They Were Strong and Good
Last week our story was They Were Strong and Good, by Robert Lawson. Robert Lawson shares his family tree and some stories from his parents and grandparents. It won the Caldecott Medal in 1941.
While reading this story we enjoyed renaming his grandparents with our family names, my mother's mother became Nana, etc. while we read. The illustrations in this story are thoughtfully done and capture culture and history as well as illustrating the text.
Our vocabulary words this week: Brig, Battery, Scotch; Caribbean. We discussed the title of this story, the words give power and make you want to find out who was "strong and good"? And we discussed how two different books may have a similar theme. We compared this story to The Ox Cart Man, by Barbara Cooney.
For Math: we counted and graphed the animals in the story. We reviewed shapes, focusing on the geometrics and remembering how many sides each shape has. We did some adding and subtracting using the cannons in the battery for our subject.
In Art: we practiced drawing black and white pictures with high contrast to give them strength. We tried drawing an Elephant that looked Strong. The kids told me mine also looked mad, but I tried my best! We looked for symbolism in Lawson's title page illustration, trying to match one item with each of his ancestors. Then we thought of what items we could draw to symbolize our parents and grandparents.
In Social Studies and Geography: we mapped all the locations listed in the story. And discussed the compass rose and where each location is in relation to the other locations. Then we focused in on the Caribbean and learned about Puerto Rico. We also made a photo family tree.
In Science we learned about Bees and beekeeping (review from The Bee Tree by Patricia Polocco). We learned about ecology and pollution. We did some fun experiments using the book My First Green Book as a guide. The Acid rain experiment tested plant sensitivity to acid. We watered two plants with different concentrations of acid (water and vinegar), the third plant acted as the control and was watered with pure water. The pollution experiment tested to see if plants are affected by pollution in water. This experiment is the classic dye a celery stick with food coloring. The children really enjoyed these and I think they're beginning to understand what the words pollution, conservation and recycle mean.
While reading this story we enjoyed renaming his grandparents with our family names, my mother's mother became Nana, etc. while we read. The illustrations in this story are thoughtfully done and capture culture and history as well as illustrating the text.
Our vocabulary words this week: Brig, Battery, Scotch; Caribbean. We discussed the title of this story, the words give power and make you want to find out who was "strong and good"? And we discussed how two different books may have a similar theme. We compared this story to The Ox Cart Man, by Barbara Cooney.
For Math: we counted and graphed the animals in the story. We reviewed shapes, focusing on the geometrics and remembering how many sides each shape has. We did some adding and subtracting using the cannons in the battery for our subject.
In Art: we practiced drawing black and white pictures with high contrast to give them strength. We tried drawing an Elephant that looked Strong. The kids told me mine also looked mad, but I tried my best! We looked for symbolism in Lawson's title page illustration, trying to match one item with each of his ancestors. Then we thought of what items we could draw to symbolize our parents and grandparents.
In Social Studies and Geography: we mapped all the locations listed in the story. And discussed the compass rose and where each location is in relation to the other locations. Then we focused in on the Caribbean and learned about Puerto Rico. We also made a photo family tree.
In Science we learned about Bees and beekeeping (review from The Bee Tree by Patricia Polocco). We learned about ecology and pollution. We did some fun experiments using the book My First Green Book as a guide. The Acid rain experiment tested plant sensitivity to acid. We watered two plants with different concentrations of acid (water and vinegar), the third plant acted as the control and was watered with pure water. The pollution experiment tested to see if plants are affected by pollution in water. This experiment is the classic dye a celery stick with food coloring. The children really enjoyed these and I think they're beginning to understand what the words pollution, conservation and recycle mean.
 |
| Add caption |
Comments