School year winding down...

The three younger kids and I have enjoyed going to a once a month class this school year.  A different country is featured each time, and we learn more about their location and customs.  They are also treated a music experience, food, and an art experience from the country.

This month we did Thailand and our art was shadow puppets.  The concept is that you cut detailed designs in the puppet and stand behind a curtain through which a bright light is shining.  The light then shows the designs in the puppet onto the curtain. 

The kids first had to brainstorm a concept for a puppet show, then create the characters they needed to perform it.  Since Tikvah's birthday was this week birthdays were on their minds.  Many of the children ran with a cat as one of their characters since the staff's examples they had made included a cat.  So wallah.  Their story was that the cat was having a birthday party.

I had to help them behind the curtain, so unfortunately I didn't get a video of their performance.  It was a little song of "Happy Birthday" and that was it, but it was super sweet.

If you'd like to see the concept acted out, here is a Youtube video that shows a  Thailand shadow puppet demonstration.

As we near the end of our school year and reflect upon what we've learned I'm overall really happy about how the year went.  Homeschooling these kids is the right thing for them.  They are learning and thriving, and I'm so fortunate to be both their Mama and their teacher.

Five in a Row Curriculum - Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

* Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel  

This is the story of Mike and his steam shovel Mary Ann who put in many, many productive busy working days.  But new technology has sent most of the steam machines to the trash heap.  Mike's determination and ingenuity saved both of them from unemployment.

Having spent much of their lives in an institution, my kids didn't know a lot about different types of power or even different vehicles.  And it seemed a challenge to find out much about steam power.  One book we liked was Inventions That Shaped the World: The Steam Engine by Tamra Orr.  You will also find a few things about steam by searching on YouTube.

The FoldnLearn from the FIAR BLOG had some information on steam machines as well.

We made our own steam power which seemed to get the point across better than any book or movie we could find.  The plain ole tea kettle released steam and as Isaac held his pinwheel near to the steam it turned the wheel.

I have been thankful many times this school year when the book we were studying
gave us a natural setting for discussing life values.  This time it was stewardship.  Mike took such good care of Mary Anne that she was in great working condition long after machines of her type had been junked.  A challenge that is fairly common with institutionally raised kids is teaching them the value of their belongings and the need to take care of them.  And more yet, they must be taught to respect other people's belongings.  Good discussion.

We talked about the elements of a good story

and also what "personification" is in literature.  But I think only Isaac was able to understand these concepts.

 Most of the units in FIAR have art incorporated too, centering around either the illustrations in the book or a concept mentioned in the story.  In Mike Mulligan our attention is drawn to the countryside and the different way trees are drawn, whether they are aerial views or seen from close up.  

And for those more advanced try out this link. Guide to Tree Sketching  I only printed that one for Isaac who is actually a pretty advanced artist.

In the story the cellar is completed "four corners... neat and square."  We looked for things in magazines that were square.

 My younger kids are still grasping the terms for shapes so we did a hunt around the house for things that are square shaped also.

Looking at the bookshelf for square things.

Hunting in the living room for squares.

On the final day of our unit study, instead of reading the book again, we found a "movie" version of it on YouTube.  It was the book being read plus some songs, and was about a half an hour long.  My kids loved it!  You can find it AT THIS LINK HERE!

Fun book enjoyed by the girls as well as by the boys.

*Amazon affiliate link to book

Studying About Egypt

Once a month the younger kids and I go to a music/art study of a country.  This month the country was Egypt.  After a slide presentation about the country we moved to the mat to play instruments.

The girls started out on a "riqq" (similar to a tambourine) and Patrick had a "rababa" which was a pipe like thing that he struck against his hand.  They traded off to try different instruments and played for quite some time.

If you'd like to hear what you missed, I uploaded a video of it HERE on YouTube

Then we moved to the art studio for some clay work.  They each made a "cartouche."  This will be a large necklace of sorts that has their name (or initials) on it in hieroglyphics.  They practiced writing their name on a paper first.

And then it was down to business, trying to get the clay to soften up!

They cut the shape they wanted and smoothed the edges.

Wrote their names, and here is what we ended up with.  The staff will put them in the kiln for the next session. Now comes the hard part.... waiting for a whole month!

We finished the day by trying out Kashari, the national food of Egypt.  It is made with rice, noodles, lentils, and a spicy tomato sauce.

My kids all thought it was really good - as ANYTHING with rice or noodles is, of course!

And they lined up to get seconds!

We always have such fun at these lessons!

Country Class - Israel

Once a month the younger kids get together with a group to learn about a country.  This month the country was Israel.  After hearing about it and watching a slide presentation it was time for hands-on!

Cooking time was up first.  Their table made falafel, while others made hummus still others chopped ingredients to go along with the dish. While the falafel was cooking, they learned a "nonsense" song that children play in Israel.  This was complete with lots of hand action.  I wish I had pictures, but I was too busy keeping Jen upright!  LOL!

Our art project was mosaics.  Jen chose a vase, and Pat and Abigail chose a trivet.

