Weekly Learning Theme: Russia

Carter's fascination with maps and countries really took off when he got an interactive world map from his Gigi and Papa for his birthday. He kept asking me about different countries and was super curious about China and Russia. I asked him if he'd like to do some learning themes to find out more about countries he was interested in and he was very excited about that idea. His first week I asked him which country he wanted to learn about and he said China. Then we had our Easter learning theme and I asked him if he wanted to learn about more countries and he said yes, he wanted to learn about Russia. So I put together a learning theme on Russia and we had quite a bit of fun. After we finished this learning theme I asked Carter if there were any other countries he wanted to learn about and he said no. We'll take a break from learning about countries and if he becomes interested again later we will pick it back up.

Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks.  I have revised our objectives to really hone in and focus on specific skills Carter will need to master before kindergarten and are appropriate to his age and development right now. I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives.  Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually.  I'm also adding in a section for Elise now that she is a year old. I don't consider her bullet points objectives, they are experiences I want to make sure to expose her to frequently. Her experiences are listed below Carter as bullet points rather than numbers. 

The highlighted objectives below are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:

1. Begin to organize and focus on writing. (Dictate stories, plan out a story, draw pictures and scribbles to create a book).
2. Understand same and different.
3. Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book. 
4. Use age appropriate scissors.  (I'm moving on to looking for a thumb and forefinger grasp with writing tools and holding scissors appropriately)
5. Develop a better understanding of time (for example, be able to describe when things happen using morning, afternoon, night)
6. Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature).
7. Count with one-to-one correspondence, begin to identify numerals, begin to use ordinal numbers (first, second, last).

Experiences Elise was exposed to during our theme this week are highlighted below:

• Pretend play/Imitate the behaviors of others.
• Begin to identify and point at body parts. (Right now I just want to say body parts aloud to her frequently and point them out on myself or on her)
• Group based on simple characteristics. (This is something I will do while talking aloud and allowing her to feel objects)
• Fill and empty containers.
• Begin to hold writing tools and scribble spontaneously.

Activities/Movement:

• The first thing we did during our learning theme was find Russia on Carter's interactive world map. All I had to do was ask him to find Russia and he pointed it out right away. Then we listened to all the facts about Russia.

• When I was a kid my parents took us to an exhibit about Russian Czars during a vacation or trip and I got to pick out a set of matryoshka dolls in the gift shop. They worked wonderfully to practice lots of different skills with Carter. We played with the dolls first, just opening them and pulling them out of each other and then putting them back together. Then I had Carter count them to see how many there were. I showed him how to order them by size to make it easier to put them back together. He then ordered them by size after I had mixed them up and was able to match the tops with the bottoms that way. As we did this we talked about which one was bigger or smaller, which doll was the biggest, and which was the smallest to really focus on that vocabulary. As he put them together we used ordinal words, this one goes first, this one goes next, this one goes last. I was impressed that after playing with him while focusing on the vocabulary, he would use those words to describe what he was doing even when he was playing by himself. One day he was playing with them as I made dinner and I complimented him on using his size vocabulary and he proudly told me, "Mommy, you taught me to do that!" It was so cute!

  

  Putting the doll pieces in order by size.

   

  

  Working on his own to put the dolls back together.

• I put together a sensory bin for Carter with beans for the base. Then I put the matryoshka dolls and Faberge eggs we made in. Carter liked filling the matryoshkas and eggs with beans and then dumping them out. I tried playing with the sensory bin with Elise but all she wanted to do was shove beans in her mouth so that didn't last long.
  
• Elise also enjoyed playing with the nesting dolls. I showed her how to open them and then let her try for fine motor practice. I loosened them a bit so she could actually pull them apart. She was always so proud of herself when she was able to pull them apart.
  
  
• Another fun way I used the dolls with Elise was a little practice with body parts. I'd put the doll on Elise and say, "Elise, the doll is on your (insert body part). Sometimes she thought it was funny and other times she was freaked out that something was on her. I think it depended on the body part.
  
• We watched a couple videos of traditional Russian dancing and then I asked Carter if he wanted to try it out. He said no, it would be too much bouncing! We also watched part of The Nutcracker and I told him ballet is popular in Russia and their ballet dancers are famous around the world. I asked him if he wanted to try out ballet and he actually did which was fun.

