Five In A Row: Storm In The Night

This week we read a book I was initially hesitant to read, but has ended up being a really great choice for us.  I was concerned someone might start becoming afraid of thunderstorms, but ironically, the opposite has happened in that now I have two kids who love to talk about them.  Go figure!!!  This homeschooling thing is full of surprises.

Anyone who has talked to LadyBear this week might have heard that it's important to not stand under a tree, but instead go inside if there is a thunderstorm outside.  FYI, she is very passionate about this...

 Our girl, getting into the true spirit of the week with her lightning mask...

Each day we read the story from the Bible where Jesus calms the storm from the boat, using a different Bible or Bible story book we had in the house.

For Social Studies each day, we talked about the emotion of Fear and what we do when we find we are afraid.  The first day we talked about prayer and putting on our Armor of God.

 Armor of God Bear helps illustrate for us!

The next day we talked about reading the Bible and seeing what it has to say, since we believe it is true.

 Reading some Bible verses addressing fear that Mom chose for him..

Then we talked about listening to Praise and Worship songs when we are afraid.

Jammin' out to some songs about not being afraid because God is always with us...

The fourth day we talked about the importance of talking with Mom or Dad when we are afraid, so they can help us work through it.  Then the last day we talked about practical ways to prepare ourselves (within reason) in case a bad storm does happen.  We talked about storm safety and I showed the kids our emergency kits and what was included and talked about what we do if a bad storm hits us.

Ben going through his emergency (72 hr) kit, we found several things we need to update!

For Science each day, we tried to cover a different topic relating to storms.  I found a lot of great worksheets that were a major help here (linked in my Pinterest board if you're looking for them).  We learned about the Water Cycle and defined evaporation, condensation, and precipitation...

We studied different types of clouds...

Talking through different types of clouds...

We talked about how Clouds form with a cool science experiment...



We looked at the mechanics of thunderstorms in particular...

 Fun with static electricity!

And then we went to see the Magic School Bus "Kicking Up A Storm" exhibit at the Mayborn Museum that talks all about weather and thunderstorms!

Water Cycle review!!!

Math and Language Arts along with Handwriting were accomplished through our normal daily worksheets.  LittleBear has finished the Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten book, but still needs practice, so I have been pulling some free worksheets off the web for him to do each day.

Loving the blue corn chips and the worksheets (ok, maybe not the worksheets so much...)

For Art, we talked about a few different paintings I found that addressed rain...We also tried drawing our own storm.

 Yup, that's a basket of unclean laundry in the background...just keepin' it real, y'all!

 LittleBear and his supercell thunderstorm complete with tornado!

And for our fun food activity, we attempted to make cloud cookies (you know, those cute puffy cookies made of meringue)...

So excited to be in the kitchen together!

Clearly meringue is not my gift...Oh well, the fun is in the trying, right?

All in all, I think this is the best week of school we have had in a while...mostly because Momma tried to have a really good attitude the whole week :)  We had SO many great books this week, it was really hard to get through them all, but we made it through most of them and even kept a few to read for fun next week.

Resources and printables I used for Storm In the Night can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

Types of Thunderstorms on Youtube

Lightning for Children on Youtube
Lightning: The Formation of a Thunderstorm on Youtube

Go Along Books we used for Storm In the Night (* indicate ones we especially liked):

*Little Cloud by Eric Carle
*Oh Say Can You Say What's the Weather Today? by Tish Rabe
*Weather (A Scholastic First Discovery Book) by Gallimard Jeunesse and Pascale de Bourgoing
*God's Armor for Me by Amelia Shearer
*Meteorology (A True Book) by Christine Taylor-Butler
*Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley
*Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley
*A Raindrop's Journey by Suzanne Slade
*Thunderstorms (A True Book) by Chana Stiefel
*Watching the Weather: Thunder and Lightning by Elizabeth Miles
*Storms and the Earth by Nikki Bundey
*Like A Hundred Drums by Annette Griessman
*Lightning: Sheets, Streaks, Beads and Balls by Suzanne Harper
*Inside LIghtning by Melissa Stewart
*Storms by Seymour Simon
*A Drop of Water by Gordon Morrison
Hurricanes and Tornadoes (Eyewitness) by Jack Challoner (we didn't get to read this one)
Tales of Thunder & Lightning by Harry Devlin (we didn't get to read this one)
Experiements With Weather (A True Book) by Salvatore Tocci

Thundercake by Patricia Polacco (a lot of people rave about this one, but some of us couldn't get past the fact that the grandmother and child were walking around outside during a scary thunderstorm to collect the ingredients for the cake)

We chose to put our story disk on Tornado Alley because there was no specific location mentioned in the book...

