Owl Moon and They Were Strong and Good

Teaching Kindergarten, Five in A Row, again is a blast. I am not following the order of books as the curriculum recommends, however. We just pick books that I feel are seasonal, or when we need something lighter, I choose a week that will suit. It has been fun to revisit some old crafts and activities, and we've enjoyed adding new ideas to the mix as well. I feel that we are learning together, and that is what really matters. Ana is a very different student, and her interests are taking us in different directions with the same curriculum. Very interesting.
Two weeks ago we read the story Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen.

This story is about a young girl going owling with her father for the first time and seeing a great horned owl. We listened to Jane Yolen read this story on CD; that was really nice. We enjoyed learning about owls, and John James Audubon. Coincidentally the Local Library had a John James Audubon themed art class that we enjoyed that week. This story led us to discussing self-control as a sign of maturity.

In addition to Owl Moon we enjoyed these books:
Barn Owls, Melissa Hill
Bird Body Parts, Clare Lewis
Pooh and Piglet Nearly Catch a Woozle, A.A. Milne
The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon, Jacqueline Davies (We love this story! Perfectly illustrated and such a nice way to introduce John James Audubon to children. This story was a blessing this year, since his home is closed for renovations this Spring and we could not visit, as we did when I did this unit with Tristan.)
Audubon’s Birds of America, Paintings by John James Audubon
Owls, Gail Gibbons

Last week we read the story They Were Strong and Good, by Robert Lawson. This story grew on me with each day's reading. The pictures are interesting in that they add to the theme of the book, but they aren't as pleasing as some. There is a lot to build on historically in this story, from the Seminole and Civil wars, to slavery in the south and Indians out west, to industrialization. We didn't delve into any of these topics, but we did learn a little geography, labelling all places mentioned in story on our map and learning about the Caribbean. We also illustrated drawings to make the look strong using dark lines and shading. And we wrote a little story of our family with pictures of the grandparents and parents.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, I planned a few activities using conversation hearts. The favorites were, sorting, graphing and patterning. Gwen is surprisingly good at completing color patterns. I was excited to include her in our school day.

Other stories we enjoyed with They Were Strong and Good:

The Caribbean, Jen Green

Gran’s Bees, Mary Thompson (This story paired nicely, and is such a beautiful story. The information about beekeeping was nicely tucked into the text between the narrative that moved with  the full page illustrations and read almost like watching a movie.)

Ox-Cart Man, Barbara

Tristan has found some stories that interest him, and getting him to read is no longer a power struggle. I am glad.
The Cork and Fuzz series by Dori Chaconas are a big hit with all the kids. Tristan will read them aloud to the girls.

 We also found two series by Kate Klimo, one about horses and one about dogs, that he loves reading. So far he has read Cinders and Sparky.


Second grade is going well. I rely on set lesson plans from the curriculum for Math, Language, Latin, Geography and Handwriting. We are learning about the Presidents and the last two weeks we have enjoyed learning about James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. I am sure I learned about these guys in school, but I don't know any of what we are learning.
We are doing a unit on Space for our Spring science unit. It is mind-blowing! We just finished Amazing Space Q&A, by Dr. Mike Goldsmith. We have also read a few picture books about space and a few books about the constellations. Including: Buzz Aldrin's Look to the Stars,  and H.A. Rey's Find the Constellations.