 I love B because there are so many different things you can do with it. Teaching time doesn't just have to be in the classroom. Bring a ball or bubbles for the kids to enjoy outside. And on the last day of the week, you can give each child a blue balloon for a job well done! RHYMES The Wheels on the Bus v. 1 The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round Round and Round, Round and Round The Wheels on the Bus go round and round All Through the Town v. 2 The Baby on the Bus goes Wah Wah Wah (I add additional verses each week, and try to coordinate them as much with vocabulary we are learning) Row Your Boat Row, Row, Row your Boat Gently down the Stream Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily Life is but a dream Jolly Phonics - B Bring your bat and bring your ball /b/ /b/ Bring your bat and bring your ball To the park to play (To the tune Camptown Races) BOOKS
The kids also love watching the Berenstain's B Book on Youtube. ACTIVITIES The B coloring sheet is great for remembering the vocabulary. Sometimes I will color a sample sheet, or display the flashcards to help them see what color the items are. This is a good way to get them recognizing colors and color names. The boat craft utilizes cutting, tracing, coloring and glueing skills. The skill level is flexible. For kids that are younger, print the boat pieces on colored paper to reduce the amount of coloring, and cut out the pieces ahead of time if they aren't able to use scissors. I have made everything with mostly straight lines, so it is good scissor practice for beginners.
 DOWNLOADS You are free to download my letter B flashcards and coloring page to use for personal and educational purposes. Please do not sell them or offer them as your own. Proper credit is appreciated. The flashcards are formatted for A4 and can be printed back to back, cut and laminated. There is a color and a black and white version in case you want to save on printing costs and do the coloring yourself. 
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A couple of months ago, I wrote about water. We were in the heat of the Indian summer and water was scarce all over the city. Now we have rain!! It is hard to describe the beauty and comfort of a good rainfall after not seeing rain for the past 8-9 months. You see, here there are 3 seasons : Winter (Nov-Feb), Summer (March-May), Monsoon (June-September). Some people call October second summer, but you also may get some scattered showers. These dates are all very approximate depending on the year and what part of the country that you live in. But generally, the only time that it rains is during monsoon. Since this is a season that we in the west are unfamiliar with, I thought I'd share some of the great things about it! Everything is in High-Definition After going so long without rain, its not just the grass that withers away and becomes a dull brown. There is dust and pollution in the air and on everything! When the rain comes, it is like your car being washed after a drive down a dirt road. Everything looks more vibrant - the sky, the buildings, even billboards. Only then do you realize what was lacking all that time. There is a mountain range a couple hours from our home, and during monsoon, we can see them so clearly! Its beautiful. Its a Great Time to Travel While we typically don't think of rain and vacation going very well together, during monsoon they do! There are definitely places where the quality of the roads becomes terrible, if not un-driveable, so you must do your homework. But this is the perfect time for a weekend getaway. In our state, we have a lot of small mountain ranges. During monsoon, small waterfalls cascade of these cliffs. Chai, pakoda and roasted corn stalls line the scenic lookouts along the roads. Every year during this time, we try to getaway for a day or two with a big group of friends. Its wonderful.    The Showers of Spring but the Feel of Fall Though it rains all year long in the US, spring is certainly when it rains more. Luke and I are both from tornado alley, so we are well familiar with the crazy storms that are concentrated in April and May. Monsoon may sound like spring, but it also brings the comfort of fall because the weather is cooling down rather than heating up. While sitting on our balcony during a good rain we can almost get the "smell of fall" that we miss like crazy. Cravings for Comfort Food The cooler weather and the steady rainfall definitely make me want to curl up on the couch with a good book, or take a long afternoon nap. It also makes me feel like cooking. And like eating. American food. Our diet is about 75% local cuisine. The times when we eat American food is usually when we want to cook it for guests, when we are at the mall or for breakfast (because we still can't handle vegetables right when we wake up). Rarely, rarely do I cook an American meal for just us. But during monsoon I crave it. Last week I splurged on six blocks of cheese and I plan to use up every bite before it goes bad! So perhaps during monsoon, you will find me in the kitchen and find my cook outside with the kids playing in the rain.  I know I'm a little late catching up with our progress on the VT Reading Challenge, but with good reason. We spent the first two weeks of June showing Luke's mom and sister around India. It was so much fun giving them a peak into our daily lives. Then, I knew our May list was long, so I kept procrastinating. Yesterday, Luke had Lasik surgery, leaving him *somewhat* strapped to the couch for a couple of days. So, I figured, now was a great time to get it done. Last month I really noticed that as I read books I get voices in my head. Not the crazy kind of voices, but I definitely imagine the author's voice and tone while I am reading the words, and it seems to affect the speed I read. Anybody else out there ever notice that? Anyways, on to the list - we are currently at 42 done, 62 to go!  Julie
Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins (New York Times Bestseller List)- Confession : I listened to the audio book for this one. That counts, right? It was a really intriguing story and I can see why it has been so popular. It took me a while to suspect what happened, until she started giving obvious clues. For The Love by Jen Hatmaker (A Book by a Woman Conference Speaker) - I was really torn with this one. I have been a fan of Jen since 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess (which I appropriately read while we were downsizing to exactly 6 plastic tubs of possessions). After reading the first chapter I was super excited about the rest of the book. However, it left me gasping for air halfway through, and I realized there was so much left. She tries to tackle so many subjects in one book that it comes across feeling more like a whole bunch of blog posts. Everything is high-energy and dramatic (which is one reason why I, and thousands of other women, enjoy her writing), but for me it was too much in book form. In Chapter 25, I thought she missed out on a huge opportunity to explain how the good deeds she promotes are part of the gospel (the outworking and testimony of it), but instead she left me feeling like she was pretty closed to any sort of criticism (which I can understand as such a public figure she probably gets a lot of, and in general I really respect anyone who puts themselves out there like that for the sake of what they believe). I also thought that while she bathes her criticism of the church in her proclamations of love for the church, I could imagine unchurched people taking statements like "I love Jesus, but sometimes his followers give me a migraine" and persisting in hatred/judgment of the church. In my own life, I have found sarcasm a terrible way of showing love, which is ironically the name of the book. All that to say, I didn't disagree with most of the content, but the presentation was lacking for me. Life and Ministry as a Human Being by Zach Eswine (A Book Someone Says Changed Their Life - Thanks Sheetal!) - Reading this after reading For the Love was kind of funny. Both books had a lot of similar thoughts, but this one dragged on and on for me. He had some really great points, but sometimes he took a really round about way to get there. My biggest takeaway was the reminder to be mentally and spiritually present where you are geographically present. This is a struggle for me as sometimes it seems like our family is a part of two completely different worlds at the same time. Luke Covenant of War by Cliff Graham (Book About Ancient History) - I enjoyed this sequel to Day of War, again bringing out the probable struggles of David and his mighty men. It demonstrated how much the Lord really would have had to be on their side to gain such victories. It was eye-opening to see how much it took for David to fight for Israel's peace. The Great Tamasha by James Astill (Book About Sports) - This was a great book on the history of Cricket and India. It was interesting to see how cricket has evolved in India and then gone on to affect cricket internationally. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - Of course this is a classic. I had a lot of fun reading it. Finally by the last story of the book I was able to figure out who was guilty before it was revealed! Jataka Tales: Tales of Misers by Anant Pai (Comic) - This is a comic based on the ancient Jataka Tales ("birth history" in Sanskrit), which contain numerous stories about the previous births of Buddha. It had some laughs, but overall the illustrations weren't great. It really is the simplest things that sometimes click in your mind to inspire a great design! Yesterday I was walking down the road, past a house that I have seen hundreds of times. But on this particular day, I just happened to notice the window grates. Window grates are the metal bars that are common for bungalows or low-story flats where we live. They serve the noble task of keeping out intruders. But what I had never noticed is the unique geometric pattern on these grates. I guess I just always assumed they were all function and no form. It was like stained glass meets metal bars. I really, really wish I had taken a picture, but I didn't have my phone on me. I carefully noted in my head the pattern of triangles and lines, so that I could replicate it later. And here it is - the freshest new design in my Etsy Shop. It could be customized for pretty much any special occasion - bridal shower, birthday party, you name it! But in honor of my little inspiring moment, I did it up as a housewarming party invitation.   A is for Apple of course! But A is for a lot of other things too. And A makes a whole lot of different sounds in the English language. For the sake of simplicity I only introduce the short vowel sounds. After learning all of the letters, we'll go back and focus on vowels and different sounds. BOOKS There are so many activities you can do just based on apples! Since its the beginning of the year and kids are still warming up to me, I try to win their affection with food by bringing in some apple slices to eat while we read from these two great A books.
RHYMES When teaching rhymes, you should use as many visuals and actions as possible. This makes the language learning process a total body experience. Airplane, Airplane Airplane, Airplane, up in the sky Airplane, Airplane, flying high Airplane, Airplane, take me with you Up, Up, Up in the sky so blue Jolly Songs - A /a/ /a/ Ants on my arm! /a/ /a/ Ants on my arm! /a/ /a/ Ants on my arm! They're causing me alarm! (sung to the tune of Skip to my Lou) Two Little Apples Two little apples, hanging on a tree Two little apples, smiling at me. I shook the tree as hard as I could Down came the apples, Yummm, they were good! WORKSHEETS The following worksheet from KidZone go great with the Two Little Apples rhyme and helps them practice tracing. The coloring sheet I created reinforces the vocabulary. I try to repeat all of the words a lot as they are coloring the objects.
DOWNLOADS You are free to download my letter A flashcards and coloring page to use for personal and educational purposes. Please do not sell them or offer them as your own. Proper credit is appreciated. The flashcards are formatted for A4 and can be printed back to back, cut and laminated. There is a color and a black and white version in case you want to save on printing costs and do the coloring yourself. Happy Teaching!
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JulieLuke and I are married and have four little munchkins that travel the world with us. I blog about living overseas, travel, kids, education and graphic design. Archives
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