It doesn't normally look like my winter blog picture for very long in Kentucky - not until this year, that is. I now can totally sympathize with those from more northerly climes where snow comes and stays for months on end! After several rounds of alternate snow and freezing rain (or semi-thaw, then refreezing), my neighborhood seems to be the snowiest one left in town. The great piles of what was once fluffy snow that we shoveled to the side of drives and walks have hardened into some sort of monolithic rock-snow that simply will not melt and cannot be shoveled or even broken up and moved away (have to look for that pick axe....)
I finally was able to break up and clear the ice in the gutter on our curb yesterday so that the melting water could run down to the end of the street and into the storm drain. Until then, it was stuck and would refreeze every night into new ice dams at the ends of our driveways (cleared my neighbor's below me, too, to get a clear path to the end of the road).... It will be nice to get back and forth to the mailbox without danger of injury for a while!
My town ran out of ice for drives long weeks ago and I have not been able to find any since. I have resorted to using two canisters of regular table salt and some blue play sand left over from when my boys were little over the ensuing period. Let this be a lesson to you: DO NOT use colored play sand - even a little - on your drive when it glazes over. The tiniest bit somehow morphs into endless amounts of colored sand that blows over the snow and in just a couple of days can be found all over your street in all sorts of places save the driveway area where you put it. It also sticks to your shoes and tires as you traverse the driveway and ends up all over the garage and in your house (even though you leave your shoes at the door).
It is supposed to be in the low 50's here by this afternoon. I am going out to haul out a hose and wash away all that darn sand while I can (no, last night's heavy rain did not manage to get it - I intend to use a high pressure blaster)....
At least it wasn't yellow....
Regena
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Friday, November 29, 2013
Finishing up Geography Class
In studying Australia, we also talked a little about Oceania in general and some of the other major islands in that region. We talked a lot about the unusual animals found in Australia and they created a little Koala figure to take home. I try to provide them with a variety of map work and coloring page activities to take home to enhance their learning during the week. There are a wealth of things available online and Enchanted learning now includes a lot of map work activities at their website.
Books regarding Australia:
A platypus' world. Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2008.
A wombat's world. Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2008.
The Antarctic habitat. New York : Crabtree Pub. Co., c2007.
Antarctica. New York : Kids Discover, 2012.
We reviewed seasonal differences for areas in the southern hemisphere. We talked about the continent of Antarctica and compared it to Australia in terms of size and shape. We talked about the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica and all the animals that live in the waters around that continent and about penguin migrations from there during the winter. We also contrasted Arctic vs. Antarctic again.
Next week, we will finish up by taking a look at the Arctic region. Here are some books related to that part of the world:
Very last first time. New York : Atheneum, 1986.
Kumak's fish : a tall tale from the far north. Portland, Or. : Alaska Northwest Books, 2004.
Books regarding Australia:
A platypus' world. Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2008.
A wombat's world. Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2008.
A koala's world. Minneapolis, Minn. : Picture Window Books, c2008.
The pumpkin runner. New York : Dial Books for Young Readers, c1998.
Australia's first people : the world's oldest culture?. Peterborough, NH : Cobblestone Pub., 2013.
Australia. New York, NY : Kids Discover, 2009.
Where the forest meets the sea. New York : Greenwillow Books, c1987.
You wouldn't want to be an 18th-century British convict! : a trip to Australia you'd rather not take. New York : Franklin Watts, 2007, c2005.
The singing snake. New York : Hyperion Books for Children, c1993.
Koala country : a story of an Australian eucalyptus forest. Norwalk, Conn. : Soundprints, 2000.
Flood fish. New York : Crown, 1995.
Possum magic. San Diego : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.
Diary of a baby wombat. Boston : Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.
Dingoes. Milwaukee, WI : G. Stevens, 2002.
The koalas of Australia. Danbury, Conn. : Hilltop Books, 1998.
It's a baby Tasmanian devil!. Edina, Minn. : ABDO Pub. Co., c2010.
Australian outback food chains. New York : Crabtree, c2007.
The life cycle of a koala. New York : Crabtree Pub. Co., c2002.
Are we there yet? : a journey around Australia. La Jolla, Calif. : Kane/Miller, 2005.
