Walking by the Way

Night of the Moonjellies Co-op

This was our final (after five years) Five in a Row co-op meeting. We ended with a great book, Night of the Moonjellies. Our final hurrah was a makeshift restaurant–The Crab Shack. 

Reading the book

We split into different groups to get the restaurant prep done. Preschoolers worked on gluing "bricks" to cardboard. The other teams were decorators, sign makers, menu makers, and food prep. Everyone worked really hard to get ready!

Time to go to work! For this part, we broke the kids into two groups (eat and serve). Each child was assigned one of the following jobs: take orders, get orders ready (in the kitchen), snow cone maker, server (take trays to tables), or bus tables.

It was a great day. Bittersweet. We will miss our time with Five in a Row, but we are excited about our new co-op, too!

Stained Glass Factory Field Trip

We took a tour of Kokomo Opalescent Glass for our Clown of God field trip.  This was one of my favorite field trips of the year!   If you live far, far away, you can take the virtual tour.  (If you live close, just go!)

My favorite part was observing the melted glass right from the furnace.  The men carry ladles full of liquid glass; they run them to a table where the next guy takes over with the mixing and rolling.  This guy has about 15 seconds before the glass gets rolled into a sheet.   I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures of this process, but you can kind of see it in the tour I posted above.  

There is also a glass blowing shop where many beautiful pieces are made.  

My guys.  Notice Simon and Elijah’s groovy goggles.  :)

They make SO many different colors and textures of glass!  Here are just a few of the samples!

The kids were fascinated with the scale.  Here is our half of the group getting weighed!  :)

This is a two-thumbs-up field trip, and the price was right at only $1 per person.  If you get the chance,  GO!

Stained Glass Cookies

For our Clown of God co-op, we learned to speak in Italian (well, no one is fluent, but we know a few words and phrases!).  We also learned about stained glass and made stained glass cookies.  Simon didn’t go with me to co-op that day, so when I returned home, he helped me use the rest of the dough to make more cookies.

These cookies don’t taste great, but they are pretty and a lot of fun for kids to make!   I recommend rolling them out in powdered sugar instead of flour. 

A Pair of Red Clogs Co-op

We’ve been together as a Five in a Row co-op for almost five years.  This was one of my FAVORITE meetings ever!  The kids had so much fun!  

The first activity was Gyotaku (the Japanese art of making fish prints!)

The second activity was making Mock Sushi…lots more fun!

What were the older kids doing?  Origami (Valentine’s Day style)

Very Last First Time Co-op

We stopped doing our beloved Five in a Row studies when we started our delight-directed adventure, but we still are part of a SUPER fabulous FIAR Co-op.    Here are some pictures from our Very Last First Time co-op meeting (you can find the lessons for this book in FIAR Volume I).  

Ice on a String Experiment

Will the string really stick!?   You bet!

Experiment instructions found here.

Painting with Ice Cubes

Madeline ~ FIAR Style

We’ve used Five in a Row from the beginning of our homeschooling journey.  We started with Before Five in a Row when Elijah was 2 (almost 3).   We’ve been through most of Volumes I-III and part of Volume IV.    This is our fifth year with our FIAR based homeschooling co-op, and we are back in Volume I.   Here is a week with FIAR from my family to yours!  :)

All of the minit books listed are from HSS.

Monday at Co-op
Started off strong at co-op; we split our larger group into two small groups for the activities today and it really seemed to cut down on the chaos.  

First, the kids learned about the Eiffel tower and worked in teams to create vanilla cream wafter replicas.  

We also met Marcus, a volunteer EMT and ambulance driver.  He gave us the full scoop on being an EMT and showed them the equipment it takes to do the job.  They also got a tour of the ambulance; all the kids were very curious and listened intently to Marcus the entire time.

The Rest of the Week
~read Madeline again each day (except Friday)

Social Studies
~read Madeline Says Merci and discussed manners; completed go-along minit books 
~read Children Just Like Me (pg. 32, Rachel from France)
~fixed French Toast (with French bread) & listened to Teach Me French
~completed France component for lapbook
~made Eiffel Tower from Legos

Language Arts
~discussed the literary elements lesson & completed the Rhyme Time minit book

Applied Math
~discussed symmetry & looked through illustrations; completed symmetry minit books

Science

 ~started human body project; added brain, heart, kidneys, bladder, spleen, pancreas, gallbladder, and bones (this project is on-going!
~started reading Usborne’s First Encyclopedia of the Human Body (this will also be on-going)
~watched The Magic School Bus Human Body DVD
~discussed body systems from Giant Science Resource Book 
~Elijah read lots of go-along books:
What Makes You Ill? (Usborne)
Your Body (Usborne Beginners)
Your Insides by Joanna Cole
You Can’t See Your Bones with Your Binoculars
You Can’t Taste a Pickle with Your Ear

Art
~drew a picture of Madeline
~completed architecture lesson and the Tour de France minit book
~discussed illustrations and art lesson about color
~colored Eiffel towers (one monochromatic and one full color palette)

Completed Madeline Lapbook

Front Cover
 

Inside View

Inside Rhyme Time 

Inside Body Systems (many print-outs from Evan-Moor’s Giant Science Resource Book).  

