FI♥AR: How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

 Wowee, has it been a LONG time since I wrote a post here! I started this blog when my oldest child was three as a way of documenting his learning journey. He is nearly 19 now, but I continue to homeschool my other children.

Recently, we returned to a beloved curriculum called Five in a Row. Aidyn and I have such fond memories of it, and I want to gift that same joy to my younger children.

The first book we rowed was How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World.

We opened the unit study by visiting a local apple farm for some good ole apple picking, cider tasting, and a tractor ride.

Social Studies: Geography

After our first reading, we listed all the places the narrator visited in order to gather ingredients for her apple pie. I bought an inflatable globe from the Dollar Tree and printed icons to represent the locations.

We took turns finding and labeling all the locations. This was a good way of practicing memorization as well as learning parts of the world. You can find the labels and more ideas HERE.

Language:

We discussed the humor in the writing and what made certain lines funny (exaggeration, unexpected conclusions, actions, and ideas).

We also explored some of the vocabulary words 4-square style. On a large whiteboard, I made a cross to create four squares. In the middle, I wrote the word ("elegant," for example). In one square, we defined the word. In another square, we wrote a list of synonyms. In the third square, we brainstormed a sentence with the word. And in the last square, we drew a picture illustrating the word.

Art: Street Scenes and Apple Stamp Painting

For art, we looked at the city scenes in the book and compared them and talked about the different types of buildings and store fronts. Then we drew and painted our own.

On a different day, we made apple stamps and painted with them.

Science:

We learned about the life cycle of an apple trees and how apples grow using these books:

We modeled the life cycle of an apple tree using Play-Doh.

We also made apple crisp and apple cake and filled the house with yummy apple aromas!

Reading Instruction:

For my emerging reader 1st grader, I made sight word cards from the book Ten Apples Up on Top. She learned them and then independently read the book.

Writing:

We did copywork of apple quotes and drew pictures of apples. We also brainstormed adjectives to describe apples.

More:

We watched a throwback episode of Reading Rainbow in which he reads How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.

https://youtu.be/yiiNObASSCM?si=TTcyDgCEaHErXkGF

Resources:

If you are interested in rowing How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, here are some helpful links to get you going:

https://www.schooltimesnippets.com/2011/10/lets-travel-world-with.html

Apple Resources at Homeschool Share

https://www.123homeschool4me.com/how-to-make-apple-pie-and-see-world_37/

Owl Moon {FIAR}

We rowed Jane Yolen's calm and wintry story, Owl Moon, the story of a young girl and her father who go owling late one snowy night. The young girl, entranced by the outing, follows her father and applies all the skills he taught her about owling--the importance of patience, quiet, and bravery.

Aidyn loved the understated adventure in Owl Moon and requested an owling trip of our own!

Language Arts: Setting

On the first day, we discussed the setting of the story. Aidyn listed off various answers: winter, nighttime, in the snow, in the forest. I also suggested other stories we have read and movies we have seen and asked him to name the settings until I was sure he understood.

Language Arts: Similes and Metaphors

On the next day, we read Skin Like Milk, Hair of Silk: What Are Similes and Metaphors by Brian P. Cleary and learned about similes and metaphors.

We had fun performing some metaphors like "icy glare" and "frozen stare." When we read Owl Moon again, Aidyn spotted all the similes and metaphors and yelled them out:

"...a train whistle blew, long and low, like a sad, sad song."

"And when their voices faded away it was as quiet as a dream."

"But I was a shadow as we walked home."

Language Arts: Hyperbole

We also discussed hyperbole when we read how they stared at the owl for "maybe even a hundred minutes." We came up with more examples like, "Aidyn took a million years to get ready" and "I waited forever for the rain to stop."

Social Studies: Relationships- Father and Child

Looking at the close relationship of the father and daughter in the story, we discussed Aidyn's relationship to his father and things he's learned from him. We continued working on a thank-you letter to Daddy from earlier this month.

Science: Owl Study

We read Gail Gibbon's Owls and learned about different species of owls, how they hunt, what they eat, where they nest, how they raise their young, among other interesting facts. I asked Aidyn to find his favorite fact for copywork and here's what he chose:

We also read Jim Arnosky's All About Owls for more owl facts.

On YouTube, we watched a National Geographic special called Owls: Silent Hunters.

Although we enjoyed rowing Owl Moon, we didn't do as much as I would have liked. We're still adjusting to having a new baby in the house, but check out the links below for more ideas for learning about owls:

Owl Babies Unit Study

Owl Prowl (for kindergarten)

Owl Moon resources at Delightful Learning

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

Night of the Moonjellies

We spent what seems like a very short week with Mark Shasha's Night of the Moonjellies, a poignant story about seven-year-old Mark who discovers something "that feels like jelly" on the beach as he makes his way to his Grandma Mary's seaside diner, Mar-Gra's. He helps his family run the busy diner, helping to fill ketchup, mustard and relish containers and keeping the straws well-supplied as his grandma, aunt, and cousin serve delicious comfort foods. Later, Mark's grandmother takes him to the place where all the other jellies float about in the sea, and the sight is dazzling and unforgettable.