Ernie dances to the didgeridoo : for the children of Gunbalanya. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Rainbow bird : an aboriginal folktale from Northern Australia. Boston : Little, Brown and Co., 1993.
Finding home. Watertown, MA : Charlesbridge, c2008.
Stories from the Billabong. London : Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2008.
Outback adventure : Australian vacation. London ;: DK Pub., 2004.
Humpback whales. Mankato, MN : Smart Apple Media, 2012.
Wombat goes walkabout. Cambridge, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2000.
Dreamtime : aborginal stories. New York : Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1994.
Watching kangaroos in Australia. Chicago, Ill. : Heinemann Library, c2006.
Snap!. New York : Scholastic, 1996.
Sun Mother wakes the world : an Australian creation story. New York : HarperCollins, 2004.
In taking a look at Antarctica, I used some books I had at home, along with the map work, etc. I also picked up various mini-books from online (a lot from Homeschool Share) and helped the kids create a small lapbook. Here are some books that relate to that continent:The Antarctic habitat. New York : Crabtree Pub. Co., c2007.
Antarctica. New York : Kids Discover, 2012.
Ocean sunlight : how tiny plants feed the seas. New York : Blue Sky Press, 2012.
Martian fossils on earth? : the story of meteorite ALH 84001. Brookfield, Conn. : Millbrook Press, c1997.
Emperor penguins up close. Berkeley Heights, NJ : Enslow Elementary, c2006.
Sea soup : phytoplankton. Gardiner, Me. : Tilbury House, c1999.
Antarctica. Chicago, Ill. : Heinemann Library, c2006.
Whales. New York : Holiday House, c1991.
The stormy southern ocean. Berkeley Heights, NJ : Enslow Publishers, Inc., c2014.
You wouldn't want to be a polar explorer! : an expedition you'd rather not go on. New York : Franklin Watts, 2001.
Whales. New York : Benchmark Books/Marshall Cavendish, c2001.
Penguins. Hauppauge, NY : Barron's, 1999.
Antarctic adventure : exploring the frozen South. New York : DK Pub., 2000.
Explore Antarctica. New York, NY : Crabtree Pub. Co., c2007.
Antarctic ice. New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2003.
Antarctica. Crystal Lake, IL : Heinemann Library, c1997.
Ocean food chains. Chicago, Ill. : Heinemann Library, c2011.
Penguins and Antarctica : a nonfiction companion to Eve of the emperor
penguins. New York : Random House, c2008.
Whales! : strange and wonderful. Honesdale, Pa. : Boyds Mills Press, c2003.
March of the penguins. Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, c2006.
Whale shines : an artistic tale.
The whales. New York : Blue Sky Press, c1996.
Antarctic antics : a book of penguin poems. San Diego : Harcourt Brace & Co., c1998.
Whales. New York : Crowell, 1989.
Watching penguins in Antarctica. Chicago, Ill. : Heinemann Library, c2006.
Baby penguin slips and slides. San Anselmo, CA : Treasure Bay, Inc., c2009.
Antarctica : the heart of the world. New York : Enchanted Lion Books, 2006.
A trip to the bottom of the world with Mouse : a Toon Book. New York : Toon Books, 2012.
My season with penguins : an Antarctic journal. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, c2000
We reviewed seasonal differences for areas in the southern hemisphere. We talked about the continent of Antarctica and compared it to Australia in terms of size and shape. We talked about the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica and all the animals that live in the waters around that continent and about penguin migrations from there during the winter. We also contrasted Arctic vs. Antarctic again.
Next week, we will finish up by taking a look at the Arctic region. Here are some books related to that part of the world:
Very last first time. New York : Atheneum, 1986.
Kumak's fish : a tall tale from the far north. Portland, Or. : Alaska Northwest Books, 2004.
Adding arctic animals. Mankato, Minn. : Yellow Umbrella Books, c2004.
Beluga whales. [Chanhassen, MN] : Child's World, c1999.
Penguins swim but don't get wet : and other amazing facts about polar animals. New York : Scholastic, c2004.
How Snowshoe Hare rescued the sun : a tale from the Arctic. New York : Holiday House, c1993.
