Exceptional X

Our "X" lesson dealt with foxes. We talked about how in many stories, the fox is typically portrayed as sneaky and tricky. He tends to lie and isn't someone to be trusted. We discussed how we can always trust God's Word to be true. If we listen and obey his Word, God makes us wise. Our words to remember with this lesson were: "God's Word makes me wiser than my enemies."

"Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me." Psalm 119:98

We read "The Gingerbread Man" by Sue Graves and made little stick puppets of the characters from the book.
(the stick puppet pictures came from www.makinglearningfun.com)

We then put on a puppet show (several times, actually) of the story, using our stick puppets.

A Gingerbread Man dot-to-dot and drawing grid page
(Both pages from www.makinglearningfun.com)

I had forgotten that we had a bingo dobber until the kids found it one day recently. The dobber has now found its way into our school supply drawer and I discovered that a great way to keep Noah entertained during school time is to let him use it with these great alphabet printable sheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

The two nonfiction books we read:
"Fox Magic for Kids" by Judy Schuler
"Foxes" by Mary Ann McDonald

After learning that foxes are in the same animal family as dogs, we compared and contrasted the two.

We discussed where foxes live in the world, and also about dens in general.
After reading the nonfiction books shown above, Madison colored areas on a world map, showing where the various types of foxes (Kit Fox, Red Fox, Gray Fox, Arctic Fox) live.
(http://www.homeschoolshare.com/docs32465/fox/map.pdf)

Madison drew a picture of a den on the second page. She was also practicing writing some of her letters in fancy-form, in case you were wondering about that!
(http://www.homeschoolshare.com/docs32465/fox/dens%20%282%29.pdf)

A fox math worksheet
(www.homeschoolshare.com)
and a fox/letter x dot-to-dot page
(www.makinglearningfun.com)

We read "Three Aesop Fox Fables" by Paul Galdone, which included The Fox and the Grapes, The Fox and the Stork, and The Fox and the Crow. We discussed each fable's lesson and what it meant.
To go along with The Fox and the Crow, Madison did a word search using words from the storyline.
(Word search found on http://pbskids.org/lions/cornerstones/pdf/foxactivities.pdf)

We read "Rosie's Walk" by Pat Hutchins, which actually had easy enough wording for Madison to sound out the words and read to me.
We made our foam lowercase "x" into a fox.