Planting Lamb's Ears

Sheep Week Day 2

Our Lamb's Ears

Spring is only a day away, but the last five days have felt like summer here!  We have enjoyed every second of being outside this weekend and have stayed busy, but don't worry I still have a fun post today!

On a trip to a children's garden last fall we came across "Lamb's Ears."  I had never heard of them before, but they were in the children's garden where children are encouraged to touch the plants.  My kindergartner loved the "Lamb's Ears".  They are almost gray or silvery looking leaves with a velvety texture similar to, well, lamb ears!  Stachys Byzantina is actually the scientific name of these plants.  To learn more about this plant check out this landscaping site because I have, unfortunately,  already told you all I know!

 

If you can tell from this post I am definitely NOT a gardener, but luckily my son's piano teacher loves to garden.  He told her all about our visit and the next week she brought him a lamb's ears plant from her garden for us to plant at home.  We planted it last fall, and it already looks so pretty this spring.  The boys planted it all on their own so they love to check on it every so often!

Planting is a great way to spend some time with your kids and enjoy being outside.  Every year I have some plants that my kids are in charge of.  It helps with responsibility and gives them something to be proud of!

We have a whole book of Usborne Phonics Readers, and Sam Sheep Can't Sleep is one of the stories in it.  Sam Sheep Can't Sleep is written by Phil Roxbee Cox and Stephen Cartwright.  These phonics stories are great and include many of the same characters like, Sam Sheep, Ted, Pup, Fat Cat, and Big Pig.  These are great for beginning readers to start to look for word patterns that can help them sound out words.  Sam Sheep Can't Sleep has many -ark words, -iggle words, and -eep words.

In Sam Sheep Can't Sleep, you can probably guess that, Sam can't sleep!   He goes to find his other friends and ends up waking them all up.  By the time he has woken up all of his friends, Big Pig suggests a jig.  All of his friends dance for him, but it turns out that Sam Sheep is finally asleep!

This is a simple story that is perfect to read with  my kindergartner right now. The decodable books that are sent home from school can get very boring!  So finding phonics books that my son is able to read is great!  

After I read it once, I had him read it with me.  Most of the words are easily recognizable to him, but he struggled with a few, like grunt and blame.  It is a great book to have my kindergartner read to his little brother too!  Each page has a duck hidden in the picture.  This makes it perfect for keeping my three year old's attention.  

Check out the other Sheep posts from Sheep Week!

Sheep Week Day One: Touch and Feel Sheep Art

Sheep Week Day Three: Baby Can't Sleep

Sheep Week Day Four: Sheep Take a Hike

Sheep Week Day Five: Balloon Ping Pong