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.

Mirette on the High Wire

Title: Mirette On the High Wire

Author/Illustrator: Emily Arnold McCully

Copyright: 1992

Caldecott Medal

Summary: A young Protegee of the famous Bellini ends up encouraging her teacher.

This Book was not originally the next book I was planning on reading to the kids but on our last field trip to the library Lily found  Mirette on the High Wire and wanted to read it. Well.... We did and she loved it! I decided to do some activities along with the book! Check out all the fun we had.



Social Studies:(France)
We placed our Story disk on France because that's where the story took place. We colored a map, flag and a picture of the Eiffel Tower. We also read some books about France.




Art:(Circus poster)
The kids designed their own circus posters using crayons and markers.


Science:(Metal-copper,cleaning money)
In the picture on the first page of the book their are copper pans. They are made from copper because they conduct heat so well. We examined copper pans in our own house, did an experiment using money and learned about the different properties of copper by reading books.

Examining copper pans-



This Science Experiment was fun for my kids and kept them busy cleaning coins. We used salt, white vinegar and coins. They first used paper towels to dip into the vinegar and salt to rub and clean the coins. They got the coins very shinny. Then they dumped all of the remaining coins in a bowl with the vinegar and salt. This process was exciting to them. I explained how over time copper oxidizes.(Oxidation is caused by exposure to oxygen!) We also talked about the Statue of Liberty and how it is made from copper and over time it turned green.


Books Read-



Science:(Balance,Gravity)
We made a simple scale out of pudding cups and a hanger. The kids hung it on a door in the kitchen. Then they used the coins from the previous experiment to weigh items found around the house. They started by balancing and making the scale equal then they determined which items where heavy or light. We also read books about balance and Gravity.

Scale Experiment-


Books read-


Mathematics:(Money,Counting)
We reviewed money skills. We counted the coins to see how many we used in our science experiments and how much money they where worth.

Language arts:(Compound words)
Their are many compound words in this book. We learned that a compound word is made up of two different words put together. Lily and Aj drew pictures of words on flash cards then we played a game where we matched the words up to make compound words.


Field Trip 1-(playground)
We went to the playground to try balancing just like Mirette did.



Field Trip 2-(Gymnastic studio)
We were lucky enough to go to a gymnastic studio this month to practice balancing on a balance beam and try other gym equipment.



Extra fun: (Art,coloring,tightrope walkers)
We colored a picture of a girl on tight rope! We also watched two u-tube videos on tightrope walking.