Madeline was sooo much fun!

So we did Madeline the last two weeks. I had sprained my ankle so I wasn’t able to do all the things I wanted to do, but maybe that is what happens then the next time you do it in a year you can use the other ideas that you didn’t get to. BUT we did get to do a lot of fun stuff. So I will get to the pictures as that is the fun part….

This is a Madeline doll we made from a toilet paper tube, she had fun doing this project.

She drew this on the first day all by herself! She just looked at the cover of Madeline and drew this picture of the Eiffel Tower.

She colored this sheet it says something to the effect of ” I only use hot water when I need it” in French.

I helped her do this maze, it was a little hard for her to concentrate and get through it but she finally

got to the end, YAY! I told her there are a lot of labryinths in France usually in churches.

We did the “Tour de France” lapbook printable; these are all landmarks in France that are in the book Madeline.

An upclose shot of what the “Tour de France” looked like…

I had her color a poodle then we put on cotton balls, this was a idea that a friend

of mine, Dawn,  gave me on Facebook, ahhhh the joy of social media at it’s best! 🙂

Another stamp in her “Bella-land” passport

Where is France?

AHHH I spelled it wrong!! LOL! Well I told her sometimes even Mommies make mistakes

and showed her later how to spell it properly. BUT she did find France all on her own and colored it in!

In Madeline they refer to manners quite a bit in all the different Madeline books so we did a little printable on manners…

Now if we can get her to do these all the time we will be doing good LOL! She does it most of the

time but sometimes she forgets. I keep reminding my husband she is only 5 and still trying to get a hold of the concept.

More on manners…

I wrote her answers then had her trace the answers…

Flag of France (all week she kept pointing out France’s flag when we would see it around town or on products)

I looked through the book and created a writing list for her to trace so that she practiced writing every letter…

Our scripture for the week was “Think good things” I love that passage, it helps me to be positive.

I had her color this picture of the Eiffel Tower then she wanted to put cotton balls on for clouds. So cute!

We had also made a sign that said in French” Bienvenue a Bella’s Bistro” meaning ” Welcome to Bella’s Bistro”. Then we made a French Dinner….

I made some Ratatouille and it was sooooo yummy! Of course the wee one wouldn’t really eat it but hey we are trying new things so that is a good step! I had also bought a small box of French Bree and we ate it with Gluten free pretzel sticks, I think she liked it but wasn’t a HUGE fan. Also while Daniel and Bella waited for dinner to be ready they watched Ratatouille and Triplets of Bellville.  It was a fun night!

This is the face she gave  Daddy when he tried to get her to try the Ratatouille.

Eating the Rotisserie Chicken wasn’t hard 🙂

Really tell me that doesn’t look delish!

So I had planned on having Creme Brulee for dessert I had everything, the heavy whipping cream, vanilla bean,

butane for our kitchen blow torch everything EXCEPT TIME! I didn’t look at the directions and

forgot that it takes at least 3 hours to chill. So instead we cut up strawberries for dessert and Bella helped me to

arrange them into a heart. She LOVES strawberries! So we had Creme Brulee for breakfast, DANG that was a good

breakfast! LOL Bella kept saying she didn’t like it until she tried it then she licked the dish!

We also took a trip to the park and painted like Claude Monet. I read a book called Linnea in Monet’s garden  it was a sweet book about a girl’s adventure to France and Monet’s garden. So as I was reading Bella painted. She had me paint the body of a butterfly then she painted it in. She gave her painting to a little girl that was at the park it was very sweet.

So somethings I would like to do next time: Go to Whole foods and try the different cheeses from France.

Now onto JAPAN!

