I've been reading "The Runaway Bunny" to Ellie since she was born. This story has always intrigued her and put her in a cozy state as she smiles at the love of that mommy bunny for her son.
Our bible verse for the story was:
We also read the story in scripture of the prodigal son, ran away and returned home, loved and forgiven all the same. Luke 15:11-32.
Of course, we had to take Ellie fishing a few times on the pond as mommy rabbit fished for her "fish" in the story with a carrot. Ellie fished at our house, my parent's land, and at our neighbor's house several times this week. She didn't make a catch but got to see several blue gills and bass caught!
And obviously, we went hiking too. We got so excited reading and seeing the bunnies hiking a tall mountain like we have enjoyed doing together since Ellie's infancy. We took a hike with friends. The first mountain hike was a favorite of ours but the winds were so wildly intense like nothing I've ever encountered up there before that it was quite....interesting. I was actually physically being moved and pushed by the wind. The wind whipped my hat off my head, Ellie clung to a tree...so we aborted mission and went t lower mountain terrain for a different hike a few miles down the road. There we climbed, basked in the sun, and Ellie and friends and dogs all splashed and played enjoying the sunshine!
The wind on the mountain was a nice tie in unplanned for the wind that mommy rabbit blew to the little bunny sailboat. Ellie made ripples in the water of a sensory bin and moved her own boats by blowing them with a straw. We discussed and read about wind, what it is, how it works, how it is invisible but still can be measured/weighed and it's effects are felt and visible.
Going back to fishing like in the story, I made Ellie a pond of alphabet letters and numbers for her to fish out with a spoon. She would lay out her catch and tell me phonetically or numerically what she had caught. She matched pairs of the same letters together.
When the runaway bunny wanted to become a bird, we also got excited because we love birds around here. We filled our bird feeders up for the birds, watched birds as we ate our meals from our window feeder, and Ellie played in a bird seed sensory bin with seed, real bird feathers, and plastic bird eggs, and a birdhouse.
Bunny tails are soft and fluffy. We pulled out puff balls from the craft bin and Ellie counted out how many she had chosen to use. She also took note of and sorted tiny, small, medium, large. Then she practiced her glue skills by making art with glue and puff balls. Squeezing glue is so good for handwriting strengthening.
Going back to the birds, Ellie made bird feather art with craft feathers. On her paint paper she dipped her feathers into her chosen acrylic paints which she squeezed out by herself, then she explored all the different ways she could create with paint and feathers on the paper.
Back to the sailboat, Ellie had used an egg carton I cut up this week for another math project for a caterpillar study. I saved the top of the carton for her to decorate into a boat. She explained her entire process to me. The toothpicks were beds for passengers, the crepe paper the sails, and the jewels were to fancy it up. There were also puff balls glued on the bottom of the boat. She took her time planning this out and executing her plan.
Ellie practiced her handwriting by first writing out her name, then writing "Bunny" after her name. Then I wrote it out as to reiterate the lesson. We reviewed the letters phonetically, the importance of holding your board or paper with one hand and holding your marker or pencil in the other down low and not up too high. I encouraged her to take her time and if she messed up, just erase and try again! No big deal! That is what learning is about! I'm very proud of her! We only practice handwriting 5-10 minutes out of an entire day and we don't necessarily do it every day because she is 3 after all and she is best learning when playing; so if it becomes frustrating, we stop and move on and will revisit later. 
We are also growing carrots in the garden. Ellie watered them, picked weeds, and got to see the tops start to expand past the cotyledon leaves. She loves carrots and said she was a little bunny too! She worked all over our garden and told me how a bunny better not run off with her vegetables! And as it so happened, my parents had a bunny come this past week and run right off with one of their plants I grew and planted for them! So Ellie was on bunny patrol and caring hard for her carrots and tomatoes and all the other veggies.
Here are the books read to go along. We did nursery rhymes because the bunny has the painting of The Cow Jumping Over the Moon - just as in "Goodnight Moon." We are doing that one next week and will listen to and read more nursery rhymes next week as well.
This book is too precious! So much to be reaped from it! Enjoy your row!
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