Three Weeks Worth
Three weeks ago, we read the story Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton. We own this little book, it's such a classic. The story about Mike and Mary Ann always captivates us and puts us in a positive frame of mind.
(While reading Mike Mulligan, we finished reading Peter the Great, and The Treasure Chest: The Last Grand Duchess, Anastasia Romanov By Ann Hood. These books are mentioned in my previous post, Another Celebrated Dancing Bear.)
Anastasia's Vocabulary words were: canal, cellar. Tristan's vocabulary word was minaret, taken from The Treasure Chest story. Tristan continues lessons in Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Level 1 by Jesse Wise Bauer, and we had an impromptu lesson on punctuation. His reading out loud has improved since that little talk.
Anastasia counted things from the story, automobiles, power lines, steam ships etc. I also began doing a "daily math" problem during our morning circle time. We use the website BedtimeMath.org. This is nice because there are related questions for little kids and big kids, so both Tristan and Ana are engaged at the same time.
Mike Mulligan doesn't have much to offer in the way of geography. When I went through this story with Tristan in Pre-K/K we talked about canals, focusing on the Panama Canal. I did not go there this year.
For History we read Dorling Kindersley's Visual Timeline of Transportation. Anastasia was not interested in this, but she did seem to understand the concept of a steam powered vehicle.
In art we practiced drawing Trees, like Virginia Lee Burton. I got a little push back for this activity. I guess my budding artists aren't interested in copying the work of others. They did settle down and complete the assignment, however.
For science class we talked about recycle/reuse/repurpose, and other ways to take care of our planet. One of the charming things about Mike Mulligan is how Mary Ann is useful, not only for an extended lifespan as a steam shovel, but then even longer as the boiler for the new town hall. We calculated that if Mary Ann began working around 1880, when steam power became prevalent, and continued working through 1923, when the first of the diesel automobiles came into service, she would have been working for 40-50 years. That is impressive! (these calculations were based on the dates in Dorling Kindersley's Visual Timeline of Transportation and were only used to show perspective). The story says that Mike took such good care of her that she never got old! All I know is that I've never kept a vehicle running for 40 years. We were challenged to think about how we can recycle/reuse/repurpose and take better care of the things we already have.
We also talked about steam power. Since we have been discussing water science, this fit in nicely. We made pinwheels and tried to get them to spin by the steam of the tea kettle, but we could not get it to work. Oh well.
Other stories we enjoyed with Mike Mulligan:
Worthington Botts and His Steam Machine, Betty Baker
One Child, One Planet, Bridget McGovern Llewyn
Two weeks ago we read the story The Glorious Flight, by Alice and Martin Provensen. We own this story as well. It is interesting and simple, yet tells the true story of Louis Bleriot, the first aeronaut to fly across the English Channel.
For Language, Anastasia's Vocabulary words: Valiant, Propeller, Inevitable, Prospect. I added spelling to Tristan's week. We will review a spelling rule, or two a week from now until the end of the school year and attempt to improve his spelling (sounding words out only gets a person so far).
History and Geography: we located the English channel, and flew our French flag all week. Ana remembered where France was on the map, from Madeline. Tristan continues to learn a new state name, abbreviation and capital each week. At the end of the week we fill in a dry erase map of the U.S. I am enjoying this refresher, and hopefully we are laying a good foundation for Tristan's understanding of our great land.
We enjoyed learning about Wilbur and Orville Wright this week as well as Papa Bleriot. Interesting that the Wright brothers were in France in 1909. We could not find any documentation that they met with Louis Bleriot, but it is interesting and I thought applicable to include their story in this weeks lessons.
We also reviewed the story of Daedalus and Icarus. My children don't really enjoy this story, but it teaches a good moral lesson and is a classic.
Dorling Kindersley's Visual Timeline of Transportation was a great resource this week. Ana actually enjoyed finding the cars, airships and airplanes that matched the illustrations in The Glorious Flight.
We read Fly, Kite, Fly! A Story of Leonardo and a Bird Catcher, by John Winch. This is a fictional story is about Leonardo DaVinci and his genius about flight. I used this story for art, and was encouraged when the story ended and I told the children it was about Leonardo DaVinci, a famous painter. Tristan said, "Yeah, I knew that when we turned to the page with the painting of the woman" (The Mona Lisa).
