Moose, Muffins, and More

"If You Give a Moose a Muffin" has been a favorite in our house for years. Since we've been working on "M", this was the perfect time to break it out and do some activities. The muffin plate helped us practice counting as well as addition and subtraction. (He had 10 muffins. Now he wants 7. How many are you taking away?) 

We also got a great set of printable sequencing cards that we used to recreate the story (hours later, no peeking...I think we did pretty good). 

One of the few things Peyton had told me he enjoyed from his Pre-K class was a shape game they played like this. S I put some felt over the top of an oatmeal can and we filled it will different shapes. First we would reach in and guess what was inside. That was too easy, though, so I ended up putting a bunch of shapes inside and telling him which one to pull out.

The "Magic Shape Can"

Since it's Halloween, we made a mask. Peyton wanted it to be Mickey Mouse (which is convenient since we're working on "M", but a total coincidence.)

Mickey mask

We have a bunch of pom poms for counting and math, and Peyton's been dying to make something with them, so he asked if we could make some monsters ("M" for monster!). These are his creations.

Pom pom monsters

Our best adventure of the day started when we were just going through some of his Smarty Pants cards. Peyton loves these because they're so diverse, they don't get boring. I always get tired of it before he does. This one asks which items float at the bottom. He got them all right except for the rock, which he said would float.

So we all went out for a walk to find a rock so we could test the theory and see if it would float. We gathered some other things to test while we were out, too, like leaves and twigs. When we got home we filled the bucket with water and tested them all.

Our bucket of treasures. Will they float?

After our walk, we settled in to watch an episode of Between the Lions about baking bread. Naturally, the next things Peyton asked to do was bake some himself. He recited all the ingredients and instructions from the show. Luckily I was able to look up a quick recipe that used just honey, oil, flour, salt, and yeast like the lions instructed us.

Kneading the dough.

Finished honey wheat bread

His finished bread was delicious! I'd never made bread like this instead of in the bread maker, so I was happy it was so easy and such a big success.