Wonderful World
The Wonderful World curriculum is designed to be what children need to do to learn – play! This year long program gives you the tools to create a magical, playful year of learning for your child. Each lesson gives you a list of picture books around a theme of the week, read as many as your child wants. Each lesson also has a nursery rhyme or song to sing, to work on vocabulary skills and play with language. Then, there are some ways to play with the ideas of week. These activities include games, imagination, problem solving and learning about the world around us!
The weekly themes include seasons, animals, trains, cars, countries of the world, and outer space. Wonderful World has activities and books that cover a wide range of things kids find interesting and want to learn about! This method means that school can be easy and fun, for all of you! Designed to be a perfect year of kindergarten, the activities also work for a range of ages, so siblings can all play and learn together. And because it is developmentally appropriate, you and your child won’t be frustrated by activities that are too hard to do for a child this age.
Click here to learn about our color-coded Level System.
All Five Senses Literature Lessons programs are all written by a homeschooling mom who is also an occupational therapist. She saw that there was a need for a secular, developmentally appropriate option for parents who want kindergarten to be easy and fun. She also wrote it to work for older students who have learning challenges and need something different to develop their language, fine motor skills, thinking and reasoning skills. Lessons are engaging for the whole child and include working on developing fine motor skills before you start writing.
Other programs throw kids this age into reading and writing too fast, before they are ready, This leads to frustration, and some kids think they hate learning. Instead, this program will give you the tools to build motor skills and coordination that will prepare your child for reading and writing later. They will work on telling stories and drawing pictures, things that should come before they write their great novel. Don’t worry, there is plenty of time for that later. And with a playful year of fun, they will build the imagination needed to create novels!
This is a full-color, downloadable PDF document with links to videos and external resources, book and supply lists, worksheets, and corresponding activities for a full school year’s worth of learning.”
$39.95
Want to try it out first?
Sometimes you just need to give things a try before deciding. We understand and that’s why we have a sample lesson available for download.
Wonderful World covers a wide range of topics, including:
Language Arts
There are 28 separate memory work verses, one for every lesson. You can use these to work on public speaking, as vocabulary lessons, as copy work.
You’ll explore language with your child through different forms of expression including:
- songs
- writing
- recitation
- poetry
- rhythm
- rhyme
- haiku
- and storytelling
Math
The math is designed around real-world problems and concrete concepts that are relatable to your child based on the book you’ve read. A wide range of topics are introduced and revisited over the course of the year including
- graphing
- telling time
- calendars
- measuring weight and length
- comparing measurements
- estimation
- counting to 100
- adding to 10
- and word problems
Science
Covering a wide range of topics in Biology, Zoology, Astronomy, and Meteorology. Including:
- alligators and reptiles
- fish and ocean life
- plant life cycles
- food chains
- life cycles
- hibernation
- habitats
- migration
- marsupials
- mammals
- birds
- weather
- wind
- Earth’s orbit
- the solar system.
Social Studies
Children are introduced to ideas about how their community works and to the bigger world around them. Topics Include public transit, public works (roads), city organization, civic responsibilities, family structures, and areas around the world including:
- Australia
- Japan
- Italy
- Peru
- South Africa
- China
- The Arctic
- and Antartica
Lessons that Lead to Life-Long Learning
We at Five Senses Literature Lessons know that children are innately curious about the world around them and do not think about what they are learning in terms of a specific subject area. Children don’t see the world in terms of math, reading, or science. A simple game can touch on topics in each of those subject areas and more.
In addition to the traditional school subjects of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies, there are important things to learn about the world through art, music, food, dance, and play. Wonderful World seeks to help you introduce to your child a wide range of experiences through many different avenues.
Each lesson includes a memory verse. Many include a song to sing each day and some songs include dances. There are activities for cooking with your child, simple art projects, physical games, and field trips. Each activity is based on the related book and theme for the week and has layered benefits. Art projects and cooking activities exercise your child’s fine motor control, getting those little hands ready for writing as they get older. Physical games, dances, apple picking, and other activities help work your child’s gross motor control and development. Music and art help demonstrate to your child different forms of expression. Cooking, jumping up and down, and taking a walk for leaves are all activities that provide many options for new sensory input for your child. Wonderful World helps you lay a foundation for your child for full-engagement living and learning. Everything in your child’s world is something that they can experience and learn from and this program helps give you the tools to show them how.