Baby animals of the frozen tundra. Berkeley Heights, NJ : Enslow Publishers, c2009.
The three snow bears. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, c2007.
Children of the midnight sun : young native voices of Alaska. Anchorage : Alaska Northwest Books, c1998.
The Inuit. New York : Children's Press, c2011.
The polar bear son : an Inuit tale. New York : Clarion Books, 1997.
Arctic babies. New York : Walker, 1996.
The seal oil lamp. San Francisco, CA : Sierra Club Books ;, c1988.
City bear. Columbus, Ohio : Waterbird Books, 2004.
Whale snow. Watertown, MA : Talewinds, c2003.
Big-enough Anna : the little sled dog who braved the Arctic. Anchorage, AK : Alaska
Northwest Books, 2003.
The last polar bear. New York : Laura Geringer Books, c2009.
Snow Bear. New York : Hyperion Books for Children, c1999.
Amazing arctic animals. New York : Grosset & Dunlap, c2002.
Ice bears. New York : Henry Holt, c2008.
Being caribou : five months on foot with a caribou herd. New York, N.Y. : Walker, 2007.
The big caribou herd : life in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Honesdale, Pa. : Boyds Mills Press, c2003.
Polar animals. Toronto, ON ;: Kids Can Press, 2008.
TiktaŹ¼liktak : an Eskimo legend. New York : Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965.
Arctic hunter. New York : Holiday House, 1992.
Mama, do you love me?. San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 1991.
My Arctic 1, 2, 3. Toronto ;: Annick Press, 1996.
The Inuit. Mankato, Minn. : Bridgestone Books, c2000.
The kids book of the far north. Toronto, ON ;: Kids Can Press, c2000.
Arctic. London ;: DK, 2007.
Arctic foxes. New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1995.
Arctic lights, arctic nights. New York : Walker & Co., 2003.
A polar bear journey. Boston : Little, Brown, 1997.
Polar bears and the Arctic : a nonfiction companion to polar bears past bedtime. New York : Random House, c2007.
Arctic fox : very cool!. New York, N.Y. : Bearport Pub., c2009.
Igloos. Mankato, Minn. : Capstone Press, c2005.
The inside story Igloo. Tarrytown, N.Y. : Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, c2007.
The inuit. Minneapolis, Minn. : Compass Point Books, c2005.
Scholastic's The magic school bus in the Arctic : a book about heat. New York : Scholstic, c1998.
Oceans. Atlanta : Peachtree, c2012.
The hungry giant of the Tundra. New York : Dutton Children's Books, c1993.
Building an igloo. New York : H. Holt, 1995.
Ulaq and the northern lights. New York : Farrar Straus Girous, 1998.
Baby polar bears' snow-day. San Anselmo, CA : Treasure Bay, Inc., c2009.
The gift of the Inuksuk. Chelsea, MI : Sleeping Bear Press, 2004.
Polar bear, why is your world melting?. Morton Grove, Ill. : Albert Whitman & Co., 2008.
Ice is nice!. New York : Random House, c2010.
Inuit Indians. Chicago. Ill. : Heinemann Library, c2003.
Welcome to the ice house. New York : Putnam, 1998.
I will be completing another small lapbook with them related to the Arctic, as well as playing a game about Arctic animals.
I will try to see if I can find the links for some of the hand outs I have used and post those later,
Regena
Finishing up the first semester of Medieval History
My student is beginning to write more, so I am trying to encourage that a little in our history class. I pulled some assorted mini-books related to medieval knights and castles (most from Homeschool Share's level 3 lapbooks on that subject) and we worked several periods on creating a small lapbook he could take home. As part of that, I asked him to choose one real life knight from the time period we've been studying or are studying now and write a short report on him including these facts, if possible:
When and where did he live
What were some of his notable achievements
Why was he successful militarily and what were some of his famous battles
(Using the computer or dictating this is fine!)
When and where did he live
What were some of his notable achievements
Why was he successful militarily and what were some of his famous battles
(Using the computer or dictating this is fine!)