We also crafted Valentine's Day cards for grandparents and cousins.
Science this week: flight!
We learned a lot about flight, and also saw a Bleriot XI and the Wright brother's Flyer on our field trip to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. My Mom, Nana, was gracious enough to accompany me and the children down to the city on Friday for our field trip, and host us overnight after our big day. What an amazing end to our week learning about Louis Bleriot and Orville and Wilbur Wright! Amazing! We were able to join the preschool story time at the museum, followed by a simple craft. This was super nice for Gwen, since she loves hearing stories and coloring. All the children were proud to bring home their homemade souvenir!
Other stories we enjoyed with The Glorious Flight:
My Brother's Flying Machine: Orville Wilbur and Me, Jane Yolen (Loved this story!! A different look at the Wright brothers. Historically accurate.)
Into the Air, Ryan Ann Hunter (Nice timeline of flight, information repeated in the Smithsonian's exhibit Early Flight, Rm 107 in the National Air And Space Museum, Washington D.C. I skimmed the first few pages, though, they were just full of evolution.)
America's Champion Swimmer, Gertrude Ederle, David A. Adler (The first woman to swim the English Channel.)
Brave Harriet, Marissa Moss (The first woman to fly solo across the English Channel. Her flight coincided with the sinking of the Titanic, so she didn't really make the news.)
This past week, we continued learning about airplanes and flying. After our exciting trip, we wanted to learn more, and experiment for ourselves.
I kept the basic subjects consistent: math lessons, language lessons, spelling lessons and geography lessons. Anastasia worked on writing her letters.
We made some of the projects in Make it Work Flight, by Andrew Haslam. Grandma helped us make one of the more complicated gliders. We have yet to test it on a real flight. (Last week was rainy, and most of the projects in the book advise flying them outside.)
We read The Wright Brothers, by Russell Freedman. We enjoyed this very thorough history/biography because we already knew the basic story. The details and real photographs are neat.
We also enjoyed Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, by Mike Lemanski.
Our 8 week Spring session of co-op began last week. We enjoyed getting back in-touch with some of the people we hadn't seen in a while, and are excited about the class topics and learning ahead of us this semester.
We began reading The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
(While reading Mike Mulligan, we finished reading Peter the Great, and The Treasure Chest: The Last Grand Duchess, Anastasia Romanov By Ann Hood. These books are mentioned in my previous post, Another Celebrated Dancing Bear.)
Anastasia's Vocabulary words were: canal, cellar. Tristan's vocabulary word was minaret, taken from The Treasure Chest story. Tristan continues lessons in Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Level 1 by Jesse Wise Bauer, and we had an impromptu lesson on punctuation. His reading out loud has improved since that little talk.
Anastasia counted things from the story, automobiles, power lines, steam ships etc. I also began doing a "daily math" problem during our morning circle time. We use the website BedtimeMath.org. This is nice because there are related questions for little kids and big kids, so both Tristan and Ana are engaged at the same time.
Mike Mulligan doesn't have much to offer in the way of geography. When I went through this story with Tristan in Pre-K/K we talked about canals, focusing on the Panama Canal. I did not go there this year.
For History we read Dorling Kindersley's Visual Timeline of Transportation. Anastasia was not interested in this, but she did seem to understand the concept of a steam powered vehicle.
In art we practiced drawing Trees, like Virginia Lee Burton. I got a little push back for this activity. I guess my budding artists aren't interested in copying the work of others. They did settle down and complete the assignment, however.
For science class we talked about recycle/reuse/repurpose, and other ways to take care of our planet. One of the charming things about Mike Mulligan is how Mary Ann is useful, not only for an extended lifespan as a steam shovel, but then even longer as the boiler for the new town hall. We calculated that if Mary Ann began working around 1880, when steam power became prevalent, and continued working through 1923, when the first of the diesel automobiles came into service, she would have been working for 40-50 years. That is impressive! (these calculations were based on the dates in Dorling Kindersley's Visual Timeline of Transportation and were only used to show perspective). The story says that Mike took such good care of her that she never got old! All I know is that I've never kept a vehicle running for 40 years. We were challenged to think about how we can recycle/reuse/repurpose and take better care of the things we already have.
