Skylark by Patricia Maclachlan Chapter 1

 Chapter Summary-

This is the first chapter in the sequel to Sarah, Plain and Tall. Papa and Sara are now married, and the four witting live together on the prairie.

Our first gimps at the family is with them getting their photograph taken. Sarah wants to send a wedding picture back home to Maine. We also learn that the prairie is experiencing an intense drought. Some families are forced to move. Papa tells the family he would never leave the prairie.


What we will learn- 
History and Geography: A look back at the 30's
Language Arts- Chapter review questions

History and Geography: A look back at the 30's

Skylark Takes Place in the 1930's. This time in history is a tragic and scary time in american history. 

The kids looked at a map of the dust bowl area . They watched a PBS video and read 3 books to learn more about this time in history.

Language Arts- Chapter Review Questions

Lily and Aj completed questions related to the first chapter of the story.  Their answers had to be completed in cursive and full sentences. 

Thanks for reading!

The Story of George Washington Carver by Eva Moore- Chapter 3

Chapter summary-
George continues to learn more about plants and animals. He learns to sew and knit from Aunt Susan. He also takes up whittling. George want to go to school but there are no schools for black children. He He taught how to paint by his neighbor. George decides he loves plants and painting.


What we will cover in this chapter:

History and geography- Segregation 
Language arts- Copy work

History and geography- Segregation 

This was a good opportunity to learn about the history of segregation and its role in American History! We watched a you-tub video on segregation and talked about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsZcEHFhWOA

Language arts- Copy work

Lily and Aj completed copy work on George Washington Carver Quotes.

Thanks for reading!

Chapter 7- First Day of School

Parent Summary-
Tom's first day of school arrives. With Pitt and his mother by his side, Tom sets out for the one-half mile walk to his new schoolhouse. Tom has heard bad stories about his new schoolmaster, MR. Crawford, but he tries to be optimistic. When Tom arrives, Mr Crawford tells him that even though he is seven, Tom must be in first grade since he has no formal schooling. The rest of Toms day does not go any better. He is sent to the corner for drawing pictures instead of doing his penmanship, and his lunch is stolen by the biggest boy in class. That boy, Michael Oats, however, decides to befriend Tom and the lunch hour becomes the best part of his day.

What will we cover in this chapter:
History and Geography: One- Room Schoolhouses
Mathematics: One half mile- How far is that?
Language Arts: Penmanship Review

History and Geography: One- Room Schoolhouses 
Tom's School was a one-room schoolhouse. All the grades from kindergarten up were taught in the same classroom. Because we are a homeschool family it is not much different in our house today.  We spent some time discussing many different types of schools which included private, public, boarding, military, etc.... We also looked at pictures of one room schoolhouses and orally answered questions. Then we had discussion about them. Lily and Aj completed a worksheet about one-room schoolhouses too.

Mathematics: One Half Mile- How far is that?
Tom walked one half mile to school. The children completed a worksheet about distance. Also, while we were talking about one-room schoolhouses I had them answer sample math questions orally like they did in the 1800's.

Langue Arts- Penmanship Review
Lily  and Aj completed a page in the "Handwriting without Tears" workbook.

Thanks for Reading!

Miss Rumphius

Title: Miss Rumphius

Author/Illustrator: Barbara Cooney

Award: American Book Award

Summary: Following in her Grandfathers footsteps, Miss Rumphius succeeds in her mission and stirs the hearts of the next generation.

We were ready for a book that was about spring time and flowers. Its been a long cold winter and we can't wait until it warms up. This book Miss Rumphius warmed our hearts and made us do tons of spring time activities.

Social Studies-(Geography, Maine)

Miss Rumphius lives "by the sea". In this story their is a boy wearing a t-shirt that says Maine on it. This is why we placed our story disk on Maine. We colored a worksheet and read some books about Maine too! The kids also enjoyed watching the movie of Miss Rumphius!

Language Arts-(writing, handwriting)

The topic of The kids writing assignment was "When I grow up, how can I make the world more beautiful?" They each drew a picture then wrote about it! They also copied a paragraph from the book in their best handwriting.

Art-(mixed media)

We used oil pastels, acrylic paint and marker to make Lupine Artwork. We talked about how we are not limited by just one medium when making art. Some of the best art is made by mixing media.

Science-(seeds,gardening)

Miss Rumphius fills her pockets with Lupine seeds and scatters them everywhere. Seeds are a miracle in themselves. We learned all about seeds and plants. First we played a seed matching game. Then we did a a few worksheets to learn how seeds grow and the names of the different parts of the plants. We also did an experiment.

Seed Matching Game-

Worksheets-(flower diagram, how seeds travel)

Experiments-

The kids planted seeds and put them in a dark closet to stimulate not having sun light. They found that if their is a lack of sun then their plants won't grow. We also put seeds in plastic bags to watch the roots grow and we planted flowers in cups.

Books read- We read books about spring and seeds.

Mathematics-(Money,counting,word problems)

Miss Rumphius sends off to the seed house to buy five bushes of lupine seeds. Lily and Aj did a worksheet about making their own garden. They had to choose which flowers to buy then figure out how much money they needed. Lily also did a Math word problem work sheet. We also used beans to count by 2's, 5's and 10's.

Field trip-(Brookwood Community Farm)
 We went on a field trip to the Brookwood Community Farm in Canton Massachusetts to learn about how seeds grow. We got to see how the farm plants seeds in their green house. We helped with planting seeds too! We also colored pictures.