I asked him to choose from these:
Charlemagne (742 - 814)
William the Conqueror (1028 - 1087)
Richard the Lionheart (1157 - 1195)
William Wallace (died 1305)
El Cid (1043 - 1099)
Alexander Nevsky (1230 - 1263)
Edward the Black Prince (1330 - 1376)
This creates a good opportunity to show students how to use encyclopedia articles to compose reports (if your library has become as devoid of biographies as mine)....
Here are some books to read to go along with these personalities, but the student will have to separate fact from fiction. King Richard is in the background of the Robin Hood stories and his absence is the supposed reason for the gathering of the outlaw band in the first place. In some stories he makes an appearance, but we are looking for the facts known about Richard, separate from the legends, in creating a report about his life.... Many of these books that I suggest have introductory notes or end notes that tell about the history related to the books. By all means make certain to always read these!
There are no books regarding William Wallace at my library, but there is a short mystery of history video (50 minutes).
Of course, there are no books on any of them or even pertaining to their country at that time period. I am at a loss as to why our library carries no books any more, but I guess you can't learn history if you can't find any books to read about history, so perhaps we'll all be good little revisionists of one form or another someday soon.... There are encyclopedias still on the shelves, so far as I know, and you can certainly use various online encyclopedias, too....
There is some info on El Cid in chapter 18 of SOTW and some info on Richard the Lionhearted in chapter 19....
What I found:
History's mysteries. [DVD] / The true story of Braveheart. Visual Materials. A&E Home Video :, [2005].
Robin Hood, his life and legend. Chicago : Rand McNally, 1979.
The merry adventures of Robin Hood. New York : Baronet Books, c1990.
And here is a chapter from an online book regarding Edward the Black Prince:
http://www.awesomestories.com/flicks/knights-tale/edward-the-black-prince - perhaps there will be some useful info there....
At this time I gave my student some info on creating his own shield with coat-of-arms. Students might choose to do both a larger shield, as well as a couple of small ones - one could be put into a lapbook and one on any time line they might be creating. I wanted my student to think about why it was important to carry shields and wear other battle gear that exhibited their coats-of-arms.
At this time I also assigned chapter 17 in SOTW, which is about the Samurai warriors of Japan.
Additional reading for that, as well as more on knights:
Knight. London ;: DK Pub., 2004.
Sword of the samurai : adventure stories from Japan. San Diego : Harcourt Brace, c1999.
Three samurai cats : a story from Japan. New York : Holiday House, 2003.
Monarchs in the Middle Ages. Milwaukee, WI : World Almanac Library, 2006. (Not to read, but just to see if there is any info on any of the above listed knights that he might use for his report....)
How to be a Samurai warrior. Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, 2005.
How to be a medieval knight. Washington, D.C. : National Geographic, c2005.
You wouldn't want to be a Samurai! : a deadly career you'd rather not pursue. New York : Franklin Watts, 2010, c2009.
You wouldn't want to be a medieval knight! : armor you'd rather not wear. New York : Franklin Watts, 2004.
The inch-high samurai. Tokyo ;: Kodansha International, 1993.
Sir Cumference and the first round table : a math adventure. Watertown, MA : Charlesbridge, c1997.
The making of a knight : how Sir James earned his armor. Watertown, MA : Charlesbridge, 1998.
Sam Samurai. New York : Viking, 2001.
In the time of knights : the real-life story of history's greatest knight. New York : Hyperion, c2000.
Hopefully those on knights are not repeats of suggestions already made!
Here's an online heraldry game students might enjoy:
Create a coat-of-arms online:
A site that tells what the different symbols of heraldry mean:
I have been trying to get my student to talk to me more about the books he's reading outside of our class time since we have so little time together each week. Toward that end, his mother was able to get him to start dictating some "reports" to her - really just a sentence at first, but they are growing longer.... I took the first few and cut and pasted them, along with pictures of the books, onto a castle template I found online. I then gave him a similar blank template and asked him to pick his favorite book from the next week and fill in plot, setting, and character info, as well as his favorite part of the book. I will next be making a sword template to display some of his other reports, then giving him a similar blank to provide another report for me....
I also found some other forms for various types of reports online that I can use to give him more guidance in doing reports for me. He currently is completing one of those.
For history reading, I asked him to cover chs. 18 and 19 in SOTW regarding the period of the Crusades and Richard the Lion-hearted (Robin Hood)....