We also talked about steam power. Since we have been discussing water science, this fit in nicely. We made pinwheels and tried to get them to spin by the steam of the tea kettle, but we could not get it to work. Oh well.
Other stories we enjoyed with Mike Mulligan:
Worthington Botts and His Steam Machine, Betty Baker
One Child, One Planet, Bridget McGovern Llewyn
Two weeks ago we read the story The Glorious Flight, by Alice and Martin Provensen. We own this story as well. It is interesting and simple, yet tells the true story of Louis Bleriot, the first aeronaut to fly across the English Channel.
For Language, Anastasia's Vocabulary words: Valiant, Propeller, Inevitable, Prospect. I added spelling to Tristan's week. We will review a spelling rule, or two a week from now until the end of the school year and attempt to improve his spelling (sounding words out only gets a person so far).
History and Geography: we located the English channel, and flew our French flag all week. Ana remembered where France was on the map, from Madeline. Tristan continues to learn a new state name, abbreviation and capital each week. At the end of the week we fill in a dry erase map of the U.S. I am enjoying this refresher, and hopefully we are laying a good foundation for Tristan's understanding of our great land.
We enjoyed learning about Wilbur and Orville Wright this week as well as Papa Bleriot. Interesting that the Wright brothers were in France in 1909. We could not find any documentation that they met with Louis Bleriot, but it is interesting and I thought applicable to include their story in this weeks lessons.
We also reviewed the story of Daedalus and Icarus. My children don't really enjoy this story, but it teaches a good moral lesson and is a classic.
Dorling Kindersley's Visual Timeline of Transportation was a great resource this week. Ana actually enjoyed finding the cars, airships and airplanes that matched the illustrations in The Glorious Flight.
We read Fly, Kite, Fly! A Story of Leonardo and a Bird Catcher, by John Winch. This is a fictional story is about Leonardo DaVinci and his genius about flight. I used this story for art, and was encouraged when the story ended and I told the children it was about Leonardo DaVinci, a famous painter. Tristan said, "Yeah, I knew that when we turned to the page with the painting of the woman" (The Mona Lisa).
We also crafted Valentine's Day cards for grandparents and cousins.
Science this week: flight!
We learned a lot about flight, and also saw a Bleriot XI and the Wright brother's Flyer on our field trip to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. My Mom, Nana, was gracious enough to accompany me and the children down to the city on Friday for our field trip, and host us overnight after our big day. What an amazing end to our week learning about Louis Bleriot and Orville and Wilbur Wright! Amazing! We were able to join the preschool story time at the museum, followed by a simple craft. This was super nice for Gwen, since she loves hearing stories and coloring. All the children were proud to bring home their homemade souvenir!
Above: The children stand in front of Amelia Earhart's plane.
Below: Wilbur and Orville Wright's Flyer
Other stories we enjoyed with The Glorious Flight:
My Brother's Flying Machine: Orville Wilbur and Me, Jane Yolen (Loved this story!! A different look at the Wright brothers. Historically accurate.)
Into the Air, Ryan Ann Hunter (Nice timeline of flight, information repeated in the Smithsonian's exhibit Early Flight, Rm 107 in the National Air And Space Museum, Washington D.C. I skimmed the first few pages, though, they were just full of evolution.)
America's Champion Swimmer, Gertrude Ederle, David A. Adler (The first woman to swim the English Channel.)
Brave Harriet, Marissa Moss (The first woman to fly solo across the English Channel. Her flight coincided with the sinking of the Titanic, so she didn't really make the news.)
This past week, we continued learning about airplanes and flying. After our exciting trip, we wanted to learn more, and experiment for ourselves.
I kept the basic subjects consistent: math lessons, language lessons, spelling lessons and geography lessons. Anastasia worked on writing her letters.
We made some of the projects in Make it Work Flight, by Andrew Haslam. Grandma helped us make one of the more complicated gliders. We have yet to test it on a real flight. (Last week was rainy, and most of the projects in the book advise flying them outside.)
We read The Wright Brothers, by Russell Freedman. We enjoyed this very thorough history/biography because we already knew the basic story. The details and real photographs are neat.
We also enjoyed Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, by Mike Lemanski.
Our 8 week Spring session of co-op began last week. We enjoyed getting back in-touch with some of the people we hadn't seen in a while, and are excited about the class topics and learning ahead of us this semester.
We began reading The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
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