Geography~

Lots of state learning going on here~

and listening to stories read by older sisters!

Very Last First Time~ {FIAR}

Our FIAR row is Very Last First Time this week, and it is such a great one with the snow we just experienced.
Our first day is always a day of reading the book and a geography lesson.
Today we also watched a video about life as an Inuit in Canada~

 Then taking our new info, we moved into the kitchen to draw and watercolor beautiful masterpieces~

 I also wanted to document {Work} Evie asked to do~

AND the big girls have begun writing in cursive in most of their school work
so I wanted to document it here on the blog!!!
Good job girls~ SO awesome!

Mirette on the High Wire~ {FIAR}

We love starting our mornings reading the bible and God's Love For You is our fav devo.
Today we read about Jesus calling His disciples and discussed this truth~
The people Jesus called to be His special helpers were just regular people...
just like them~

 Right after the bible story, we read a real story about an ordinary lady
who made a huge difference for a family in Ethiopia.
It's awesome to be able to reinforce Geography and learn interesting facts about the country~

We talked about the great plans God has for their lives and
they remembered I have a Bible with Chinese translation and they wanted to see 'Their' language. :)

Next we watched out NewSpring videos and everyone was really into the Robot Rock~

Finally we read our FIAR book, Mirette on the High Wire.
I have skipped over this book so many times thinking the kids wouldn't really like it
but I was very wrong!!!
They loved it as we practiced walking our own tight ropes and turning summersaults~

Lastly we found a video about the real character, Blondin, the book was about
and learned all about Niagara Falls.
It was a fun book and look forward to reading it again. :)

The 3 C's of Geography~

Happy St. Patrick's Day~

We took a little different angle with this holiday this year with Geography as our springboard...

I began our day reading Gail Gibbon's book St. Patrick's Day~

1. Conduct Research~

The first C of Geography is gathering all your research materials to Conduct Research learning as much as you can concerning a place (Ireland).

EK checked this Great NEW YouTube Kids App for related videos

and ALL were on board~

(Thanks Amy!)

With everything gathered in one place, we searched for information about Ireland. 

It was so wonderful when my plans turned to their plans.

EK and SJ picked up the books and used indexes/tables of contents to find Ireland.

They took the younger ones to maps/globes to locate

and made up a game of spin the kids around three times then locate.

It is helpful to have the child find where they are and then locate new place

giving them a frame of reference.

We learned about natural resources, animals, landforms, people, and more about St. Patrick.

{Lots of New Information was Learned}

2. Connect to the Child~

The second C of Geography is making a Connection between the place and the Child.

In the course of our research we learned Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle

and we began to explore why they might be.

Ireland is a very lush and green place with grass and clover.

We also read that St. Patrick used a clover to explain the Trinity to the Irish.

EK spoke up to tell everyone we had tons of clover in our yard. {Connection}

We went out to find the patches then chose some for our journals~

Such a beautiful day in Georgia!

Reminds me of the beautiful green Isle of Ireland!

We taped the clover in our journals and painted a 3 leaf clover reciting Who God is...

God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

EK remembered this being said when she was baptized. {Another Connection}

{Each child was able to make Connections to themselves}

3. Contrast/Compare~

The third C is Contrasting and Comparing the new place to where the child lives.

The last part of our morning allowed the kids to compare/contrast.

Clover grows in both places.

Our flags are different in several ways.

We listened to both anthems and chose our favorite.

We traced the travel path from our home to Ireland.

We drew the flag and glued a map of Ireland in our journals.

We talked about which continent we are on compared to Ireland.

Just SO many ways to chase this skill and so little time. :)

{New terminology like Compare and Contrast being used}

As we wrapped up our short study, 

I did a little secretive assessment of what was learned~

1. Holly home for 9 months was able to point out Ireland on the world map.

2. Facts learned recorded in journals.

3. The boys were introduced to the index and LOVE that it is alphabetical.

4. Maps give us great clues about a place.

5. Reviewed the Compass Rose.

6. Evie found our tiny Target globe and located Ireland by herself.

There you have The 3 Cs of Geography 'mapped' out for you.

