Blueberries for Sal, a beautifully illustrated 1948 classic by Robert McCloskey was up this week.
Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk! Sal and her mother go a picking blueberries to can for the winter. But when Sal wanders to the other side of Blueberry Hill, she discovers a mama bear preparing for her own long winter. Meanwhile Sal’s mother is being followed by a small bear with a big appetite for berries. –Amazon
The first day we studied the illustrations to find similarities and differences in how we live today. We also read Then and Now from Usborne. It’s a book comparing past and present ways of life. Lots to discuss in this one — both kids loved this story and wanted to read it several times. Now I frequently overhear them talking about the “olden days”.
We did a blueberry picking race around the house and then sorted and counted by two’s. We loved dropping different objects in the pail to see which would go kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk.
Benny and I worked on some math while Clara transferred pompoms with tweezers.
We made smashing cotton “blueberries” — an idea I got from Fabulously Frugal. It consisted of equal parts flour and water, some food coloring, and cotton balls. We dipped the cotton in the mixture and baked it. You’re supposed to be able to smash them with a hammer, but I don’t think we baked them quite long enough. They were a tad too squishy to smash. 
We still enjoyed counting, stacking, and listening to them go kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk when they hit the bottom of the tin pail.
Every now and then I like to surprise the kids with a themed meal. It never fails to get a chuckle out of them.
We played find the hidden bear where I would give them clues about a number and they had to guess the correct cave. They loved this game!
We worked on a directional book.
We created our own blueberry hill with oil pastels.
Clara and I baked blueberry muffins for teatime.
For poetry teatime we served up blueberry muffins, blueberries and cream, and blueberry juice.
We had a lot of fun with this story. Clara’s favorite part is when little Sal and little bear followed the wrong mom. Benjamin’s favorite part was when little Sal got tired and sat down in the bush to eat berries.
Other things we worked on this week:
We practiced blending words together and beginning sounds. Ziggy came out for this one. They go wild whenever Ziggy makes an appearance.
Benny learned the phonogram “d”.
For math we did counting games with the number mats. We did exercises, built towers, and, sorted toys.
We tried to think of all the possible ways in which we could sort socks. We discovered we could sort by family member, boy/girl, colors, size, and tall/short.
I made a fall themed sensory box with rice, colored pasta, pumpkin pie spice, and apparently just about every kitchen utensil we own. I’m working hard to get over my fear of messes!
I also made little ribbon rings for Clara. She had fun dancing around with these for a while.
We crafted our thankful tree for November. Clara helped me paint the tree and get the leaves ready. Each day we will name something we are thankful for and add a leaf to the tree.
No glitter left behind in this house!
The finished product! I’m not very artistic, but was quite happy with it in the end!
Clara enjoyed sorting the shapes by color and made neat stacks.
