Author/Illustrator: Robert Lawson
Copyright: 1940
Award: Caldecott Medal
Category: Classic
Summary: The Narrator shares his family tree,introducing his ancestors with pride and a touch of humor.
We placed our story disks on the Islands of the Caribbean because the grandfather in the story was a sea caption who travels to them and brings back interesting items.The kids did 2 crafts about animals found in the Caribbean. They also learned about the Caribbean by coloring a map and reading books about the islands. Listening to Caribbean music and watching Bob Marley on U-tube was entertaining. We also did a work sheet about occupations which included learning about sea captains and other jobs found in this story.
Social Studies: (History Topics)
We learned about the Civil War and talked about why it happened and how people lived in the 1800's.I put together a basket of activities that the children used to explore the topic. This basket consisted of coloring books, paper dolls, sticker books, knitting kit , cooking utensils and union war figures they could play with. It was a huge hit!
We also read 2 books about the Civil War.
Field trip- We spent the day exploring the 1800's in sandwich. They had a reenactment of a civil war camp and much more....
Mathematics: (Shapes, Hexagons)
The kids traced foam hexagons and made patterns with them. They also did a couple worksheets on shapes.
Language Arts:(Vocabulary)
Lily and Aj learned the meaning of two new words. (Brig and Battery) We also talked about words that are strong and weak sounding. Here is a worksheet we did together.
Art:(Black and White Contrast)
In this story all the illustrations are done using black and white. We talked about how black and white are high in conrast and they emphasize each other.We used stamps to make patterns and pictures with black and white ink. We also made self portraits using charcoal and mirrors.
Science:(pollution)
We read two books. The first was about how the earth was made and the second was about how can we save our planet from pollution. Lily and Aj watched a video on polluion. They also did an experiment using paper plates, Vaseline and string.
Science experiment:(Pollution catcher)
The kids worked as a team to color a clean earth on one side of a paper plate then they put Vaseline on the other. We hung the paper plate on a window. It is supposed to stay up for a month. In the next few weeks we will see if we catch any black particles or pollution.
More fun with learning:(Art, social Studies)
The kids worked together to make their family tree. They cut up pictures and glued them together.