The story about Ping- the rest of the week…

So wednesday Bella was stolen by her Nana for a play date with a friend of hers who also has grandkids. ( I was able to get some work done 😉 They colored some ducks (the different kinds ie. mallard, bufflehead, pekin etc) and worked on some handwriting that I had written out on some lined paper I printed from a website. Friday we wrapped things up at Nana and Papa’s house mainly because Daniel went to a concert with a friend and then it was our science day (with Papa aka my dad being an engineer I knew he would love to work with her on science). So we went out to eat with my parents then we got to work when we got back setting up “Geode eggs” they are suppose to make “gems” once the water is evaporated, did it work Dad? 🙂  We are going to have to go back another day to see it. Then we also did a sink or float worksheet and Bella guessed 80% right.  I know she was guessing but that was really good guesses for a almost 5 year old 🙂 I’m not a proud mommy or anything :). Then we played a bird game with papa where you had to do different bird things on each square. It was fun 🙂 So I will post the pics from that night and then tomorrow I will post the pics of her actual work….

She is working on a popsicle for our experiment to see if the popsicle stick floats or sinks (hard life I know! 🙂

WOW it floated! 🙂

Bella digging out the penny that sank

Now onto helping Papa make a “geode solution” that we will put in the eggs…

“Do you need more sugar Papa?”, “Nope I don’t think the water will dissolve any more sugar”

So into the eggs they poured the two solutions (one sugar and the other salt) we will see which

one makes the prettiest and biggest crystals ( I will take a picture to share when we go over next time to show you all).

Then Bella helped me make this cute little guy! 🙂

The Story of Ping- Day Two

So today we went to the Chinese market! It was fun! We went with a plan to buy rice cakes and a package of candy and to look at all the fun Chinese things and talk about them. Well let me back up a bit and say that we read The Story about Ping first and talked about how to spell China. I had her sound it out and she was able to do it. I think I will write it out and put it on the wall tomorrow so she has some reference as she is only almost 5. But yesterday in the car she spelled it right off the bat to Daniel when he was asking her what we did yesterday, that was awesome!

Side note: Last weekend we went to the Library in search of additional Chinese books to read along with The Story about Ping and I kept coming up short on my database search. I would put in China and EVERYTHING in the whole library would come up!! UG! So I talked with a librarian and asked her if they had a section on China for Bella’s age. She took me to the non-fiction and looked and they didn’t have a section of China at all! (well in the non-fiction, they had kids books written in Chinese but I don’t know how to read that , I wish I did but don’t!) So she had suggested I look on the database and I can have them transfer it from another library. But that wasn’t going to work cause I wanted it NOW :). So it got me thinking… I do a lot of searches on google so I have sharpened my searching skills through that and I thought, OHHHHH I will look for the keyword “Chinese” and then do an advanced search for her age group “Elementary/E”. And DING several books in her age group that are more culturally relevant and understandable for her age to comprehend. So this is the result of those books….

(this is what Ping came from when he was a baby!) 🙂

Then we read Gai See What you can See in Chinatown by: Roseanne Thong, illustrated by Yangsook Choi. It was sooo cute and totally inspirational read before our trip to the market.

We saw dragon fruit at the market like in the book.

We saw fish at the market, dead and alive (I will spare you pictures of the dead ones although Bella was really interested in them LOL). We also saw an row of incense I wish I had more than $20 for our trip (but it was good I didn’t!) as well as paper money (which the last time we went I didn’t understand what that was for but after reading the book I get it. ) We also found some really pretty tissue paper that we will use on our paper lantern later this week I will show you that art project it is going to be sooo pretty (fingers crossed :).

Oh the other thing was that Bella learned how to say “hello” in Mandarin/Chinese, “me-how” (that is how you pronounce it). So at the Market she said that to a lady and the lady just BEAMED and said hello back. I don’t think she new much english other than that because you could tell she wanted to talk but didn’t know what to say. It was a really sweet moment. You could tell that it brightened her day to hear a little american girl say hello to her in Mandarin/Chinese :).

So one of the original reasons we went to the market was to get rice cakes like in the book The Story about Ping. In the book Ping (which I asked Bella about this part after I finished reading the book to see if she remembered and she DID!) followed a trail of rice cake crumbs coming off a boat and then a boy splashes in the water with a rice cake and he tries to take it from him.

Well when I was on the plan to China they gave us these AMAZING sweet rice cakes (technically they are a “Product of Japan” but I figured they have them in China they probably trade with them and so it still counts right? :). So we got some of those and they were sooooo yummy.

Then we also got these marshmallows filled with jelly as the candy YUMMM!!!

