Five In A Row: Owl Moon

This week we enjoyed reading an old favorite of the kids and mine, Owl Moon.  This book is about a child and their dad who go owling in the woods at night looking for a Great Horned Owl.  It's a great story and one that all three of us enjoyed each time we sat down to read it.

Because several of our books talk about being brave this week, we went back to our character quality of Courageous for Bible/Character Qualities.  This is one I don't feel we can emphasize too much in our house, in particular.  For Math, we continued with Math-U-See Alpha and we also continued with Explode the Code Book 3 for Language Arts.  Handwriting was also covered by sheets from our Memoria Press Copybook 1 and extra sheets I found on Pinterest.

For Social Studies, we talked about respecting nature and exploring/enjoying it, but also taking care of it.  I don't think these concepts really sunk in very far, but at least it was something.  I want my kids to love this world and be good caretakers of it as well.

For Science, we talked about Owls and what makes them different from other birds.  My five year old boy LOVED hearing about how owls regurgitate the parts of their food that they can't digest into pellets and could not believe that I didn't order one for us to dissect (maybe another time son...).  We also talked about the moon a lot and reviewed our phases of the moon, adding in waxing and waning terminology.  My kids love hearing about the moon!!!

We had a crazy week, so we didn't get any art done, but we did have a really fun food project reviewing the phases of the moon with...Moon pies!!!  We have done this before with oreo cookies, but this was better for sure.  The kids and I loved it!!  I will totally do this again, just for fun :)

So that was our week with Owl Moon!

Resources and printable sheets I used for Owl Moon can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

Go Along books we used for Owl Moon (* indicate ones we especially liked):
*Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
*Good-night Owl by Pat Hutchins
*Owl Babies by Martin Waddell (LadyBear's personal favorite)
*Owls by Gail Gibbons
*So That's How the Moon Changes Shape by Allan Fowler
*Owls: Birds of the Night by Emily Sollinger
*Owls by Tom Jackson
*On the Moon by Anna Milbourne and Benji Davies
*What Is The Moon Like by Franklyn M. Branley
*The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons
*What the Sun Sees/What the Moon Sees by Nancy Tafuri
*Moon (Eyewitness Books) by Jacqueline Mitton
The Moon by Carmen Bredeson
I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton

Our story disc in Northern New England, which is a popular area on our map!

Five In A Row: Miss Rumphius

This week, we read a book that I really enjoy and the kids seemed to as well, called Miss Rumphius. Because Daddy had Good Friday and the Monday following Easter off (hooray!), we decided to take two weeks to cover Miss Rumphius because there were going to be two shorter weeks and I didn't want to short-change either this book or the one we are reading next.  It worked out well!

We loved this book!  And I personally enjoyed applying it to where we currently live in Central Texas.  Not having grown up here, I know very little of Texas history and this gave me a chance to learn alongside the kids :)  Plus, who doesn't love wildflowers!?  

So here's what the week looked like...For Bible/Character building, we talked about being creative and what that means.  We read the Value of Creativity and talked about different ways we can be creative throughout our days.

LadyBear and her four-pawed assistant workin' on their creativity...

For Math, we did start Math-U-See Alpha and did a mixture of sheets each day from lessons 6 and 7, which went well.  For Language Arts, each day we did Explode the Code Book 3 lesson 4 and for Handwriting, we continued each day with the Memoria Press Copybook 1 and we did some Miss Rumphius copy work that I found through Pinterest. 

Copywork!

For Social Studies we talked about Texas and the fact that the state flower is the Bluebonnet, which is a Lupine.  We read a lot about bluebonnets specifically and also Texas history. 

These are such a beautiful state flower to have!

We also talked about what we can do to make the world more beautiful, like Miss Rumphius.  We also read a great book about LadyBird Johnson and her contribution to making our country more beautiful.  I REALLY wanted to work in a field trip to the LadyBird Johnson National Wildflower Center, which is about two hours away from us (and super close to our cousins!), but time and budget didn't really allow for that.  We'll definitely visit another time!

I chose to smile and use kind words more.  LittleBear was inspired and chose to draw pictures for people, help, give kisses and hugs.  

For Science, we talked about seeds and how they grow and move around.  We compared seeds from different plants side-by-side and even looked at the different kinds of Lupines from our Seed Catalog. 