• I found a printable for small nesting doll cards here. I didn't read the post to see how she used them, I just printed them and did my own thing. I colored the dolls so there were a few different color combinations. I colored the dress and apron on each one different colors. I had Carter sort them a few different ways. We sorted based on the color of the doll's dress, apron, and hair. We talked about how the dolls in each group looked the same and how they looked different. Then we counted to see how many we had in each grouping. Using the cards I made a few different patterns and told Carter what they were, saying the repeating parts out to him as I pointed at the dolls. We also used them to play a game we made up that was somewhat similar to Go Fish. We put the cards in a stack and each drew 4 cards. We could match our cards based on any part being the same. They could go together because they had the same color dress, apron, or hair. We didn't ask each other for cards, we just pulled cards and tried to match them up, taking turns. It was quite a bit of fun. 

  

  Grouping the matryoshka doll cards based on colors.

  

  Playing our version of "Go Fish".

• Just like we did with China, I printed out a small map of Russia and cut it into a puzzle. As Carter put the puzzle together we talked about what was surrounding Russia. When I said Arctic Ocean, he got excited and said, "That's where penguins live!" I was proud that he made a connection to our polar animals unit. I showed him where Antarctica is and told him that's where penguins live, but lots of the other polar animals we talked about live in the arctic.
  
  

• We again created a book about the country. This time instead of making the book at the beginning and using it to introduce topics, we made the book at the end to review what we had learned. I showed Carter the picture as I glued it onto a page and we talked about what it was. Then I wrote the words to go with the picture and we put the page in a Ziploc bag. When we were finished we taped the pages together and read the book. Elise also enjoyed reading the book and listening to it crinkle.
  

  

  Elise reading the book while she waited on more food.

  

Craft:

• We created a Russian flag using construction paper. I took a piece of white copy paper and folded it into 3 sections. I used that as a guide to draw dotted lines on a piece of red construction paper and a piece of blue construction paper for Carter to cut out. We practiced how to hold scissors and he did a great job cutting the entire section on his own. Normally he starts off cutting and his hand gets tired so he wants me to finish for him, but he did the whole thing on his own this time! Then we glued the pieces onto the white paper to make the Russian flag.

  

  Started out using 2 hands to cut.

  

  I reminded him how to cut and how much easier that is.

  

  He was so proud of himself after this activity, he'd ask for scissors and then I'd see him draw lines on paper and cut on them like what we had done to make the flag!

• I showed Carter some pictures of Faberge eggs and told him what they were and that Russia was famous for them. Then I told him we were going to decorate some Faberge eggs of our own. I had saved back a few Easter eggs when I put decorations away and let Carter decorate them with ribbons, beads, buttons, and jewels we already had. He used Elmer's glue on his eggs and then I went through later and reglued things on where he had originally placed them, using hot glue for a better hold. We had a lot of fun decorating our eggs and then playing with them.
  
• I printed a coloring page of a matryoshka doll and then drew some just like it to make 4 dolls of varying sizes. Carter and I sat together and colored them. It was so cute to see him add the face to his doll. He really is getting the hang of drawing people and making faces.
  

  

  Notice his marker grip. This is something we are going to start focusing on without causing him frustration.

• We looked at pictures of St. Basil's Cathedral. I told Carter it is one of the most famous buildings in Russia. We talked about how it looks the same as buildings we normally see and how it looks different. I had cut some rectangles out of brown paper and some onion shaped domes out of colored paper. I then told Carter he could make his own building like the cathedral and he very carefully glued the pieces down to create his own. I was impressed with how well he lined up the brown pieces along the bottom and how he glued the onion shaped domes down right at the top of the rectangles. We also talked about shapes as he worked. He identified the rectangles and thought the domes looked a bit like a triangle. I think because of the tips.
  
  
  
  

• I showed Carter some of Kandinsky's artwork and told him Kandinsky was a famous Russian artist. We talked about what we noticed in the paintings, lots of shapes and bright colors. Then we planned out our paintings to be in the same abstract style as Kandinsky's work. Carter did a great job drawing squares and circles on his paper but ended up just painting all over the paper rather than painting in the shapes. It worked out great because we did this activity after we had gone to the art museum where Carter was given an art box with drawing paper, a pencil, and an eraser so he got to use his new drawing tools.

  

  Drawing shapes on paper to plan out his painting.

