Books about Mountains
Two weeks back we read the book Amber on the Mountain by Tony Johnston. The story of friendship and determination. Amber lives in the mountains, no road, no school, no friends until a man comes to build a road. Amber befriends the man's daughter, Anna. She teaches Amber to read. After completion of the road, Anna moves back down the mountain. She writes to Amber and Amber teaches herself to write. This is a really sweet story with beautiful illustrations. Tristan and Anastasia, however, needed a break from the routine that we had settled into, and started pushing back on all of my scheduled activities, even reading this book. We muscled through Amber on the Mountain. We talked about the 3 major mountain ranges in USA and imagined Amber living in all of them. We researched all the animals that may live on a mountain and enjoyed many books about mountain habitat. We made a mountain out of all of the pillows and blankets in our house and climbed it. Then we romped around when it collapsed. We discussed the idea of 3d versus 2d, making mountains of clay. We and cut roads into the 3d mountains and we also attempted making a clay donkey. We talked about determination and how being stubborn is sometimes a great thing. We read the book the Mule Who Struck it Rich by Syd Hoff. It is a very silly book showing a Mule's determination.
Then the last two weeks we have worked our way through the activities for the book Climbing Kansas Mountains by George Shannon. The mountains in this story are the tall grain elevators on the plains of Kansas. Sam climbs with his dad one day and enjoys the "high, quiet view". This is such a creative story, approaching the world metaphorically. I kept went with the mountain theme allowing Tristan to put stickers on our map representing a few of the peaks around the world. Of course, Everest, also Pikes Peak, Kilamanjaro, Matterhorn, just to name a few. We talked about how mountains are found all over the world. They also have different peaks of elevation, some are taller than others. We focused on the rectangle as our shape for the weeks. Kansas and Pennsylvania are rectangular shaped states. We made flour dough maps of Pennsylvania and attempted to show the Appalachian mountains running through the eastern part as well as the elevated western portion of the state. This was kind-of tricky for them, but they enjoyed getting their hands dirty. When the dough dried, we painted the map. We learned a bit about Wheat, how it grows and what to do with it. Since we mill wheat and bake on a regular basis it wasn't totally foreign to the kids, but they were somewhat interested when I told them that the white flour purchased at the store only contains part of the wheat berry, the germ is taken out of that wheat, it is then bleached and stuff is added to the flour so it won't go bad. I told them this is why we have to freeze our homemade flour if we don't use it right away. They were kind-of stunned. We used some buckwheat that we've played "construction zone" with for years to make wheat inspired crafts. Paper plate tambourines and wheat collages. The collages are very interesting. We are also attempting to sprout some of our edible wheat. This is new for us, and I'm excited to see how it comes out and how they taste!
We have enjoyed our time learning about mountains and America's flora and fauna, even if we are ready for a break in the routine. Now we are doing a few science focused projects that are not associated with Five in a Row. I want to keep the kids interested in learning, and never want to force them to "do school". We are always interested in the natural world, so that is what we are doing for a week or so.
Then the last two weeks we have worked our way through the activities for the book Climbing Kansas Mountains by George Shannon. The mountains in this story are the tall grain elevators on the plains of Kansas. Sam climbs with his dad one day and enjoys the "high, quiet view". This is such a creative story, approaching the world metaphorically. I kept went with the mountain theme allowing Tristan to put stickers on our map representing a few of the peaks around the world. Of course, Everest, also Pikes Peak, Kilamanjaro, Matterhorn, just to name a few. We talked about how mountains are found all over the world. They also have different peaks of elevation, some are taller than others. We focused on the rectangle as our shape for the weeks. Kansas and Pennsylvania are rectangular shaped states. We made flour dough maps of Pennsylvania and attempted to show the Appalachian mountains running through the eastern part as well as the elevated western portion of the state. This was kind-of tricky for them, but they enjoyed getting their hands dirty. When the dough dried, we painted the map. We learned a bit about Wheat, how it grows and what to do with it. Since we mill wheat and bake on a regular basis it wasn't totally foreign to the kids, but they were somewhat interested when I told them that the white flour purchased at the store only contains part of the wheat berry, the germ is taken out of that wheat, it is then bleached and stuff is added to the flour so it won't go bad. I told them this is why we have to freeze our homemade flour if we don't use it right away. They were kind-of stunned. We used some buckwheat that we've played "construction zone" with for years to make wheat inspired crafts. Paper plate tambourines and wheat collages. The collages are very interesting. We are also attempting to sprout some of our edible wheat. This is new for us, and I'm excited to see how it comes out and how they taste!
We have enjoyed our time learning about mountains and America's flora and fauna, even if we are ready for a break in the routine. Now we are doing a few science focused projects that are not associated with Five in a Row. I want to keep the kids interested in learning, and never want to force them to "do school". We are always interested in the natural world, so that is what we are doing for a week or so.
Comments