Comparing Seeds...

Gettin' silly with the seed catalog...

We also talked about the parts of a plant, the parts of a flower, and how pollination happens, as well as discussions about wildflowers, particularly the ones native to Central Texas.  

 Some seeds stick to things to move around!

Last week we planted seeds in our garden and this week they started to sprout, so we went out each day and watched our little plants grow, which was really fun.  

Peas and Carrots!!

Thankfully, it's also the season where Texas families go out and take Bluebonnet pictures, so we also got to touch, smell and see how beautiful Lupines really make the world!  LittleBear has already decided that we are planting as many bluebonnets as we can in our backyard this coming Fall for next Spring.  I love that idea!

LittleBear and LadyBear exploring... 

For Art, we did a dot art project and made our own bluebonnets.  LittleBear worked really hard on his and was super proud of it.  LadyBear enjoyed it too.  

LittleBear working on his lupine art picture...

It was a great couple of weeks and we learned a ton!  The kids also get super excited whenever we are driving around and they see the wildflowers, which is definitely fun.  

Resources and printable sheets I used for Miss Rumphius can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

Go Along books we used for Miss Rumphius (* indicate the ones we especially liked):
Central Texas Wildflowers leaflet by Steven Schwartzman
*Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers by Kathi Appelt
*A Child's History of Texas by Sarah Jackson
*It's Bluebonnet Time by Lucas Miller
*I Spy in the Texas Sky by Deborah Ousley Kadair
*Bluebonnet of the Hill Country by Mary Brooke Casad
Bluebonnet at the Texas State Capitol by Mary Brooke Casad
*Bluebonnets for Lucinda by Frances Clarke Sayers
*L is for Lone Star (A Texas Alphabet) by Carol Crane
*Texas (Eyewitness Books) by Simon Adams & David Murdoch
*Check It Out by Gail Gibbons
*The Value of Creativity by Ann Donegan Johnson
*Texas Wildflower Portraits by Lou Ellen O'Kennon
Texas (State Shapes) by Erik Brown
The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie DePaola
ABC's of Texas Wildflowers by Glenna Gardiner Grimmer
Texas Gardening Wildflowers by McMillen's Publishing

The book doesn't specifically say where it takes place, but it's generally agreed upon to be Maine.  However, our story disks for New England are so plentiful that Maine can no longer be seen, so we put the disk over the part of the country where we live :)

Five In A Row: Harold and the Purple Crayon

This week we met another book we had never read before in Harold and the Purple Crayon.  Needless to say, I think LadyBear has a new favorite and LittleBear really enjoyed it too (as did Orbit, but that sort of goes without saying at this point).  It's about a little boy who imagines adventures he draws with a big purple crayon.

It was a fun week of reading and learning about colors.   A lot of people choose to talk about the moon this unit, but we're planning on another book soon that is more "moon-centric," so I am personally leaving our moon lessons for that week instead.

For Bible/Character building, we continued to talk about being content.  That's a hard one to learn and we had plenty of opportunities for it to come up this week in all of us!

LittleBear working away on his math, which he told his piano teacher this week is his favorite subject...

For Math, we did start Math-U-See Alpha and did a mixture of sheets each day from lessons 1-3, which were review of the previous level we just finished.  For Language Arts, each day we did Explode the Code Book 3 lesson 2 and for Handwriting, we continued each day with the Memoria Press Copybook 1.

 Four thumbs up for apple pie!!

I guess we sort of skipped Social Studies this week (oops, oh well).  We did decide to have a pie picnic like Harold in the book, only we didn't include nine kinds of pie...just a freshly baked apple pie.  Both kids (& Mom) heartily approved.  And since it was raining outside, we had our picnic at the dining room table :)

LadyBear pouring over the color wheel talking about what colors mixed with what other colors to make new colors... 

 
For Science, we talked about blending colors to get other colors and we did an experiment to see what would happen when we mixed red and blue.  We set up three jars of water with one jar having red water, one jar having blue water and the jar in the middle with clear water.  I put paper towels connecting the red and clear jars and the blue and clear jars.  We talked about what we thought might happen with the water...

 Forming our hypotheses...

 Let the experiment begin!