Hoping we might enjoy this Beautiful Feet study maybe in the fall~

Geography Through Literature

Plans are for Changing~

Yesterday while we were out on our dr and Rosie adventure

 we happened upon this Beautiful USA print @ Hobby Lobby~

 Scott sat it on the floor in the school room last night and was discovered with excitement this morning!

These three sat down and SJ began reading all the ones she could and made up silly songs for the boys to sing.

{sorry for the potty word at the end...}

It renewed a spark for all things geography and we got out our Dr. Jean cd's to Sing to Learn!

 I put out a couple of map books and they were there for an hour~

Here we go with Plans are for Changing...

When I taught school every day, I had such explicit lesson plans it took longer to write them than execute them.

As a homeschool mom, I have to admit most of what we do is thought of about 10 min before we do it

{not including things in their work drawers}.

So when I mention Plans... I'm referring to our standard activities for one given day and it is not recorded any where

(we just know we do each day).

This morning SJ remembered her Reading activity drawer had a story about The Three Little Pigs so she asked me to read this book to her~

You can imagine all 6 wanted to hear so we piled on the sofa and I read to them.

They loved the voices and repetition as well as discussion of the story.

They were talking about how they could act it out.

I suggested they pretend the story this afternoon when they went outside and each began planning who they wanted to be.

{In my mind I'm thinking Scott can be the big bad wolf and get his blower out to blow down their houses... the boys will LOVE it!}

Get ready honey!!!

Evie wandered over to unifix cubes and called me to show the house she built~

 And since we were on a roll I just couldn't send them to their drawers for the Planned Work!

I folded a big piece of paper and numbered it so we could retell orally one more time.

Each took a paper and made a story map on their own level.

Just look at the bitties' maps above

and the more mature ones below~

We finished the morning with ipod/ipad school and called it a day.

As they came to the kitchen for lunch, 

I heard them saying... mom forgot to make us do our WORK!

Oh no little students of mine...

You WORKED, you just didn't know it. (Haha)

I'd say that was the perfect PLAN for this Wednesday!!!

And our walls say just that~

The Tale of Peter Rabbit~ {FIAR}

As we continue to row The Carrot Seed with the little littles,

I have added The Tale of Peter Rabbit with EK and SJ~

The cool thing is having EK read to us!

We talked about Beatrix Potter today and her home of England.

We printed maps, traced and discussed them, then added to our journals.

Miss Rumphius~ {cont.}

There is just too much goodness to Miss Rumphius to row only one week so we are continuing it this week as well~

Monday is usually social studies/geography so we talked about the state of Maine and used our NEW Wonder Maps curriculum to print a map to trace and glue into our journals~ 

We located on various maps and talked about all state symbols.

I printed each a map from Wonder Maps and they chose a sharpie to trace the map's outline.

We labeled state, capital, land, and ocean plus colored them.

Next we threw in just a smidge of science~

Each folded a wet paper towel and placed in a ziploc bag.

We added 3 lima bean seeds and taped to our window.

We will be observing them over the next few days for changes...

just since this morning the seed coat is splitting and a sprout is appearing!!!

SO excited!!!

Miss Rumphius~ {FIAR}

I pulled a FIAR book this week to emphasize the spring like weather we are experiencing right now.

We read Miss Rumphius and discussed the geography of setting (Maine) and all the places she traveled (land forms).

I divided the girls' journal page into fourths and had them illustrate then tell me something they knew~

As I was cleaning out our school closet, I found a notebook of ABC playdough mats and decided to use it as a sound songbook.

I sang the letter sounds with little littles and they loved it.

I really feel singing this with them each day will help them learn the CODE for reading~

(tune: Shortin' Bread)

A makes the a sound a, a, a, a, (short)

A makes the aaaaa sound, (long)

that starts alligator.

{They especially loved all the photos were animals!}

The boys had a great center time yesterday!

I was amazed how many letters they are learning and lower case to boot~

A couple of videos to celebrate~

Yay boys!!! What good role models you are for Evie!!!

I took this photo this afternoon when school was all done~

I Love watching them choose things like making a menu from magazine that came in the mail or creating art together.

Childhood~ a terrible thing to waste and thankful they are living it to the very BEST!!!