Learning Through Literature
Each lesson starts with a wonderful picture book. By looking at the pictures in the story, your child is able to imagine themselves there in the story with our characters. The act of not only hearing the story but also seeing it, engages both the sense of hearing and vision, bringing the story to life.
The stories included in the Wonderful World curriculum include a variety of classics, modern stories, Newberry Award winners and Reading Rainbow books. The books are available on Amazon and at most local libraries. We have gone to great effort to ensure the books are currently in print and readily accessible for most families. We’ve even found that many of the books are available on YouTube being read aloud.
To see the full list of books included in the lessons, scroll down to the bottom of this page.
Written by an Occupational Therapist for All Children
Children learn best when all of their senses are engaged, and the topics are presented in a way that respects childhood development. Too many curricula for children skip over the importance of play and exploration, moving straight into reading, writing, and math. Subjects are often taught in a way that isolates them from other ideas making them feel more foreign and complicated than they need to be.
As an occupational therapist, I have a unique perspective on childhood development. Children use games and play to explore their world naturally. By using play and fun activities, you can tap into their natural curiosity and feed their minds while helping them develop the physical skills needed for success in academics and life.
Five Senses Literature Lessons is designed to be used with any child, regardless of where the child stands concerning academic readiness. Such flexibility is possible because the curriculum is developmentally appropriate and respects the child. It is adaptable and expandable to suit your child’s interest and pursue growth in your child’s abilities in a gentle and fun way.
Easy to Use Starting Day One
We’ve designed our curriculum to be easy to use and with limited start-up or prep time required. The supplies needed are simple and often things you’ll have around the house. We’ve created a simple list of supplies needed for the entire lesson at the start of each lesson so you can review it before starting any activities. We’ve embedded hyperlinks to all external resources, YouTube videos, and appendix pages to make it easy to navigate from any computer or tablet. And all the subjects are color-coded and clearly indicated so you can find the right activity for a given day easily.
In addition to the bonus information and links to external resources in the curriculum, we’ve provided additional resources on our website and our Pinterest page to give you more ideas of activities to do with your child if they want to dive deeper into a particular unit. We are constantly updating the content on our Pinterest and Blog with new ideas, helpful hints, and inspiration.
We believe home education should be fun and engaging for both you and your child. It is our goal to provide you with support and inspiration along with a simple, developmentally appropriate framework for educating your child.
In addition to the traditional school subjects of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies, there are important things to learn about the world through art, music, food, dance, and play. Wonderful World seeks to help you introduce to your child a wide range of experiences through many different avenues.
Each lesson includes a memory verse. Many include a song to sing each day and some songs include dances. There are activities for cooking with your child, simple art projects, physical games, and field trips. Each activity is based on the related book and theme for the week and has layered benefits. Art projects and cooking activities exercise your child’s fine motor control, getting those little hands ready for writing as they get older. Physical games, dances, apple picking, and other activities help work your child’s gross motor control and development. Music and art help demonstrate to your child different forms of expression. Cooking, jumping up and down, and taking a walk for leaves are all activities that provide many options for new sensory input for your child. Wonderful World helps you lay a foundation for your child for full-engagement living and learning. Everything in your child’s world is something that they can experience and learn from and this program helps give you the tools to show them how.
Book List
Apple Farmer Annie
by Monica Wellington
Ten Red Apples
Apples for Everyone
Ten Apples Up On Top!
Why Do Leaves Change Color?
When Butterflies Cross the Sky
The Monarch Butterfly Migration
by Sharon Katz Cooper
We're Going on a Leaf Hunt
We're Going on a Bear Hunt
When Whales Cross the Sea
The Gray Whale Migration
by Sharon Katz Cooper
Little Brown Bear Won't Take a Nap!