Several hours later, the kids and I were delighted to find the middle jar was a pleasant shade of purple.

 hooray it worked!

For Art, we got out our purple crayons and markers and drew our own stories like Harold.  LadyBear was far more into it than LittleBear was.

 LadyBear working on her purple story...

LittleBear also worked on a color-by-number picture that he thought was fun and turned out to be a rainbow with a sun.

We were blessed to see our own rainbow outside our window (hooray for when homeschool and the outside world work together)!  We were all pretty pumped about that.  

We love rainbows!

We also played lots of "I spy" and "Can you find this color?"  

It was another fun week!!  Definitely check this book out, if you haven't already.  I know Harold has lots of other adventures, but our library was out of those books, so we'll have to save those for another time.  In the meantime, here's what we did read:

Resources and printable sheets I used for Harold and the Purple Crayon can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

Go Along books we used for Harold and the Purple Crayon (* indicate the ones we especially liked):
*I Am An Artist by Pat Lowery Collins
* Dog Loves Drawing by Louise Yates
*Happy Birthday, Moon by Frank Asch
*Mooncake by Frank Asch (LadyBear LOVES this one)
*The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf
*Sight A True Book by Patricia J. Murphy
*By the Light of the Moon by Sheridan Cain
* The Moon by Christine Taylor-Butler
*A World of Colors by Marie Houblon
*The Day the Crayons Quit
Draw Me A Star by Eric Carle (I liked this book except there is a rather anatomically correct picture of a naked man & woman (Eric Carle style) toward the beginning which I felt was unnecessary)

 Story disk time!!

This story didn't happen in any particular place, so I let LittleBear choose where he wanted to put the story disk.  He chose Idaho...

LadyBear & her buddy Ferdinand...

Apparently, I've been reading Ferdinand more often than I thought with LadyBear...she's got almost the whole thing memorized!!

Five In A Row: The Story of Ferdinand

This week we moved on to Five In A Row Volume 2!!  We probably won't do all of Volume 2, so I decided to do the books out of order and start with one of my personal favorites :)

The Story of Ferdinand is about a little bull who (unlike his friends) likes to sit quietly under an old cork tree and smell the flowers around him instead of running around trying to be a fierce bull that gets picked for the bullfights in Madrid.  This story is especially dear to my heart because I have long seen LittleBear as my little Ferdinand (he's more the type to sit quietly and smell the flowers than be rough and tumble).  I was reminded this week of this tweet from last year...*melt*  Anyway, I love my little Ferdinand and this book and had fun going over it with the kids this week.  LadyBear wasn't in the mood for sitting down much at the beginning of this week, so it ended up being mostly LittleBear, Orbit and I, but then something happened in the middle and she fell in love with the book so much that now I read it A LOT to her.

For Bible/Character Building, we talked about Contentment and what that means (and how we are ALL-Mommy included- still learning how to be content).  We also talked about ways that we can be content and I challenged myself and LittleBear to try to be content when we find ourselves wanting more.  We also took some time to think of things we are thankful for, which helped us realize how much we already have.  In addition, we read stories each day out of A Child's Book of Character Building Book 1, which both kids really enjoy.  We also talked about how God made everyone unique and we are made that way for a purpose.

LittleBear and LadyBear coloring their Spanish flags...

For Math, we finished the last lesson out of Math-U-See Primer and will be moving on to Alpha as soon as the student packet gets here (c'mon UPS!).  In the meantime, I've been filling in with pages from Life of Fred Apples.  For Language Arts, we started Explode the Code Book 3 (lesson 1) and for Handwriting, we started the Memoria Press Copy Book 1.

 LadyBear playing with the corks while LittleBear did math...

For Social Studies, we talked about Spain and where it is.  We talked about things Spain is known for and tried to learn a few words in Spanish.  We greeted Daddy every day with a hearty "Hola Padre!" and also had a blast trying to learn to dance Flamenco :)  LadyBear definitely wanted to join in on this part and even came out with her twirly skirt on!

 Dancing Bear Cubs!!!!

For Science, we talked about cows and their roles on this earth.  We also learned about cork trees and how corks are made.  We also enjoyed another riveting episode of "Sink or Float!" with a bag of corks I found at Hobby Lobby (love their 40% off coupons!).  We also talked about our sense of smell and the importance of flowers, which was great since we are about to start our spring garden!



