We had great success with the phoneme this week! Travis not only latched right on to the C-K words we discussed, but whenever we were talking and he heard that hard CK-sound in our speech, he’d ask if the word had a C-K, sometimes wrong (i.e. Mark) but sometimes correct (i.e. clock). I loved that he was listening for it!

We started tracing C and K on our Usborne wipe-clean alphabet cards.

Phonics Book of the Week: Croc Gets a Shock, is a silly and fun read, and happened to contain several other words that were big hits of the week, including: cloCK, quiCK, cuCKoo, and tiCK-toCK.

Guiding Theme: cloCK

To kiCK things off, we pulled out all of our clock toys:

How very timely that we had a special visitor in town fixing an heirloom clock as well!

We Read:

• Usborne’s fantastic Telling the Time book, featuring delightful characters from the Farmyard Tales series. Travis loves turning the hands on the clock!
• Tick and Tock’s Clock Book by Debbie Rivers-Moore

We listened:

• Hickory Dickory Dock

We Made:

• After listening to “Hickory Dickory,” we made our own Hickory Dickory clock. Write the numbers of a clock face in marker on a paper plate. Add a printed template of a mouse (which your child can color in) and scamper him about the clock.

We learned:

• For science of the week, we focused on the word chiCK. Start off with a read of Usborne’s informative non-fiction volume Eggs and Chicks. Watch a quick video online of a chick hatching, then delight your youngster with this surprise: Glue a yellow tissue paper chick under a brown construction paper egg. Make a slit in the egg with scissors, and your tot gets to help the chick hatch!
• For math of the week, we continued the clock fun with a paper plate clock, simply featuring pipe cleaner hands that Travis could move around. He also loved running around the clock with his whole body, and pausing at a number! “I stopped on 5 o’clock!”

We visited:

• A clock museum! This was easily the highlight of our CK fortnight. We had to travel over an hour out of the way to get there, but it was so worth it for Travis’s glee. He described every clock we saw, and the sounds were amazing – clocks ticking in counterpoint, chiming at odd intervals. While there, he fell in love with cuCKoo clocks, which made Croc Makes a Shock all the more fun. Unfortunately I could not take photos inside – here he is out front!

We Ate:

• quiCK burritos
• chiCKpea tacos
• blaCK olives

Other Words of the Week:

• Truck: First, separate your trucks from your cars, which will be a good lesson in sorting and vocab building. We made a huge truck town for our vehicles with stiCKy tape. Half the fun turned out to be ripping up those roads and loading the tape into our garbage and dump trucks! Then our trucks went to the mechanic shop (i.e. our tool bench), and even drove through shaving cream! Enjoy a read of Usborne’s Big Book of Trucks, Richard Scarry’s Book of Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, and Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle.
• Duck: Listen to songs like Six Little Ducks, then read classics like Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey or Duck and Goose by Tad Hills.
• Block: If you haven’t just pulled out blocks to build with lately, now is the time! As I’m sure you can guess, we had to build a cloCKtower!To continue the fun, we made jell-o building blocks and sponge blocks!
• Knock: Give your kiddo the giggles by telling silly knock knock jokes. If you don’t know good ones, you can search online for kid-friendly fare. The one that gave Travis the giggles:

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Lettuce.

Lettuce who?

Lettuce in it’s raining!

• Back: Use your child’s back as a blaCKboard! This is a great relaxation activity if done soon before a nap or bedtime. Have your child lie on their tummy, and trace shapes, numbers, letters, or anything else your child requests with your finger. I like to spell out Travis’s name, or draw him shapes, and he can guess what it is. Add lotion for a soothing treat!
• Dock: If you live near a dock of any kind – a wharf, a marina, a lake, an oceanside town – go visit on a sunny afternoon!
• Black: Draw or paint all in black for your art lesson this week. Wear any black clothing you have. Try and find black foods to eat – black olives were a surprise hit!
• Trick: We decided to have fun with magic tricks! Although a bit young for it, that didn’t stop Travis from loving Usborne’s kit of Magic Tricks to Make and Do – he immediately took to waving the wand, shuffling the cards, and sorting through the props. He loved watching me perform simple tricks, like self-attaching paper clips. Then we made coins disappear!
• Lock: Lock toys and puzzles are great for little fingers, so pull out any that you have. Travis also loves playing with old sets of keys around the house, using them to manipulate all our real locks. Good thing mama knows how to reverse the damage!
• Brick: Tell the story of the Three Little Pigs this week but make sure to emphasize the briCK house, and why it was so important to the outcome of the story. Then go on a brick hunt around town – brick houses, brick walkways. Travis loved yelling out “Brick!” as we drove around and spotted the material. What a perfect coincidence that our local children’s museum had a brick laying pattern activity.
• Chick: In addition to the science of the week mentioned above, we made an adorable chick snack – tint marzipan yellow with food coloring, and press onto bow-shaped pretzels. Add a little dot of sprinkles for eyes. If you’re able to pipe on orange frosting beaks, yours will look even more like chicks! Then I put together pipe cleaner chicks for him to hop around; wind a pipe cleaner around your fingers, then glue on googly eyes, a triangle beak, and little feet from orange construction paper.
• Stick: Because we played with sticks recently for the ST phoneme, this time we went with glow stiCKs! What better activity for a dreary rainy day than to light things up with a few of these from the party store! Travis loved that he could snap the thin neCKlace ones himself. Then we made Glow Stick Balloons! We did consider using sticks to make a sun cloCK at the beach, but the weather did not cooperate.
• Rock: Just in time for Memorial Day, we painted patriotic rocks. Other simple activities would be to set off on a rock hunt, and perhaps turn a few into pet rocks once home with pom poms and googly eyes.
• Sick: Kids all seem to love playing with doctor kits! So take turns being the sick patient this week, or treat a sick dolly to some TLC!
• Kick: For your exercise this week, get out there and kick around a soccer ball. And by this point, you’re probably as exhausted from CK week as we were!