonathan has enjoyed this story and requested it several times. It's a great imaginative fairy tale!

Let's Count Goats by Mem Fox

This is a fun story that Jonathan really enjoyed. Jonathan liked the catchy, rhyming text as well as the bold cartoon-like illustrations. The goats are portrayed in different settings and different activities- from city goats running to show-off goats playing on a playground to firemen goats climbing. The number of goats increases from one to ten as children are invited to count the silly goats. A very cute and creative counting book.

G is for goat by Patricia Polacco

We also read an goat-themed alphabet book. Polacco's charming illustrations feature little shepherd girls and their lively, delightful goats. The book covers everything goat-related from apples to three little kids named Zig, Zag and Zoe. It's a fun and different approach to the alphabet. Jonathan and I enjoyed a nice quiet moment snuggling with this book. 

Activities 




Pretend Play: We pulled out our Little People farm (which included a goat) and played a bit with that.

Art : We used a lot of Carisa's printables. We colored goats using crayons, markers, and colored pencils.

Field Trip: We did not get to do this because it was too hot that day, but I had planned to take Jonathan over to a local petting zoo and pet some goats and see some geese. I think we still may try to fit this in sometime soon!

Tot School: g is for gorilla (29 months)

Jonathan is 29 Months

This week we finally started on letter "g" and looked at gorillas- as well as golf and grapes. Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time with uploading pictures-- so this will be a picture-free post for the time-being. I made a lot of my own printables for this lesson.

Click here to see the books we read. And click here to see and download our gorilla printables!

Bible 


This week we focused on creation. We read the story from different children's Bibles and did crafts each day. Look for an upcoming post to see what we did!

Pretend Play 


We used a gorilla puppet to introduce the word for the week. We also played with our Little People zoo set (which includes a gorilla figurine).

Motor Skills 


To go along with our theme, we tried to walk like gorillas-- but Jonathan wasn't interested in playing along. He had more fun watching mommy try to walk like a gorilla. :)

A huge hit this week was golf. Jonathan has a set of golf clubs that we got from Oriental Trading Company and he just loves being out in the backyard and hitting the balls up in the air.

For fine motor skills, we did a pre-writing page I made. Jonathan did a great job tracing the lines.We also did a gorilla lacing card I made.

Math 


We did a printable in which we counted how many bananas to give a gorilla. Jonathan has gotten into counting lately, so this was interesting to him.

We also did a gorilla puzzle which I made. Jonathan did a good job matching up the top 3 pieces but had a little more trouble with the bottom 3.

Art 

We colored a gorilla and glued grass to the page in order to create a "habitat" for a gorilla.

Then we also did a gorilla coloring page I created and colored each gorilla a different color.

I also made a Kumon-style coloring page where Jonathan colored in a circle on a gorilla. It gives him fine motor skills practice and he has fun coloring.



I also made a Kumon-style pasting page where I cut out a square and Jonathan matched and pasted it to the gorilla.

Snack 


We ate bananas (since gorillas eat bananas). We also enjoyed some grapes this week.

I'm linking up to:

Link & Learn @ No Time for Flashcards

Tot School @ 1+1+1=1

Gorilla Printables

I created my first set of printables to go along with our "g is for gorilla" unit. If you want to download and use them yourself, I'd be honored. They are available as a free download on Scribd. Enjoy!

g is for gorilla- books

Image Source

We started letter g with "G is for gorilla".

 Little Gorilla by Ruth Bornstein

We've owned this book for a while now and it's such a sweet story that I was happy to pull it out for our gorilla day. It's the story about a little gorilla who well loved by everyone in the jungle. But little gorilla grows up and gets big-- and everyone still loves him! It's a very reassuring tale for toddlers who are quickly becoming big boys and girls. Jonathan likes this story and it stuck with him so much that he even narrated it back to me. We definitely recommend this one!

Go Go Gorillas by Julia Durango

This is a fun tale in which the king of the gorillas, King Big Daddy, sends a mouse messenger to gather his gorilla relatives for an important surprise. The rhyming text tells how the messenger approaches each gorilla and the method of transportation each gorilla uses to get there: "First to get the message was Big Daddy's nephew Ike 'I'll pack a pickle sandwich then I'll ride there on my bike." The refrain is repeated after every other gorilla "Go-go gorillas! Gotta go, gorillas, go!" The gorillas ride scooters, pogo sticks and hot air balloons as they travel to the Gorilla Villa to hear King Big Daddy's news. It's a fun story and Jonathan got into saying "Go-go gorillas!" It's also a great book to teach ordinal numbers. Jonathan doesn't grasp that concept yet, but I'll have to remember this book when we get there.



One Gorilla: A Counting Book by Atsuko Morozumi

In this award-winning book, the narrator lists things that he loves, starting with one gorilla and progressing to ten cats. The beautiful ethereal illustrations show the various animals in different habitat-- and always include one gorilla. The animals are not always obvious, so you can have fun searching through the pictures to find the animals. The last page ends up with a gorilla fast asleep. Jonathan had fun with this book, although he couldn't always find the different animals.

Note: We also checked out Anthony Browne's Gorilla. This beautifully illustrated book, however, had too sad of a tone for a child Jonathan's age. 

Stay tuned for our activities and some printables!

G is for Gorilla @ Totally Tots