$0.50 to see her smile, yes I will let her do it! 🙂

As we walked out they had a giant coy fish pond that we fed rice cakes to the fish (i figured if Ducks in the 30s liked it I be the fish would too.LOL and they did!) Check out the movie here…

Coming soon! Until then see the pic below of Bella at the pond in front of the Chinese market 🙂

 

THEN tonight I cut up some potatoes and we mad a Ping Shirt. This is all of his family all 68!! 🙂 Bella helped stamp some and put eyes on some. That is why some of them look a little “backwoods” well could they really help it? I mean when you have 68 immediate family members you have to expect so deformation right? LOL! Just kidding!

Earlier today I read Uncle Peter’s amazing Chinese Wedding By:Lenore Look Illustrated by: Yumi Heo. It is a sweet book about a little girl who is sad about her uncle getting married but then realizes how special it is and that she wasn’t forgotten. It is a really good book about Chinese weddings. I photographed a wedding last year where the bride was Chinese you can see it here. It was fun! I LOVED her traditional Chinese dress with a peacock, gorgeous! Then she changed to a dancing dress. Well in the book it talks about the traditions and why they do what they do. Then Daniel read the book again to her tonight.

Then we read Red is a Dragon: A book of Colors by: Roseanne Thong and Illustrated by: Grace Lin. It was great as well! Very culturally informative as well as fun to read. I LOVED the illustrations! I am a sucker for good illustration! So on the last page there was a Chinese opera singer and she was holding a fan and I read the definition the Author gave of a “Silk fan”. So Bella said she wanted to make a “Silk fan” Man this kid really pays attention! 🙂 So tomorrow we are going to make a fan out of paper.

So we did a lot of applicable play today but tomorrow I am going to do a little more “school” like work of reinforcing the concepts and having her write some words from the book etc.

The Story of Ping- Day one

So today we started Five in a Row curriculum with The Story of Ping by Marjorie Fleck. It is a cute story of a duck family on the Yangtze river. Ping gets left behind on the shore one day and doesn’t want to get back on the boat because the last duck on the boat always gets a swat. So instead he sleeps on the shore and looses his family. And then they go through how he gets back to them.

So last night I was up till 3 am looking up fun stuff to do with Bella. I won’t be able to get to all of the projects but they are fun and would love to share them with the world you can check them out on this awesome website Pinterest.com it is a way to bookmark the ideas you find about different topics in a visual catalogue. I am OBSESSED with this site! So anyway check out my story of Ping board here. If you would like to add to this fun list of ideas let me know what your Pinterest name is and I can add you as a contributor.

This morning we read the book for the first time then started adding things to the  lapbook I folded last night (just found out about these last night- so awesome!). Things like a map of China and their flag. Also a little flap “How long is the Yangtze River”. Then I figured out that it would take us going to my Parents house 130 times to travel the same miles as the river!!! Crazy! (I am excited about all of this because I get to learn new things along side her as well! Just have to stay one book ahead :).

Here is her passport I made for her. “United States of Bella- Land” Hey it is a fake passport

anyway why not have fun with it!? So I found a clip art emblem that had dogs on it soo cute!

(she had some hair in her face LOL)

My Dad bought her a Chinese kids outfit when he went to China last so she is

wearing that as I type and watching Mulan.

East meets West Egg drop soup. I used this Recipe then I added cilantro instead of Green

onions then added jalepeno salt, and garlic salt as well as a splash of La Choy

Soy Sauce (it doesn’t have wheat or gluten). It was REALLLLY Yummy!

We did a rating on the back of the recipe card. Bella wanted to write the scale for me and Daniel.

We are working keeping consistent size and spacing of numbers and letters. 🙂

Bella wasn’t to keen on the soup but I will give it to her she tried it! That was awesome!

I traveled to China last year, so I have a ton of pictures that we will look through this week, I might even print some out to make a little picture book. Until then you can see the little slide show I made here.

Soooo fun! Looking forward to tomorrow! 🙂 She won’t leave the stack of printed “goodies” alone she wants to keep coloring the sheets and writing on them, patience my dear one!

With Love!

Jessica Monnich