A few weeks ago, I wrote all of the words from the first 3 Bob Books in white crayon on computer paper. Then I set up a watercolor station for Joe to reveal the words.
It was a little overwhelming for him. I thought about chucking the idea out altogether, but one of my friends suggested writing one word per sheet. Maybe it would be less frustrating for Joe.
So this week, I wrote one sentence per sheet and we made our own Bob Book – Mac.
He painted every page and even identified a few ‘secret code’ words. When we were done, I asked him to go back and draw pictures. It was interesting to see how Joe’s version Mac turned out.
His drawings of people are pretty similar, only we don’t normally have a body.
We also made a number tree. I drew a tree on a long piece of white cardboard and grabbed a bingo dauber and a die. With a red marker, I wrote numbers in red all over the tree using only 1-6.
I asked Joe, “Is it a cherry tree or an apple tree?”
“A cherry tree!”
He’s a big fan of apples, so his choice surprised me.
Then, I asked Joe to roll the die, count the dots and turn the numbers into cherries with his red bingo dauber.
He enjoyed this game. He didn’t get bored or distracted. After correctly counting and converting all of the numbers, he decided that the tree needed a few more cherries.
After all this, he read ‘Mat’ to his uncle and then asked to make his favorite ‘special surprise’ snack.
Plain Greek yogurt and honey with white chocolate chips on top.
a pinch of homestead 