Books he might like to look at:
The Canterbury tales. New York, NY : Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, c1988.
Chanticleer and the fox. New York : Crowell, c1958.
The Magna charta. Sandwich, MA : Beautiful Feet Books, [1998?]. (Good info on King John and how monarchies began to change at this time - will be important later in the founding of America)
Blood red horse. New York : Walker & Co., 2005. (I don't know this one, but it sounds like it might be interesting....)
Knight. New York : Dorling Kindersley, 2000.
Life as a knight : an interactive history adventure. Mankato, Minn. : Capstone Press, 2010.
Pagan's crusade. Cambridge, Mass. : Candlewick Press, 2003. (I don't know this one, either....)
A proud taste for scarlet and miniver. New York : Atheneum, c1973. (Quirkly little book but gives a good synopsis of the lives of Eleanor, her husband and children, without getting into details not appropriate for younger children....)
You wouldn't want to be a crusader! : a war you'd rather not fight. New York : Franklin Watts, 2005.
Magna Carta. Peterborough, NH : Cobblestone Pub., 2000.
The Canterbury tales. London, England ;: Puffin Books, 1996, c1984.
Saladin : Nobel Prince of Islam. [New York] : HarperCollins Publishers, c2002.
My guardian angel. New York : Scholastic Press, 2005. (This is another book set during the time of the Crusades that I don't know....)
Saint Francis. Grand Rapids, Mich. ;: Oxford University Press, 1996
I have continued providing him with some info sheets the past couple of weeks regarding various aspects of this time period. Some come from a Milliken "workbook" (although it's mostly just reading material) on the Middle Ages; some from Dover or Bellepheron coloring books, which provide a lot of good info and black line drawings (even for those who don't like to color).
His lapbook including a pocket for vocab cards and I got him started on some, then asked him to look for more words in the books he is reading each week. A lot of French and Germanic words are coming into the language used at this time period so it's a good time to study some of those.
For the next week, I asked that he read SOTW ch. 20 on the Jewish diaspora and these library books:
Dance, Sing, Remember: A Celebration of Jewish Holidays, Leslie Kimmelman
Israel, Adele Richardson
The Rabbi Who Flew, Renate Dollinger
Hanukkah Hop! Erica Silverman
The Travels of Benjamin Tudela, Uri Shulevitz
Next Year in Jerusalem, Howard Schwartz
We have already really talked some about this subject last year, so I think it's a good time to also go ahead and listen to SOTW ch. 21, about the Mongols. Extra reading for that:
Genghis Khan, Demi (also spelled Chingis)
Genghis Khan, Mongul Conqueror of the World - Cobblestone
Kubla (also spelled Kublai) Khan: The Emperor of Everything, Kathleen Krull
The Legend of Mulan, Wei Jiang
The Song of Mu Lan, Jeanne Lee
The Hunter, Mary Casanova
Liang and the Magic Paintbrush, Demi
The Paper Dragon, Marguerite Davol (if not already read)
Mongolia: Vanishing Cultures, Jan Reynolds
Mongols, Nicole Helget
Dance, Sing, Remember: A Celebration of Jewish Holidays, Leslie Kimmelman
Israel, Adele Richardson
The Rabbi Who Flew, Renate Dollinger
Hanukkah Hop! Erica Silverman
The Travels of Benjamin Tudela, Uri Shulevitz
Next Year in Jerusalem, Howard Schwartz
We have already really talked some about this subject last year, so I think it's a good time to also go ahead and listen to SOTW ch. 21, about the Mongols. Extra reading for that:
Genghis Khan, Demi (also spelled Chingis)
Genghis Khan, Mongul Conqueror of the World - Cobblestone
Kubla (also spelled Kublai) Khan: The Emperor of Everything, Kathleen Krull
The Legend of Mulan, Wei Jiang
The Song of Mu Lan, Jeanne Lee
The Hunter, Mary Casanova
Liang and the Magic Paintbrush, Demi
The Paper Dragon, Marguerite Davol (if not already read)
Mongolia: Vanishing Cultures, Jan Reynolds
Mongols, Nicole Helget
These topics are probably all we will cover prior to our Christmas break,
Regena
Regena
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