At this point the falafel was done.  They ate it along with flat bread and hummus.  All three liked the falafel they had made.  I thought Jen would be the one not to like the hummus since she has the tendency towards texture issues, but she and Pat ate it all.  Poor Miss A, in spite of LOOKING like she is really going to chow down on it, ended up gagging - literally. 

They have such fun at these classes and the staff at Greenacres Foundation are just the best!

Five in a Row Curriculum -- Owl Moon

Owl Moon* is a delightful story of a little boy who has waited to be "big enough" to go out after bedtime with his dad to look for an owl.  This unit unfortunately fell between Thanksgiving and Christmas so I did a poor job of remembering to take photos or notes, sorry!

An especially good conversation starter for our family was talking about the rules the little boy had to follow in order for the owling experience to be successful.  That led into why WE have certain rules in our household that must be followed for everyone to stay safe and provide a calm and neat atmosphere in our home.

We also discussed flexibility - the father was flexible in allowing the little boy to stay up late -- and how sometimes we are flexible to allow for special events.  With the holidays upon us this was a good discussion!  Our children (who spent years in an orphanage) really depend on routine, but holidays call for being flexible!

It was actually a warm (for winter) sunny day so we went out to investigate shadows.  Here is where I say "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" because I know I took photos and they are just gone.  They had a good time chasing their shadow and guessing what other shadows were from -- ie the van, the house, etc.

Another thing my children really enjoyed was learning about the tracks that different animals make in the snow.  One can find several books along this subject line and here are a few that we enjoyed:

After learning about different types of tracks they worked on pictures where they stamped the foot print of various woodland animals and stamped and/or drew their habitat.

 

We studied a little about the moon itself and its different phases.  For a sensory experience in learning about it check out episode 9 of The Treeschoolers (from Signing Time) "In this episode, Simon gets worried when he sees the moon slowly disappearing! As Rachel and the TreeSchoolers set out to solve “The Mystery of the Missing Moon,” they learn about the sun, moon, stars, planets and the scientists whose questions and curiosity led to important discoveries about our universe."

We read several books about various types of owls (and I regret not getting the titles written down before returning them to the library!)  But probably the most favorite thing about this unit was watching a movie called  Owl Power on Netflix  It was so fascinating that the kids asked to watch it a second time - when it wasn't school time, just for fun!

I hope you won't let my holiday neglect of record keeping give the impression that this book was a dud.  Give it a try!  There is a lot of fun learning to be had!


*Affiliate Link

Five in a Row Curriculum: Cranberry Thanksgiving

 

 Cranberry Thanksgiving centers around a little girl who lives with her grandmother who is famous for her cranberry bread; but Grandma insists on keeping the recipe a secret.  Both of them invite a friend over to share Thanksgiving dinner and learn a lesson about character in the process.

We watched a short video on YouTube called How Does it Grow? - Cranberries that also showed how they are processed.  Even I learned several things!  In that short video it mentioned that Ocean Spray is the lead grower in the USA, so we went to their website to see what we could see.  They have another short video about cranberry cooperatives  that was worth watching, as well as information on the different types of products that they make from the cranberries.

As always, we had a FoldNLearn to work on.  This is a free download from the Five in a Row publisher's blog and a lapbook downloaded from Homeschool Share.  Today we reviewed the New England states and drawing on information learned in the cranberry video, talked about the seasons.  We noted that fall time is when most cranberries are harvested and eaten.

We obviously HAD to follow that up with tasting some cranberries!  Today it was craisins (dried cranberries) and also cranberry walnut bread.  We gave the thumbs up to both.

We went on to make cranberry/orange cookies for a Thanksgiving party that we went to with our homeschool co-op.

Yum!

One REALLY MUST talk about the origins of Thanksgiving and this book was a good lead in to it.  We listened to a radio drama of The Legend of Squanto (available here on Amazon - affiliate link) and the younger kids continued work on some Native American costumes they began in co-op last week.  

Since it isn't obvious I will clue you in! These are Indian vests, of course!

We had a lot of fun at the Thanksgiving party that our homeschool co-op hosted.  Lots of crafts opportunities...

And snacks too!

Other things we did:  Custom coloring books!  If you have a comb binder (I got mine used on Ebay) you can print off anything and make them into custom books!  Free downloads about Thanksgiving found HERE!

And we practiced handwriting - at this point tracing the letters.

 
Our extended family gathered for a big Thanksgiving feast.

After dinner the family did a reading theater drama of the story of the first Thanksgiving.

Our study on Cranberry Thanksgiving was very timely and helped our newly American citizens understand why we celebrate.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Movies watched:

How Does it Grow? Cranberries

Cranberry Cooperatives

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (The dvd included The Mayflower Voyagers too!)

Supplementary books read:

Squanto and the first Thanksgiving by Joyce K. Kessel

Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness

The First Thanksgiving by Jean Craighead George (GREAT illustrations, some may want to watch the text for evolutionary references)

Molly's Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen

Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell

 Thanksgiving Is.... by Gail Gibbons

Thanksgiving by Lisa M. Herington



and just for fun:

The Squirrels' Thanksgiving by Steven Knoll

Daisy's Crazy Thanksgiving by Margery Cuyler

Mousekin's Thanksgiving by Edna Miller