Leaves
by David Ezra Stein
Miss Spider's Tea Party
Miss Spider's New Car
by David Kirk
Miss Spider's ABC Book
by David Kirk
Be Nice to Spiders
by Margaret Bloy Graham
Spiders
by Gail Gibbons
The Magic School Bus Spins A Web
A Book About Spiders
by Joanna Cole
The Very Busy Spider
Stellaluna
Bats at the Beach
Bats
Bat Jamboree
The Magic School Bus Going Batty
No More Monsters for Me!
Where the Wild Things Are
Harry and the Terrible Whatzit
The Littlest Pumpkin
Too Many Pumpkins
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything
The Vanishing Pumpkin
Last Stop on Market Street
The Wheels on the Bus
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Easy Street
The Road That Trucks Built
The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race
Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
Toot Toot Beep Beep
The Little Engine That Could
The Little Red Caboose
Tootle
Thomas & Friends Story Time Collection
by Rev. W. Awdry
Three Bears in a Boat
Scuffy the Tugboat and His Adventures Down the River
Little Toot
The Little Airplane
A Day at the Airport
Rosie Revere, Engineer
Violet the Pilot
Snow
The Snowy Day
Snow
by P.D. Eastman
The Mitten
Animals in Winter
The Emperor's Egg
Penguins
And Tango Makes Three
Little Polar Bear
The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale
The Three Snow Bears
If I Knew A Polar Bear
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears
A West African Tale
by Verna Aardema
Mama Panya's Pancakes
Living in . . . South Africa
Strega Nona
Living in . . . Italy
Over in Australia
Amazing Animals Down Under
by Marianne Berkes
Living in Australia
One Leaf Rides the Wind
I Live in Tokyo
The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top
A Book About Volcanoes
by Gail Herman
Maria Had a Little Llama / Mar a Ten a Una Llamita
Festival of the Sun: Peru
Smart Kids: Rainforest
Flap Your Wings
The Best Nest
Are You My Mother?
The Golden Egg Book
Fluffy and Baron
Zinnia's Flower Garden
The Tiny Seed
The Carrot Seed
Kite Flying
Kite Day
A Bear and Mole Story
by Will Hillenbrand
The Wind Blew
Like a Windy Day
Are You A Ladybug?
The Grouchy Ladybug
Ladybug Girl
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Explore My World Butterflies
Home for a Bunny
The Runaway Bunny
Little Cottontail
Guess How Much I Love You
The Bunny Book
Pat the Bunny
The Rainbow Fish
Mister Seahorse
The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor
Over in the Ocean
In a Coral Reef
by Marianne Berkes
Clam-I-Am!
All About the Beach
(Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)
by Tish Rabe
Wish for a Fish
All About Sea Creatures
(Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)
by Bonnie Worth
A Whale of a Tale!
All About Porpoises, Dolphins, and Whales
(Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library)
by Bonnie Worth
If You Decide To Go To The Moon
The Magic School Bus Lost In The Solar System
Krystal (verified owner) –
This curriculum has been a great addition to our homeschool. It was put in my lap just as I had given up on finding something appropriate for my five-year-old with learning and physical challenges. I needed something that was easy to pick up and go and wasn’t too involved as I also have a 12-year-old homeschooling. I truly believe the best way to learn at this age is through exploration and play. This is our primary curriculum for our now six-year-old. The number of activities is just right for helping build new skills and understanding without overdoing it. A great selection of books is recommended in this curriculum. I tend to get the primary book suggested for each lesson, as a number of lessons are centered around the recommended book, then pull in related picture books from our extensive home library unless I can’t resist the additional recommendations. If you have a good library system, I think you will find many of these books there. Because this curriculum does not include writing and reading, which is mastered at a much wider range than traditional schools would have you believe, it can work for a variety of developmental levels, ages, and abilities. I highly recommend this curriculum especially if your child has any learning challenges.
Donna (verified owner) –
As a former elementary teacher with over 40 years of classroom experience, I must say how impressed I am with Five Senses Literature Lessons. It is chock-full of ideas which are easy to follow and comprehensive. I appreciate the effort that Laura has made in listing not just resources and materials, but also in creating the addendum. I love that some of the ideas encourage community responsibility and discovery, along with second language opportunities. I think this is a fantastic buy and a terrific way to provide children with a fun learning environment.