  

Special Snack:

• I looked at different traditional Russian dishes and was tempted to try making Borscht, but I was pretty sure Carter wouldn't be too thrilled with beet soup and I knew Ty wouldn't like it. I ended up deciding on a piroshki recipe which Ty and I loved, Elise thought was okay, and Carter enjoyed making but decided he didn't want to eat after one tiny bite. Carter helped me make the dough. He also helped me make the dough into balls and then flatten them out into discs. It was a lot of fun to do with him.

  

  Making silly faces as he helped mold the dough into discs.

  
  

  

  The tiny bite Carter took of his piroshki.

Make Believe:

• I planned to act out the story of The Giant Turnip, but this was another week where something else happened for make believe and it turned out to be so much more fun! We read quite a few books about Peter and the Wolf and I was quickly realizing it was Carter's favorite Russian story. I checked out a ballet version of the story on DVD at the library but wasn't sure Carter would like it. My mom was interested in it so we watched it one day when she was over and Carter loved it! After watching the movie Carter wanted to play chase and my mom started pretending she was the wolf while singing the wolf's part in the composition. Once she got that going Carter really took off with it and we played so many different versions of chase with Peter and the Wolf afterward. Sometimes he was the wolf and I was one of the animals. Other times I was the wolf and he would climb to the top of the chair like it was a tree. At one point I was the wolf and Elise was the duck so I ate her. Then Carter was Peter and rescued her. It was so much fun!

Songs:

• We listened to different songs in Russian and Carter's favorite was Wheels on the Bus. We actually listened to it multiple times. I was surprised because he hadn't wanted to listen to songs in Chinese during our China Learning Theme. I guess I just caught him on the wrong day during that learning theme!

• Just like we did during our learning theme on China, we listened to the Russian National Anthem. Carter wasn't super impressed listening to any of the National Anthems, including the United States. I think it was harder for him to connect to the songs because they weren't familiar tunes. Without the familiar tune, the words were just frustrating to him. 

• I found a Russian Sesame Street alphabet song and Carter loved it. We listened to it over and over. In the video they have blocks with Russian letters on them so afterward I showed Carter the Russian letters and we compared them to English letters. We talked about how the letters looked the same and how they looked different. He noticed that there were a few letters that were in both alphabets. Then he pointed out that Russian and English letters looked way different than Chinese writing. In the version of The Giant Turnip we checked out the words were written in both English and Russian which was another neat way to compare the languages. 

• We listened to multiple different versions of Peter and the Wolf.

• While playing with the matryoshka dolls with Elise I made up a version of Pop Goes the Weasel and sang it as I opened each doll to reveal the one inside.

All sitting together were the matryoshka dolls.

Elise went to look inside.

Pop, goes the doll! (as I pulled open the doll to reveal the one inside)

• I made up a version of 5 Little Ducks called 5 Little Matryoshkas.

5 little dolls went out one day, from inside their mother and far away.

Mother matryoshka said, "Come back, come back!"

But only 4 little dolls came back.

We had 4 of the dolls come back and put them back inside the largest one. We continued on until none of them came back just like in 5 Little Ducks.

Books:

• A Tale of Two Frogs by Martha Hami Hon
• The Turnip: An Old Russian Folktale by Pierr Morgan
• Baba Yaga: A Russian Folktale by Eric A. Kimmel
• The Frog Princess: A Russian Folktale by Patrick Lewis
• Babushka's Doll by Patricia Polacco
• Luba and the Wren by Patricia Polacco
• Russia by Julie Murray
• Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco
• Russia by Theresa Jarosz Alberti
• Russia by O. Torchinski
• Peter and the Wolf: Based on the Orchestral Tale by Sergei Prokofiev by Selina Hastings
• Peter and the Wolf by Christopher Raschka
• Peter and the Wolf by Vladimir Vasil'evich Vagin
• Babushka Baba Yaga by Patricia Polacco
• Russia ABCs: A Book About the People and Places of Russia by Ann Berge
• My First Book of Russian Words by Katy R. Kudela
• The Littlest Matryoshka by Corinne Demas
• The Magic Gold Fish: A Russian Folktale by Demi
• Babushka by Sandra Ann Hom
• Baboushka And The Three Kings by Ruth Robbins
• Sasha's Matrioshka Dolls by Jana Dillon
• Ogromna Rzepa: The Giant Turnip by Henriette Barkow
• F is for Flag by Wendy Cheyette Lewison
• Wemberly's Ice-Cream Star by Kevin Henkes