Upward Basketball: LittleBear Scores A Goal for the Falcons

We were so excited and proud of our little man (#4 with the green shoes) today!!!!

Five In A Row: The Clown of God

These past two weeks we read another new-to-us book called Clown of God, which tells the life of a juggler in the times of the Renaissance.  We also learned about monks and St. Francis of Assisi (who is mentioned multiple times in the book), the Renaissance time period, Leonardo DaVinci and Michelangelo.  We then reviewed what we had learned during Papa Piccolo week about Italy.

We also took Monday the 19th out to study MLK and learn why that was an important day.  Then we went back to our Clown of God study.  It was a fun two weeks!

We did our usual worksheets (LadyBear and I elected to color)...

We tried a little juggling...

Made some rainbows with our dot markers...

And tried our hand at drawing Giovanni juggling...

We also talked about how we can give God glory in the things that we do...

Overall, we had an enjoyable two weeks and I think this will be a favorite book of both kids for many months to come.

Resources and printables I used for Clown of God can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

Peter Irish Juggling video on Youtube

Go Along Books we used for Clown of God (* indicate ones we especially liked):

*Papa Gatto by Ruth Sanderson

*Look What Came From Italy by Miles Harvey

*Michelangelo by Mike Venezia

*DaVinci by Mike Venezia

*Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Saint Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures by Katherine Patterson

*Brother Francis and the Friendly Beasts by Margaret Hodges

Brother Sun, Sister Moon: The Life and Stories of St. Francis by Margaret Mayo

*The Renaissance by Jane Shuter

*The Renaissance (Eyewitness Art) by Alison Cole

*Let's Learn Italian Picture Dictionary by the Editors of Passport Books

 Making sure our story disk ended up in the right spot with a little help from LadyBear...

Five In A Row: Very Last First Time Continued...

 LadyBear posing with the igloo she and I made together...

We got to build our igloos today!  For our very last activity to go along with the Very Last First Time unit, we took turns trying to build some igloos. 

I found these jumbo marshmallows at the grocery store and a box of sugar cubes and set the kids to work.  I asked them to each build an igloo with both materials and then tell me which one they thought was easier.   I ended up helping LadyBear a lot, but LittleBear did pretty well on his own!

We all agreed the marshmallows were much easier to build with, and a few of us may have sampled one :)

Five In A Row: The Very Last First Time

This week, we enjoyed another new-to-us book called the Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews, which is about an Inuit girl named Eva who walks on the bottom of the sea for the first time in search of mussels for her family.  LittleBear, LadyBear and I all enjoyed it and I think this is going to be one we'll have to add permanently to our library :)

This week we learned all about the Inuit people group, the Arctic, a bit about Canada, igloos, polar wildlife and more!  I think the kids really enjoyed it and I know I did.

Some highlights this week include:

Making Inuit paper dolls!

Creating scenes with an Arctic Toob set that found at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon!

One of the big highlights of the week was our own search for mussels!  Granted, here in Central Texas we aren't exactly able to walk on the bottom of the sea, but the Lord was so kind as to make it super cold outside (19 degrees, I think), so our trek to HEB in search of mussels did seem more authentic today than it normally would have. 

We actually found them and bought half a pound to bring home.  The kids really enjoyed holding them, looking them over, getting to touch and smell them, etc.

 Fun with mussels!

 Mussels on ice!

 Of course, Orbit wanted to know what we were all so interested in and LittleBear happily taught him what he had learned...
 
After exploring and talking about the mussels (they were still alive), I steamed them in a garlic herb butter and we had them for lunch alongside some super yummy crab cakes.  The mussels weren't everyone's favorite, but the crab cakes went over really well.  In fact, LittleBear ate two!

I really wanted to try and build an igloo this week with either sugar cubes or marshmallows, but we didn't get to it.  Hopefully, I'll squeeze that in tomorrow and update this post with pictures :)

Resources and printables I used for Very Last First Time can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

Race Against the Frozen Tide- Human Planet- BBC on Youtube (seriously, watch this, it's amazing!)

How to Build an Igloo- A Boy Among Polar Bears- BBC on Youtube

Following His Father's Footsteps- A Boy Among Polar Bears- BBC on Youtube

 

Go Along Books we used for Very Last First Time (* indicate ones we especially liked):

*The Inuit by Kevin Cunningham and Peter Benoit

*Igloo by Yasmine A. Cordoba

*Polar Wildlife by Kamini Khanduri

*Building an Igloo by Ulli Steltzer

*Children Just Like Me by Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley (pg 23)

*My Arctic 1, 2, 3 by Vladyana Krykorka

*Where Do Polar Bears Live? by Sarah L. Thomson

*Here is the Arctic Winter by Madeleine Dunphy

Putting our story disk on Ungava Bay in Canada...