Two weeks of Autumn
We spent the last two weeks reading books about the seasons and Thanksgiving. Two weeks ago we read the story, Scarecrow Pete, by Mark Kimball Moulton. It's the story of a scarecrow who loves to read and shares his love of literature with a young farm boy. Though set in the summer, this was a nice story for our little autumn unit study.
Last week we spent the week learning about the first Thanksgiving; we read the story Three Young Pilgrims, by Cheryl Harness. This story based on the life of three young passengers of the Mayflower, is so historically rich and moving. I was amazed when we got to the end of the book and read that the youngest of these three pilgrims, Mary Allerton Cushman was the last passenger of the Mayflower alive. She passed away at the age of 83 years old in 1699.
A beautiful accompanying story A Li:ght Kindled, the story of Priscilla Mullins, by Tracy M. Leninger. Beautifully written, though for an older audience, this book reinforces the true story of the Pilgrims, specifically those mentioned by name in both books.
I skipped vocabulary for these past two weeks. We continued our lessons in Jesse Wise's First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Level 1.
We added to our list of states and their capitals that we are memorizing our nation's capital. We also learned about Religious freedom both in America and in Pennsylvania. Since Pennsylvania was a colony founded for the purpose of religious freedom, we had a lot to talk about. One rainy day last week we stopped by the oldest Church in Berks County, Old St. Gabriel's. It was built by the Swedish Lutherans who were granted this land along the Schuylkill River by William Penn in 1701. We were not able to go inside, but it was nice to be there, and check out some of the old gravestones, etc. I hope that when we pass the church in the coming weeks, the children will remember the history behind it, and give thanks for the freedom of worship we have in this country.
We learned about chemical changes in Science, focusing on the changing colors in the leaves. We made peanut butter from whole peanuts. What a mess! We all loved the taste of our peanut butter, so much more than the store bought stuff! In the end we decided that it's too much work to make our own on a regular basis. During scarecrow week we learned about our Skeletal System. Bones are amazing!
Our art projects were all fall/Thanksgiving. We got our ideas from the various books from the library. The kids made Crepe paper banners, cardboard turkeys, pop-up cards and Pilgrim hats, a scarecrow mini book. We also played a fun board game found in the book, Thanksgiving Fun: Great Things to Make and Do, by Ronne Randall. Gwen's favorite new song is Over the River and Through the Woods. Every time I sing it she says, "again, again". Of course, with so many verses it's easy to just keep singing it. Today she actually started singing along!
Other stories we enjoyed these past two weeks:
Scarecrow, Cynthia Rylant
Signs of Autumn, Colleen Dolphin
Autumn: Signs of the Season around North America, Pat Finnegan
Skeletal System: A Book About Your Skeleton, Ruth Beloy Gross
New Atlas of Human Anatomy, Thomas O. McKracken (select pages about skeletal system)
Little Bear Makes a Scarecrow, Else Homelund Minark
Courderoy's Thanksgiving, Don Freeman
Thanksgiving Graces, Mark Kimball Moulton (try reading this one through without crying:)
The Children of Noisy Village, Astrid Lindgren
Look How It Changes, June Young
Best Thanksgiving Book, Pat Whitehead (Anastasia and Gwen loved this alphabetical version of the Pilgrim's Story)
Thanksgiving, Ann Henrichs (Chapter book: part history and part modern tradition. Very informative)
Thanksgiving, Laura Alden (cute story about a everyone doing their part and being thankful)
Rueben and the Fire, Merle Good
Woodrow, the White House Mouse, Peter W. Barnes, Cheryl Shaw Barnes (We fell in love with these authors after reading their story about the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Maestro Mouse and the Mystery of the Missing Baton.)
Last week we spent the week learning about the first Thanksgiving; we read the story Three Young Pilgrims, by Cheryl Harness. This story based on the life of three young passengers of the Mayflower, is so historically rich and moving. I was amazed when we got to the end of the book and read that the youngest of these three pilgrims, Mary Allerton Cushman was the last passenger of the Mayflower alive. She passed away at the age of 83 years old in 1699.
I skipped vocabulary for these past two weeks. We continued our lessons in Jesse Wise's First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Level 1.
We added to our list of states and their capitals that we are memorizing our nation's capital. We also learned about Religious freedom both in America and in Pennsylvania. Since Pennsylvania was a colony founded for the purpose of religious freedom, we had a lot to talk about. One rainy day last week we stopped by the oldest Church in Berks County, Old St. Gabriel's. It was built by the Swedish Lutherans who were granted this land along the Schuylkill River by William Penn in 1701. We were not able to go inside, but it was nice to be there, and check out some of the old gravestones, etc. I hope that when we pass the church in the coming weeks, the children will remember the history behind it, and give thanks for the freedom of worship we have in this country.
We learned about chemical changes in Science, focusing on the changing colors in the leaves. We made peanut butter from whole peanuts. What a mess! We all loved the taste of our peanut butter, so much more than the store bought stuff! In the end we decided that it's too much work to make our own on a regular basis. During scarecrow week we learned about our Skeletal System. Bones are amazing!
Our art projects were all fall/Thanksgiving. We got our ideas from the various books from the library. The kids made Crepe paper banners, cardboard turkeys, pop-up cards and Pilgrim hats, a scarecrow mini book. We also played a fun board game found in the book, Thanksgiving Fun: Great Things to Make and Do, by Ronne Randall. Gwen's favorite new song is Over the River and Through the Woods. Every time I sing it she says, "again, again". Of course, with so many verses it's easy to just keep singing it. Today she actually started singing along!
Other stories we enjoyed these past two weeks:
Scarecrow, Cynthia Rylant
Signs of Autumn, Colleen Dolphin
Autumn: Signs of the Season around North America, Pat Finnegan
Skeletal System: A Book About Your Skeleton, Ruth Beloy Gross
New Atlas of Human Anatomy, Thomas O. McKracken (select pages about skeletal system)
Little Bear Makes a Scarecrow, Else Homelund Minark
Courderoy's Thanksgiving, Don Freeman
Thanksgiving Graces, Mark Kimball Moulton (try reading this one through without crying:)
The Children of Noisy Village, Astrid Lindgren
Look How It Changes, June Young
Best Thanksgiving Book, Pat Whitehead (Anastasia and Gwen loved this alphabetical version of the Pilgrim's Story)
Thanksgiving, Ann Henrichs (Chapter book: part history and part modern tradition. Very informative)
Thanksgiving, Laura Alden (cute story about a everyone doing their part and being thankful)
Rueben and the Fire, Merle Good
Woodrow, the White House Mouse, Peter W. Barnes, Cheryl Shaw Barnes (We fell in love with these authors after reading their story about the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Maestro Mouse and the Mystery of the Missing Baton.)
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