Dear Grandchildren,

Remember how we talked about plants and animals? We learned that plants cannot move around like animals, but they can move. We will talk about that another time.

What if there were no plants in the whole world? Wouldn't that be sad? We would have no trees to make shade. We would have no grass to sit on. We would not be able to look at and smell pretty flowers. There would be no carrots, or potatoes or apples to eat. There would be no meat to eat, because animals have to eat plants, so there would be no animals. There would be no air to breathe, because plants make part of the stuff that makes air. Would there be water? You can see that we really, really need plants.

Pretend you are a tree. Put your arms up over your heads like branches and wiggle your fingers like leaves. Do trees just stand on the ground like you are standing on the floor? No! They would fall over when a wind blows. We would just be able to go push them over. Timber! Have you tried to push a big tree over? We can't do it, can we? That's because they have roots that grow down into the ground. Roots help hold them up so they don't tip over, and roots help trees eat and drink.

Have you ever seen a tree's mouth or teeth? They don't have any, do they? A tree gets part of its food and its water from the ground with its roots.

A tree has roots under the ground that look like thin branches. Did you know that the roots of a tree grow under the ground almost as big as the branches grow up into the air? Now you can color the ground, and the tree trunk and branches, and the leaves after you print out the tree picture.

Do you know that some birds make their homes in trees, and that is where they have their babies? Here is a poem about a tree, a bird and a little boy or girl.

The Secret We have a secret, just we three.
The robin and I, and the sweet cherry tree.
The bird told the tree, and the tree told me,
And nobody knows it, but just we three.
But of course, the robin knows it best,
Because she built the.... I won't tell the rest.
And laid the four little.....somethings in it.
I'm afraid that I shall tell any minute!
But if the tree and the robin won't peep,
I'll try my best the secret to keep.
Though I know when the baby birds fly about,
Then the whole secret will be out!

Secret is a good word to learn. Do you know what a secret is? That means that you know something, but you don't tell others. Maybe you know what Mama is going to give Daddy for his birthday. It is a secret, if you don't tell him. When we don't tell a secret, we say that we keep it. Can you keep a secret?

Is the is the mama robin an animal or a plant? You are right...she is an animal, but the cherry tree is a plant. Print out the page with the animals and their shadows and draw lines to the right shadow.

We still need to make a few more ice cream cones. Today, let's do "I like white ice cream." Snow is white. Marshmallows are white. Do you know what we call white ice cream? We call it vanilla, don't we? When you look at today's ice cream cone you will see that it is already white. Maybe you can leave it that way, and just color the cone, or if you want, you can color it with your white crayon. We can call it a vanilla crayon. Can you find your vanilla crayon?. Look around and spy white things with your little eye. You can just look for them yourself, or play the game with somebody who isn't too busy. Maybe you are still keeping your other ice cream cones you already colored, so you can make your own ice cream book to read by yourself.

Today we can finish our round books by putting on a front and a back. The front says, MY ROUND BOOK and the other one says, "The End". Put the pages in the right order with the cover being first, then the pancake and the drum; next is the donut and the plum and then the puppy and the ladybug, and then finish with the page that says the end. Have it stapled on the right side, or on the top and you are finished! Such a nice, pretty little book you have made!

Listen to this nice little poem about mommies.

It is fun to read this poem really fast without stopping, and then taking a big breath and say, "and kiss you" We really, really love our mommies, don't we?

We call the manners we use when we eat, table manners. Here is another table manner. Everybody sits at the table together after we ask Heavenly Father to bless our food so that it will make us strong and healthy. Then we eat with our mouths closed, and talk to each other with no food in our mouths. We don't leave the table until we say, "Excuse me, please", and Mama or Daddy say we can leave. That's the way we ate when Grandma was a little girl. Your parents can decide if they want to do it that way or not.

Love, smiles and squishie hugs,

Grandma

Click on an image then click again to print it.