This story became an instant love after the first reading, and I am sure we will row this treasure again.

Social Studies: Geography- New England

After the first reading, I asked Aidyn if he knew where this story took place. Surprisingly he shouted, "New England!" Many of our FIAR reads have New England settings!

He colored the story disk and happily placed it near New England. 

Social Studies: Responsibility

We discussed how responsible Mark is, even though he is only seven years old. I found a wonderful idea from School Time Snippets to make a Tic-Tac-Toe Responsibility Chart.

He has small chores like "Pick up your toys" and "Wipe the doorknobs" as well as personal grooming responsibilities and school responsibilities. As soon as he makes three in a row (and finishes his school work), he can use his electronics again (which means access to his Nintendo 3DS).

Language: Make a List

I printed an adorable hamburger book from Homeschool Share, and we listed all the yummy foods mentioned in Night of the Moonjellies. For vocabulary practice, I wrote the words on a white board as he listed them, and he wrote them in the hamburger book.
 

Art: Warm and Cool Color Palette

After reading Night of the Moonjellies on the third day, we looked back at the illustrations and talked about warm and cool colors and perhaps why Shasha might have chosen certain colors for specific objects. For example, the inside of the diner was a warm hue of golden-yellow, but when it was closing time, it was a serene blue. We talked about how warm colors can symbolize warmth, light and activity and how cool colors can symbolize coolness, darkness, and mystery.


Art: Watercolor Jellyfish

This absolutely adorable idea came from Deep Space Sparkle. It's described as a 4th grade activity, but we were able to handle it well.

His favorite part was when we got really messy and splattered paint everywhere!

So much fun!

Author Background:

After the fourth day of reading, Aidyn asked what the flap at the back of the book was. I explained that it was a snippet about the author, and he said he wanted to know about him. We read that Mark Shasha grew up on the coast of New England to which Aidyn gasped and said, "Just like Mark! (Gasp!) His name is Mark, too. Maybe the story is about him when he was little." We read on and discovered that Mark Shasha had always been fascinated by the sea and sea creatures, which explains the poignancy of his moonjelly portrayal.


Math: Learning about Money

Since Night of the Moonjellies mainly takes place in a business setting, we skipped a few chapters in our math book to learn about money.

• Through Enchanted Learning, we printed pages about coins, specifically pennies and nickels.
• Aidyn colored a picture of an enlarged penny, and we learned what all the markings on the pennies meant such as the year it was minted and where it was minted (by either the letter D, S, or P under the year). We looked through 100 of our own pennies and found that the vast majority, 99 out of 100, were minted in Denver.
• Coloring Lincoln on the penny led to a zillion questions about the 16th president. Aidyn requested a video about him, which he watched during a break. Later, he and his grandma (a Lincoln expert!) talked at length about the assassination and John Wilkes Booth.
• Aidyn colored a picture of an enlarged nickel, and we also learned all of its markings. Again, most of our 20 nickels were minted in Denver, though we had four from Pennsylvania and one from San Francisco. (Turns out Thomas Jefferson was not as fascinating.)

• We played with money, counting it, comparing coins, and singing "The Money Song."   

             

We must have sang this song a million times!

• Aidyn learned to skip-count by 5s using the nickels.
• He also learned how to count change consisting of a combination of nickels and pennies.
• We played store and I "sold" his erasers to him. I labeled them with different prices (that would need a combination of nickels and pennies to buy), and he bought them all!

Science: Jellyfish

We saved the fun stuff for last. Aidyn loves science and animals, but most non-fiction books about either are dry and boring. Luckily we found Jellies by Twig C. George, which is engaging and easy to understand.

Memory Making: Night of the Moonjellies Party

During the week, Aidyn made a menu of items from the book and named his establishment Aidyn's Best Restaurant.

On Friday, he accompanied me to the grocery store where we bought all the necessary ingredients to make hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, banana milkshakes and crab (since they didn't have lobster) rolls.

On Saturday, we invited his friends over for our Moonjelly party. They mostly hung out and played Skylanders and other games, but when it was lunch time, Aidyn handed them the menu and took their orders. I was the cook, and Aidyn played the waiter.

After everyone was full, we painted jellyfish. Aidyn taught the course, and the kids had a blast.

They covered their faces because Aidyn wanted to pretend to be underwater.

 We had a BLAST with Night of the Moonjellies, and I feel like we only skimmed the surface.

Many of my ideas came from Delightful Learning and the FIAR forums.

Next up for us is a Tomorrowland: Space and Ocean unit study. Check back to see what we do!