For Art, I introduced Pablo Picasso and we talked about this progression of drawings of a bull that I found that he did.  We also watched a short video of him painting the outline of a bull on glass.

 LadyBear working on a paper doll page while LittleBear did his handwriting...

For fun, we plan on trying to make Churros tomorrow...we'll see how that goes :)

It was a great week!!!  If you haven't read this book, it's a favorite!!!

Resources and printable sheets I used for The Story of Ferdinand can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board
The Fascinating Process of Making Corks on Youtube
Spanish Dancer with Castinets on Youtube
Pablo Picasso At Work on Youtube
Ferdinand The Bull (Disney 1936) on Youtube

Go Along books we used for The Story of Ferdinand (* indicate the ones we especially liked):
*Look What Came From Spain by Kevin Davis
*Spain (A True Book) by Martin Hintz
*Cows by Jen Green
*Roberto and the Bull by Syd Hoff
*First Spanish Picture Dictionary by DK Publishing
*Exploring Flowers by Kristin Sterling
*The Reason For A Flower by Ruth Heller
*World of Plants Flowers by John Farndon
*Butterflies in the Garden by Carol Lerner
First Thousand Words in Spanish by Heather Amery & Stephen Cartwright
Exploring the Sicent of Nature Flowers by Jane Burton & Kim Taylor

LadyBear adding our story disk for us...

Five In A Row: Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening

This week we read another new-to-us book that was Robert Frost's poem "Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening."  I personally really liked the illustrations and enjoyed the poem, but it was not LittleBear's or LadyBear's favorite book.

We tried writing a poem this week, which involved an andorable drawing of an elephant, but didn't really work as a poem.

 Our attempt at writing a poem...

It also looked like we might get a snow day, but it ended up being more of an ice day and not really good for playing in.

I apologize for the sparseness of this post and the few pictures.  My computer has decided it doesn't want to connect to my camera and upload what I've taken.  It was that kind of week!  Next week, we go to Five In A Row: Volume 2 and read one of my favorites!  And I promise...more pictures.

Resources and printables I used for Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

Go Along Books we used for Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening (* indicate ones we especially liked):

*Poems and Prayers for the Very Young, selected & illustrated by Martha Alexander

*Snowflake Bentley (LittleBear wanted to get this one again...) by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

*Snow by Cynthia Rylant

*Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft & Richard G. Van Gelder

*Snow Dance by Lezlie Evans

Winter Friends by Mary Quattlebaum

Five In A Row: Night of the Moonjellies

We recently started another new-to-us book that LittleBear REALLY likes called Night of the Moonjellies.  It's about a little boy in New England who finds two moonjellies on a beach and then after a hectic day helping in his Grandparents' beachside restaurant, finds out more about where they belong.  It's out-of-print, expensive and very hard to find, but we hope to find a copy to add to our library since LittleBear likes it so much.

 the other one whose paws I could not get into our first picture...

Forgive the scarceness of pictures this week.  I'm not sure what happened there...

We also enjoyed talking about the beach, the ocean and jellyfish, including their anatomy and what they do all day.  Also, much of my family is from New England, so we learned a little bit about the regions of the US and continued our attempt to learn all 50 US States and their Capitols.

LittleBear also learned how to tell time on a clock with hands!  He expressed interest a couple weeks back and I realized we didn't have a clock like that in our house, so I found one I liked at Hobby Lobby and put it in the bathroom.  About that same time, our Math-U-See book started teaching lessons on it and now he's got a pretty good grip on it!

All in all, it was a good week and we are looking forward to the next book!!

Resources and printables I used for Night of the Moonjellies can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

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

*Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan

*Ocean Day by Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler

*Our Wet World by Sneed B. Collard III

*The Seashore Book by Charlotte Zoltow

*Jellyfish by Leighton Taylor

*Jellyfish by Rebecca Stefoff

*Discovering Jellyfish by Loriijo Metz

*See Under the Sea by Kate Davies

*Clam-I-Am by Tish Rabe

Southern New England by Thomas and Virginia Aylesworth

Northern New England by Thomas and Virginia Aylesworth

Connecticut by Susan Evento

Adding our story disk to New England...it's a bit crowded on our map.  Lots of great stories!