The Fall Catch-All

It would be an understatement to say I have been extremely busy these last few months. Along with homeschooling, I finished my Bachelor's degree, we moved to a new home, and I have been training for a half-marathon. Whew! The first couple of weeks my camera disappeared and half the time I forgot to take pictures.

So here is my Fall Catch-All post about everything (mostly) that we've been up to this season (things are beginning to calm down now, so I'll be posting more regularly)

Fall/Cranberry Thanksgiving Unit Study

Fall words~

Fall books~

Beyond Turkey by Debbie Herman and Ann Koffsky illustrated a fair depiction of the Mayflower's journey to North America, the Pilgrims' settlement and their feast with the Wampanoag Indians.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without reading Wende and Harry Devlin's beautiful book, Cranberry Thanksgiving.

We love the Magic Tree House series, and Thanksgiving on Thursday did not disappoint. The book is filled with Mary Pope Osbourne's research of the Pilgrims' settlement, lifestyle and clothing. It also fairly represents their relationship with the Wampanoag Indians, making no hesitation to admit Squanto's enslavement prior to the first Thanksgiving.

Fall Fun~

Reenacting the first Thanksgiving and building a Pilgrim house

Playing the "Sailing on the Mayflower" game

We also watched a Charlie Brown cartoon: The Mayflower Voyagers Netflix streaming. Here's a slip on Youtube:

 

Autumnal Apple Treats (Honeycrisp apples doused with lemon juice, slathered with peanut butter and topped with autumn granola mix and cinnamon. 

Field Trip Friday (the Fire Station!)~

We toured the local fire station with about 70 children and parents from Aidyn's home-based charter school. My camera wasn't cooperating with the lack of light in the building so I only have a few photos. The kids checked out the fire engines and fire truck and opened each and every compartment. They toured the living quarters (kitchen, bedrooms, living room, etc.) and peeked down the firefighter pole door. Aidyn said his favorite part was looking at how far down the drop was and wished he could have slid down.

What the Camera Didn't Capture:

~a beautiful and relaxed Thanksgiving holiday

~our Thanksgiving Tree we made with branches and fabric leaves (w/ words of gratitude we wrote on them)

~a beyond messy house

~a stressed out mother/wife/student/runner/worker

Storm in the Night/Weather Mini-Unit Study

We read the beautifully illustrated story, Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz (illustrations by Pat Cummings). This is the perfect cuddle-up-and-read book, especially during a storm.

We recorded the temperature from places all over the world. First, we would find them on the globe and then look them up on weather.com. 

After learning the basic water cycle, we made a cloud in a bottle!

Then rain in a bottle! (links at the bottom of post)

We read about rainbows and different types of clouds and painted our own with white paint and cotton balls.

We also worked on winter words, and Aidyn learned to spell some tricky words, including "icicle"! 

Wish I had more pictures to share!

Forecast for the Future~

I am in the middle of a huge undertaking, but we're only in the pre-planning/dreaming stages. We are heavily considering making a trip to Walt Disney World in January 2015 (we'll need a year to save for it!). This will be a first-time experience for the whole family and the furthest east any of us has ever traveled.

As we have done in the past for Disneyland, I am planning a long unit study on Walt Disney World, which includes four parks and many, many different learning opportunities. Of course, most of the unit study will have little to do with the actual parks and will touch on themes within the parks, but I would like to include some stuff about Walt Disney.

I asked Aidyn which park he wants to focus on first, giving him a quick rundown of what each entails. He chose Disney's Hollywood Studios, which will have us learning about:

• the history of animation
• the history of film
• early Hollywood of the 1930s and 1940s
• early film and television stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Lucille Ball,
• classic films such as The Wizard of Oz and Singing in the Rain
• sci-fi flicks of the 1950s
• stage shows
• and more!

In the meantime, we will be playing a little catch-up, reading holiday books, and enjoying the winter break together.

We're weeks away from a family vacation, at the end of which I will be running a half-marathon in support of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (as a tribute to my late father). 