We had a few minit books that went with Madeline Says Merci.   

Tour de France accordion book (shows all the famous places shown throughout Madeline)


This lapbook is one file folder glued inside another.  

The inside file folder 



Inside "Is it Monochromatic?" 


These were symmetry cards; we chose not to cut them out and just tri-folded instead.

Cover of France book


Inside France book

Inside Eiffel Tower Creations…

China Unit & Notebook

We started our study with The Story About Ping.   We added in a Learn About China Kit, a co-op field trip to P.F. Chang’s, and bits & pieces from the Ancient Civilizations History Pocket.   We ended up with a boy who couldn’t wait to learn about China each day!


 

Book List
The Story About Ping
Tikki Tikki Tembo (go along for the classic story & fiction story lessons in FIAR)
The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop (go along for the classic story & fiction story lessons in FIAR)
Children Just Like Me (used with geography lesson for FIAR)
Good Times Travel Agency Adventures in Ancient China by Linda Bailey
Usborne Beginners China (has internet links)
The Great Wall of China by Leonard Everett Fisher 
The Magic Boat by Demi
A Grain of Rice by Helena Pittman
Little Pear & Little Pear and His Friends by Eleanor Frances Lattimore
Ling and the Magic Paintbrush by Demi
The Empty Pot by Demi

Other Resources
Teach me Chinese (book and CD)
Chinese New Year Celebration printables by Scholastic
Great Wall of China Informational Sheet from Learning Page
Ping Resources at HSS
Dragon Puppet (I can’t find the link for the one we made…sorry)
Ancient Civilizations History Pockets
China Learning Kit (which made this study real and relevant)

Eat Your Way Around the World

If you are studying countries or cultures this year (all of your Five in a Row fans, take note), you might want to take a field trip to Cost Plus World Market.  You can stop, shop, go (home), and eat your way around the world!   
We visited last week on the look-out for some foods for Elijah’s display table for an upcoming Geography Fair.   We left with some candy for his table and other items from various countries will we be studying this year with Five in a Row.  

Sweden  ~ we actually aren’t studying Sweden this year, but Elijah really wanted to try these.  He said we could have a Sweden themed tea-time. Who can argue with that?

Canada ~ Elijah can put these candies on his display table for the Geography Fair.

Italy ~ We make two stops in Italy this year as we go through some Five in a Row units.  We hope to re-row Papa Piccolo and Clown of God.  We made sure we had a few items from Italy:  lemon wafer cookies, Italian raspberry soda, and the prettiest pasta I’ve ever seen.

Japan ~ We also hope to re-row A Pair of Red Clogs.   We found two sweet treats to go-along.  

England ~ We will probably use the marmalade (see the teeny tiny jar in the first picture of this post) for a tea-time treat.  The Curlywurly bar (isn’t that fun to say!?!) might just be used in an emergency, or I will save it for when we row How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. 

You can check here to find out if you have a Cost Plus World Market near you.  Happy Shopping & Happy Eating! 

The Glorious Flight

While working through the Flight Unit Study, we decided to work in a Five in a Row unit,The Glorious Flight, focusing on Louis Bleriot.  

Field Trip!
We visited a small local airport with our co-op friends.  The pilot did a great job with the kids and answered all of our questions about his job and his plane.

Trying French Foods
 ~Crepes (with homemade strawberry jam and whipped cream!)

~French Doughnuts (we made these together for tea-time)

Lapbook Pictures
We used the lessons from Five in a Row Volume I & the lapbook printables are from Homeschool Share

Learning about Roman Numerals

Elijah wrote, "He was the first to fly across the sea. (1909)  He did not give up."

Elijah loved the descriptive writing lesson.  The inside of the book says…
it is very tasty
shaped like a big chocolate chip
silver wrapper
sweet and smooth

Can you guess what he was describing? 

The count to ten in French printable is from Enchanted Learning.

The flag of France book is a graduated book that has two sections

Fun times with The Glorious Flight!  

Mailing May Lap ~N~ Note

We finished our study of Mailing May yesterday.   We used the lessons from FIAR Volume IV.  For Eiljah’s notebook, he used the FIAR Fold N Learn, resources from Homeschool Share, and a train project pack from HOAC (a super member freebie).

Elijah’s favorite part was learning about trains.  Yesterday, our loveseat became a train.  He was sining I’ve Been Working on the Railroad at the top of his lungs (and a little off-key!).  He was telling Simon things like, "You, fresh fish!  Grease the pig!"   (Which means– "Hey, new worker…oil the engine!")

Books Used
Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell
House in the Mail by Rosemary Wells
Hail to Mail by Samuel Marshak
The Post Office Book:  Mail and How It Moves by Gail Gibbons
Who Was Daniel Boone? by Sydelle Kramer
Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
Train of States by Peter Sis (we only used the Idaho page)