I am still actively fundraising for the charity, so if you are interested in donating, please visit my page: Paula's Donation Page.

Links for the unit studies above:

Both Cranberry Thanksgiving and Storm in the Night are FIAR books.

Free Cranberry Thanksgiving Lapbook/Printables

Free weather unit study printables (including cloud/rain in a bottle experiment)

Pilgrim and Eastern Native American Figures

Sail on the Mayflower Game

Yes, We Want to Be Explorers

As a way to clue in my dancing-in-the-freedom-of-Summer son that we have entered a new fun unit study, we read So You Want to Be an Explorer by Judith St. George and David Small, while tucked away in his tent (I think he's trying to tell me he wants to go camping).

Anyway, the book exposed us to a long list of explorers and their respective character traits: their pluck, their bravery, their thrill for adventure... (insert elbow-nudging here). Okay, eventually he realized we're focusing on Adventureland this month. We talked about it awhile, and I asked him to help me collect some of his Adventureland-related movies (movies about "the wild" and/or movies where a character goes exploring or enters a new world).

We made a huge pile, but he held up An American Tail and, in the sweetest voice, asked if we could cuddle up and watch it now (even though I had completely created on my own  prepared a "Am I in The Lion King or What Animals Live in Africa? worksheet). I couldn't turn down that face.

As we watched, we talked all the way through it. We commented on the snowflakes falling in the opening scene.

"Why do snowflakes melt when they fall on my hand?" he asked, remembering our trip to Lake Tahoe.

We proceeded to talk about body heat.

"Why do some people like to catch snowflakes on their tongues?" he asked, remembering Lucy from the Charlie Brown Christmas special.

We proceeded to talk about yummy shaved ice and how Gramma used to suck on ice cubes.

When the town is beseiged by people setting fire to it, Aidyn asked, "Why are they doing that?"

"I dunno. Let me Google it," I answered, followed by an age-appropriate explanation of the persecution of Jews in 1885 Russia.

We watched the rest of the movie, sharing in this way, and consulting his map to trace their journey. At the end, he asked, "Why is the Statue of Liberty brown in this movie but now it's green?" I consulted the website for the Statue of Liberty (he also asked if we could live there), and explained that copper rusts to green when exposed to the elements long enough. I suggested we pluck a penny from his savings jar and let it sit outside for awhile and see what happens.

After the film, we played all the games that were so lovingly included on the DVD. We counted with Digit, sung off-key with Fievel and Tanya, and found "duos" with Tiger and Fievel. We then sung this song that still makes me cry.

Fine way to start off Adventureland.

Brer Rabbit Week and Introduction to the Trickster

(image is not mine)

This week we are highlighting one of the most memorable characters in Critter Country and literature: Brer Rabbit. I know many people shy away from these stories, particularly the Song of the South video, but much can be learned from exploring these old, traditional stories.

To begin our unit, Aidyn and looked at a map of the world. In child-friendly language, I explained our country's ugly past in slave trades from West Africa. This was the first Aidyn had heard of this history so he listened rather attentively. I told him about trickster tales and the use of such as a way of keeping spirits high during dreadful living conditions. I helped him identify by asking him if he ever sad if it helps to think of something funny. We agreed that we use humor and imagination to cope with difficult situations.

Using humor as my guide, I read two trickster stories from West African. One was about Brur Gator and Brur Rabbit and the other was about Brur Wolf and Brur Rabbit. With Aidyn at my side, I read the stories in my best Gullah accent. There are so many ideas to tease out from these readings, but we focused on the happiness that silly, light-hearted stories bring.

Afterward, while playing indoor soccer, we listened to some African music with folktales weaved in through song. Later we visited http://www.knowitall.org/gullahnet/teachers/index.html to learn about the Gullah culture and traced the path of African music from drum music to work (plantation) songs to blues to rap and everything in between. He also listened to some folktales spoken in Gullah.

So far, this was a gentle way to introduce the new unit and delve into the important history of some African Americans.